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Source: The Christian Science Monitor In a fundamental shift in American Protestantism, hundreds of churches across the country are allowing people in the pews to deliver sermons and handle pastoral duties. G. Jeffrey MacDonald FEBRUARY 6, 2017 BETHEL, VT.—After a week of painting art by day and playing saxophone in a funk band by night, Katie Runde still manages to roust herself for church. One big reason: On any given Sunday, she’s either giving the sermon at Christ Episcopal Church in this central Vermont town, or she’s listening as a friend takes a turn from the pulpit. As two dozen…

Source: Fox News MOSCOW –  The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its influence in what was once an officially godless state — and President Vladimir Putin appears eager to harness that resurgent power of faith to promote his own agenda. Long consigned to society’s margins in the Soviet era of “scientific atheism,” religious activists in today’s Russia can get theater performances banned and exhibitions closed. Their next target is to end state funding for abortion in a land where nearly half of all pregnancies end in termination. Putin has condemned recent attacks on art exhibitions and efforts to hound performers…

Source: Pravoslavie.ru Politicians should not interfere in Church matters, and it’s necessary to observe the principle of the indivisibility of the Church, declared Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa in an interview with RIA-Novosti, commenting on the situation with the efforts to create an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. “I know Ukraine very well—both bishops and laity—and have a very good understanding about what incentives the people are pursuing, who are trying now to sow discord in Ukraine. From the very beginning, when the problem of the Church schism had only just arisen, the Alexandrian Patriarchate and…

Source: CAJ News Africa From ADANE BIKILA in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ADDIS ABABA, (CAJ News) – CHURCHES have called for restraint from protesters and state security following the killing of 100 demonstrators in Ethiopia over the last fortnight. Reports indicate the protestors were killed in Oromia and Amhara. It is reported over 500 have been killed since November last year following the anti-government protests began among the Oromo, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, and spread to the second largest ethnic group, the Amhara. Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, mourned the…

Source: Christian Science Monitor By Harry Bruinius, Staff writer An estimated 30 million Americans are former churchgoers who nevertheless keep faith in God. Here are some of their stories. Kyle Rice pretty much stopped going to church a few years ago. But the marriage and family therapist in Torrington, Wyo., has hardly abandoned his Christian faith – or his deep longing to share it with others and experience God’s love within a community of believers. Mr. Rice, who is in his late 20s, has simply found that what he calls “the Sunday morning experience” – that is, the traditional institutions…

Source: The Greek Star BY GEORGE D. KARCAZES What does it mean when we say that the Church is “hierarchical”? Does it mean that Christ alone is acknowledged to be the “head” of the Church and that everyone else are His servants, regardless of “rank”? Does it mean that the titles of those ordained to the priesthood are in a “hierarchical” order — in the nature of the service all members of the Church are called upon to offer: where Patriarchs, Archbishops, Metropolitans,   Archimandrites, Proto-Presbyters, Presbyters, Deacons and the Laity (the “Royal Priesthood”) all offer their service to the Church in synergy with…

Source: Breaking Israel News By Raphael Poch “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord . . . ” (Isaiah 1:4). In an anti-Christian incident which has largely gone unnoticed, the St. Charbel (Maar Charbel) Monastery in Bethlehem was attacked and burned down on September 26th. The monastery is located in the Wadi Maali neighborhood of the city where King David was born and is the reputed birthplace of Jesus. As a result of the fire, several rooms on the church’s second floor were completely destroyed. No one…

Source: WBALTV11 by George Lettis Incident happened at Butchers Hill Russian Orthodox Church BALTIMORE —Baltimore City police are looking for a group of teens involved in a beating and armed robbery outside a Russian Orthodox church that left a priest and his son staring down the barrel of a gun. The incident happened around 10 p.m. Wednesday as members of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Church were cleaning up after a service. The church is located at the corner of South Collington Avenue and Baltimore Street in the city’s Butchers Hill area. The church does not think it…

Source: CNN Belief Blog By Rachel Held Evans, Special to CNN (CNN) – At 32, I barely qualify as a millennial. I wrote my first essay with a pen and paper, but by the time I graduated from college, I owned a cell phone and used Google as a verb. I still remember the home phone numbers of my old high school friends, but don’t ask me to recite my husband’s without checking my contacts first. I own mix tapes that include selections from Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but I’ve never planned a trip without Travelocity. Despite having one foot in Generation…

Source: Ekklesia By agency reporter “It is impossible to speak exclusively for the unity of the church and be indifferent about the unity of humankind,” said Dr Petros Vassiliadis, at an academic gathering held in his honour in Thessaloniki, Greece. Vassiliadis, a Greek Orthodox theologian and formerly a representative of the Church of Greece on the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission for World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), called for a broader understanding of ecumenical dialogue. The symposium was entitled ‘Ecumenical dialogue in the 21st century: Realities, challenges and perspectives’. It was organised in Vassiliadis’ honour by the theology department…

Source: Sofia News Agency Nearly 900 residents of the Bulgarian historical town of Batak have signed a petition asking interim Patriarch Kiril to stop services at the Sveta Nedeliya Church where the relics of the Batak martyrs are kept. They want the Church to return to its museum status and State ownership. The initiators further say they found in archives documents showing that as early as 1915 locals wanted the Church with the ossuary to be a museum. In a recent declaration, the Plovdiv Metropolitan Nikolay stated that services at the Saint Nedeliya Church “will go on forever, every day,…

Source: Sofia News Agency by Milena Hristova Plagued by wrangling and greed, greatly discredited – this is what Bulgaria’s Orthodox church has come to be in recent years, leaving Christian believers nothing but disturbed. The disagreements between the clergy and the two churches in the country have been smouldering for years, but exploded beyond belief after the death of Patriarch Maxim. The battle among the different lobbies inside the official church, legitimized by the old political regime, erupted with a vengeance and even overshadowed their battle with the purported arch enemy – the alternative church set up in protest against…