Church partnerships: Near Chicago, a Lutheran church finds new life at the YMCA
BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports on how a struggling Lutheran church has found new life by giving its building to the YMCA…
In the aftermath of tragedy: Family struck by grief after it loses six in Egypt church fire
SAMY MAGDY, of Associated Press, reports on the tragedy facing Coptic Orthodox Christian families in the wake of a church fire in Giza earlier this month which claimed tha lives of 19 children…
A second life?: Thousands of churches close every year. What will happen to their buildings?
BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports on how, as congregations close down, some church leaders are looking to give their former buildings a second life…
US CHURCHES: WHEN HOUSES OF WORSHIP ARE NOT JUST FOR WORSHIP
GREGG BREKKE reports for Religion News Service on how churches in the US are partnering with non-profits and other external organisations in using their buildings for much more than Sunday services…
After shuttering 700 churches, Rwanda proposes stricter clergy guidelines
RNS After closing more than 700 churches and some mosques in March, Rwandan government officials have moved to institute guidelines for how faith groups operate in the majority-Christian East African country. Rwanda’s minister in the office of the president has brought to Parliament a draft law that would require Christian and Muslim clerics to attain university education […]
EGYPT: COPTIC CHURCH REJECTS AMENDMENTS TO LONG-AWAITED CHURCH BUILDING LAW
World Watch Monitor reports on the the reaction of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church to changes to a proposed law regulating religious buildings which it says “do not consider Egyptian Christian citizens’ equal rights” against a background of ongoing persecution…