(RNS) — The past year on the religion beat began with a prayer meeting and retreat, and ended with a pair of attacks on faith groups. In between were moments of grief and scandal, hope and resilience. Here's what Religion News Service reporters will be following
(RNS) — “God surprises us,” Pope Benedict XVI said in 2010, in a Christmas broadcast for the BBC. Assuring the English-speaking world that God always fulfills his promises, the pontiff cautioned that the divine doesn’t always do so in ways we expect.
The slaughter at a Protestant church in Burkina Faso earlier this month gained brief reports by international news outlets, then quickly faded from the spotlight — not surprising in a year where attacks on places of worship occurred with relentless frequency.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — For decades, the people of Bethlehem have watched tour buses drive up to the Church of the Nativity, disgorge their passengers for a few hours at the traditional birthplace of Jesus, and then return to Israel.
Word&Way has started a partnership with Luminar Bautista, the media arm of Venezuelan Baptists. Luminar Bautista, which started in 1951, means “Baptist Light.”
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — A tiny wooden relic that some Christians believe to be part of Jesus' manger arrived Saturday in its permanent home in the biblical city of Bethlehem 1,400 years after it was sent to Rome as a gift to the pope.
NDIA (BP) -- Regaining consciousness after attackers left him for dead in his house church in eastern India, pastor Basant Kumar Paul proclaimed he no longer fears persecution and is certain of his heavenly home.
A majority of the children living in low- and middle-income nations are experiencing “learning poverty,” according to a World Bank report published Oct. 17.
SYRIA, (BP) -- The Islamic State (ISIS) is claiming responsibility for two attacks on Christians in northeast Syria that killed nine and wounded 71, as Christians continue to flee villages just outside a proposed safe zone at the Syria-Turkey border.
In his address for World Day of the Poor 2019, Pope Francis said the inequalities and social imbalances described in the Bible are largely unchanged today.