In August, leaders of the Mormon faith announced a game-changing divine revelation. Russell M. Nelson, the church’s president, said God had “impressed upon my mind the importance of the name he has revealed for his church.” Church members should no longer call themselves Mormons, or even use the shorthand LDS, the church announced.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, opened their annual meeting this week vowing to focus on an issue that many pastors have long resisted: how to address sexual abuse at their churches.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Thursday that it would allow children of same-sex couples to be baptized, a remarkable reversal of church policy from one of the religious groups that had long sought to be a bulwark against gay rights.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Thursday that it would allow children of same-sex couples to be baptized, a reversal of church policy from one of the religious groups that had long sought to be a bulwark against gay rights.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Thursday that it would allow children of same-sex couples to be baptized, a remarkable reversal of church policy from one of the religious groups that has long been a bulwark against gay rights.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Thursday it would allow children of same-sex couples to be baptized, a reversal of church policy from one of the religious groups that has long been a bulwark against gay rights.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a remarkable reversal to its policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people Thursday.
WASHINGTON — Pope Francis is expected to name Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta as the new Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington on Thursday, according to two people familiar with the selection process. The move would turn the page on a tumultuous period for a pivotal diocese whose recent leaders have been at the center of the church’s sexual abuse crisis in the United States.
The West Virginia attorney general filed a lawsuit against a retired top bishop and the state’s only Catholic diocese Tuesday, saying that they “knowingly employed pedophiles.”
The West Virginia attorney general filed a lawsuit against a retired top bishop and the state’s only Catholic diocese Tuesday, saying that they “knowingly employed pedophiles.”
Church leaders are now discussing whether new votes should be called, Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton, who serves on the commission on the general conference, said in a phone interview.
It was a momentous vote for the United Methodist Church, as the future of the country’s second-largest Protestant church hung in the balance. In a former football stadium in St. Louis last month, church officials and lay leaders from around the world voted to strengthen their ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy, a decision that could now split the church.
It was a momentous vote for the United Methodist Church, as the future of the country’s second-largest Protestant church hung in the balance. In a former football stadium in St. Louis last month, church officials and lay leaders from around the world voted to strengthen their ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy, a decision that could now split the church.
WASHINGTON — Chet Jechura was 12 years old when he first felt called to preach, but for years he put off ordination. He knew himself, and he knew the official rules of the United Methodist Church: Homosexuality was “incompatible with Christian teaching.” And so he left the denomination.
MILWAUKEE — Gregory Greiten was 17 years old when the priests organized the game. It was 1982 and he was on a retreat with his classmates from St. Lawrence, a Roman Catholic seminary for teenage boys training to become priests. Leaders asked each boy to rank which he would rather be: burned over 90 percent of his body, paraplegic, or gay.
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