The war-scarred church has been the venue for seminars and workshops on peace and inter-religious concerns since it opened as a conflict analysis centre in April 2006. The aim of the project is, “not to repair the church to its original grandeur but to retain the scars of war,” while repairing damaged portions to ensure its structural stability.
Everyone has a blog these days- even Lambeth 2008.
Accompanied by brass bands and thundering preachers, several hundred people squeezed onto a narrow street in the District’s Shaw neighborhood yesterday to be baptized in the drenching shower of a fire hose. The service, in its 81st year, is an annual tradition for the church, which has its national headquarters in the District. Yesterday’s mass baptism took place in front of the House of Prayer’s flagship church, the gold-domed “God’s White House” at Sixth and M streets NW.
Two years after Katrina, several churches in the Diocese of Mississippi still struggle to rebuild. “Residents are still numb from the catastrophic forces which turned their world upside down on August 29, 2005,” said the Rev. Canon David Johnson, Canon to the Ordinary in Mississippi. “The work to recover will be at least a decade in being accomplished. For many, the magnitude and long-term impact is just now setting in.”
Loud voices from Africa, aided by the “almighty dollar” and internet lobbyists, are distorting the true picture of what Africa’s 37 million Anglicans really think about sexuality and the future of the Anglican Communion, said the Bishop of Botswana, the Rt Revd Musonda Mwamba, last February. Was he correct?
An extensive survey by The Associated Press and MTV found that people aged 13 to 24 who describe themselves as very spiritual or religious tend to be happier than those who don’t. When it comes to spirituality, American young people also are remarkably tolerant — nearly 7 in 10 say that while they follow their own religious or spiritual beliefs, others might be true as well.
Time Magazine has a fascinating report about the spiritual life of Mother Teresa. Based on a series of letters from Mother Teresa to her confessor and superiors that is about to be published by a supporter of her sainthood, Time reports that Mother Teresa had a long crisis of faith that began almost as soon as she began her ministry to the poor of Calcutta
More than 21 million people are expected to drop in on a new wave of online interactive ads being launched by one of the nation’s largest Protestant denominations. As part of a multi-million dollar “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” advertising campaign, The United Methodist Church will target the younger generation (22- to 44-year-olds) over the next two months with ad messages on the Internet.
Recent studies of college students’ attitudes toward religion suggest that the academy is no longer the bastion of secularism it was once assumed to be. And these studies further reveal that the spiritual landscape on today’s college campuses is virtually unrecognizable from what we’ve seen in the past. In response, the Social Science Research Council has a new website that offers a series of essays about the religious engagement of college students.
One part concert, one part Christian revival, the Aquire the Fire rallies seek to “stage a reverse revolution” against secular popular culture. They have the pull of headlining rock concerts, drawing thousands of people regardless of the region of the country, the month of year or the day of the week. The audiences are nearly always predominantly teenagers and young adults.