Monday's News & Ideas - 4/20/2020

Covid-19 has killed multiple bishops and pastors within the nation’s largest black Pentecostal denomination*
Washington Post: The Church of God in Christ has taken a deep and painful leadership hit with reports of at least a dozen to up to 30 bishops and prominent clergy dying from COVID-19.
CNN: One Harlem church. 9 coronavirus deaths

Mohler's turn to Trump is the crowning flip-flop of his career
Religion News Service: One of the most prominent evangelical leaders in the #NeverTrump movement has defected to the Trump loyalist side.

Orthodox Christians observe Easter amid crackdown on rogue priests and congregants
NPR: The coronavirus pandemic shut down celebrations in many Orthodox Christian countries, including Greece, Romania and Serbia.

Larger churches urged to help smaller ones survive COVID-19 pandemic
Christian Century: Through the Churches Helping Churches Initiative, a relief fund has been set up to provide $3,000 grants to churches at risk of closing this spring due to a decrease in financial giving.

What clergy said when influenza closed churches in 1918
AL.com: During the 1918 influenza pandemic in Birmingham, churches were closed. The Birmingham News offered to print sermons, service outlines, scriptures and announcements sent in by various clergy to help people worship at home.

The Spark

The end of the long-distance marriage
They liked their separate homes in separate cities until the choice became all-in or all-out,* The New York Times says.

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