The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called for new laws to protect religious sensibilities that would punish “thoughtless and cruel” styles of speaking.Dr Williams, wh  read more »

They took us into the future with the apocalyptic thrillers of the "Left Behind" series. Now, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are taking readers back to early Christianity with "The Jesus Chronicles." The four-book series focuses on the writers of the Gospels.  read more »

An advertisement for a religious campaign has been ruled out of order for lack of evidence that Jesus can heal AIDS.

While the Anglican Church may shun Yoga, in Kerala the Syro-Malabar church - regarded as the oldest in the country - has decided to embrace the Hindu tradition of sanyas.  read more »

A federal appeals court in Washington cleared the way for the U.S. Navy to dismiss Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who earned the ire of his commanders with his prayers "in Jesus' name".  read more »

U.S. President George W. Bush is coming to the Vatican for his first formal audience with Pope Benedict XVI, a meeting seen on both sides as immensely important.

More than a quarter of all Americans identify themselves as evangelical Christians, and the number is growing. There were dozens of fascinating stories in American religion in 2006, and on Monday, Christmas night, we'll be taking a look back at some of the people and trends that defined the year in Jesus.

Stephen Baldwin, the man born into Hollywood royalty, has been born again.  read more »

Pope Benedict XVI blasted Europeans for being selfish and not having enough children, in a sermon on Saturday at the 850-year-old pilgrimage site of Mariazell in Austria.

One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is "completely heterosexual."  read more »

Al Qaeda in Iraq on Wednesday denounced Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey, calling it part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam.

The Rev. Al Sharpton toured Mormon facilities Monday and dined privately with a church elder after drawing criticism two weeks ago for remarks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

• Jesus was not born of a virgin;
• His father Joseph was a literary construct, as was Judas;
• His family thought he was out of his mind;
• There were probably not  read more »

The worldwide Anglican Church was battling to survive last night after talks broke down amid acrimony during the final stages of the primates' meeting in Tanzania.

U.S. Episcopal bishops, fed up with Anglican criticism of their support for gay priests, implored the Anglican spiritual leader to hear their side of the story — in person.  read more »

In a speech that will be seen as a sharp criticism of New Labour, Dr Williams will say that "those who run things" reject the idea that society needs core values as "unfashionable and unwelcome".  read more »

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has criticised his own church for being "obsessed" with homosexuality.

Dr Rowan Williams called for divine guidance after he flew into Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania for the five-day primates' meeting, that will be dominated by the bitter row over homosexuality that could split Anglicanism.

According to media reports coming out of Latin America, President Chavez is considering a proposal that would establish him as the high priest of his own form of evangelical Christianity, convert his cabinet members into bishops of a lower rank, and submit church activities to the civil and military power of his government.

THE Archbishop of Wales met drinkers in a city centre bar for a debate on the pros and cons of religion.

Two women who made Roman Catholic religious history say they are ready to be the new face of the priesthood, even as Archbishop Raymond Burke moved to formally penalize them for violating  read more »

Next week, the group started by Gaylor and her mother in the 1970s to take on the religious right will fight its most high-profile battle when the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on its  read more »

Atheists are under attack these days for being too militant, for not just disbelieving in religious faith but for trying to eradicate it. And who's leveling these accusations? Other atheists, it turns out.

An attorney representing Christ Church Greenwich was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury for allegedly destroying a laptop computer to cover up child pornography sought in a probe of the parish's former music director.  read more »

A former Southern Baptist missionary who got her start as a church secretary is likely to become the first woman president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.  read more »

An apocalyptic sect, led by a man claiming to be an Islamic messiah, has been wiped out in Iraq just as it was planning to disrupt the holiest day in the Shia Muslim calendar, Iraqi officials claimed Monday.

Birmingham Police responded to a call at Old Sardis Baptist Church Sunday morning as a member of the congregation reported Rev. Willie E.  read more »

Suffolk's new Church of England bishop has announced that he will create Podcasts to introduce himself to his diocese.The 10th Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Rt Rev Nigel St  read more »

Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke, who made headlines last presidential season by saying he'd refuse Holy Communion to John Kerry, has his eye on Rudy Giuliani this year.  read more »

Brazil has requested the United States extradite two leaders of an evangelical church who allegedly used their followers' donations to buy mansions, a horse farm and apartments in Brazil and the U.S., the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.  read more »

Estevam Hernandes Filho, 53, and Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes, 48, are also charged in Brazil with stealing millions of dollars from parishioners for luxuries such as mansions and horse farms.  read more »

National Churchwatch says that the police do not regularly monitor crime against clergy.  read more »

A conservative diocese of the Episcopal Church has gotten a formal invitation to break with the national church over the ordination of gays and women.

The Anglican Church of Canada could elect its first woman leader during a national assembly this summer.Edmonton Bishop Victoria Matthews is among four nominees for archbishop, or primate, who were chosen Thursday by Canada's Anglican bishops during a private meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the president of the Italian bishops’ conference, reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to euthanasia during comments on January 22. Cardinal Ruini also sharply cr  read more »

A book on interfaith relations by a Georgetown University theologian does not accurately reflect Roman Catholic teaching, a U.S. bishops' committee said Monday.The Rev. Peter C.  read more »

The second-highest ranking Catholic official on church doctrine has stepped up the church's condemnation of abortion calling it "terrorism with a human face." The Catholic church has always taken a strongly pro-life position but the description of abortion that Archbishop Angelo Amato used to describe abortion is especially intense.

A Lutheran church in Chicago has ordained a lesbian who refuses to take a vow of celibacy, becoming the first to test a new resolution that gives bishops leeway in disciplining such violat  read more »

The leader of a Chinese Christian sect and at least 11 of his subordinates have been executed for ordering the murder of members of a rival religious group, as authorities sought to suppress big underground churches that they deemed cults.

China has released a leader of the nation's underground Protestant church after being detained for three years for illegal possession of thousands of Bibles, a Christian activist group  read more »

The president-elect of the Christian Coalition of America has declined the job, saying the organization wouldn't let him expand its agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage.

The Rev. D.  read more »

James C. Dobson, a prominent Christian leader, said he would not vote for Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani under any circumstances because Giuliani supported abortion  read more »

72 percent had never heard of Rick Warren, pastor of a southern California mega church and author of the bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life. Sixty-three percent of born-again Christians had not heard of him.

Gay-sex controversies have led not to new theology but to a call for the church to help pastors fight their urges.

Muslim and Christian leaders in Oslo scrapped a soccer match meant to foster understanding between religions on Saturday after the imams refused to play a team that included women priests.

A leading Evangelical US pastor has announced plans to hold a "night to honor Israel " in every major American city as part of an Evangelical political campaign.

The Evangelical Alliance has unreservedly condemned all forms of child abuse, and said that it considers any accusation of witchcraft levelled at a child to be abusive, immoral and unbibli  read more »

The Destiny Church-backed Destiny NZ party yesterday confirmed its intention to de-register and throw its weight behind a new political party, co-led by Destiny NZ leader Richard Lewis.Fut  read more »

The Church of England is guilty of "corporate failure" because it has not properly spread the message of Christ, the Archbishop of York has said.

A vicar in Dorset has defended his decision to ban Father Christmas from a church carol service.

The former leader of a Baptist church camp near St. Louis has been arrested for allegedly trying to coax girls to pose partly naked and soliciting a sex act from one of the young women, Co  read more »

THE corporate watchdog has notched up a win to protect investors, with the jailing of a Sydney property developer who defrauded fellow worshippers at the Hillsong Church to fund his lavish  read more »

A national review committee of the Episcopal Church has dismissed all the religious charges brought against Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith by leaders of six conservative parishes, the bishop said Friday.

AN Italian magazine report which sought to prove that what some priests tell Catholics in the confessional is not always what the Church preaches in public has enraged the Vatican.  read more »

A Swedish pastor has urged members of his congregation to help collect pieces of Lego - the famed plastic toy bricks - in order to build a statue of Christ, reports said on Monday.Pastor P  read more »

A new religious community is rising from the ashes of the Branch Davidian compound here, 14 years after nearly 80 people died in a blaze that ended an armed standoff with federal authorities.

The Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales are to lead a pre-Christmas pilgrimage to Bethlehem.

The Rt. Rev. Alan Harper, Bishop of Connor, was elected Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Wednesday by the House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland, to succeed Archbishop Ro  read more »

Ted Haggard sent out an e-mail asking for finacial support. His overseers called it inappropriate and made it clear that he will not be doing any ministry.  read more »

Members of Thomas Road Baptist Church will formally decide Sunday whether the Rev. Jonathan Falwell will become the permanent pastor of the church founded by his larger-than-life father, the Rev.  read more »

The Polish Catholic Church said on Friday the archbishop of Warsaw, appointed last month by Pope Benedict, had spied for the communist-era secret services.

Churches across America are actively pursuing clergy from Honduras to Argentina to meet the demands of an ever-growing number of Hispanic parishioners.

United Methodist clergy in Baltimore are asking for the denomination's highest legal authority to review a bishop's decision to reappoint a transgender pastor to lead a city congregation.Bishop John R.  read more »

But what is a greater issue is that Lifeway clearly has no respect for freedom of the press.  read more »

Doomsday is coming and it’s going to destroy parts of Connecticut, David Wilkerson, the founding pastor of Times Square Church in New York City, is predicting.

A powerful Nigerian Anglican archbishop defied top church leaders yesterday by coming to Northern Virginia and installing as one of his bishops a local minister who recently broke with the U.S.  read more »

Delegates to the 63rd Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod July 18 approved a resolution (Res. 5-01B) to establish a new seminary track for “preparing men as quickly as possible to be called and ordained in order to meet the urgent mission needs of the church.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said a recent statement by a prominent leader of the Coptic Church, who claimed that the New Testament says that the Jews killed Christ and that the Vatican was wrong to apologize for two thousand years of church-based anti-Semitism, "shows the persistence of anti-Semitism among Arab Christian leaders."

D.  read more »

A prominent Dallas minister told his congregation that if they wanted to elect a Christian to the White House, Republican Mitt Romney wasn't qualified.

Rev.  read more »

Regardless of what you may be reading on news sites and blogs elsewhere, this document does not represent a shift away from the teaching of the late and revered Pope John Paul II about ecumenism (relationship and dialogue with Christians of other denominations.) It is not a return to pre-Vatican II theology.  read more »

However, dear friends, Imus didn't have to humble himself and appear on that genuine faux preacher Rev. Al Sharpton's radio program and say that his comments were wrong, seeking forgiveness.  read more »

"Allah is a very beautiful word for God.  read more »

The Episcopal Church House of Bishops has finally fallen on its sword. It has declared its independence from the Anglican Communion. By rejecting the Primates ultimatum set out in the communique in Tanzania that it must be in full accord with the Windsor Report, it has chosen to walk apart.

The San Joaquin Diocese would be the first to align itself with more conservative, foreign members of the global Anglican Communion.

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is standing by her assertion that Jesus is the Christian's way, but perhaps not the only way, to God.

A woman who's been an Episcopal priest for 20 years has become a Muslim. However, she still considers herself a Christian.

Students at Ethiopia's top religious college are protesting the close ties between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the government, alleged restictions on their speech — and American si  read more »

Prominent evangelical leaders who spent the summer hoping Fred Thompson would emerge as their favored Republican presidential contender are having doubts as he begins his long-teased campa  read more »

Robert F. Tate, 64, of Greenwich, admitted possessing between 150 and 300 sexually explicit images of children. Prosecutors said some children in the images were younger than 12 years old.

A former Baptist minister who had spoken out against homosexuality was acquitted Wednesday of propositioning an undercover male police officer.

The body of Padre Pio, a hugely popular Italian saint, goes on public display Thursday in a southern Italian town where thousands have gathered to pray to the mystic monk whom many Catholi  read more »

Jerry Falwell, the pastor, university founder and media impresario who received both credit and blame for making the Religious Right a political force in American politics, is dead at age  read more »

The topic of the speech was ”One Nation Under God.” But Farrakhan said the world is at war because Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths are divided. Farrakhan said Jes  read more »

A former youth pastor was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing a teenager and her fetus in what is believed to be the first such order in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state.

Forsyth County commissioners voted Monday night to approve a formal policy allowing ministers to offer prayers to Jesus, Buddha and Allah and other specific deities. The 4-3 vote, delayed from April, defies a lawsuit requesting sectarian prayer at public meetings, The board has already agreed to fight a lawsuit that challenges sectarian prayer.

If the story Sister Marie Simon-Pierre told Friday is true, then Pope John Paul II exercised miraculous powers from beyond the grave. A proven physical miracle is an important qualification on the road to sainthood.

According to a report from the ELCA's disciplinary committee, Rev. Bradley Schmeling will be removed from the roster Aug. 15, after leading St. John's Lutheran Church in Atlanta si  read more »

A PLAY that depicts Jesus as a gay man who is seduced by Judas and conducts a gay marriage for two apostles has been condemned by religious leaders as it prepares to open in Sydney.The Ang  read more »

John Reaney, a 42-year-old from North Wales, took the Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance to an employment tribunal after his appointment to the role of youth worker was blocked by the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America announced Thursday it has removed Schmeling from its list of approved ministers because of his long-term relationship with a man. Schmeling and members of St. John's in Druid Hills say they will travel to a national church conference in August to try to change the minds of delegates on gay issues.

Germany's main Lutheran churches appealed Tuesday to Muslims in the country to meet them in a dialogue on peace that would set a worldwide standard for inter-religious conciliation.

Germany's supreme court on Thursday ordered a lower court to re-examine an order banning the founder of the Unification Church from entering the country.

The highly controversial church, Westboro Baptists of Topeka, Kan., plans to "preach" at the funeral of Rev. Jerry Falwell, in the same way they do for military funerals.  read more »

Sen.  read more »

A group distributed fliers Sunday morning at a Pleasanton Catholic Church because the priest selected to lead the parish was arrested several years ago in a case involving a lewdness alleg  read more »

World's Last Chance, a group that takes reading the Bible to all-new-extremes, claims to be "exposing one of the last unfulfilled prophecies of the Bible. Specifically, World's Last Chance believes that they have found clues within scripture that suggest Pope John Paul II is coming back ...  read more »

An American religious leader who calls himself the "Anti-christ" canceled a visit to Guatemala after the Central American country barred him as a security risk, saying he provokes conflict with Roman Catholics and evangelicals.

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson was overwhelmingly re-elected Tuesday as leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

For more than seven years, Reverend Danny Harvey was employed as a Chaplain at Leesburg Regional Medical Center.  read more »

Speaking at a Dallas-area church, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee eschewed campaign rhetoric and instead spoke about Jesus, his religious convictions, and a United States tha  read more »

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad congratulated Christians and Christian heads of state on the arrival of the New Year on Monday.

A Presbyterian minister from Iraq who is working for the next month in Michigan is seeking asylum in this country from religious persecution. Jonah Salim, 31, arrived in the United States  read more »

A priest who openly professed his love for a parishioner has been defrocked by the Italian Church despite an overwhelming show of support from his congregation, press reports said Tuesday.  read more »

The world of Hollywood Television can be the meeting place of some very different people, on the surface that is. Take the case of Craig X Rubin and rap star Snoop Dogg. The latter has a worldwide “raputation” while the former is the Reverend and founder of Temple 420, a Bible-based, Judeo-Christian sect, which believes that pot is a religious herb, as discussed in Revelation 22. How are they similar? They are both stars on Showtime’s hit cable series “Weeds” and the only two characters to play themselves. Something else in common: trouble with the law.  read more »

Mr Christ, 67, who lives in Padiham, said that he had been barred from a couple of churches after being asked to leave when he turned up and told them he was Jesus Christ.

This week the nation's three surviving ex-presidents -- George HW Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton --gathered to honor a luminary who'd served each as a trusted advisor.  read more »

The pastor of a Kentucky Church is asking his congregation to send letters of love and support to Britney Spears.

If late Pope John Paul II was to have his way, there would be a new law allowing popes to reign only until they are 80 years of age. This is part of the messages carried in a book, “A Li  read more »

The lifestyle of the Rev. Jerry Johnston’s family has raised eyebrows among former members of First Family Church.

A teen kicked out of the polygamist FLDS church has filed a lawsuit to force church leader Warren Jeffs to help him reconnect with his family.

G.E. Patterson, the presiding bishop of the Church of God in Christ and a minister for almost 50 years, died of heart failure Tuesday, the church announced. He was 67.

Though global Anglican leaders have urged the U.S.  read more »

Max Lucado has been called "America's pastor." Now in his 20th year as the leader of San Antonio's Oak Hills Church, Lucado says he's turning the reins over to someone else.

The support for the Rev. Bradley Schmeling at St.  read more »

Around the theme "Living in Communion in the World Today," LWF President Bishop Mark S. Hanson highlighted the shift in focus from living as Lutherans to living in the world, inc  read more »

Prompted by the sudden dismissal of a popular Atlanta pastor in a committed same-sex relationship, impatient supporters of gay clergy will push an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America as  read more »

The controversial singer – who infuriated Christian church leaders by performing while hung from a cross wearing a crown of thorns during her ‘Confessions’ world tour – wants to be worshipped as a spiritual leader.

The first openly gay Christian pastor in Malaysia conducted a controversial worship service Sunday, calling on mainstream churches not to discriminate against homosexuals.

The two people at the center of a criminal case against a polygamous-sect leader have painted dramatically different pictures of their arranged marriage.

Mary Winkler was released from a mental health facility where she had been undergoing treatment for about two months

John McCain says he hopes to patch things up with a conservative Christian leader who has said he wouldn't support the Republican's presidential bid.

A California-Nevada clergyman who is a key organizer behind the campaign to prevent President George W. Bush from getting a half billion dollar presidential library at Southern Methodist University (SMU) has explained the motivation behind his campaign – which includes a condemnation of Bush’s endorsement of torture.