"Weblog Lite: Russian Orthodox Church Defrocks Priest, Razes Church After Gay Wedding"

Russian Orthodox Church’s gay wedding:

Same-sex marriage chapel demolished | The Chapel of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was apparently knocked down after local churchmen decided it had been defiled (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Russian church defrocks priest who married gays | Denis Gogolev and Mikhail Morozov have said they paid Father Vladimir Enert $490 to marry them last month in church—an act the Russian Orthodox Church branded blasphemous (Reuters)

Church shooting during communion:

Church readies for funerals, mourns in wake of slayings (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Shaken church has no answers | Fellow churchgoers try to find reasoning behind woman’s deadly shooting spree (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Three fatally shot at church | Woman kills minister, then mother, then self (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Pastor and 2 others are killed in shooting at Atlanta church | Woman and her mother were preparing the communion table in the chapel of Turner Monumental A.M.E. Church when Ms. Wilson pulled out a .44 caliber pistol and shot the minister, the Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds, at the altar (The New York Times)

Crime:

Church to negotiate in Colombia abduction | The move came a day after church officials held seven hours of talks with two imprisoned leaders of the National Liberation Army (Associated Press)
Priest charged with gun possession and harassment | A man arrested on charges that he made harassing telephone calls to a Catholic high school in Brooklyn turned out to be a Roman Catholic priest whose Queens apartment contained guns, pornographic magazines, Nazi memorabilia and thousands of dollars he said he stole from a church, law enforcement officials said yesterday (The New York Times)
Deacon convicted of having sex with girl | He met 13-year-old through Lakeport church (Concord Monitor, N.H.)
Hammond Evangelical Catholic priest defrocked | Bishop said man’s criminal past and recent arrest influenced his decision (The Times, northwest Indiana)
‘Perverted’ cop jailed for conning Christians | James Marriner had convinced the group they had to cut off their pubic hair, and take photos of themselves naked on the pretext such actions were mandatory before becoming police informants to smash a pedophile ring (AAP)
Indiana priest with Florida criminal record stripped of collar | Rev. Russell Leaming deposited a check into his personal account last month instead of one for the Independent Evangelical Catholic Church, which was the intended payee, said Bishop James Wilkowski (Associated Press)
Armed visitor threatens Cathedral, priest | No one injured; Marietta man to be arraigned today in church arson (Savannah Morning News, Ga.)
Also: Armed man arrested at Ga. cathedral | Stuart Vincent Smith set fire to the pulpit and bishop’s chair in a historic Roman Catholic cathedral (Associated Press)
Witness: Priest boasted drinking prowess | Roman Catholic priest accused in the alcohol-related death of a college football player had dozens of bottles of liquor on hand and boasted he could match his student guests drink for drink, a teammate testified (Associated Press)

Life ethics:

Group asks World Court to rule out human cloning | A group of scientists, doctors and legal experts asked the United Nations on Wednesday to seek an advisory opinion from the World Court declaring human cloning to be a “crime against humanity.” (Reuters)
Her accidental legacy | The death of a California teenager who took RU-486 has reignited the controversy over the abortion pill (Newsweek)
Silent smile | A new generation of pro-life activists is changing the debate (Shawn Macomber, The American Spectator)
Abortion protesters take cause to street | Late-term bans by legislatures inspire some (Detroit Free Press)
Lining up to fight abortion | Approximately 200 anti-abortion residents took to one of Hagerstown’s busiest thoroughfares Sunday afternoon to peacefully spread their message to passing motorists (The Herald-Mail, Hagerstown, Md.)
Local abortion opponents take to the street (The Holland Sentinel, Mich.)
Parishioners line streets in St. Charles to protest abortion (Daily Herald, Chicago suburbs)
Hundreds turn out for 14th annual Heart of Life Chain | Antiabortion demonstrators line up along Peoria streets, sidewalks (Peoria Journal Star, Ill.)
Forging a chain for life | About 100 men, women and children promoted a pro-life message (Pocono Record, Pa.)
Hundreds hit streets in anti-abortion vigil | More than 400 residents hit the streets yesterday in three Lawrence County communities to take part in Life Chain, a national pro-life vigil (New Castle News, Pa.)
Chain makes a point about life | In Washington County and all across the nation people gathered Sunday to silently protest abortion (Marietta Times, Ga.)
Pro-lifers ‘not here to bash’ | Throughout North America, Christians lined high-volume traffic routes, holding pro-life signs and praying for an end to legalized abortions (Brandon Sun, Manitoba)

Politics and law:

Now it’s just ‘Bless America’ on some city signs | To the dismay of some city employees, several signs in city hall bearing the message “God Bless America” underwent a make-over recently when City Attorney Chet Adams said the signs might be construed as a city-sanctioned endorsement of religion (The Reno Gazette-Journal)
Connecticut veteran challenges church-run post office | Federal lawsuit contends relationship between Full Gospel Interdenominational Church, U.S. Postal Service violates separation of church and state (Associated Press)
Bill would permit military academy prayers | Republicans on Capitol Hill are stepping into a battle over whether military schools should be allowed to include prayer as part of meals and other school-sponsored activities (The Washington Times)
Religion and politics blur with Sharpton in pulpit | The entanglement between the personal and public lives of Mr. Sharpton has often proved controversial, especially in the area of finances (The New York Times)
School bus ‘apartheid’ attacked | Councils are facing legal action under the Human Rights Act over allegations of discrimination against non-Christians in their school transport policies (The Guardian, London)
Article III, Section 2 | Decisions of the federal judiciary over the last half century have resulted in the theft of our Judeo-Christian heritage (William E. Dannemeyer, The Washington Times)
‘Under God’: An ‘injury’ with almost no victims | What is this case doing in court? (Charlotte Allen, Los Angeles Times)

Church life:

Tiny church dreams big | Preacher’s unfettered faith raises building and spirits (The Charlotte Observer)
Shadyside Presbyterian to make professor its pastor | Shadyside Presbyterian Church, whose turmoil made headlines five years ago, will celebrate a new beginning and highlight its heritage this Sunday as it prepares to call Craig Barnes (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Is kneeling important to you during worship? | Readers respond (The Washington Post)
Mum tipped as first female Moderator | A former academic and mother-of-two is being tipped as the first woman Moderator of the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly (Evening News, Edinburgh, Scotland)
Holy Fools to clown around at cathedral | Next Sunday’s sermon at St Albans cathedral will be a lofty affair—delivered by a clown on a tightrope (Reuters)
Church seeks lessons from neighbors | More than 450 parishioners fan out to hear the concerns and needs of their mostly poor neighbors (Los Angeles Times)
A brush with controversy at St Paul’s | Critics attack ‘technically insane’ cathedral restoration (The Guardian, London)
Fighting loneliness, finding Christ | Twenty-five hundred Canadian churches are running Alpha right now, and 100,000 people are taking the course (The National Post, Canada)

Sexual ethics:

Church expelled for gay members | The N.C. Baptist State Convention’s move against a Cabarrus church is a first (The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.)
Furor over study that suggests ‘cure’ for homosexuality | Study was based on interviews with 200 men and women who claimed to have had their gay preferences changed in therapy (The Independent, London)
Brazil’s attitudes towards gays under spotlight as Rio politicians consider funding ‘conversions’ | Brazilian political moves are raising fears that gay rights will be damaged by branding homosexuality an illness (Sunday Herald, Glasgow)
Public opinion is divided on gay marriages | While 48% of those surveyed say allowing gay unions “will change our society for the worse,” 50% say they would be an improvement or have no effect (USA Today)
Civil marriage on rise across USA | Fewer American couples who marry today see the need for religion’s approval (USA Today)
Rare coalition aligns against gay marriage | Across the country, unusual alliances are forming to protect the traditional definition of marriage from anticipated court rulings (Newhouse News Service)
Canada religious groups seek gay marriage challenge | Canadian religious groups took the unusual step on Monday of asking the Supreme Court to allow them to challenge a lower-court ruling which overthrew the definition of marriage as a union of a man and a woman (Reuters)
Intolerance marks furor over church, credit union | It’s time to chill the passion sparked by same-sex debate (Editorial, Vancouver Sun)

Anglican woes:

Area Episcopal priests protest recent decisions | Episcopal priests representing some 40 congregations in central and southern Illinois met in Urbana over the weekend and adopted a resolution against naming unmarried persons living in sexual relationships to church leadership roles. The resolution also disapproves of blessing homosexual relationships (The News-Gazette, Champaign, Ill.)
Sacred summit | Local Episcopal church convenes in controversy, but SW Florida members focus on faithful business of missions, growth (The News-Press, Ft. Myers, Fla.)
Debate on gay bishop unresolved | Alaska diocese members to remain in “prayerful conversation” (Anchorage Daily News)
Alaska Episcopal Church grapples with gay bishop issue | Alaska’s Episcopal Church leaders are in Juneau for their annual convention, and foremost on the agenda is the explosive subject of homosexuality (Associated Press)
Episcopalians at crossroad | Local church still torn over vote for N.H. gay bishop (Jackson Sun, Tenn.)
Split between Pope, archbishop | Receiving the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the frail Pope had difficulty speaking as he stressed that “new and serious difficulties have arisen on the path to unity” within the Christian faith (Sunday Mail, Australia)
Archbishop living in the past, says Spong | Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen spoke to a world that no longer existed, a controversial bishop once banned from preaching in Brisbane said today (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Church ‘faces gay hunger strike’ | Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said “civil disobedience” was possible (BBC)

Catholicism:

Confession rite evolves to meet changing need | Gone are the days when it was customary for Catholics to confess frequently, even if they had no serious sin to declare (The Washington Post)
Judge sides with diocese in lawsuit | A group of Spanish-speaking men accused of pretending to be Roman Catholic priests may not dress as priests or perform rites labeled Catholic, a judge ruled Tuesday (Associated Press)
Mother Teresa no miracle worker says doctor | A doctor who treated the woman whose miraculous cure could pave the way for Mother Teresa to become a saint has dismissed the event as nonsense (Scotland on Sunday)
Also: Medicine cured ‘miracle’ woman – not Mother Teresa, say doctors | The elevation of the Albanian-born Agnes Gonxha Bojahiu into Blessed Teresa of Calcutta has its detractors (The Daily Telegraph, London)
Pope’s legacy of curbing anti-Semitism | This pope has personally set in motion the single most significant change in the history of the church—in its relations with the Jewish people (James Carroll, The Boston Globe)
For ailing Pope, many projects remain unfinished | Russian patriarch dashed hopes of visit, reconciliation (The Washington Post)
Resolute pontiff urges the faithful to pray for him | Amid the ruins of Pompeii, John Paul II appeals for peace in an era ‘stained with blood in so many regions. (Los Angeles Times)
Pope makes poignant return to Italian shrine (The Washington Post)
The Pope: political activist, anti-globalist, totalitarian | Like all world-transformers, Karol Wojtyla is a mass of contradictions (Hywel Williams, The Guardian, London)
Vatican gerrymandering | Gerrymandering likely is not part of the Vatican idiom — they’ll have some other expression for it, something Latin and ambiguous — but it is what Pope John Paul II has done: terminally gerrymandered the College of Cardinals that will elect his successor (Michael Valpy, The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
Could the next pope be an African? | Nigeria’s newly appointed cardinal has expressed caution on the chances of a fellow African churchman succeeding the ailing John Paul II to become the Roman Catholic Church’s first black pope (Sunday Times, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Installation draws reverence, awe | Rigali, parade of priests & bishops applauded by members of all faiths (Philadelphia Daily News)
Also: Rigali installed as Philly archbishop (Associated Press)
Thank God at least one church still sticks to its guns | Those who say that to survive the Catholic Church must take note of the popular will are talking nonsense (Garth George, New Zealand Herald)

Abuse scandals:

Troubled archdiocese tries new fund-raising approach | Donors may choose specific causes; money won’t pay Louisville settlements (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.)
Pardon sought for abusive lay minister | Gallie Isaac has been in the hospital wing of the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange since his incarceration six years ago (Associated Press)
New bishop pledges support for abuse victims | Nicholas DiMarzio was installed yesterday as the seventh bishop of Brooklyn (The New York Times)
New lawsuit to greet Brooklyn’s new bishop | The suit is another version of a case dismissed in April by a judge who ruled that too much time had passed since the molestation is alleged to have taken place (The New York Times)
Accused of abuse, Jesuit college leader quits | President of Loyola University New Orleans resigned after he was accused of sexual abuse by a former student at a high school where he once was the principal (The New York Times)
Group opposes honor for priest | Sex abuse survivors say toasting O.C.’s Msgr. Baird is an insult because he defended a tainted cleric and sued a woman for slander (Los Angeles Times)