WILMINGTON, N.C. (RNS) — The sign outside the polling station at Devon Park United Methodist Church exemplified this state’s struggle with a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. “A true marriage is male and female and God,” the church marquee read.…
Syrian Christians live in uneasy alliance with Bashar Assad
DAMASCUS, Syria (RNS) — Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works with Bashar Assad’s regime or has anything to do with it. “But what we heard from (the protesters) at the beginning of this revolution saying,’Christians…
Nonbelievers flex their political muscles
WASHINGTON (RNS) — One of the biggest growth areas in political activism around religion is coming from an unlikely source: the nonreligious. And it’s happening far from the marbled corridors of power in the nation’s capital. The Secular Coalition for America…
Supreme Court decision on religion upends campus religious groups
(RNS) — When the Supreme Court ruled that a Christian student group could only be recognized at a small public law school if it accepted non-Christians and gays as potential leaders, some lawyers and campus advocates grew nervous. While the 5-4…
Rural, Small Town Conference set for Nov. 1-3 in Iowa
Registration is open for the LCMS National Rural and Small Town Mission Conference to be held Nov. 1-3 at King’s Pointe Resort, Storm Lake, Iowa. Under the theme of “In Christ for Church and World: Witness, Mercy, Life Together,” the conference…
Mueller receives honorary doctorate
LCMS First Vice-President Rev. Herbert C. Mueller Jr. received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree during the May 18 commencement at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Mueller also served as commencement speaker at the 6 p.m. ceremony in the seminary’s Kramer…
Ridley heads LCMS housing corporation
Nicole Ridley has been appointed chief executive officer of the LCMS National Housing Support Corporation, which does business as Lutheran Housing Support (LHS). Her appointment by the corporation’s Board of Directors was effective May 1. Ridley previously served as project director…
Rev. Robert Jackson, former Oklahoma DP, dies
The Rev. Robert L. Jackson, who served as president of the LCMS Oklahoma District from 1988 to 1991, died May 15 at a hospice facility in Springdale, Ark. Jackson, 84, had recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer. A funeral service was held May…
Church's neighborhood-renewal role earns honor
By Kim Plummer Krull It was around 1997 when yet another family told the Rev. John Schmidtke that the lack of decent, affordable housing was forcing them to leave their crumbling inner-city North St. Louis, Mo., neighborhood. “Where was this family…
Wyoming delegates re-elect Boche president
The Rev. Richard Boche was elected on the first ballot to his third term as president of the LCMS Wyoming District at the district’s May 10-12 convention in Casper, Wyo. Boche was unopposed. Also elected were: the Rev. John Hill, senior…
LCMS enters fellowship with church in Liberia
By Adriane Dorr LCMS President Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison declared fellowship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Liberia (ELCL) May 10. This declaration followed the Commission on Theology and Church Relations’ (CTCR) action on April 26 in which recognition…
Chilean Lutherans build 'faith foundation' in quake-prone communities
By Kim Plummer Krull A tsunami wave triggered by a powerful earthquake hit Constitucion, Chile, especially hard in 2010, killing some 350 people in the coastal community alone and causing so much damage that survivors feared their town was all…
Concordia Seminary, Argentina, celebrates 70th anniversary
By Pamela Nielsen Nearly 1,000 Lutherans gathered May 1 on the campus of Concordia Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to celebrate and thank God for its 70 years of preparing pastors and other church workers. Participants included pastors and other…
Why the United Methodist Church canceled votes on same-sex marriage and gay clergy
(RNS) — United Methodists (UMC) concluded their General Conference May 4 without voting on gay clergy or same-sex marriage, a surprising end to a disappointing week for gay activists. On May 3, the nearly 1,000 delegates gathered in Tampa, Fla.,…
'The Voice': New Bible translation focuses on dialogue
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — The name Jesus Christ doesn’t appear in The Voice, a new translation of the Bible. Nor do words such as angel or apostle. Instead, angel is rendered as “messenger” and apostle as “emissary.” Jesus Christ is “Jesus…
Methodists agree: homosexuality 'incompatible with Christian teaching'
(RNS) — Despite emotional protests and fierce lobbying from gay-rights groups, United Methodists (UMC) voted May 2 to maintain their denomination’s stance that homosexual acts are “incompatible with Christian teaching.” Two “agree to disagree” proposals were soundly defeated during separate votes…
