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NEWS RELEASESome generous gardeners explicitly planned to grow a row or two for the pantry this year. Others just have more tomatoes, carrots or cukes than they can handle. In any case, local members of the green-thumb set are invited to help neighbors in need now by supplying Dane County’s busiest food pantry with the bounty of their harvest.In April, as gardeners laid plans for the growing season, St. Vincent de Paul issued the invitation – through local media and in church bulletins – to "grow a row" or two for the Society’s pantry. Now, St. Vincent de Paul is…
Nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker released a book this summer that may prove an unlikely ally for those concerned about the lack of engaged men in American churches. In Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care, Parker identifies our cultural moment as one in which it’s acceptable to portray men as dumb, violent, sex-crazed, or irresponsible husbands and fathers. (Movies and TV shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, and Knocked Up, to name but a few, typify this depiction.) Parker, who frequently writes on families and sexuality, believes cultural "male-bashing" in part comes…
Mark Kushner pulled up to the Watson family’s suburban Philadelphia home a week after the birth of their first son, Colin. In the dining room, he unpacked the tools of his trade: sterilized surgical instruments, topical anesthetic, prayer shawls and a small bottle of kosher wine.The shawls went back into his black bag. But to Megan and Christopher Watson’s happy surprise, the mohel — pronounced "moyle," the title for a Jewish ritual circumciser — had copies of several prayers appropriate for the Presbyterian parents to read for the occasion.Read more of this story.
WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians converged on the National Mall here Saturday to highlight moral issues before the fall presidential election with a day of fasting, prayer and music.Read more of this story.Website for The Call
Membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the country’s largest Lutheran denomination, has fallen for the 16th consecutive year, the ELCA announced last Thursday.While the ELCA grows worldwide — particularly in sub-Saharan Africa — baptized membership in U.S. declined by more than 64,000 in 2007, a 1.34% drop.Read more of this story.
BEIJING — As the piano strikes a chord, the choir launches into a hymn, members’ red and white robes bright against the beige walls of the room crammed with more than 100 worshipers. This is City Revival Church, one of the larger unofficial, or "house," churches in Beijing.Read more of this story. Eric Liddell’s story to set Chinese hearts racing
LAKE FOREST, CA (ANS) — On the heels of the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency the night before, Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, preached a Sunday morning sermon to his congregation and uplinked to the nation entitled, “The Type of Leader America Needs.”“I am not an expert on politics, but I know a lot about leadership,” Warren said. “The guidelines for choosing a leader our nation needs and that God blesses are based on biblical qualities found in Proverbs.” Read more of this story.Los Angeles Times version of this story.The New Evangelical Politics by E.J. Dionne, The…
A 2,000-year-old inscription, written in ink on a stone, is being called "a Dead Sea Scroll on stone." But New Testament scholars scoff at the idea that the inscription "should shake our basic view of Christianity," as one scholar told The New York Times.Read more of this story.
Historically, the evangelical colleges that comprise the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities have not been magnets for many black students. A new analysis from The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education suggests that’s changing, with some Protestant colleges recording staggering increases in black student enrollments over the last decade.Read more of this story.
Bob Sanford wanted to create a Bible that would bring order and clarity to the text. Instead, he’s waded right into one of the great debates of biblical scholarship.The Chronological Study Bible will be released this fall in the midst of a Bible-publishing boom in the United States. In an industry that now as much to do with profits as with prophets, Sanford expects his new edition to have wide appeal.Read more of this story.