Nation

Two Republican lawmakers put up a Christmas tree in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda despite being told they weren’t allowed to do so — a show of defiance after Gov. Tony Evers opted not to display a holiday tree there this year because the building is closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic.

An early morning fire Saturday in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood has destroyed the 128-year-old sanctuary of Middle Collegiate Church, one of the oldest congregations in the city.

During their lives they somehow slipped out of sight to the rest of us, and when death came to these 1,547 residents of Los Angeles County, they had become anonymous to the world. But this year’s annual Ceremony of the Unclaimed Dead was livestreamed due to coronavirus.

The unprecedented pace of developing vaccines for COVID-19 has not jeopardized their effectiveness or safety for Americans, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Thursday (Dec. 3) in a webinar hosted by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. 

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is urging those attending services at houses of worship to adhere to COVID-19 precautions, like wearing masks and practicing social distancing, particularly for indoor services.

As Georgia becomes the nation’s political hotspot this winter before twin runoff elections Jan. 5 that will determine control of the Senate, faith-based organizing is heating up on both sides. One of the candidates is a Black Baptist pastor.

The coronavirus has extinguished some traditional holiday cheer at the Illinois Capitol. There will be no Christmas tree nor any holiday displays inside or outside the building.

Medical debts totaling more than $5.2 million owed by more than 3,200 families in Kansas and Oklahoma have been paid through a project of the United Church of Christ Kansas-Oklahoma Conference, church officials said Tuesday.

Black clergy leaders are joining forces with the United Way of New York City for a new initiative designed to combat the coronavirus’s outsized toll on African Americans through ramped-up testing, contact tracing and treatment management.

A battle is underway in a Boston suburb over whether it is appropriate to hold a joyous holiday celebration at the site of a now-closed institution where developmentally disabled children were once abused, neglected, and warehoused under deplorable conditions.