Pope Francis to Slovakian Jesuits: ‘Some people wanted me to die’ amid health problems

 

Churches, government agencies and nonprofits

When the pandemic closed schools, an existing network of congregations and others jumped in to offer meals — and more

By Dan Holly

Churches, government agencies and nonprofits that already served struggling families responded to the pandemic by ramping up their shared mission beyond providing children with summer meals.

Strategy questions:

• How might you design a ministry so that it meets an immediate need but also lowers ongoing barriers to equity?
• How might you work with government agencies?

Confronting racism in hospice care

From luxury stays to ‘champing’ in the sanctuary, churches adopt pandemic-era Airbnb models
Religion News Service: Instead of worshippers, some churches have been filled with local tourists, professional chefs or burnt-out frontline workers.

SBC executive committee balks at directive to open up to abuse investigation
Christianity Today: Leaders are still debating whether to hand over privileged materials as survivors and the majority of their own denomination have requested.

An ancient tablet, stolen then acquired by Hobby Lobby, will be returned to Iraq
NPR: A 3,500-year-old clay tablet that was looted from an Iraqi museum 30 years ago is headed back to Iraq.

A futurist’s guide to preparing your company for constant change*
Harvard Business Review: As we look back, 2020 and much of 2021 were a wake-up call for how much and how quickly change can happen.

Guess how many people worked from home last year*
The Atlantic: A misconception about the prevalence of remote work explains a lot about confirmation bias in America.

Rebuilding of France’s Notre Dame Cathedral to begin after 2019 fire
Associated Press: The centuries-old structure is finally stable and secure enough for artisans to start rebuilding it, the government agency overseeing the reconstruction said.

Schools are losing teachers at an unprecedented rate*
Quartz: During the pandemic, teachers became less certain that they would work in the classroom until retirement.

The problem with angels: Confronting racism in hospice care
Bearings Online: After almost a decade of being a hospice chaplain, Zeena Regis is still uncomfortable being called an angel.

Pope Francis: Rigidity in the church ‘is a sin against the patience of God’*
America: Pope Francis addressed roughly 1,000 representatives from the Diocese of Rome to speak about the upcoming church-wide synod.

‘We don’t want people to be in a panic,’ says chief of Taliban morality police
The Guardian: In his first interview with western media, Kandahar’s enforcer promises things will be different from the brutal 1990s.

Supreme Court sets argument date for challenge to Roe v. Wade

 

Stolen church doors returned

Tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees are coming to the US without special status or government funding for resettlement, putting more responsibility on ministries who care for refugees to support them through donations and volunteers.

We can all read the Bible on our phones these days, but that doesn’t mean we should. Wesley Hill makes the case for hanging onto your printed Bible.

A Hollywood vocal coach shares her testimony of how God called her to sing a new song.

There are many many histories of evangelicalism, but here’s a book that tells the history of evangelism, and two other notable new titles.

In other news

The Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has a new interim president as it begins a quarter-million-dollar project to examine abuse across SBC churches.

The guitarist from the Christian band Kutless, known for songs like “Carry Me to the Cross” and albums like Live From Portland, has become a regional director for a mission organization sending Bibles to Eastern Europe.

Stolen church doors returned after 47 years.

The Trump prophets regroup

Women are essential in the Bible. Now they’re in the Sunday readings
Religion News Service: “What does it look like to tell the Good News through the stories of women who are often on the margins of scripture and often set up to represent bad news?” asks the Rev. Wilda Gafney.

As a pastor, I can’t define life’s edges. Neither can lawmakers
Sojourners: This holy space of in between, when death is drawing near, is not the place for theological questions about personhood or ensoulment. These are the gray edges of life.

What vaccine advocates need to understand about religious exemptions
CNN: History reveals how religious exemptions were co-opted first by the anti-vaccination movement and then by the increasingly radicalized American right.

The 20-year media spectacle of saving Afghan women
Religion & Politics: To be sure, Afghan women do face deadly conditions under Taliban rule, and they are worthy of the collective attention of the international community. Yet U.S. media concern for them has always been voyeuristic in nature.

The Trump prophets regroup*
The New York Times: When you are in the business of prophecy, what do you do when prophecy fails?

Trinity North Park - Sep 19, 2021

Christ United Presbyterian San Diego 9/19/21

Envy Will Destroy Us — Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon

Philanthropist Tim Busch commissions book on Christ Cathedral

Philanthropist Tim Busch commissions book on Christ Cathedral: Importance of Phillip Johnson, Robert Schuller, Tod Brown

26-year-old from Rialto comes back to the seminary: Drove truck, helped parents buy house, dated a little

Worth driving to: Divine Word Seminary and Retreat Center Stone Chapel: Tridentine liturgy is celebrated on historic Riverside property