New US Homeland Security guide aims to help houses of worship protect themselves
Washington DC, US AP A new guide from the US Department of Homeland Security released Wednesday aims to help churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship protect themselves at a time of heightened tensions in faith-based communities across the country. Hoboken Police officers stand watch outside the United Synagogue of Hoboken, on 3rd November, 2022, in […]
Inquiry into New Zealand’s deadliest shooting opens with memorial to victims
Wellington, New ZealandReuters A coroner’s inquiry into New Zealand’s worst mass shooting opened on Tuesday with a traditional Maori welcome and a reading from the Quran in remembrance of the 51 Muslim worshippers killed by an Australian white supremacist. Armed with high-capacity semi-automatic weapons, Brenton Tarrant, 32, killed 51 people and injured dozens when he […]
“Not just the ramp”: Worship spaces need more accessibility
HOLLY MEYER, of Associated Press, reports on how churches and other worship spaces in the US are responding to the needs of the less-abled…
US Department of Homeland Security appoints a new 25-member security faith advisory council
United StatesRNS The US Department of Homeland Security has announced the appointment of a new, 25-member faith-based advisory council to assist Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in finding ways to protect houses of worship. The council consists of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh clergy plus some law enforcement and non-profit faith group leaders. Crime scene tape surrounds […]
Churches, mosques house stolen Nigerian fuel in pervasive oil theft, says NNPC head
Lagos, Nigeria Reuters Every section of Nigerian society is complicit in the theft of millions of barrels, the head of state oil company NNPC Ltd said on Tuesday, adding that make-shift pipelines and stolen fuel had even been found in churches and mosques. Large-scale theft from the nation’s pipelines has throttled exports, forced some companies […]
Security tightens at Nigerian churches, mosques following attack
Nairobi, Kenya Security officers are protecting churches and mosques in Nigeria during services to ensure that worshippers are safe, a month after gunmen attacked a Catholic church in the Nigerian town of Owo, leaving more than 50 dead and injuring dozens of people. Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, of the Archdiocese of Owerri in southern Nigeria, […]
Essay: Nearly half of all churches and other faith institutions help people get enough to eat
BRAD R FULTON, a social scientist at Indiana University, looks – in an article first published on The Conversation – at the “outsized” role churches and other faith institutions play in feeding America’s hungry…
Survivors will face New Zealand mosque gunman at sentencing
Wellington, New ZealandAP When Aya Al-Umari faces her brother’s killer in the dock, she intends to tell him that his hatred stole away her best friend, her guardian, her hero. That she still wants to pick up the phone and tell her brother all about her day, because he’s the only one who would understand. […]
After Hagia Sophia, Turkey turns another museum into mosque
Ankara, TurkeyAP The Turkish Government formally converted a former Byzantine church into a mosque Friday, a move that came a month after it drew praise from the faithful and international opposition for similarly turning Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer. A decision by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published in the country’s […]
Holy Land churches, mosques, synagogues close for coronavirus
Jerusalem, IsraelRNS In the days before the novel coronavirus, the thought that every church, synagogue and mosque in the Holy Land would be ordered shut was simply unimaginable. Yet that is today’s reality. Ultra-Orthodox Jews pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on 15th March, 2020. Israel imposed sweeping travel and quarantine measures more than […]