Source: Lancaster Sunday News

On July 1, 2001, the Lancaster Sunday News reported that "the plan is to transform the Mennonite Church, based in Elkhart, Ind...and the General Conference Mennonite Church (GC), based in Newton, Kan., into one denomination called Mennonite Church USA...The transformation could heal a rift that began in the 1860s when the GCs wanted Sunday School, more mission work, and more English used in services and the MCs wanted to continue with German and more traditional and conservative ways."

Source: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

On June 30, 2001, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that "some Tarrant County Jail prisoners" mourned the closing of the prison's Christian education program. They "shed tears...one day after the Texas Supreme Court struck down the...program...County officials reassured prisoners that...voluntary religious programs for prisoners will remain...The Texas Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the religious program violates the constitutional wall between church and state because it is supported with taxpayer money."...

Source: Newsday

On June 30, 2001, Newsday reported on Dr. Frederick Smith. "As associate chief of internal medicine at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset [New York], the...56-year-old physician has found that religious faith can help his patients, and he's trying to teach that to a generation of up-and-coming doctors. His 2-year-old course, Religion and Medicine, is part of a growing move to sensitize doctors to the role faith plays in their patients' lives."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On June 30, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported that "June...is the time when brides and grooms fill churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and banquet halls with promises of love, fidelity and care. Traditions vary...But most couples taking a leap into married life begin by professing love and faithfulness until death parts them, if not for eternity. And even those who profess no religion often look beyond themselves on their wedding day to seal their commitment. 'People intuitively understand that [it] is something sacred...

Source: The Ledger

On June 30, 2001, The Ledger reported that Lakeland's Community and Faith Based Coalition in Florida "has been awarded a grant under a state program that promotes faith-based solutions to community problems." The grant is intended for a Family Unification Project, "which is intended to help families in crisis through personal contact with volunteers recruited from local churches. The grant is one of 10" that has been awarded since "Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law that created a state Community and Faith-Based Organizations Initiative."

Source: The New York Times

On June 30, 2001, The New York Times reported that "former President Jimmy Carter, who last year broke with his denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, over its increasingly conservative direction, has been host to two meetings of leaders of moderate Baptist groups to seek 'common ground' among them." Carter "said a common effort among moderate Baptists could cooperate with other groups, including African-American and European Baptists, and even, he said, the Southern Baptist Convention."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On June 30, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported that Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church and St. John Vianney Catholic Church, who are neighbors, "for the first time...will embark on an adult foreign mission trip together [to Dublin, Ireland]...The two-week trip has three goals: to help at two cash-strapped camps that bring together Catholic and Protestant children; to offer a model of how Catholics and Protestants from Houston can work together; and to learn more about the believers who have been their neighbors for years."

Source: News & Record

On June 30, 2001, News & Record reported that "more than 700 Vietnamese Baptists from around the nation are expected to meet in High Point [North Carolina]...for the Vietnamese National Baptist Fellowship...The national organization [is] part of the Southern Baptist Convention." The conference includes seminars on Vietnamese culture, cooking and business meetings.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On June 30, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "For a year and a half, 25 monks of the Abbey of St. Mary and St. Louis...have lived five men to a five-room trailer in a trailer 'park' on the abbey grounds...Midsummer, the monks will move into a new monastery south of their three-tiered, thin-shell concrete Abbey Church" in St. Louis.

Source: The New York Times

On June 30, 2001, The New York Times reported that "the guardian of two children in the Bedford school district has asked the United States Supreme Court to overturn a ruling dismissing claims that the district promoted paganism, New Age thinking and the occult." The claims were made by "three Roman Catholic families in 1996 [who] asserted that a high school Earth Day ceremony with drum-playing and the offering of gifts crossed the line into worship of the planet."

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

On June 30, 2001, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that "the Tongan United Methodist Church, which lost its historic west Salt Lake City sanctuary to fire a year ago, has bought property for a new building -- but it could be years before the cash-strapped congregation can begin construction...The June 2000 blaze [was] set by two teen-age boys who were church members...[The congregation] welcomed back the two repentant arsonists after their recent completion of juvenile detention sentences."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On June 30, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported that "in a panel discussion with a an Orthodox rabbi, a prominent member of an organization of moderate Baptists suggested that the singling out of Jews [for evangelism by Baptists] be renounced." The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is "an association of 1,800 congregations, [that] started...as moderate Baptists began separating from the increasingly conservative...convention."

Source: The Houston Chronicle

On June 29, 2001, The Houston Chronicle reported that "an intensive Christian education program at the Tarrant County jail unconstitutionally promoted the religious views of the former sheriff, the Texas Supreme Court ruled...Inmates who volunteered for the program spent 120 days studying...'orthodox Christianity.'...Participants had to accept the Bible as infallible truth, believe in Jesus Christ as deity and be 'born again' to attain salvation." The sheriff and chaplain "would not allow instructors to discuss any other...

Source: The Columbian

On June 29, 2001, The Columbian reported that "at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church [in Vancouver, Washington]...a certified Qigong instructor teaches the ancient practice of movement and meditation once a week." Qigong was created in China more than 4,000 years ago.

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

On June 29, 2001, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that "in a meeting with international leaders of the religious order that founded the school, Duquesne University's president-elect promised to 'work to deepen our Catholic commitment.' Charles Dougherty...spoke to 50 Spiritans, or Holy Ghost Fathers, from 35 nations and four continents who have gathered at Duquesne...'I think that Catholic universities in general, and Duquesne in particular, have to be more reflective and intentional about our religious tradition,'" said...