As a millennia-old institution, the Vatican is accustomed to change at a glacial pace. But in the eyes of many outside the church — and even of some within it — the arrival of Pope Francis on the throne of St. ...

Living in the eight day is an experience of now and not yet. It's no secret that most of us find ourselves longing for chances to vacate our normal scenery and the bustle of ...

A few months ago, Stephen Marsh, my fellow pastor, and I wondered whether we could spark a ministry by fusing two of our most treasured Lutheran traditions: beers and hymns. Within a few minutes of our convers ...

Our problems are the results of our many individual and collective choices. We can make better choices, more compassionate choices, less selfish choices. And when we do, things start to change. ...

I’m not a fan of the over-use of the term “the Lord. ”Like when people say “I just love the Lord,” I just never really know what that means. The way it’s casually thrown around makes me uncomfortable. ...

A poem by Trevor Scott Barton. Grandpa, you are my Pepa. Before me, you were Robert Elias Cunningham: son, brother, husband and father but God, through my birth, made you Grand ...

For as long as I can remember, Father’s Day has been a challenge for me. You see, like many other children I know, I have deep painful scars when it comes to the topic of fatherhood. ...

Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will meet in Rome on Friday for the first time since the two men took office in March. Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canter ...

We have a God who will always find ways to bring love and justice into the world with and without us, and sometimes despite our best efforts and human attempts to keep “control.” ...

Maybe someday I will make peace with the fact that I will not always meet expectations. But for today technology is my angel and I am Jacob. I have been dealing with  some repetit ...

The Editors In “ Waiting on God ,” from the July 2013 issue of Sojourners magazine, Episcopal priest Linda Kaufman shares how she fell in love with Jesus all over again. ...

As the denomination meets in Houston Tuesday and Wednesday, Luter’s trip is bringing home a stark and persistent reality: Few missionaries are black. Fred Luter had a lot of first ...

We quickly realized that the very best gift we could give our children is to live the kind of life we would desire them to live as faithful followers of Jesus. In other words, if we are to be role models to ou ...

Lots of people claim to be “following Jesus” and then they do stuff like this. Sure, people who follow Jesus do these things all the time, but you can't say you are doing them because you are trying to fo ...

When it comes to mass communication, Christians do some things well and some things horribly. Here’s a breakdown. When it comes to mass communication, Christians do some things we ...

Watch Neale Bayly Rides: Peru, on Speed Channel starting Sunday, June 9, at 9 p.m. ET, and follow the adventure at NealeBaylyRides.com. Look for follow up articles from James as the show progresses. ...

After years of fights over religious monuments on public land, a county courthouse in Northern Florida will soon be the home of the nation’s first monument to atheism on public property. ...

Breaking with another centuries-old tradition established by his predecessors, Pope Francis will remain in Rome during the summer and endure the usually stifling heat of the Eternal City. ...

Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, ordained in the liberal Reconstructionist tradition, sees a divide between generations of American Jews that could spell disaster for the community. Rabbi Si ...

Martin L. Smith Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C. AS THE SEAONS after Pentecost unfolds, ...

Linda Kaufman A story about falling in love with Jesus all over again. WHEN I FIRST started attending the Chu ...

While I affirm the right of any Christian to boycott a product, show, or the like, and even to explain why in the public square, I’m weary of the heavy-handed tendency of Christians to slap the “anti-Christian ...

of the literal West is that it will not take its place in the “cleft of the rock” (Exodus 33:21-23) and allow God ...

In less than 12 months, we re-established a friendship and Mike and his wife, Nancy, taught me amazing lessons about living with the prospect of dying.   My friend Mike died la ...

Jim Wallis Jim Wallis’ newest book, On God’s Sid ...

Christianity can quickly devolve into caste systems, where faith communities are divided by the haves and the have-nots, the rich and the poor. Instead of unifying ourselves in Christ, we are dividing ourselve ...

A hope that does not disappoint looks less like being idealistic about ourselves and more like being idealistic about God’s redeeming work in the world. … suffering produces en ...

The panelists who came to assess the state of religious freedom in the nation accepted the point that their various faiths might not stand together on anything beyond the need to protect religious freedom, and ...

A poll, conducted by researchers at St. John’s University School of Theology-Seminary in Collegeville, Minn., showed that almost 60 percent of priests surveyed did not like the new Roman Missal, as the liturgi ...

Many newly minted civil celebrants are starting their own businesses as part of Ireland’s “post-Catholic” economy. DUBLIN — Patricia Wojnar left a 32-year career in interior des ...

Now comes a new millennium, and Christianity wears so many different faces that it’s difficult to speak of a single “Christian movement.” Religious historians say that every 500 ...

Psalm 8 unless we read with it the  23rd  and the  137th , the  22nd  and the  30th . In our ...

At issue are questions as fundamental as how long we grieve, what clinical label we assign to sadness, and when grief transforms into mental illness. The modification also rekindles long-standing debates about ...

The Center for Inquiry has 23 celebrants. Because of the demand she’s seeing for marriage and funeral ...

Many Christians have a confidence problem. They love Christ but are ashamed of everything associated with him. They want to be known as a Christian — just not that type of Christian. ...

TORONTO — A new national study shows that while Canada remains overwhelmingly Christian, Canadians are turning their backs on organized religion in ever greater numbers. Results from the 2011 National Househo ...

Henderson’s congregation is one of a growing number throughout the country that are raising fruits and vegetables for soup kitchens and food pantries in what are often called food justice programs; in some syn ...

Two years ago, radio evangelist Harold Camping was predicting the end of the world. Now, longtime aides say his false predictions are likely to result in the end of his California-based Family Radio ministry. ...

pounds ($23 million) by 2011, said Andrew Edwards, chief executive of the Canterbury Cathedral Trust. ...

The Washington National Cathedral, still recovering from a rare 2011 East Coast earthquake, has won $100,000 in preservation funding after being the top vote-getter in the “Partners in Preservation” campaign. ...

We lie to ourselves if we imagine that our sin is no less ugly in the eyes of God than the worst imaginable. Is my, or your sin, really so different? Like everyone else I would gu ...

Texas high school cheerleaders recently won a local lawsuit which allows them to continue to paint Bible verse on the large butcher paper banners the football players burst through when storming the field. Not ...

But theology — our study and beliefs about God — should be a natural process involving change instead of avoiding it. Our God is too big and too wonderful to completely understand by the time we graduate high ...

of reputation. [ JUNE 23 ] Silence and Sanity 1 Kings 19:1-15; Psalm 22:19-28; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke ... and self-control” (5:22-23). The robustness of Paul’s language is matched in Luke’s gospel by the shocking ...

Rose Marie Berger To have the "poor one" at the center of the Catholic faith is right and just. I W ...

Edith Black The Mark of True Faith COMING TO know Christ can be likened to culture shock, when all the old eg ...

Jim Wallis Thanks be to God for the life of Gordon Cosby. GORDON COSBY was perhaps the most Christian human b ...

Yesterday Kay Stewart shared this poem at the cemetery as we laid to rest the ashes of her first-born daughter Katherine (“Katie”). Yesterday Kay Stewart shared this at the c ...

Today, though most religions still condemn suicide, there’s an understanding in many faiths that those who take their own lives don’t always have full control over their actions. ...

We often assume and speak as if faith = belief. If this leads to action, that is wonderful. Yet we still assume it is possible to speak about faith even if there is no action. La ...