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Two nuns in California allegedly stole more than $500,000 from the school they had been at for years, which they spent in casinos and on vacations. Bank records show Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Lang had been embezzling funds from St. James Catholic School in Torrence for at least a decade, the Press-Telegram reported. But officials from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles told parents and alumni of the school that auditors have not been able to trace all of the money trail. Kreuper had retired as the school's principal earlier this year and she dealt with the school...

Listen on YouTubeDemocratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez on Wednesday complained that voters are influenced by what they hear in church on Sundays.  Perez claimed that Republicans have an advantage because “people buy” what they hear at church.“And we all have to make sure that we’re fluent in what’s happening across our ecosystem so we can come to each other’s defense because we need to build a bigger orchestra. They’ve had a big orchestra for some time and they’ve got the megaphones to amplify it, whether it’s Sinclair at the local level or Fox at the national level,” Perez...

What does it mean to be called to ministry? What does the Bible say about men and women in ministry? Who are the examples in the Bible of being called to ministry? What are the practical tools to help you pursue God’s call for your life? Bible Gateway interviewed Kristen Padilla (@kristenpadilla) about her book, Now That I’m Called: A Guide for Women Discerning a Call to Ministry (Zondervan, 2018).What does the Bible say about ministerial calling?Kristen Padilla: Scripture is not a ministerial calling textbook. However, we can extrapolate from Scripture a loose definition of a ministerial calling. Humans were...

The only way— to escape the evil grip of the ongoing crisis in the Church. There’s an increasingly perceivable-Li’l Abner Joe Btfsplk-like black cloud hovering over the heads of the faithful during the ongoing crisis in the Catholic Church. People are said to be leaving the Church in droves. The Bishop of Rome has slammed the door shut on all criticism of the dominance of homosexuality in a clergy increasingly in league with the devil.

Pastor Antonio Rocquemore of Power House International Ministries in Chicago, Illinois, is coming under fire from advocates of the LGBTQ community for publicly rebuking a male member who came to his church dressed as a woman Sunday night. In response, Rocquemore said the male member had been repeatedly warned that he would not be allowed to dress like a female during worship service.

A bishop of The Episcopal Church whose diocese is based in the capital of New York has announced that his churches will not perform same-sex marriage ceremonies. Earlier this year, the Episcopal Church General Convention passed a resolution allowing for congregations to perform gay weddings even in dioceses where leadership objects. The new policy is scheduled to take effect on the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2. This stood in contrast to a resolution passed by the General Convention in 2015 that allowed bishops opposed to same-sex marriage to maintain a ban on such unions within their diocese. Bishop William...

A major schism of the United Methodist Church would surprise no one Activists within the United Methodist Church (UMC), America’s second largest Protestant denomination, are using the tactics of the American political Left to leverage a major change in their church. Those tactics include using: (A.) labels as propaganda; (B.) protest demonstrations as theatre; and, (C.) escalating defiance to test boundaries.

I remember walking into to church for the first time after purposely staying as far from it as I could for 10 years. The music was loud, the crowds were big, and the environment was inviting. It was unlike any other church I could remember going to as a kid, and the people who made up this group were overwhelmingly kind to me. "This place is awesome" I remember thinking to myself. And I remember feeling something I had never expected to feel at a church; welcomed. But the story doesn't end there. No. As quickly as I had stepped...

A church in Massachusetts caught fire Tuesday night after lightning reportedly struck the building. Firefighters battled flames at the First Baptist Church in Wakefield, roughly 15 miles north of Boston, as the Wakefield Police Department tweeted that the blaze was “an active fire.”

The manager of a Kenner post office stole $630,000 worth of stamps and sold them online after losing more than $667,000 while gambling in recent years, federal authorities said this week. Prosecutors also allege Ryan Cortez, 46, embezzled nearly $10,000 from a church in Des Allemands that listed him as its treasurer. The alleged theft was to fuel a gambling problem to which he confessed, the feds allege. And in the process of allegedly stealing stamps, authorities said, Cortez made history by committing one of the largest internal thefts the U.S. Postal Service has ever seen.

I sat in silence and bowed my head for the closing prayer as I had done nearly every Sunday for the past 21 years. This Sunday, however, I wanted to be at home, in tears, as I had found out the night before that I was pregnant. Thoughts were racing through my head of tragic visions of my future. I was 21, not married. I was once the "church girl." However, not one of those thoughts that were flooding my mind involved reaching out to my church. I'd seen the way that my church had treated my sister when she...

What should the role of Christians in politics be? More people than ever are asking that question. Christians cannot pretend they can transcend politics and simply “preach the Gospel.” Those who avoid all political discussions and engagement are essentially casting a vote for the social status quo. (Skip) Nevertheless, while believers can register under a party affiliation and be active in politics, they should not identify the Christian church or faith with a political party as the only Christian one. (Skip) One is that it gives those considering the Christian faith the strong impression that to be converted, they need...

White Double “I KNOW NOT VITALIS, I reject Meletius, I pass by Paulinus; he that cleaveth to the Chair of Peter, he is mine.” Thus, about the year 376, when the whole East was disturbed by the competitions for the episcopal See of Antioch, wrote an unknown monk to Pope St. Damasus. It was St. Jerome, a native of Dalmatia, who implored “light for his soul redeemed by the Blood of our Lord.” Far from Stridonium, his semi-barbarous native place, whose austerity and vigor he never lost; far from Rome, where the study of literature and philosophy had not...

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.(John 14:1-3)I have been told that the words above, spoken by Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion, are almost word for word the typical engagement speech to a young bride to be, in...

While the country is celebrating the historic Supreme Court judgement to decriminalise Homosexuality, the Churches in Mizoram have "rejected" https://www.time8.in/mizoram-meghalaya-churches-say-gay-sex-is-immoral/ the apex court's ruling on Article 377. A congregation of 14 major churches in the state, Mizoram Kohhran Hruaitute Committee, on Monday has said https://thenortheasttoday.com/mizoram-state-churches-reject-scs-section-377-ruling/ that it wished the apex court had never scrapped Section 377. The leaders of the Church stated that homosexuality, lesbianism should continue to be criminalised as it was in the past. In Meghalaya, the Church has said, https://nenow.in/north-east-news/meghalaya-shillong-catholic-church-thumbs-gay-sex.html "What is legal is not equal to moral acceptability. The Catholic Church and many others  hold that homosexual...

Launching from the concept of the democratic nation and the co-existence among the sects and religions in North Syria under the Democratic Autonomous Administration, the Christians Committee in Kobanî canton in the Euphrates region opened a church called Church of the Brethren. 13 Sep 2018, Thu - 23:33 KOBANÎThe Committee of Christians and the Christians living in Kobanî canton in the Euphrates region opened on Thursday a church called Church of the Brethren in Kobanî based on the concept of the democratic nation and the co-existence of sects and religions. The co-chair of the Democratic Society Movement’ Council Ahmed Sheikho,...

It's not a matter of if your church and pastor will face these kinds of questions. It's a matter of when. Here's a scenario: a same-sex couple or someone openly living in a same-sex relationship starts to attend your church. Maybe they've got a child from another relationship or a child conceived through IVF. Because your church practices infant baptism, they ask to have their child baptized. What do you do? I recently heard of a church that faced this exact situation. A lesbian couple who'd been attending asked to have their child baptized. The church had theological convictions about...

When the Diocese of Buffalo in March released a list of 42 priests “who were removed from ministry, were retired, or left ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor,” Bishop Richard J. Malone billed it as a historic coming-clean of decades worth of secrets. But new evidence obtained by 7 Eyewitness News from inside the diocese’s secret archives shows the true scope of abuse was much larger than Malone publicly let on -- with a total of 106 total priests on the original draft list of accused priests. A second internal document shows that may be understating the...

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Look! He is coming with the clouds...(Rev. 1:5-7, NRSV). In this third and final installment of the Church of the Firstborn series (see Parts I and II), I will be diving into another messianic mystery tucked away in the OT. There...

…Fewer and fewer Americans these days seem willing “to contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognized, sin.” Of course, to a great extent, this is because fewer and fewer Americans are able to recognize what is sin—or, many Americans are simply becoming comfortable with their sin and are eagerly strolling along the “gentle slope” to hell. In a foolish desire to be “relevant” or “tolerant,” churches across the world—especially mainline Protestant churches and the Catholic Church—have abandoned long-heeded truths for heresy. This is especially the case when it comes to matters in the sexual realm. At this...