Scandals and divisions plaguing the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) have been almost ignored by the media, yet the turmoil surrounding this small denomination has highlighted changes in identity affecting Eastern Orthodoxy, suggests Andrew Walsh writing in the magazine Religion in the News (Spring). The OCA was once hailed as the leader in creating a […]

Mainline denominations and seminaries are borrowing from evangelicals and streamlining their structures to allow for more church-planting efforts led by experienced laypeople in the field, writes Jesse James DeConto in the Christian Century (April 4). Mainline denominations have tended to restrict new church start-ups to trained and ordained clergy, but growing concern over church decline, […]

Just as Hispanic charismatics and Pentecostals are being hailed as the future of American evangelicalism, they are also seen as having the political potential that may have a significant impact on the 2012 presidential elections. But does the growing evangelical clout of Latinos translate into political activism in the way it has for white evangelicals? […]

Renewal movements are playing a greater role in Eastern Orthodoxy throughout the world, although their track record in generating change in churches is uneven, writes Paul Ladouceur in the current issue of St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly (55:4, 2011). The two main structures in Eastern Orthodox churches are the parish and the monastery, but in the […]

An alliance between Muslims and political leftists in Britain during the last decade on anti-war and economic issues has largely dissolved due to a clash of world-views, writes Sarah Glynn in the journal Ethnicities (February 17, online version). Glynn focuses on the founding of the Respect Coalition, an effort that came out of the British […]

Writing on the conflicts in the middle and the Horn of Africa in the Strategic Trends 2012, a newly released report of the Swiss-based Center for Security Studies, researcher An Jacobs admits that competition for resources and ethno-religious differences does often contribute to these conditions, but the crucial factor in most cases is bad governance. […]

The personal ordinariates established for allowing Anglicans to keep their religious patrimony while coming into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church may become a new bridge toward Rome for “a whole range of Protestants Christians,” writes Fr. Dwight Longenecker in the magazine Inside the Vatican (February). Ordinariates have now been erected in England and […]