01: Several liberal religious groups and denominations in the U.S. have begun to campaign against the use of mineral water. They are critical of water privatization and consider it wrong, or even immoral, to sell a God-given resource only to those people who can afford it, while it is sometimes a scarce resource in arid, poor […]

01: A national campaign for repairing attacked Christian churches in the West Bank and Gaza in reaction to Pope Benedict XIV’s controversial speech on Islam was recently launched by Ahmed Bedier, director of the Central Florida chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Bedier presented the first $5000 check to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. […]

01: As part of its peace-building program, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide assistance to create the Center for Peace-Building and Reconciliation. CPBR will serve as a language and IT resource center to train 400 Buddhist monks in English and Tamil languages as well as in peace-building techniques. The project is meant to […]

01: The recent establishment of U2 Eucharists in the Episcopal Church is another example of the way mainline Protestants are adapting contemporary secular musical and artistic forms to the liturgy. The services are somewhat similar to the “rave masses” and multimedia celebrations in the Church of England and Episcopal Church in the U.S. in the 1990s. But, […]

The Zenkoji Daikanjin Bunkai is the first labor union for Japanese Buddhist temple workers. The fledgling union, comprising a handful of monks and other temple workers in Nagano, was created to facilitate collective bargaining for pay raises and better employment conditions. Trade union leaders believe the monks’ labor activism will quickly spread to other temples […]

01: Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East brings together mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy and laity to counter the “anti-Israel” views found to be growing within mainstream churches. The organization, which includes United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches, was formed over the concern that Christian-Jewish relations […]

The Network of Spiritual Progressives comes out of the deliberations and rethinking of pollitical liberals on the need for a role of spirituality in politics following their defeat by George Bush in 2004 and the strengthening of the Christian Right. More specifically, the network was founded at a Berkeley, Calif., Conference on Spiritual Activism last […]

01: Although Protestants have traditionally been opposed to the use of images in worship, that prohibition may be fading with the introduction of interactive worship aids such as iPresence. The attempt to add a visual component to worship has become prominent among Protestants ranging from the use of powerpoint presentations in megachurches to the multimedia services […]

01: The Cause is the name given to a small but influential movement of conservative Christian protestors who rely on personal revelation as much as political strategy to advance the pro-life cause. Mainly consisting of young charismatic Christians, these protestors have received publicity for their unique style of protest, such as holding vigils where each participants […]