-
3 weeks ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
THE United States Supreme Court has reached a deadlock in a case in which state funding was sought for the first religious-charter school. The Justices were split 4:4 on a decision. The deadlock means that St Isidore’s Roman Catholic School, Oklahoma City, will now not be able to open with public funds.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
A CHURCH in the heart of Dayton, Ohio, where NATO’s spring Parliamentary Assembly took place from 22-26 May, was open 12 hours a day to offer prayers for peace, as delegates marked the 30th anniversary of the end of the Bosnian War. The town was chosen to host the assembly, as the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the three-year war and established the independent state of Bosnia Herzegovina, were signed at Dayton’s US Air Force base in 1995.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
PROPOSED legislation to introduce major cuts in both tax and spending in the United States have been criticised by the Episcopal Church (TEC) for its potential impact on “those at the margins of society”. The new plans, described by President Trump as a “big, beautiful Bill”, seek to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
AN ombudsman is to be appointed to hear allegations raised during the appointment process of the next Bishop of Montreal, the diocese has announced. The Ven. Dr Victor-David Mbuyi Bipungu, a Congolese Canadian and former Roman Catholic, was elected this month as Bishop Coadjutor, but the election was fraught with allegations of misconduct (News, 9 May).
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
ALMOST half of the world’s banana-growing regions could be lost to climate change in the next five decades, a new report has warned. Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit — and the fourth most important food crop globally — but rising temperatures, droughts, and fungal infections are threatening the areas where most of the world’s crops grow, in Latin America and the Caribbean (News, 10 March 2023).
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
A MINISTRY that buys back guns in return for grocery-store vouchers in the state of Michigan, in the United States, has safely disposed of hundreds of weapons. The scheme, Disarmory Ministries, now set up as a charity, is run from a parking lot outside a Presbyterian church on Fridays and Saturdays. It offers vouchers up to the value of $200 for an assault weapon, with a $300 limit on any donation.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
THE diocese of Montreal has elected its first black diocesan Bishop. He is a former Roman Catholic priest, the Ven. Dr Victor-David Mbuyi Bipungu, who was received in 2014, in Kinshasa, into the Anglican Church of the Congo. Dr Mbuyi Bipungu is the Archdeacon of St Andrews, in the diocese of Fredericton, with responsibility for the northern churches, and Priest-in-Charge of the Francophone Église de la Nativité, Rosemère, and the English-speaking parish of St Simon and St Bartholomew, Laval.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
INTER FAITH WEEK must continue in recognition of all that the diversity of faith and belief contributes to public life in the UK, but needs to move “beyond the bubble” of those already involved, a report says. The Inter Faith Network (IFN) launched the week, held every November, in 2009, but was closed last spring after the last government withdrew its funding — a “matter of great regret”, the Archbishop of York said.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
ONE hundred days into Donald Trump’s presidency, white Evangelicals remain among his staunchest supporters, a new poll by the Pew Research Center has found. Of a survey of 3589 US adults, 72 per cent approved of the way in which he was leading the country as President, and almost as many, 69 per cent, said that they approved of the ethics of his administration. Some 57 per cent said that they trusted what President Trump said more than they trusted the words of his predecessors.
-
1 month ago | 
churchtimes.co.uk | Rebecca Paveley
A DISCIPLINARY hearing concerning allegations of discrimination against LGBTQ clergy and financial impropriety by the Rt Revd John Howard when he was the Bishop of Florida has been delayed, after his legal counsel stepped back. Bishop Howard, who retired as diocesan Bishop in 2024, is facing two separate disciplinary cases, which were due to be heard this month by a panel convened under the Episcopal Church’s Title IV process, which governs clergy disciplinary cases.
