Church

Pastor Dawn Darwin Weaks explores what it was like for a once large and vibrant church community to decide to make a major change. With only a few dozen active people left, they made the choice to relocate, rename, and relaunch together. Before the 116-year-old congregation gathered for worship in a new space, they performed one last ritual in order to truly let go.

Phoenix pastor Caleb Campbell has a theory about the growing number of Americans who are labeled as Christian nationalists. Most would rather go to Cracker Barrel than storm the Capitol. Many see themselves as good Christians who love their country. But somewhere along the way, they began to think being a good American and being a Christian were one and the same.

Perhaps the third time will be the charm for United Methodists awaiting a vote to officially split the denomination. The United Methodist Church has announced the dates for the next meeting of its global decision-making body after postponing its 2020 General Conference meeting three times for pandemic-related reasons.

Black church leaders in Georgia organized rallies Sunday (Oct. 30) in a push to get their congregants to vote — a longstanding tradition known as “souls to the polls” that is taking on greater meaning this year amid new obstacles to casting a ballot in the midterm elections.

The Reconstructing Evangelicalism conference, which drew about 400 pastors and other church leaders to Calvary Memorial Church in the Chicago suburbs, was inspired by a recent trend among evangelicals and other Protestants to “deconstruct” the faith they grew up with — examining core beliefs and often rejecting the conservative politics, sexism, and racial divides evangelicalism has come to be known for.

Andy Wood outlined his grand vision to build on Warren’s legacy and take Saddleback to the biggest cities in the U.S. and the world. He said he’ll encourage men and women to preach — an approach at odds with the male-leadership policies of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, a longtime Missouri Republican politician and Episcopal priest, urged those attending a Methodist church in Kansas to not make an idol out of politics. Danforth also warned of the dangers of “holy war” politics as he spoke virtually on Sunday at the Church of the Resurrection, a large United Methodist congregation that has multiple locations in the Kansas City metro area.

The Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music and Arts in the Roxbury neighborhood in Boston has been for the past year a recipient of funds through a Negro Spiritual Royalties Project of the nearby United Parish in Brookline. It is one of at least a dozen churches and organizations across the country committed to monetarily acknowledging spirituals that have been sung for centuries.

Before attending the packed Sunday morning service, Queen Sonja of Norway praised Mindekirken congregation for having maintained worship in Norwegian for all 100 years that the church has existed in Minneapolis.

Rev. Jonathan Lee Walton, an academician, preacher and administrator who has served on the faculties of Wake Forest and Harvard divinity schools, has been named the next president of Princeton Theological Seminary. He will be the first Black president of the seminary.