All posts tagged: Church

The Catholic Response to Trump’s Attacks on the Church with Dr. Anthea Butler and Rev. James Martin, SJ

The Catholic Response to Trump’s Attacks on the Church with Dr. Anthea Butler and Rev. James Martin, SJ

Published by Sam Flores

 Have you noticed how Pope Leo’s calm, fearless stance is rattling those in power? He’s not just speaking to Catholics; he’s challenging the very idea that religion should be silent in times of crisis, whether the topic is war or the treatment of immigrants. This week, host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush welcomes two leading American Catholic voices: religion professor Dr. Anthea Butler and best-selling author Father Jim Martin, SJ. They’ve got deep insights on the ways race, religion, and political priorities inform the furious responses from the White House and other powerful figures—and efforts to deny the moral authority of the head of one of the world’s largest religions. Dr. Anthea Butler is Geraldine R. Segal Professor of Social Thought and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s the author of the book White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America. Rev. Jim Martin is editor-at-large at the Jesuit America Magazine, consultor to the Vatican, and author of many books, including his latest—a memoir titled Work in …

Church Attendance Surges Post-COVID – OpentheWord.org

Church Attendance Surges Post-COVID – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

Credit: Matt Botsford/unsplash.com There are signs that things are brewing in the spiritual realm. The Holy Spirit is on the move. A recent survey conducted by Hartford Institute for Religion Research (HIRR), found that median attendance at American churches is now higher than it was before the Covid lockdowns. It represented, “the first positive gain in median attendance in 25 years,” HIRR reported. Median represents the actual middle number of the attendance figures. It is not the average. Before Covid the median church attendance was 65. During the COVID years, when attendance was restricted, the median dropped to 45. But HIRR’s survey of over 7,000 American congregations between September to December 2025, found that the median church attendance now sits at 70. This represents a significant turn around as the median number has been declining since 2000. This was due in part to the attendance free fall taking place in main line churches that have basically abandoned the Christian faith. But the transformation is not limited to just America. The spiritual climate is heating up …

Church shelves consultation on MAT inspections

Church shelves consultation on MAT inspections

Published by skeptic

The Church of England has shelved a consultation on plans to launch its own multi-academy trust inspections, just days after first unveiling the proposals. Church bosses, who were approached by the government to pilot the checks, said they made the decision after receiving the first batch of responses to its vision for the MAT-level assessments. But they expect to “revisit” the plans later in the year, as their Catholic counterparts establish a “working group” to draw up their own framework to trial trust inspections. Source link

Former LDS mission president explains what we get wrong about people leaving the church

Former LDS mission president explains what we get wrong about people leaving the church

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Thirteen years ago, Jeff Strong received an email from his son who had just left to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This son had entered the church’s Missionary Training Center only days earlier, but he’d already decided to come home. “As I read the email, it became very evident to me, just from the tone and the words that he used, that it was much bigger than just leaving the MTC,” Strong told RNS. “He was going to leave the church.” Strong “immediately went into fix-it mode,” he said, as he and his wife dealt with their shock and grief about their son’s decision. They saw it as a wrong move that could potentially damage the rest of his life — and their whole family’s eternity. They weren’t sure how to talk to him about it. “In our community, we literally believe that these conversations have eternal consequences. There’s the idea of ‘sad heaven’ or empty chairs at the dinner table in the Celestial Kingdom,” he …

Utah charges man with murder in January shooting outside church in Salt Lake City

Utah charges man with murder in January shooting outside church in Salt Lake City

Published by Sam Flores

Prosecutors in Utah are seeking the extradition of a man from California on murder charges in connection with a deadly shooting in January at a church parking lot in Salt Lake City that left two people dead, according to court documents unsealed Monday. Law enforcement took 32-year-old John Vea Uasike Jr. into custody on April 14 in connection with six felony charges including two counts of murder and weapons violations, the Salt Lake County district attorney’s office said in a news release. It was unclear if Uasike has an attorney who could comment on his behalf. The shooting took place Jan. 7 in the back parking lot of a place of worship for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. Investigators had said the gunfire broke out from a dispute between people who knew each other and were attending a funeral. All the victims were adults. Police have previously said they do not believe the violence was connected to animus toward a particular faith. The church mostly serves …

Frequent church attendance strongly predicts whether a woman will marry before having a child

Frequent church attendance strongly predicts whether a woman will marry before having a child

Published by José Betancourt

An analysis of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data investigated the types of family-forming transitions people experience. They found that women who attend religious services frequently or belong to a conservative denomination were the most likely to marry before cohabiting with a partner or giving birth. The paper was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Family-forming events are life events through which people create, expand, or redefine a family unit. They usually include marriage, cohabitation, and childbirth. Decades ago, most U.S. women married without ever having cohabited. However, more recently, approximately 75% of young women live with their partner sometime in young adulthood. Many also give birth to a child before entering into a union with a partner. What a person’s first family-forming event will be depends on many factors. These include cultural norms, personal values, relationship opportunities, education, and various life circumstances. One important factor is religion. Many religions encourage early marriage and discourage cohabitation and nonmarital births. Study authors Man Xu and Paula England wanted to examine how religion …

Many churches, synagogues and mosques are built around families – and they’re struggling to respond to rising singles

Many churches, synagogues and mosques are built around families – and they’re struggling to respond to rising singles

Published by Sam Flores

(The Conversation) — When a couple marry in a church, synagogue or mosque, the ceremony does more than sanctify a union. Often, it binds two families to an institution. For centuries, marriage and child-rearing have been among the main ways adults are integrated into congregational life. Couples who share the same faith tend to be more observant, and they often raise children within that tradition – bringing the next generation into congregational life. More marriages mean more families in pews and more children raised in the faith. That helps explain why the rise of single adults is so unsettling for many faith communities today. In the United States, 42% of adults were not married or living with a partner in 2023, up from 38% in 2000. This shift is unlikely to change soon: A quarter of 40-year-olds have never been married, and a third of Gen Z are projected to never marry. At the same time, the share of unmarried Americans who belong to a religious congregation has fallen well below that of married Americans. …

Why Silicon Valley Is Turning to the Catholic Church

Why Silicon Valley Is Turning to the Catholic Church

Published by Daniella Wilson

In 1633, Galileo Galilei stood in the convent of the Santa Maria sopra Minerva church in Rome, where a tribunal of Catholic authorities forced him to “abjure, curse, and detest” his belief that the sun—not Earth—was the center of the universe. Almost four centuries later, in 2016, the Vatican invited a group of the world’s most prominent technologists to the same church to discuss AI ethics. That was the start of the Minerva Dialogues, annual closed-door conferences in Rome that have become the centerpiece of a decade-long exchange between Silicon Valley and the Catholic Church. The Valley and the Vatican seem like strange bedfellows: The oldest institution in the world meets secular upstarts bent on creating godlike technology. When the venture capitalist Reid Hoffman first attended the dialogues, he told me he was struck by the portraits lining the walls that depicted Catholic inquisitors like those who persecuted Galileo. “It feels a little bit weird to be walking in voluntarily past these,” he remembers thinking. Despite this weirdness, however, and some mutual skepticism, Big Tech …

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Archbishop Steve Wood, who leads the Anglican Church in North America, will face a church trial beginning on July 20, according to an announcement from the court Tuesday (April 21). He has been accused of sexual harassment, bullying and plagiarism and faces three church charges: alleged violation of ordination vows, conduct giving cause for “scandal or offense” and sexual immorality. The Tuesday announcement also revealed that Wood filed a motion to dismiss the case. The court will hear arguments on that motion beginning on May 7. “We are grateful to the Court for its diligent work in this matter,” said the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, who serves as dean of the province, in the statement. “I ask that our clergy and lay members join me in earnest prayer that God, in His wisdom and providence, would bring a just and righteous resolution, that His Church would be preserved in truth and unity, and that all parties involved would know His grace.” Wood was inhibited, or temporarily suspended from his ministry, in mid-November, days …

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Church trial date set for ACNA Archbishop Steve Wood

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Archbishop Steve Wood, who leads the Anglican Church in North America, will face a church trial beginning on July 20, according to an announcement from the court Tuesday (April 21). He has been accused of sexual harassment, bullying and plagiarism and faces three church charges: alleged violation of ordination vows, conduct giving cause for “scandal or offense” and sexual immorality. The Tuesday announcement also revealed that Wood filed a motion to dismiss the case. The court will hear arguments on that motion beginning on May 7. “We are grateful to the Court for its diligent work in this matter,” said the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, who serves as dean of the province, in the statement. “I ask that our clergy and lay members join me in earnest prayer that God, in His wisdom and providence, would bring a just and righteous resolution, that His Church would be preserved in truth and unity, and that all parties involved would know His grace.” Wood was inhibited, or temporarily suspended from his ministry, in mid-November, days …