Study: Most Americans are spiritual but a growing number say they are not religious
United StatesRNS Americans have been abandoning organised religion in droves and while some have walked away from religion altogether, a distinct group of Americans now call themselves “spiritual but not religious”. A new Pew Research study puts their numbers at 22 per cent of Americans and attempts to describe them in greater detail. PICTURE: Marek Piwnicki/Unsplash The […]
“No congregation is an island”: In tough times, churches can’t afford to go it alone, new book advises
Samford University sociologist Jennifer McClure Haraway looks at the way congregations in Alabama work together — and what congregations around the country can learn from them. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
Mental health: Clergy burnout is a growing concern in polarised churches. A summit offers coping strategies
GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO, of Associated Press, reports ahead of this week’s church mental health summit in the US…
In the US, mainline clergy are more liberal than their congregants – survey
United States RNS A new US survey of mainline clergy finds those leading the historic denominations that once shaped the American Protestant scene are far more liberal than their congregants on a host of political and social issues. The Public Religion Research Institute survey of 3,066 mainline clergy, released on Thursday, shows that about half identify with […]
Essay: Churches must lead development in Black communities – if they want it to get done
QUINTON E PRIMO, says in an article first published on Religion News Service that Black churches are primed to lead a new kind of movement, one centred on economic development and closing the staggering racial wealth gap…
Left behind by disaffiliations, Texas town’s United Methodists charter a new church
Amarillo, Texas, USRNS Earlier this year, the seven United Methodist churches in this city in the Texas Panhandle voted to leave the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination over theological questions about homosexuality and gender identity. Since 2019, in a process dragged out by the COVID-19 pandemic and denominational infighting, hundreds of churches across Texas – and […]
Texas Baptists affirm women in ‘ministerial’ roles as SBC debate moves to states
United StatesRNS A month after Southern Baptists confirmed the expulsion of churches from their denomination for allowing women to serve as pastors, the Baptist General Convention of Texas adopted a statement on Tuesday urging its staff to continue to affirm women in “ministerial and leadership roles”. After half an hour of debate, the BGCT became […]
Worship music: Big churches sound alike. Little churches are the ‘Wild West’ of music, study finds.
US-based worship professor Will Bishop said that focusing on the most popular worship songs can miss what churches are actually singing. BOB SMIETANA, of Religion News Service, reports…
A “catalyst for change”: After a decade of sex abuse education in Africa, Freely in Hope pivots to American churches
FIONA ANDRE, of Religion News Service, reports that the organisation’s shift to North America was prompted by numerous recent sexual abuse scandals in American churches…
The Long Read: Four ways to leave your denomination – How churches are disaffiliating from the UMC
To date, 5,550 of the United Methodist Church’s approximately 30,000 US churches have disaffiliated from the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination since 2019. EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER and BELYNN HOLLERS, of Religion News Service, report…