Lifestory: These five clergywomen found each other 12 years ago. They still text every day.
YONAT SHIMRON, of Religion News Service, reports on a group who, at a time when reports of clergy burnout and clergy misconduct are soaring, have been able to forge a tight collegial peer group to help them navigate challenges, avoid pitfalls and find joy and fulfillment in their calling…
Earliest mention of ‘Yahweh’ found in archaeological dump
RNS An ancient tablet discovered near the Palestinian city of Nablus may contain the earliest known mention of God’s name in proto-alphabetic Hebrew. Scott Stripling, director of the Archaeological Studies Institute at The Bible Seminary in Katy, Texas, announced the discovery of the lead tablet last Thursday. He said it could push back the written […]
Canada’s Indigenous ask Pope for residential schools records
Vatcan CityReuters Survivors of Canada’s residential schools on Monday asked Pope Francis to guarantee unfettered access to church records on the institutions where Indigenous children were abused and their culture denied. Francis met for about an hour each with representatives of the Métis and Inuit nations, the first of four meetings this week with Canada’s native peoples […]
FARC dissidents responsible for bombing that killed two children, says Colombia’s Duque
Bogota, ColombiaReuters Colombian President Ivan Duque on Monday accused former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) who reject a peace deal of setting off explosives at a police station which killed two children and injured 39 others in Bogota. The Saturday night attack was the worst in the capital since another rebel […]
China’s Shanghai split in two for COVID lockdown as asymptomatic cases surge
Shanghai, ChinaReuters China’s financial hub of Shanghai launched a planned two-stage lockdown of the city of 26 million people on Monday, closing bridges and tunnels, and restricting highway traffic in a scramble to contain surging local COVID-19 cases. The snap lockdown, announced by Shanghai’s city government on Sunday, will split the city in two roughly […]
Explainer – What will happen to girls’ education in Afghanistan under Taliban rule?
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation The Taliban have backtracked on a promise to allow tens of thousands of schoolgirls in Afghanistan to return to class for the new term. Most older girls have been out of school since August when the hardline Islamist movement seized the country. Girls attend a class in Kabul, Afghanistan, on […]
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine is dwindling, says health official
Warsaw, PolandReuters The amount of humanitarian aid arriving in Ukraine is beginning to wane even as the Russian bombardment persists, Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister Oleksii Iaremenko said on Sunday. Speaking in a cargo warehouse near Warsaw’s Chopin airport during a delivery of medical equipment facilitated by charity Direct Relief, Iaremenko said he was grateful to […]
El Salvador invokes emergency powers after surge in homicides
San Salvador, El Salvador Reuters El Salvador’s Congress approved on Sunday emergency powers that temporarily suspended some constitutional protections after the Central American country recorded a sharp rise in killings attributed to criminal gangs. Police reported a total of 62 homicides on Saturday in the nation of some 6.5 million people. It was the highest […]
Rural churches: How a project in south-west England is helping to create greater community connection
ANGELA YOUNGMAN reports on an innovative project in Devon to help rural communities keep their churches open…
Canadian Indigenous leaders to meet Pope over school abuse
Toronto, Canada AP When an Assembly of First Nations delegation traveled to the Vatican in 2009 to meet with then-Pope Benedict XVI, the pontiff told them in a private meeting of his “personal anguish” over abuse suffered by Indigenous children in church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend in Canada. What at the time […]