JERUSALEM (RNS/ENInews) — Christians have the lowest growth rate among the Israeli population, according to a recent report from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. According to the Jan. 6 report, the Christian growth rate of 0.9 percent lags behind the…

PARIS (RNS) — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed. But the clergy abuse…

Synod President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison was guest preacher at the opening worship service of the North Dakota District convention — the first of 35 LCMS district conventions to be held this year through July. The convention, Jan. 22-25 in…

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod will provide — at www.lcms.org/marchforlife — same-day, online Lutheran coverage of the “March for Life” on Monday, Jan. 23, in Washington, D.C. The march — which drew an estimated 400,000 people last year — is held annually to…

The fourth annual “Reaching Out Together” evangelism conference is planned for Feb. 11 on the campus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The conference is open to pastors, evangelism boards, church leaders and laypeople in the LCMS Missouri District and adjacent districts.…

Bethesda Lutheran Communities scholarship applications for the 2012-13 academic year are now available for Lutheran high school, college and seminary students interested in pursuing careers in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Six scholarships will be awarded: two $3,000 awards…

By Kim Plummer Krull With hundreds of thousands of people still living in squalid, makeshift camps, a first-time visitor to Haiti might assume that little has changed since the tragic earthquake devastated an already struggling nation two years ago this January.…

LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison joined 38 leaders of some of the largest religious communities in the United States in signing an open letter to all Americans to voice their shared concern for protecting the traditional definition of…

The Rev. Dr. Guido Merkens, a former LCMS vice-president and founding pastor of one of the Synod’s largest congregations, died Jan. 11 in San Antonio. A funeral service for Merkens, 84, was held Jan. 18 at Concordia Lutheran Church in San Antonio. Merkens founded…

By Joe Isenhower Jr. “The entire room broke into applause” after Bishop Amos Bolay of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia (ELCL) requested altar and pulpit fellowship between the Missouri Synod and his church body during Dec. 31 discussions in…

(RNS) — Seven congregations that broke with the Episcopal Church in 2006 over its liberal policies on homosexuality are not entitled to keep parish property estimated to be worth millions, a Virginia judge ruled on Jan. 10. The ruling by Fairfax…

MEMPHIS, N.Y. (RNS) — Brent Howard left his job as a home remodeler in Ohio in 2007, moved his young family into a trailer and began traveling to wherever he was needed. Over the past 4 1/2 years, he has helped…

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 11 unanimously threw its support behind a church school that fired a teacher, using a widely watched church-state case to bolster a legal doctrine that exempts religious institutions from some civil…

(RNS) — At 87, the Rev. C.T. Vivian can still recall the moment, decades after the height of the civil rights movement. As he stood to conclude a meeting in his Atlanta home, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his…

(RNS) — Oklahoma’s referendum against state judges considering Islamic law is unconstitutional, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 10, upholding a lower court ruling that had blocked the measure. The ruling could affect more than 20 other states where…

(RNS) — President Obama on Jan. 10 named an immigration expert with longstanding ties to the Catholic Church as his top domestic policy official, continuing a campaign-year makeover of White House staff. The hiring of Cecilia Munoz, along with the appointment…