Friday's News & Ideas - 1/12/2024

Africa’s Catholic hierarchy refuses same-sex blessings, says such unions are contrary to God’s will
The Associated Press: In the greatest rebuke yet to Pope Francis, the Catholic bishops of Africa and Madagascar issued a unified statement Thursday refusing to follow his declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples and asserting that such unions are “contrary to the will of God.”

Church without God: How secular congregations fill a need for some nonreligious Americans
The Conversation: Atheist churches serve many of the same purposes as religious churches. Their growth is evidence that religious decline does not necessarily mean a decline in community, ritual or people's well-being.

How Brazilian megachurches became global church planters*
Christianity Today: Satellite congregations are popping up wherever a critical mass can be found, from Florida to Portugal to Kazakhstan.

Georgian Orthodox Church calls for Stalin religious icon to be changed
BBC: The icon depicts scenes from the life of St Matrona of Moscow, a 20th Century Russian visionary and healer. In one, the Russian Orthodox saint can be seen blessing Stalin.

A new biblical epic, ‘The Book of Clarence,’ captures the political side of the messiah
Religion News Service: An irreverent biblical comedy counters decades of whitewashed and stiff-necked biblical narratives.

The Spark

This American is one of the few allowed into Gaza. This is the horror she saw
Dr. Seema Jilani, a pediatrician, spent two weeks working at a hospital in Gaza. She recorded voice memos in between treating patients and shared them with NPR. (trigger warning: graphic description of war and bodily injury)

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