Author: Gordon Govier

WASHINGTON (RNS) The White House and federal health officials have released guidelines recommending that worshippers take precautions against spreading germs to reduce the risk of contracting swine flu.

If you are looking for a high-value, hands-on volunteer opportunity, consider helping people in need feed their families through the new St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, the busiest pantry in Dane County. Hundreds of volunteers provide more than 1,700 hours of assistance each month at this client-choice facility, serving clients from across the county. New volunteers are always needed to meet growing need.

October has been designated Clergy Appreciation Month to remind us to say “thank you” in words and actions to our ministers and their families. Ministers wear many hats, serving not only as preachers and teachers, but also as family counselors, business administrators, and sometimes even janitors. Typically, the smaller the church the more hats they wear.God calls them to an overwhelming responsibility – the spiritual well-being of His flock. That’s why a minister is sometimes referred to as the “shepherd” of a congregation.

"In God We Trust" is back in business at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. When it opened in December of 2008, those words were not engraved anywhere. The Congressional Prayer Caucus was able to pass legislation to make sure those words were added

NEW YORK — Organized religion was already in trouble in the U.S. before the fall of 2008. Denominations were stagnating or shrinking, and congregations across faith groups were fretting about their finances.The Great Recession made things worse.

After years of international negotiations, the Milwaukee Public Museum has announced that its exhibit of the legendary Dead Sea Scrolls will open on Jan. 22."Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures" is the largest temporary exhibit ever produced by the museum, with more than 200 artifacts.

VATICAN CITY — Every week, Pope Benedict XVI addresses pilgrims at St. Peter’s Square. The Rev. Cesare Atuire’s job is to make sure there are lots of listeners.Father Atuire, a Ghana-born priest who runs the Holy See’s in-house travel agency, pitches full-service, Vatican-style vacations. Mr. Atuire’s Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, or ORP, charters planes, trains, buses and ships to carry packs of tourists to Rome. To crack the U.S. market, Father Atuire recently sent an ORP "missionary" to promote its packages at churches in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Florida.

MANILA, Philippines (BP)–When Tropical Storm Ketsana blew through Manila Sept. 26, it dumped more rain in six hours than the Philippines’ capital normally receives the entire month of September, resulting in what has been called the worst flood in 40 years.In any city, such rainfall would lead to flooding. For a crowded city that sits below sea level with an underdeveloped sewage system, the results proved disastrous. By late Saturday afternoon, the government reported 80 percent of Manila was under water.More than 240 people have lost their lives and hundreds of thousands are displaced. Southern Baptist missionaries living in Manila…

Conservative Lutherans from congregations throughout the country voted on Saturday to begin deciding on whether to go their separate ways from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.Arguing that the ELCA has fallen into heresy, the traditional group has essentially initiated a process that they hope will lead to a reconfiguration of Lutheranism in North America.

A fast-growing church in Seattle that’s popular with the twentysomething crowd launched three new campuses on the same day. Although the multi-site movement was championed by big box churches, the phenomenon has spread to smaller communities."Multi-site (one church in two or more locations) is no longer just for a church of 2,000 or 5,000 or 10,000," said Geoff Surratt, co-author of A Multi-Site Church Road Trip, in a recent episode of Leadership Network’s "The Show.""We see churches as small as two or three hundred weekend attenders starting to launch new campuses," said Surratt, countering early criticisms that the multi-site movement…