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The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is to meet his Roman Catholic counterpart, Pope Francis, during a historic visit to Latin America. The groundbreaking meeting is to happen in mid-February in Cuba. The meeting between heads the two major Christian churches would be an unprecedented move to mend a millennium-long rift between the Western and Eastern branches of the religion, which started with the Great Schism of 1054. The upcoming meeting confirms Russia's status in the Christian world, according to Alexandr Avdeev Russia's ambassador to the Holy See. "In light of the Western sanctions, the meeting between...

The Anglican Communion voted to censure its American branch, the Episcopal Church, during a meeting in Canterbury, England, called to reflect on the future of the communion. The vote Thursday (Jan. 14) to suspend the Episcopal Church from voting and decision-making for a period of three years was leaked a day ahead of a press conference that had been scheduled for Friday.

A schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexual rights and women clerics would be a failure but not a disaster, the spiritual head of Anglicans said on Monday at the start of a high-stakes meeting between conservative and liberal primates. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will host the heads of the communion's 37 other provinces around the globe for a week of talks to try and work out if and how they can stick together after more than a decade of bitter disagreements. "Certainly I want reconciliation, but reconciliation doesn't always mean agreement. In fact, it very seldom does....

In a development that few Episcopalians of four or five years ago could have imagined, the Episcopal bishops of the most powerful and financially secure dioceses have begun to turn on their own once-strong, but now severely weakened, parishes. Having driven out all the dissenters at enormous expense to their coffers, these dioceses are increasingly trying to make up their losses by sacrificing valuable real estate -- even if it means turning out previously loyal congregations from their hard-won property. And -- who could have foreseen it? -- the parishes most harmed by the continuous litigation were precisely those with...

Christianity is under attack from a thousand different directions all at once, and yet many believers have turned their guns on one another. This war among Christians seems to intensify with each passing year, and believers are often fighting for some of the stupidest reasons you can possibly imagine. Meanwhile, people are leaving our churches in droves and church attendance is way down. This is especially true of younger Americans. According to an incredible new report that was just released by the Pew Research Center, only 27 percent of all Millennials (U.S. adults born since 1990) attend religious services on...

A Texas congregation with approximately 2,200 members has voted to disaffiliate from Presbyterian Church (USA) over theological differences. First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio members voted Sunday to seek dismissal from PC (USA) and to join the more conservative Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. According to a vote tally provided to The Christian Post by FPC San Antonio, out of 1,072 voting members present 87.3 percent voted to terminate their affiliation with PC(USA) and 85.6 percent voted to join ECO.

"What does the Jesuit master reveal about the Jesuit Bishop of Rome's intention. Are we on the verge of heresy and schism?" Journalists have had unprecedented access to the Pope. It is a disgraceful and utterly contemptible reality that old men with decaying minds from a lifetime of atheism such as Scalfari and Jesuits with burning errors steeped in modernism and heterodoxy are able to communicate that which is in the mind of Jorge Bergoglio better than faithful Catholic media or better still, faithful cardinals and bishops! The Jesuit Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi tried to walk back the Scalfari report,...

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM) - A Baptist church in Hattiesburg that is self-described as "a different kind of Baptist church" was kicked out of the Pine Belt Baptist Association. A written statement by University Baptist Church Pastor Dr. Rusty Edwards said members of the association voted to dismiss UBC from its membership on Tuesday, Oct. 20. ... The statement specifically outlined University Baptist Church's decision to openly affirm the practice of a "homosexual lifestyle" into their church. According to the statement, the church is listed as an "affirming" church on the website gaychurch.org. The Pine Belt Baptist Association said that doctrine...

"Socci: With Papally-Mandated "Catholic Divorce" destroying a Sacrament, Schism Looms Large on the Catholic Horizon" "Newsweek" recently had a photo of Pope Francis on their front-cover with the headline: “Is the Pope Catholic?”. Subtitle: “Of course he is. You just wouldn’t know it from his press clips.” Indeed, it is a legitimate question, seeing that the Argentine Pope has prayed in a Mosque and said in an interview to Scalfari: “There is no Catholic God.” The anxiety in the Church is now becoming enormous after the 8th of September. In fact with two Motu Proprios on the nullity of marriage,...

The most anticipated papal letter for decades will be published in five languages on Thursday. It will call for an end to the ‘tyrannical’ exploitation of nature by mankind. Could it lead to a step-change in the battle against global warming?Pope Francis will call for an ethical and economic revolution to prevent catastrophic climate change and growing inequality in a letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics on Thursday. In an unprecedented encyclical on the subject of the environment, the pontiff is expected to argue that humanity’s exploitation of the planet’s resources has crossed the Earth’s natural boundaries, and that...

The German bishops are offering us a new kind of Christianity despite their claim that no change is being proposed other than in pastoral approach and language. A new pastoral approach would be commendable if applied as Pope Francis intends, to accompany the broken, wounded and lost into the field hospital that is the Church. However, this is not the intention of the German bishops. It is easy to disguise a substantial change to the meaning of marriage by calling it simply a pastoral innovation. The recent confidential day of studies organized by Cardinal Marx, Bishops Markus Büchel and Georges...

Ireland, for so long the most overtly Catholic state in Western Europe, has voted for gay marriage by a stupendous margin – 62 per cent. Never before has a country legalised the practice by popular vote. It would be naive to ask: how could this happen? Hatred of the Church is one of the central features of modern Ireland, thanks not only to the paedophile scandals but also to the joyless quasi-Jansenist character of the Irish Church, which was handed complete control of education in the Free State after partition in 1922. (Many of its priests were outstandingly holy and...

Presbyterians Collapsing, or “Settling Into The New Thing God is Creating”? The 2014 numbers reveal the PCUSA's largest statistical decline to date. A slimmed-down Presbyterian Church (USA) is apparently getting ready for beach season after shedding unwanted excess members, according to a cheery report by the denomination’s top official. “The PC(USA) is a church made up of vibrant congregations doing their best to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ in their communities and in the world,” an apparently unfazed Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PCUSA, soothed. “Membership declines continue, but on a whole the...

A Presbyterian Church (USA) regional body located in California has been accused of putting a Korean congregation's effort to leave the mainline denomination to a standstill. Last year, Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church of Rowland Heights voted overwhelmingly to seek dismissal from PCUSA over the denomination's growing acceptance of homosexuality. Out of 817 votes casted in the March 2014 vote, 738 voted to leave, 74 voted to stay, and 5 votes were dismissed. Despite that, the PCUSA Presbytery of San Gabriel has not apparently finalized the dismissal as of this month, according to the Korean-American Christian publication Christianity Daily. Rachael Lee...

The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) – a coalition of 34,000 black churches from 15 denominations representing almost 16 million black Americans – has cut all ties with the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) after the denomination voted to embrace same-sex “marriage.” The PCUSA voted last June to jettison the traditional definition of marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman. Instead, its Book of Order now defines marriage as a union “between two people,” with no mention of biological sex. At the same time, the PCUSA voted to allow its pastors to officiate at homosexual “weddings” in...

A coalition of 34,000 black churches has cut its ties with Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) in the wake of its recent vote to approve same-sex marriage.

There have been few times in my life when I have been truly soul sad. As a Pastor, I have stood by the bed of dying patients and encouraged them to hope in Heaven when earth offered them none. I have held the hands of mothers when their cries had no comfort, because the terminally ill child in their arms would be the pain of unfulfilled dreams. I have listened to the hurt of children betrayed, seen the terror of marriages destroyed by temptation, and cried when good people have made devastatingly bad choices. For these my soul has hurt,...

It was only a matter of time. Ever since Bishop Richard Williamson eventually caused the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) to force his own expulsion from that Society in 2012, the watch has been on for him to consecrate one or more bishops. This became even more inevitable as he has failed to recruit any significant number of clergy or faithful away from the SSPX in a so-called "Resistance" attempt. Rorate can now report at least one consecration will occur on March 19 (Feast of St. Joseph).

For over thirty years I have been professionally and personally connected to the local church. I have served as a pastor, church consultant, author, seminary dean, and church resource provider. The most painful moments of my tenure have been those occasions where church dissension is great, and where church splits take place. There is little good that comes from church splits. The residual pain is lasting and the negative community impact is enduring. After reflecting on church splits over my thirty-year tenure, and after conducting an informal Twitter poll, I have nine major thoughts I would like to share with...

The First Presbyterian Church of Boulder is asking its congregation to vote on whether to end affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (USA), in favor of a California-based evangelical Presbyterian association that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The First Presbyterian Church of Boulder, 1820 15th St., well known for a large-scale feed of Boulder's homeless population every Thanksgiving, had originally been scheduled to take a vote of its congregation Feb. 22, but that was postponed due to weather. And although absentee voting has been ongoing, the bulk of the balloting is now scheduled for its...