Nation

Illinois will allow small, safe worship services during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a modified extension of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home order that took effect Friday.

Four Catholic laypersons in St. Louis, Missouri, filed a joint lawsuit Tuesday (April 28) challenging the “draconian restrictions” in St. Louis County’s stay-at-home order that limit religious gatherings to no more than 10 people. A hearing in the case is set for May 7.

An initiative that seeks to financially help small and struggling churches in the wake of COVID-19 has raised more than $400,000 and received over 1,000 applications for funding.

Pastor Michael Catt would like to resume onsite congregational activities at Sherwood Baptist Church in the unlikely COVID-19 hotspot of rural Albany, Ga., but he's too concerned with the safety of his congregation and the community to take the risk.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said she has reached a deal that could resolve a lawsuit brought by two churches challenging her order banning religious gatherings of more than 10 people to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

A suburban Indianapolis church held services on Sunday for the first time in more than a month, taking care to ensure that worshippers adhered to social-distancing best practices and limiting attendance to conform to the governor's coronavirus guidance.

A federal judge on Wednesday said he will deny a bid by three Southern California churches to hold in-person church services during the pandemic, saying that government's emergency powers trump what in normal times would be fundamental constitutional rights.

A federal judge signaled that he believes there's a good chance that Kansas is violating religious freedom and free speech rights with a coronavirus-inspired 10-person limit on in-person attendance at religious services or activities and he blocked its enforcement against two churches that sued over it.

On a somber Sunday 25 years ago, the late Rev. Billy Graham shook off the flu to try and explain how a loving God could have allowed the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to occur. But Graham — America’s pastor-in-chief — had no answer.

The Justice Department took the rare step on Tuesday of weighing in on the side of an independent Baptist church in Mississippi where local officials had tried to stop Holy Week services broadcast to congregants sitting in their cars in the parking lot.