Source: Post and Courier

his article finds me knee-deep in planning an Interfaith Worship Service for Spokane’s PRIDE Week. Working with Jewish, New Thought, Buddhist, and other Christian clergy, we are attempting to put together a worship service so that Spokane’s LGBTQ+ folk will feel celebrated and affirmed. It’s been a humbling and surprising venture for me, as I have never done any overt interfaith work before, and never as clergy leadership. Source: Message of Hope in Planning LGBT Pride Service - SpokaneFāVS...

Pope Francis took a large step in healing relations between the Vatican and the highest Islamic authority in Egypt on Monday. The pontiff met with Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, in an attempt to reopen the lines of communication that have been down since 2011, reports The Huffington Post.

Source: Pope Francis Meets With Sunni Muslim Leader - World Religion News

A decade ago, the idea of building a unique religious structure that would combine prayer halls for the three main monotheistic religions was first proposed during archaeological excavations of a plot on the southern end of the Fischerinsel (Fisher Island) in the Mitte neighborhood of Berlin. In 2012, an international architectural competition was held to plan the building, combining a synagogue, church and mosque. The Berlin architectural firm of Kuehn Malvezzi was selected.The building, named the “House of One,” will not be large, only 670 square meters, and construction is...

Two survivors of the Emanuel AME Church shooting are in South Africa on a civil rights pilgrimage with the Washington-based Faith & Politics Institute that includes a stop at the prison where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years.

Source: Emanuel AME shooting survivors on South Africa civil rights pilgrimage - Post and Courier

Time is almost up for consumers to tell the FDA what "natural" food means. It's an ancient philosophical question with no easy answers.

Source: What Is 'Natural' Food? A Riddle Wrapped In Notions Of Good And Evil : The Salt : NPR

Calvary Episcopal Church welcomed nearly 200 parishioners from the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, which was gutted in a blaze.

Source: After a Manhattan Church Is Destroyed in a Fire, Another Welcomes Its Members - The New York Times

“I get stopped all the time because of the faith-based movies. People say please make more. They would come up to me and say we love this. We want more. Please tell Hollywood to make more like this,” says actor Kevin Sorbo, who starred in the hit film “God’s Not Dead.” More →

Source: Faith Films | May 6, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS

“If you were to identify Catholic prophets in the twentieth century,” says Georgetown University professor Chester Gillis, Daniel Berrigan “would be right there with Dorothy Day or Thomas Merton.” His activism, adds Gillis, is “rooted in prayer. It is done out of the commitment to the Gospel. That differentiates it from all the other secular movements” Daniel Berrigan, SJ died on April 30, 2016. He was 94 years old. More →

Source: Daniel Berrigan: 1921-2016 | May 5,...

Growing up, gay evangelicals may have thought they had to be one or the other. It's different now. At one welcoming Baptist church in Kentucky, a member says, gay congregants "walk through the door."

Source: Acceptance Grows, Slowly But Steadily, For Gay Evangelicals : NPR

In the last few months, a spate of faith-based films has come to present never-told or newly imagined chapters of Jesus’ existence.

Source: Scripture as a Springboard in Hollywood - The New York Times

“At its best, religious arbitration is an opportunity for two parties who have shared religious values to resolve those disputes in accordance with their religious values,” says Pepperdine University Law School professor and rabbi  Michael Helfand. More →

Source: Arbitration by Faith | May 6, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS

ST. LOUIS (AP) — An Illinois public school that requires students who ride the bus to arrive early for optional religious instruction at a Roman Catholic parish has agreed to discontinue the practice in response to a legal challenge.

Source: Illinois school settles separation of church and state case

“The usual notion is that Christianity would have a special problem dealing with intelligence out there, because it would take us away from being the center of the universe. For some people that’s very threatening, because somehow we won’t be as special as we have been,” says astronomer and former NASA historian Steven Dick. More →

Source: Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life | April 29, 2016 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS