Wednesday's News & Ideas - 3/6/2019

How denominations split: Lessons for Methodists from Baptist battles of the '80s
Religion News Service: The answer to how you split a denomination is slowly, in hundreds of painful decisions, says Nancy T. Ammerman.

What if the church year began on Ash Wednesday?
Baptist News Global: Sometimes we need to begin in the ashes, says Mark Wingfield. From there, we have nowhere to go but up.
The Conversation: 4 things to know about Ash Wednesday

Can a good meal bring people back to church? A growing number of congregations think so
The Deseret News: Food-centric events are playing a growing role in religious communities as leaders try to use food to reach people who are skeptical of organized religion and strengthen the faith of regular churchgoers.

Following conflict, a turn to the divine
Harvard Gazette: Study shows that many who experience the trauma of war become increasingly religious.

Why we need to design (and pay for) beautiful churches
America: An interview with Duncan G. Stroik, an architect, author and professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame.

The Spark

'Every black person deserves to see themselves this way'
Using fluorescent body paint and ultraviolet light, photographer Mikael Owunna's latest work aims to transform the black body into "the cosmos and eternal." As NPR reports, the images evoke celestial beings, magical and otherworldly.

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