“Are We Still Fighting the Crusades?” is the topic of the Aug. 20 Lay Bible Institute at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The daylong workshop will be led by Dr. Paul Robinson, associate professor and chairman of the seminary’s Department of…

Martha J. Mitkos has joined The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as campaign director for the Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI), an unprecedented campaign to mobilize U.S. Lutherans in the global effort to eliminate malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. The LMI’s goals…

Lutheran Hour Ministries will have two nationwide airings of its full-length television program, “The Bible on Trial: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.”  On Saturday, June 18, the program will air at 6 p.m. Eastern time on the Inspiration Network (INSP, Channel…

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and the Saint Louis University School of Social Work are offering a dual master’s degree program for students interested in pursuing careers as deaconesses and social workers. The dual-degree Master in Social Work from Saint Louis…

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans is expanding a national disaster-response funding program it announced in May to include “any state in which … four major Lutheran disaster response organizations [including LCMS World Relief and Human Care (WR-HC)] are providing support.” Click…

The Open Arms Institute is offering a free “Pastor’s Webinar” June 16 at 12:30 p.m. Central time. The webinar will be presented by staff and board of directors members of the Loveland, Colo.-based institute that works to plant congregations and…

LCMS President Dr. Matthew C. Harrison celebrated Pentecost Sunday, June 12, by preaching in Seoul, South Korea, a joyful kickoff to a busy week that includes meeting with church partners in that country and later in Japan, where recovery continues…

More than medicine. That’s what Sharon Thomas says she shares each time she takes part in an LCMS World Relief and Human Care Mercy Medical Team (MMT). When people in some of the world’s poorest overseas communities ask the registered…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour warned several hundred Christian conservatives gathered here June 3-4 not to expect a “perfect candidate” to emerge from the field of Republican (GOP) presidential contenders. “There’s only been one perfect person that ever…

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) — Wearing a monk’s robe, Abbot Justin Brown climbed into the witness box on June 6 and said the only people who ever opposed his abbey’s bid to sell handmade caskets were funeral insiders who stood to…

ST. LOUIS (RNS) — Taxi driver Nabeel Langrial was chatting with another cabbie last summer when an enforcement agent for the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission stopped to tell him his hat did not conform to the driver dress code. Langrial, a…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Four months after the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a new Gallup survey says a majority of Egyptians want religious leaders to advise the nation’s officials but they do not want a theocracy. About seven in…

(RNS) — For the second time this year, a federal regulator has rejected the First Amendment arguments of a Catholic college and cleared the way for the school’s adjunct faculty to unionize. In a May 26 decision, the Chicago office…

PALMER, Mass. (RNS) — A Massachusetts woman charged with larceny and fraud denied June 7 that she stole donated items from a church that were intended for victims of a devastating tornado. Christine Lajewski, 47, of Ware, Mass., was charged…

OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) — After just an hour of deliberation, jurors on June 7 unanimously found two members of a faith-healing church guilty of felony criminal mistreatment for not seeking medical care for their daughter. Timothy and Rebecca Wyland…

MOSS POINT, Miss. (RNS) — For the past 69 years, Ida Mae Cumbest has been the pianist and organist at Caswell Springs United Methodist Church — a tenure that qualifies her as the world’s longest-serving church organist. Cumbest has played…