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“My heart goes out to all those impacted by this senseless act of violence. When tragedies like the Las Vegas massacre occur, the political and religious barriers that too often divide us break down and we come together to mourn as Americans. This moment presents all of us with the opportunity to be there for one another as we try to come to terms with what happened yesterday. As our nation mourns, I hope we continue in the spirit of inclusion, as we are all impacted by this terrible tragedy.”

Image via RNS/St John's Choir

The primates of the worldwide Anglican Communion will face another tough test next week when they gather in the U.K. to grapple with the Scottish Episcopal Church’s backing of same-sex marriage, among other issues.

The bishops will meet in Canterbury two months after the first gay Anglican wedding took place in Scotland, following the SEC’s June vote to alter its canon law, which had previously defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

Image via RNS/AP Photo/Steve Helber

“We request upon you to join with many other political and religious leaders to proclaim with one voice that the ‘alt-right’ is racist, evil, and antithetical to a well-ordered, peaceful society,” reads the letter first published by CNN.

The signers — including Southern Baptist Convention President Steve Gaines, former SBC President Fred Luter, and prominent African-American evangelical leaders T.D. Jakes and Tony Evans — reproach Trump for failing to speak out against the so-called alt-right.

“This movement has escaped your disapproval,” the letter reads.

Without naming names, it further states: “It concerned many of us when three people associated with the alt-right movement were given jobs in the White House.”

A Rohingya refugee girl at a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 28, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton

The refugees drowned in heavy seas off Bangladesh late on Thursday, part of a new surge of people fleeing a Myanmar military campaign that began on Aug. 25 and has triggered an exodus of some 502,000 people.

Image via RNS/Wikimedia Commons

Now the Church of England’s trainee clergy are being offered help to understand Cranmer’s more obscure prose through a publication of a glossary. All first-year ordinands – the trainee priests studying at theological colleges – are to be given a copy of the guide together with a free copy of the Book of Common Prayer, an English-language product of the 16th-century break between England and the Roman Catholic Church, where Latin ruled.

the Web Editors 9-27-2017

Image via USC Dornsife Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration

An interactive map, courtesy of USC Dornsife's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, illustrates estimated numbers of populations who are DACA eligible, and numbers of actual DACA recipients by congressional districts. In the aftermath of the abolishment of DACA, the Department of Homeland Security has set a deadline for all individuals eligible to renew DACA by Oct. 5. 

Image via RNS/AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File

As recently as 2013, dozens of women uploaded videos online of themselves behind the wheel of a car during a campaign launched by Saudi rights activists. Some videos showed families and male drivers giving women a “thumbs-ups,” suggesting many were ready for the change.

While women in other Muslim countries drove freely, the kingdom’s blanket ban attracted negative publicity. Neither Islamic law nor Saudi traffic law explicitly prohibited women from driving, but they were not issued licenses and were detained if they attempted to drive.

9-27-2017

The aftermath of a shooting at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tenn., on Sept. 24, 2017, that left one dead and seven wounded. Photo courtesy of the Metro Nashville Police Department

The Sept. 24 shooting that left one woman dead and seven others injured conjures up memories of high-profile attacks, like the June 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina that left nine dead.

Rohingya refugees queue for aid at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton

Myanmar regards the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and bouts of suppression and violence have flared for decades. Most Rohingya are stateless.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacts on first exit polls in the German general election (Bundestagswahl) in Berlin, Germany, September 24, 2017. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Two years after Merkel left German borders open to more than 1 million migrants, the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) stunned the establishment by becoming the first far-right party to enter parliament in more than half a century.

Bobby Ross Jr. 9-25-2017

Image via RNS/Archdiocese of Oklahoma City

In an apostolic letter read in Latin by Amato and English by Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, Francis praised Rother as a priest and martyr “who was driven by a deeply rooted faith and a profound union with God, and by the arduous duty to spread the Word of God in missionary lands.”

A family exits after clearing immigration and customs at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, U.S. September 24, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

The current ban, enacted in March, was set to expire on Sunday evening. The new restrictions are slated to take effect on Oct. 18 and resulted from a review after Trump's original travel bans sparked international outrage and legal challenges.

David F. Potter 9-23-2017

Image via David Potter/Sojourners

The last time dissent rose in St. Louis, it elevated the platform of Black Lives Matter and fueled a sustained, nationwide struggle over police brutality and systemic racism.

We should not ignore the dissent rising in St. Louis again this week.

Members of Cinco Ranch Church of Christ help hand out collected and donated supplies to homeowners cleaning up in the aftermath of tropical storm Harvey in Katy, Texas, U.S., September 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The Texas officials’ letter follows a Sept. 4 lawsuit filed by three churches in the state that were damaged by Hurricane Harvey. They are challenging the current FEMA policy, which “explicitly denies equal access to FEMA disaster relief grants for houses of worship solely because of their religious status,” according to the lawsuit.

 

Stephennie Mulder 9-22-2017

The minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, Mosul. Image via RNS/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

Although today Mosul is famous outside of Iraq primarily as a site of conflict, its rich and diverse history forms an important legacy.

Engy Abdelkader 9-21-2017

Image via RNS/AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

Today, the Rohingya are the single largest “stateless” community in the world. Their “statelessness” or lack of citizenship increases their vulnerability because they are not entitled to any legal protection from the government.

the Web Editors 9-21-2017

Image via Flickr/NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Conversely, George W. Bush's administration in his first term had three men to every one woman, and two women served for every five men in the Obama and Clinton administrations. 

the Web Editors 9-20-2017

Rescuers and people work at a collapsed building after an earthquake hit Mexico City. REUTERS/Henry Romero

“We pray for all those impacted by the devastating earthquake in Mexico. And we pray for those working tirelessly on rescue and recovery efforts. May God grant them strength and courage in the days and weeks ahead.”

Kimberly Winston 9-20-2017

Image via Shutterstock.com

Who can forget Harold Camping, the Christian radio media mogul who picked two dates in 2011, hit the airwaves, put up billboards, solicited money — and nada. He joined some rather famous names — Edgar Cayce, Sun Myung Moon, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson [at least twice, but before he had access to the White House], and John Hagee among them — of failed futurists. Heck, Sir Isaac Newton himself, great astronomer and mathematician, bet that Jesus would return in the year 2000.

Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Mexico City, Mexico Sept. 20, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero
 

Desperate rescue workers scrabbled through rubble in a floodlit search on Wednesday for dozens of children feared buried beneath a Mexico City school, one of hundreds of buildings wrecked by the country's most lethal earthquake in a generation.