The Baptist church has to pay $900 a year, while the more popular St. Pius is charged $1700. An attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, who is representing the two churches in a lawsuit against Mission, calls the revenue program “a tax on church attendance. The city of mission is taxing churches based on the... Continue Reading

“Confession: A Roman Catholic App” transforms a user’s iPhone into a confession coach of sorts, and walks users through a dry run of what they might encounter in the confessional booth. For about two bucks, churchgoers and rusty Catholics alike can go through the steps of a confessional, from examining their consciences to confessing their... Continue Reading

Trustees of the NAMB approved sweeping changes Wednesday, Feb. 9, altering the focus, strategy, leadership and organizational structure of the Southern Baptist entity. The changes come almost five months to the day after trustees voted last Sept. 14 to approve Kevin Ezell as NAMB’s president. The package of changes approved by trustees involves four primary... Continue Reading

The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission (GAPJC) decision that the Rev. Jane Southard committed no offense when she conducted a same-gender wedding, had three concurring opinions, but no dissents. While agreeing with the decision of the GAPJC, five members of the commission wrote a concurring opinion stating, “We are intensely troubled by... Continue Reading

The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission has cleared the Rev. Jane Southard, who in 2008 performed a same-sex wedding ceremony, of wrongdoing. The GAPJC ruling reverses a previous decision by the Synod of the Northeast’s PJC finding Southard in violation of the PCUSA constitution. The GAPJC heard Southard’s appeal on Feb. 4... Continue Reading

Harrison said for Missouri Synod Lutherans, the issue of homosexuality strikes at the root of the authority of Scripture. “The difficulty we have runs to the very heart of the Gospel – is there salvation outside of Christ? The Bible says no,” he says, adding that those who claim acceptance of homosexuality are imposing their... Continue Reading

Other questions she challenged the GAPJC to consider include: Is there theologically anything different about this marriage than any of the others? Is the PCUSA’s constitution silent with regard to same-gender marriage? Is there not room in the church’s polity for pastors to perform same-gender marriages? Acknowledging the complexity of the issue, the Presbyterian Church... Continue Reading

The vote of Presbyteries on the BCO 14 amendments as of February 8 is 38-31 against adopting the amendments. For the amendments to be have been approved 2/3 of the 79 Presbyteries (53) had to vote in favor. Now that over 1/3 of the Presbyteries (27) have voted against approving the amendments, they have not... Continue Reading

At a Stated Meeting on Saturday, February 5, 2001, Ohio Presbytery passed an overture to the 39th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America that would discontinue Administrative Committee funding of byFaith and byFaithOnline.com and encourage the AC to help byFaith obtain independent funding for its work. The language of this overture is the... Continue Reading

They came, they talked, they issued statements on a variety of pressing social issues, they lit a candle and they looked at 15 empty chairs for six days. Then they went home. They did not issue a single communiqué. By any yardstick, the most recent meeting of some 23 Anglican archbishops was a bust. The... Continue Reading