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Emma Akpan is a faith leader at her North Carolina African Methodist Episcopal Church. She also volunteers for Planned Parenthood. Akpan wrote a column for Bustle this week trying to justify her abortion advocacy with her Christian faith by claiming that she wants to end violence against women. Akpan described herself a minister at her church. “I am a clinic greeter because of my faith, which teaches me how important it is to provide care for my community,” the Raleigh, North Carolina, woman wrote. “For me, that means ensuring that women have safe access to their health care facilities.” Akpan,...

So sad to see him go but will rejoice one day with him.

Peter Ball is reportedly in discussions about joining the Catholic Diocese of CliftonAn Anglican bishop who was jailed for sexually abusing 18 young men is converting to Catholicism to “live and worship in anonymity”. Peter Ball, who was Bishop of Lewes and of Gloucester for the Church of England, was jailed for 32 months in October 2015 for offences dating back to the 1970s. A spokesman confirmed that he has been in talks to join the Catholic Diocese of Clifton, although he is unlikely to take Holy Orders. The Daily Mail reports that his identical twin brother Michael, who served...

The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday warned that churches must learn to live with a world in which families are no longer led only by married couples. Even Church of England schools are now filled with children from ‘myriad combinations’ of men, women and children, the Most Reverend Justin Welby said. In a speech that pointed at a fresh direction for the Church’s attitude towards marriage, the Archbishop said that ‘in the last 40 years there has been a great shift in the understanding and the reality of family life’. He threw his support behind the idea that different forms of...

This issue of Copts not accepting the baptisms of others has a long history. You can see some more on this topic (and some rather contradictory pronouncements) here and here. (Egypt Independent) - A dispute between Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church and the Coptic Catholic Church over recognizing the sacrament of baptism has been renewed after Bishop Makarios, the top Coptic Orthodox cleric in Minya, said that that the Holy Synod refused to recognize the baptism of the Coptic Catholic Church. During a meeting at a Minya church on Friday, Makarios said that the Orthodox Church doesn’t recognize the very priesthood...

Bishop Anders Arborelius of Stockholm (Roman Catholic Diocese of Stockholm) G.K. Chesterton believed that the medieval era (800-1400 AD) was the height of human civilization. The implication, of course, is that society has so degraded over the intervening centuries by abandoning the lofty goals and aspirational values taught when Christianity was an integrated part of Western society.However, it should be remembered that, during the Medieval Ages, according to Justo González’s 1984 book The Story of Christianity, only 50% of Europeans were Christians. Great swathes of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe hadn’t yet experienced the light of Christ and, of course,...

A promotional image from BBC drama 'Gunpowder' which focuses on the persecution of English Catholics during the Reformation (Image: Robert Viglaski/BBC/Kudos) Amid celebrations of the Reformation's 500th anniversary, we should remember the mass persecutions of 16thC EnglandMartin Luther was a theologian. If you read the Ninety-Five Theses he reputedly tacked up on the door of Wittenberg’s Schlosskirche in October 1517, it is clear his interest lay in the nature of sin, repentance, absolution, penance and salvation. Whatever else his wider agenda was – or became – his initial arguments were presented as scriptural debate on the revealed path to...

Westminster Abbey was stolen! As is the case with all ancient English churches, monasteries, or convents presently in the hands of the Anglicans, the famed Abbey where English monarchs are crowned and buried, was once the property of a Catholic institution. Westminister Abbey was a Benedictine monastery. While the Catholic origin of the Abbey may be well-known, especially in England, many people are unaware of who the Abbey’s heavenly patron.The Abbey dates back at least to the eighth century, but possibly before. During the time of King Saint Edward the Confessor (1003-1066), it had already been in existence as a...

LONDON — England's top religious authority, the archbishop of Canterbury, said Sunday that he doesn't understand why so many Christians in the U.S. support President Donald Trump. The Most Rev. Justin Welby told ITV's "Peston on Sunday" program that he "really genuinely" can't comprehend why fundamentalists have provided such a strong base for Trump. "There's two things going through my mind: Do I say what I think, or do I say what I should say? And I'm going to say what I think," he said on the show, referring to the support Trump has garnered, especially from so-called Evangelical Christians....

I had a vision Of Jesus standing within a waterfall . . . "Can you hear the Voice of many waters calling to you from within The roar of My voice" ? Ah but I speak clearly to your hearts for you and I are one and it is in this intimacy my gates are ever open to you my children. Now take this invitation to those lost and stolen away by the enemies lies and temptations. Strip their flesh with declarations from My Word for it is your sword and watch My Spirit fill these empty places within these...

This is a religious "vanity" and I don't know if Jim Rob or the mods will let it stay up, but I ask if possible that if it can't stay here, that it be sent to Bloggers and Personal rather than losing history.

FULL TITLE: Church leaders say Roy Moore is 'infected by a false Christian religious virus' as they hold a rally in Alabama arguing he is unfit for US Senate A group of church leaders in Alabama have spoken out against Republican US Senate candidate Roy Moore saying he is infected with a 'false Christian religious virus'. The Rev. William J. Barber, a leading figure among religious liberals, led a rally against Moore at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Birmingham on Saturday after he was dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls decades ago. Barber told the crowd of 100...

Men offered prayer of reparation for ecumenical service led by female Protestant "priest"PARIS (ChurchMilitant.com) - Faithful Catholics were forcibly removed and arrested for praying the Rosary in a Catholic church in Paris. In response to an ecumenical service held in the Parish of Our Lady of White Mantles commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, about a dozen young Catholic men made reparation for what they deemed a sacrilege by praying French and Latin prayers and hymns during the service. After jeers from Catholics and Protestants in attendance, the men were arrested, some carried out of the church. Caroline Bretones,...

As an outsider, I can’t help but wonder whether the pope and the USCCB were particularly provoked by Weinandy’s suggestion that Jesus had allowed this controversy in order “to manifest just how weak is the faith of many within the Church, even among too many of her bishops.” Catholics will have to make up their own minds—but I’ll admit I have questions about the faith of Pope Francis, which seems, if not weak, at least different from that of the Catholic tradition. Even before the release of Amoris Laetitia in March 2016, Francis had caused many to question his fidelity...

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center In “Islam’s Expansion Across Europe: Not Martin Luther’s Fault,” one Paul Gottfried pretends to respond to my article, “The Pro-Islamic West: Born 500 years Ago.”  While many of his own readers saw through and exposed his misrepresentations in the comments section more thoroughly than I ever would have, Gottfried’s piece is still worth examining if only for the important lessons surrounding it. First, if you seek an example of or are uncertain what a “strawman argument” is—typically defined as “giving the impression of refuting an opponent's argument,...

FULL TITLE: Let little boys wear tiaras: Church of England issues new advice to combat transgender bullying for teachers Boys as young as five should be able to wear tiaras at school without criticism, teachers in Church of England schools are to be told. Male pupils should also be free to dress up in a tutu or high heels without attracting any comment or observation, according to anti-bullying rules sent out by the Church yesterday. The instructions for the CofE’s 4,700 schools said they should not require children to wear uniforms that ‘create difficulty for trans pupils’.

Unknown to the general public and ignored by the academic and foreign affairs establishments, Americans once were leaders of religion, education, and intellectual life in Pyongyang, as missionaries who created the foremost Christian community in Northeast Asia. Before the Soviet Union installed an atheist Communist regime in Pyongyang headed by Kim Il Sung, the city was the center of the Presbyterian Church in Asia, and hundreds of thousands of Korean Christians lived there and elsewhere in what is now North Korea. It was a union of Koreans and Americans that set the course that made South Korea the majority Christian...

Boys as young as five should be able to wear tiaras at school without criticism, teachers in Church of England schools are to be told. Male pupils should also be free to dress up in a tutu or high heels without attracting any comment or observation, according to anti-bullying rules sent out by the Church yesterday. The instructions for the CofE’s 4,700 schools said they should not require children to wear uniforms that ‘create difficulty for trans pupils’. This appears to give official backing to schools that ban skirts to avoid discrimination against transgender children. Schools are also told they...

The special services aim to create a ‘safe sacred space’ to welcome LGBT+ ChristiansReverend Andrew Hammond performed a duet with Courtney Act at King's Affair in JuneCollege chaplains from King’s, Trinity, and St John’s are holding a series of special services in their chapels which aim to provide “inclusive spaces” for LGBT+ Christians to “encounter God”. A total of six special services have or will be held across the three colleges this term, the next of which will be King’s College’s ‘Critical Mass’ service on 26 October. Trinity College chapel will host a Compline+ service on 1 November, followed by...

Explains why he disrupted a Protestant event in a Catholic cathedralBRUSSELS (ChurchMilitant.com) - A video that Church Militant shared on Monday shows a dozen Catholics praying the Rosary to disrupt an "ecumenical" Protestant service in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. The protesters interrupted the service for 40 minutes until they were removed from the cathedral by police. The Rosary protest was on Saturday. After our report on Monday, one of the protesters started emailing us with his story. He wished to remain anonymous. He explained how the protest Rosary was organized by a local group of Catholic...