John Dart
American export: The Chinese embrace process thought
After giving the keynote address at a recent conference on “ecological civilization” attended by more than 60 scholars and government officials from China, theologian John Cobb joined c...
Seminaries in a multifaith setting: Claremont, Andover Newton, Meadville Lombard
Officials at the Claremont School of Theology, which has a long-term project to create a multifaith university and seminary campus, breathed a sigh of relief in late June when United Methodist Chur...
Going mega: The trend toward bigger churches
The ever-growing phenomenon of the megachurch continues to elicit study from researchers intrigued by how these huge congregational complexes—with more than 2,000 adults and children attendin...
Neighborhood megachurch: Shepherd of the Hills in Southern California
After reading the research on booming Protestant megachurches and their senior pastors, I couldn’t help noting how my neighborhood megachurch and its lead pastor (an acquaintance for more tha...
After flotilla incident, churches call for new Israeli policy on Gaza: Gaza called "a virtual prison"
The National Council of Churches, its key mainline members and other church organizations are calling for Israel to alter its policies on the Gaza Strip after an Israeli action against an internati...
Seminaries see no ‘hard times’ uptick: Enrollment slipping
The notion that enrollments at theological schools rise in tough economic times did not hold true for Protestant and Catholic seminaries in North America this academic year....
Churches weigh in on health-care reform: Legislators and their churches differ
United Methodists serving in the House of Representatives opposed the historic passage of the health-care reform package 26 to 18, with five Democrats joining 21 Repub licans in voting no.
...Methodists suspend funding of two seminaries: Claremont School of Theology, United Theological Seminary
The United Methodist Church is withholding funds from two of its seminaries until they submit updated financial reports, and one campus—Claremont School of Theology in southern California—will also...
Tiller’s murderer faces life in jail: Scott Roeder found guilty
A man who by his own testimony sought chances to kill Dr. George Tiller, one of the few U.S. physicians who perform late-term abortions, was quickly convicted of murder in a Kansas trial....
Church workers caught in Haiti’s devastation: Dire conditions
Nearly a week after the devastating earthquake, with the capital city suffering from a shortage of water, food, medical help, gasoline, housing and safety from looters, Haiti’s Episcopal bishop Jea...
A consensus on religious liberties: A joint statement
Despite public school controversies that generate sparks every December, church-state columnist Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum recently wrote, “The First Amendment solution is stunningly simpl...
Russian Orthodox uneasy with Protestant trends: Troubled over women clergy
In October, Lutheran Bishop Margot Kässman of Hanover, Germany, was elected as the first woman and, at 51, the youngest cleric to head the Evan gelical Church in Germany (EKD), an umbrella body of ...
Papal invite unlikely to lure many U.S. defectors: Celibate priesthood is one obstacle
Although many ex-Episcopalians in the U.S....
Black Pentecostal church backs health-care reform, including public option: Church of God in Christ
The presiding bishop of the historically black Church of God in Christ, one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the U.S., has announced that its leadership supports the White House healthca...
Oldline Prostestant churches feeling their age: FACT survey results
Amid their “slow but general retreat” this decade in terms of financial health and membership, the oldline Protestant churches are especially hampered by the aging of their memberships, a new study...
Study process aided ELCA gay breakthrough: Third denomination to accept gay clergy
Close on the heels of a similar decision by the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lifted its ban on calling gay and lesbian pastors and approved of supporting committed, ...
Revitalized Jesus Seminar gets new home: Rent-free space at Williamette University
The Jesus Seminar began making headlines in 1986 as more than 70 biblical scholars voted on which sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels probably derived from him and what words were more likel...
Episcopalians open doors for gay bishops: The triennial convention
Only days after Archbishop Rowan Williams of the worldwide Anglican Communion cautioned Episcopalians against making decisions “that could push us further apart,” delegates at their July 8-17 conve...
Recession may pull seminaries apart or together: Creative solutions
The recession has forced seminaries to undertake cost-cutting measures that affect people, projects and their own best-laid plans for sustainability....
Breaking glass ceilings at large churches: Women underrepresented among senior pastors
Methodists opened the ordained ministry to women in 1956, and today female ministers account for about 20 percent of the clergy in the denomination. And 14 bishops heading the 50 U.S....