As rabbi was held hostage in Texas synagogue, interfaith colleagues gathered to help end the standoff
RNS If there’s a word that comes up repeatedly when friends discuss Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi who was taken hostage with three others at his Reform synagogue Saturday, it’s “kind.” “Kind doesn’t begin to cover it,” said Lindsey Weiss, who attended Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, since she was 11. “He’s the nicest […]
Essay: War and soldiers have changed over a century. Chaplains remain a powerful force.
As the US marks Veterans Day and Remembrance Day is marked around the world, JOE DRAPE, author of a new book on US Korean War chaplain Rev Emil Kapaun, says that, in a day when soldiers are often not religiously affiliated, chaplains still make connections across faiths…
Essay: Hate crimes are growing. Faith communities are uniquely positioned to combat them.
In an article first published on Religion News Service, MAUREEN O’LEARY, director of field and organising for the US-based Interfaith Alliance, looks at key role religious leaders can play in combatting hate…
Voting rights demonstration leads to faith leaders’ arrests outside White House
Washington DC, US RNS An interfaith assortment of faith leaders and actors were arrested outside the White House on Tuesday as they demanded in prayers and speeches that President Joe Biden and lawmakers in Congress do more to advocate for voting rights legislation. Rev Jamal Bryant, a prominent Georgia pastor who had asked God in […]
Hybrid Religions for Peace conference takes focus on climate, conflict, coronavirus
RNS Religions for Peace, the international interfaith conference, began Monday, in a new hybrid format after a relatively low-key virtual meeting last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most of the event’s 1,500 participants are watching from home this year, as some 125 faith leaders from at least 16 countries come together in person to […]
Interfaith letter campaign calls for Australian PM to take greater action on climate change
Hundreds of letters calling for greater action on climate change have been delivered to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office in Canberra as part of an interfaith initiative. Under the campaign coordinated by the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, the more than 600 letters call for the Morrison Government to submit higher emissions reduction targets to […]
Overcoming prejudices: How 9/11 became a catalyst for interfaith relations and cooperation
Though anti-Muslim sentiments grew in the wake of 9/11, another legacy of that historic day is the evolution and advancement of interfaith cooperation in the United States. ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, reports…
Interfaith group asks Poland to help migrants at border
Warsaw, Poland AP An interfaith coalition called on Polish authorities Tuesday to give humanitarian aid to a group of migrants who have been stuck in the open air at Poland’s border with Belarus for more than three weeks. The coalition, which includes Christian, Jewish and Muslim representatives, noted that the people stuck at the border […]
Rev Leonid Kishkovsky, US interfaith leader, dies at 78
AP Rev Leonid Kishkovsky, who came to the United States as a childhood refugee from war-torn Poland and later became a leader in cross-church cooperation and the first Eastern Orthodox president of the National Council of Churches, has died. He was 78. Kishkovsky died of a heart attack Tuesday at Glen Cove Hospital in Glen […]
In Kenya, faith groups work to resettle youth returning from al-Shabaab
Nairobi, Kenya RNS In Kenya’s coastal region, interfaith efforts to slow down or end youth recruitment into the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab are gaining progress, with some recruits abandoning the extremist group’s training grounds in southern Somalia to return home. The group – al-Qaeda’s affiliate in East Africa – had stepped up secret recruitments in […]