Baptist

A suspect has been arrested in connection with the fatal stabbings of two people and the wounding of three others at a church in California’s Silicon Valley that was being used as a homeless shelter, police said Monday (Nov. 23).

The Baptist World Alliance is transitioning the 22nd Baptist World Congress to a fully virtual event on July 7-10, 2021, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. 

For the past two years, members at Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, talked about issues of human sexuality and gender identity. Now the congregation has decided to welcome individuals who are LGBTQ+ into the full life of the church.

Over the last six weeks, The Baptist Home saw coronavirus outbreaks emerge at three of its four residential communities in Missouri for the aging. After a total of 89 cases and 11 deaths, the campuses now have just 9 active cases with the spread slowly or even stopped.

In commemoration of Kristallnacht (“night of broken glass”) 82 years ago, many houses of worship around the world will leave their lights on tonight. Several Baptist churches are joining this effort to stand for justice and against anti-Semitism.

A surge in new COVID-19 cases has at least a few churches returning to online-only worship as many churches continue meeting onsite. The move to return to online-only comes as the U.S. continues to set new records for new numbers of coronavirus cases.

As millions of Americans went to the polls to vote today amid anxiety about the results, concerns about voter intimidation, and even worries about post-election violence, some clergy showed up as election chaplains to bring a calming presence and safeguard voter rights.

As millions of Americans line up — some in church buildings — to exercise their democratic right to vote, dozens of churches decided to open their buildings to celebrate the sacred rite of communion for services called “Election Day Communion.”

A Louisiana man who admitted to burning down three predominantly African American churches to promote himself as a “black metal” musician was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay the churches $2.6 million. 

The Missouri Baptist Convention on Tuesday elected its first Black president — 186 years after the first man to hold that position did so while he enslaved more than a dozen Black people. This week’s election of Jon Nelson symbolized a significant change since Jeremiah Vardeman’s election in 1834 & 1835.