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TORONTO (RNS) — With its theme of "The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love," and its focus on global understanding, the seventh Parliament of the World's Religions could hardly have picked a more inclusive spot than Toronto, Canada’s largest city. The more than 8,000 people expected from 80 countries in this weeklong gathering will hardly stand out in the polyglot crowds that coexist in Toronto's diverse neighborhoods.

CÚCUTA, Colombia (BP) -- When Nelson Martínez' father died this summer, Martínez inherited a piece of property half a day up the mountain from his hometown of Cúcuta, Colombia. The property sits at 10,000 feet at the top of a cold, often rainy mountain pass. Every day several hundred ill-prepared Venezuelans walk over it on their way to try to find food, work and medicine in a new land.

Some have died of hypothermia. All are desperate.

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A new survey shows a sharp racial and religious divide over whether the actions of President Trump are encouraging white supremacist organizations.

MILWAUKEE (RNS) — When Milwaukee’s Greater Galilee Missionary Baptist Church started a credit union in 1965, its predominantly African-American members were often denied loans, lines of credit and other basic financial services from banks.

More than 50 years later, in what is still one of the most racially segregated cities in the country, “not much has changed,” said Gloria Neff, a credit union board member and small-business owner.

It’s that time of the year when hell is used as a common theme for entertainment and hell-themed haunted houses and horror movies pop up all over the country.

Two ministers — including a Baptist — on Monday interrupted a speech by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the topic of religious liberty — and then police removed the men. Speaking in Boston, Mass., at an event hosted by the Boston Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, Sessions addressed “The Future of Religious Liberty.”

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A global summit of Catholic bishops on Saturday (Oct. 27) issued a powerful call for the inclusion of women in decision-making roles in the church “at all levels” and sought to welcome gay people and commit the church to a historic shift on fighting clergy sexual abuse.

But in the wide-ranging final document, approved late Saturday following a series of votes by 248 cardinals and bishops, the synod on young people did not open the door to the ordination of women.

BOSTON (BP)-- Ted Barrett had made a deal with God, or so he thought, when he was a young umpire in the minor leagues. He promised God that if baseball didn't work out, and that if he never got a job in the big leagues, then he'd pursue a ministry calling.

As the umpire crew chief for this year's World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, he has reached the pinnacle of his profession.

(RNS) — A federal court heard oral arguments this week on whether a longstanding housing tax break for clergy called a “parsonage allowance exclusion” is constitutional, setting the stage for a clash over competing claims of religious privilege and religious discrimination.

(RNS) — In May, Roberto Rauda, an undocumented immigrant, went to a New London, Conn., courthouse to pay a fine for carrying an open container of beer. Instead he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a routine sweep and ended up in the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Mass.