Church

Christianity’s most joyous day was celebrated worldwide with the faithful spaced apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday marked by pandemic precautions.

As U.S. Christians celebrate a second Easter under pandemic rules — their own or those imposed by government or denominational guidelines — churches are reckoning with new ways of volunteering, stewardship and, above all, worshipping.

For Christians across the United States, Easter services on Sunday will reflect an extra measure of joy as the nation experiences rising optimism after a year of pandemic. Even if still observing restrictions, many churches may draw the largest numbers of in-person worshippers in months.

Ask Americans if they believe in God and most will say yes. But a growing number have lost faith in organized religion. For the first time since the late 1930s, fewer than half of Americans say they belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque, according to a new report from Gallup.

As Southwest Baptist University searches for a new president, trustees sparked additional concerns by creating a presidential search committee made up only of themselves and two Missouri Baptist Convention leaders. The school’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution on Friday criticizing this search process.

Many women preachers and teachers say their call to ministry was inspired in part by Beth Moore’s example. Some have been able to stay in evangelical churches by avoiding the title “pastor” and going by “Bible teacher” instead. Others have had to leave their home churches.

The National African American Fellowship of the SBC issued a statement Wednesday asking presidents of SBC seminaries to take steps to help defuse current racial tensions within the convention.

On Thursday evening, a memorial vigil at nearby Fairview High School organized by the Colorado chapter of gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action and attended by more than 1,000 people, was led by clergy from around Boulder.

More than 100 congregants of the parish in the mostly Latino Corona neighborhood of Queens died of COVID-19, many of them in the early days of the pandemic. Today, the surviving congregants return as they lament their lost loved ones.

Baylor University released a report Tuesday documenting its slavery legacy and offering recommendations for more fully telling its history. The 94-page report focuses on monuments and markers on its campus honoring various founders who enslaved Black people and supported the Confederacy.