Sri Lanka continues to be caught in an escalating civil war between the majority Buddhist and minority Hindu factions, although there is an emergence of a religious peace movement. The Buddhist magazine Tricycle (Winter) notes that nationalism and opportunism have as much to do with the decades-old conflict as religion. The conflict mainly centers on the Sri […]

The warming of relations between the Assyrian Church and the Roman Catholic Church was vividly demonstrated by the Vatican’s recent “Guidelines for admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East.” The Church of the East, often described as “Assyrian” in order to emphasize its Persian heritage and to […]

A schism has developed in the Russian Church Outside Russia, one of the larger exile Russian Orthodox churches, over leadership issues and the prospect of rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). Following the retirement of Metropolitan Vitaly Ustinov, who had been the Primate of the ROCOR, the  Council of Bishops elected Metropolitan Laurus […]

A special provision allowing Episcopal parishes converting en masse to Roman Catholicism to keep their Anglican traditions and liturgy has found few churches taking Rome up on the offer, according to a report in New Oxford Review magazine (November). The arrangement, called Anglican Use parishes, was established by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith […]

The Vineyard churches, a network of charismatic congregations, are becoming increasingly diverse in practice and worship if not doctrine, reports Cutting Edge, (Fall) a newsletter published by the church group. The Association of Vineyard Churches is known for its freewheeling and informal contemporary services (called the “new paradigm”) that stress charismatic “signs and wonders,” such as […]

Religion in 2001 will be remembered through the prism of war and terrorism, national mourning, and new explorations and reevaluations of Islam prompted by the events of Sept. 11. But there were other events that may signal new patterns and trends in religion for 2002 and beyond. We will start with these developments and then […]

Mount Athos, famed as a  stronghold of the Greek Orthodox faith, is seeing a growing number of foreign monks in its monasteries, reports the Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung (Oct. 31). Since 1923, Mount Athos has enjoyed the status of an autonomous internal administration with its own governor. During the Cold War, Greek authorities sought to stop the […]