Celeste Kennel-Shank
In Tunisia, a move toward 'Muslim democracy'
Tunisia’s Ennahda movement, the most successful Islamist party to emerge from the Arab Spring revolts early in this decade, has left political Islam and declared that its members will operate in th...
Top awards for the Century from the Associated Church Press
The first gathering of the Associated Church Press was held in St. Louis in 1916. Last week the ACP returned there to celebrate its 100th anniversary, gather a fine bunch of religion journalists, and hand out awards for work published in 2015.
I accepted two first-place awards of behalf of the Century staff: best in class for national and international magazines and best in class for blogs.
Aid groups respond to African drought, floods
Millions of people in several eastern and southern African nations are facing malnutrition, disease, and other harm as a result of El Niño–related extreme weather patterns: drought in late 2015 and...
Eugene Borowitz, Reform Jewish leader, dies at 91
Eugene B. Borowitz, a leader and theologian in Reform Judaism, died January 22 at age 91.
...Daniel Aleshire, ATS president, announces retirement
Daniel O. Aleshire, executive director of the Association of Theological Schools, announced that he will retire before June 30, 2017.
...On entering middle age
The first time it struck me, I was reading Henri Nouwen’s Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring. “It seems fair to say that between the ages of one and thirty, people are considered young; between thirty and sixty, they are considered middle aged,” Nouwen writes. I was 29 and a little terrified.
I kissed Advent purity goodbye
I was raised in an ecumenical church community affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. When I later joined a Mennonite church, where many members were not raised with the church calendar, I became a bit of an Advent purist. Maybe a lot of one.
Jennifer Butler becomes chair of president's advisory council on poverty
Jennifer Butler, CEO of the strategy group Faith in Public Life, recently became chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neigh...
Llan Carlos Dávila leads anti-mining efforts in Guatemala diocese
Llan Carlos Dávila, a leader in church-based efforts against chemical mining in southeastern Guatemala, came to the United States for a speaking tour in October.
...Black churches in St. Louis area damaged by fires, arson suspected
Fires damaged several churches—of different denominations, but most with predominantly black congregations—within a few miles of one another in northwest St....
Kelly Gissendaner, prison theology studies graduate, executed in Georgia
Despite pleas by Pope Francis, theologian Jürgen Moltmann, pastors, professors, and fellow inmates, Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 47, was executed by the state of Georgia on September 30.
...J. R. Daniel Kirk to leave Fuller seminary amid conflict
This academic year will be the last year J. R....
Dignity is deeper than marriage equality
For no reason I can remember, I put the ’90s classic Four Weddings and a Funeral on my Netflix queue and re-watched it recently. The scene etched in my mind all these years was that of the funeral. John Hannah, with his beautiful Scottish accent, reads “Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden.
What the clip leaves off is the funeral officiant, presumably an Anglican priest, introducing the beloved partner of the man in the coffin as “his closest friend.”
Arizona ministers use sermon series to critique ‘progressive’ faith
When eight pastors in Fountain Hills, Arizona, were planning a joint sermon series called “‘Progressive’ Christianity: Fact or Fiction?” they didn’t invite a local pastor who had cowritten a curric...
5 things to keep in mind about only children
Ranting about the assumptions people make about only children has been a part of my life since before I knew what the word assumption meant. After reading yet another comment that was likely intended to be lighthearted—but that implied that we only children are spoiled and always get our way—I thought it was time to turn this rant into a reflection.
Race and riots in my hometown and in my grandfather's
My hometown and my grandfather’s were the site of riots connected to race and law enforcement.
Please do not stand for the next hymn
As I came down the escalator at the library, the man in front of me apologized when he saw that I had stopped behind him. He gently moved his cane-carrying companion over to one side, apologized again, and motioned me past.
Years ago, I might not have thought twice about it. Now, having a family member for whom movements such as standing up can be painful because of degenerative arthritis has made me more aware—perhaps nowhere more so than at church.
Oscar Romero's grain of wheat
This month in 1980, the Salvadoran archbishop was assassinated—shortly after preaching on John 12.
Fred B. Craddock, preeminent preacher, dies at age 86
Fred B. Craddock, a preeminent teacher and practitioner of preaching, died March 6 at age 86 in Blue Ridge, Georgia. He had been ill with Parkinson’s disease.
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I get vaccines not because I’m certain they’re 100% harmless. I get them so other people won’t die.
Medicine always involves trade-offs. With vaccines, we’re not just weighing them for ourselves.