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<p>MOSCOW – More than 100 Russian Orthodox believers have been hospitalized after drinking holy water during Epiphany celebrations in the eastern city of Irkutsk, an official said Monday.</p> <p>A total of 117 people, including 48 children, were in the hospital complaining of acute intestinal pain after drinking water from wells in and around a local church last week, said Vladimir Salovarov, a spokesman for the Irkutsk Investigative Committee.</p>

A South Scranton man was arrested Thursday after allegedly dousing a woman with lighter fluid, setting her on fire during an argument, and leaving her critically burned, city police said. Randy Barr, 44, told investigators he was angry at Marianne Krug for talking down to him and threatening to poison his dog prior to the early-morning incident in an apartment at 632 Moosic St., police said. Ms. Krug, 44, was taken to Community Medical Center and then airlifted to the Lehigh Valley Hospital burn center in Allentown, where she was listed in critical condition Thursday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said....

The South Dakota bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America said he has no plans of leading his synod out of the denomination over last year's pro-gay actions. That's not to say he's content with the national body. "This is not the first time I have been upset with the church," the Rev. David Zellmer told local Lutherans Thursday at First Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, according to the Argus Leader. Since last week, Zellmer has been hosting "conversations" at several Lutheran congregations to reflect on the actions of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly and their implications. Thursday's meeting was...

TMZ is asking if Rush should live or die. Yes No

WASHINGTON (AP) - After a sleepless, overnight flight to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, President Barack Obama made a not altogether surprising admission. He was tired.

There are several information programs out there produced by John Stoical, that address our health care situation.  They are very good because they cover a number of important issues, help the viewer to understand basic principles, and provide sound ideas how to improve the presnt system, which the present health care plan on Capital Hill does not do. The first presentation I'm going to bring to your attention is a six part ABC 20/20 program that appears on YouTube.  The second will be a sixteen clip presentation on Stossel's FoxNews Business site. The ABC 20/20 presentation is entitled, "John Stossel...

According to numbers released in December by the Episcopal Church, that denomination’s membership dropped by 3 percent in 2008. That doesn’t sound like much, but I am a bit of a demographics junkie, plus I researched and examined a lot of church membership and growth data in writing my book A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church. I can tell you that I have never heard of a major denomination that has ever lost 3 percent of its membership in a single year. What’s even more interesting about these numbers is that the Episcopal Church now says it has only...

A Vermont court ordered a Christian child taken away from her mother and given to a lesbian ex-partner, setting up, according to a lawyer for the Christian family, a dispute that the U.S. Supreme Court likely will have to resolve. Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, told WND the recent order from the Vermont judge that Lisa Miller turn over her young daughter, Isabella, to the lesbian ex-partner, Janet Jenkins, on New Year's Day is being appealed. In the interim, a separate court hearing on the dispute is scheduled to be heard in a Virginia court during this coming week....

BREAKING: Diocese of Los Angeles Elects Non-Celibate Lesbian As Suffragan Bishop

(CNSNews.com) - When asked whether al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden should have the right to remain silent and be given a lawyer, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told CNSNews.com that everyone who is accused of a crime should have the same "basic rights" afforded by the U.S. Constitution.. On Capitol Hill on Nov. 19, CNSNews.com asked Kucinich, “If and when the U.S. captures Osama Bin Laden, should he have the right to remain silent and be given a lawyer--told he can get a lawyer?” Kucinich said: “I think that America does best when the values that we want other nations...

The Arts Council has given a epileptic dancer £14,000 to stop taking her medication and have a seizure on stage. Rita Marcalo’s 24-hour performance, involving strobe lights and sleep deprivation, is billed as a study of the “conceptual and physical interfaces between dance, movement and epilepsy”. Epilepsy charities said that the event turned a much misunderstood condition into a freak show and warned of the potentially severe dangers of coming off epilepsy drugs. Marcalo said that she wanted to raise awareness of epilepsy as “an invisible disability” and would use next month’s adults-only show at Bradford Playhouse to explore “my...

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. -- Romans 5:1-2a November 19, 2009 Sisters and brothers in Christ of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I greet you with the words of the apostle Paul to the Romans: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:1-2a). Where does the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) - The White House says President Barack Obama has narrowed down his decision for an Afghanistan strategy to four options. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the president will discuss those options with his national security team on Wednesday. Gibbs did not provide any details about the options, and says the president's decision on troop deployments is still weeks away.

Fort Hood Tragedy -- Barack Obama Gives "Shout-Out" Before He Comments on Shooting -- FOX News

ELCA synods will not have the option of upholding traditional Christian teaching on marriage and homosexuality in their standards for pastors and other rostered leaders according to a draft of candidacy rules released Oct. 10 by the ELCA churchwide organization. No synod or bishop may make decisions on ministry standards that differ from the new policies of the ELCA churchwide organization as defined by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, the policy draft explains. The ELCA now allows pastors and other rostered leaders to be in committed same-sex relationships. “By the governing documents, all candidacy and call decisions are made on an...

(In August the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted proposals to make it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.) In the wake of the ELCA assembly vote to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in the clergy or other leadership positions, the denomination's Presiding Bishop, the Rev. Mark Hanson, has told his bishops and laity to expect some congregations to leave. Whether ELCA congregations will defect in large numbers to more conservative Lutheran denominations remains to be seen. However,...

There are plenty of questions being asked in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America following a decision in August to allow pastors to be involved in committed, same-gender relationships. In response to the decision, there will be a series of meetings at churches in the ELCA's southeastern Minnesota synod during the coming weeks, including a three-week series starting Sunday at Zumbro Lutheran Church in Rochester. Bishop Harold Usgaard recently recorded a videotaped message to prompt discussion about the fundamental questions raised by this issue. The questions include: Who is welcome in ELCA congregations and who is not? Usgaard also wrote...

Just when you thought Keith Olbermann couldn't get any more vile or vulgar . . . Opening this evening's Countdown, Olbermann said that Rush Limbaugh's observation that Glenn Beck was the result of his success "is like congratulating yourself for spreading syphyllis." Olbermann made his crude comment in teasing a segment on Rush's interview with NBC's Jamie Gangel. View video.

Dear Diocesan Family, A panel of the Virginia Supreme Court will hear our petition for appeal on October 21 and, while it is unfortunate that these legal proceedings were necessary, I trust that this hearing will bring us one step closer to resolution. I am proud that the Diocese of Virginia and the Episcopal Church have chosen the path consistently to defend loyal Episcopalians, and to safeguard and to protect the Church's legacy and the Church from unwarranted governmental and legislative interference. It is with the same determination to stand by the people, traditions and legacy of our diocese that...

ELCA NEWS SERVICE October 9, 2009 ELCA and ELCJHL Bishops Deepen Conversations among Christians and Muslims WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, were among 1,000 people who attended the fourth major Muslim-Christian dialogue conference here Oct. 7-8. "It has been both the challenge and the hope for this conference that common words would lead to common deeds," said Hanson. "We have heard stories of places where particular Muslims and Christians are deepening their understanding of...