What do you miss when you miss church? Can we be saved if we don't attend church?

An arrest warrant was issued for a Florida pastor who refused to suspend in-person worship during the coronavirus crisis. New York’s mayor also issued a dire warning to congregations.

The suit argues that emergency powers only last for 30 days and after that Brown would have needed legislative approval.

Petra Karr, who with her husband, Chris, founded what became the theater company ACT 1, died on April 7.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal court halted the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings […]

After 18 years of explosive growth, officials at Mars Hill Church in Seattle said that financial pressures are forcing staff cuts and elimination of some branches. The announcement follows Pastor Mark Driscoll's decision to step away from the pulpit for six weeks.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal court halted the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings […]

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The corporate owner of a New Orleans horse racing track appeared before Louisiana’s Racing Commission on Monday to address a surge in horse deaths there. Mike Ziegler, executive director of racing for Kentucky-based Churchill Downs Inc., presented a list of potential reforms for the commission to consider, including restrictions on certain […]

With a narrative that follows a 14-year-old seeking liberation from a cult church, Chelsea Bieker gets under readers’ skin with heart-filled prose in her sparkling debut “Godshot,” out now via Catapult.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal court halted the Kentucky governor’s temporary ban on mass gatherings from applying to in-person religious services, clearing the way for Sunday church services. U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove on Friday issued a temporary restraining order enjoining Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration from enforcing the ban on mass gatherings […]

The Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been under the authority of Moscow since 1686. Until the 2014 war with Russia, that situation bothered few. Now a growing number of congregations, approximately 500 so far, have joined a new independent Ukrainian … More →

The post PBS NewsHour: Russia’s war in Ukraine leads to historic split in the Orthodox Church appeared first on Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

A residential development proposed by the Satterley Property Group on Anglican Church land in the Perth Hills suburb of Stoneville is branded a planning "disaster" by concerned locals.

At Eumundi, in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland, 43 per cent of people identify as having no religion, and now the town's last church has called it a day.

Laura Sullivan spent 32 years in an Australian group she now believes is a cult, because of its controlling nature. But she didn't choose that path she was born into it.

A woman is in a serious condition with head injuries, while NSW Ambulance is treating dozens of other patients after a bus crashes near Harden, 125 kilometres north west of Canberra.

For the first time in 190 years the 16 pews inside St John's Anglican church in Launceston will be removed and replaced with long tables for a charity dinner for the St Giles organisation.

It felt as if the winds of change were blowing through the Catholic Church after the royal commission. But a new defence has rejected some of its key findings in relation to one of its most notorious paedophile priests, writes Louise Milligan.

A teenager molested by Christian Brother John Laidlaw in the 1980s tells a Melbourne court he thought he was being "punished by God" when he was sexually assaulted at his family home, as the former teacher pleads guilty to abusing six boys over two decades.

Ararat parish priest Father Andrew Hayes says the church should accept a court's decision to dismiss George Pell's appeal against his convictions, but the Melbourne Bishop is standing by the disgraced Cardinal.

The Catholic Church may have opened itself up to hundreds of potential damages claims from sexual abuse survivors after admitting liability in court documents.

A 95-year-old celebrates a win after a decades-long fight for an apology from the Catholic Church in Melbourne for the abuse of her daughter by priest Gerard Mulvale.

Police say there is "no reason" a man was shot as he was driving two women home from a church service, and they hope a $250,000 reward will help find answers for him.

Findings from a probe into alleged cover-ups of child abuse within the Catholic Church in NSW have identified credibility issues among members of its upper echelons.

When Jack Baker pulled down a 116-year-old, 250kg bronze bell from a simple church in a remote, dusty town, he discovered a connection to one of the most famous cathedrals in the world.

The Catholic Church says it will not follow new Tasmanian laws that require priests to break the seal of confession to report suspicion of child sex abuse.

As congregations dwindle in small country towns, priests and ministers are taking to the road to service multiple small communities.

An Aboriginal artist is commissioned to design a new sanctuary window for a Central Australian Catholic church in celebration of reconciliation.

More than 1,000 pipes from Albury's St Matthew's Church's renowned Letourneau organ will be removed and restored after being damaged by fire three years ago.

A significant move by the Anglican Church to bless the marriage of two gay priests at a ceremony this week has been postponed due to a legal challenge.

A far-right activist who restrained a teenager after he egged Senator Fraser Anning is wanted by police on charges of disturbing a place of religious worship.

A number of churches, including Elkhorn Baptist in Baker City, argue Brown's executive orders are invalid on “constitutional procedural grounds.”

The world is nearing 4 million cases of the coronavirus. More COVID-19 news Saturday.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a trespass suit brought by a grocery store against a church soliciting donations in front of the store, summary judgment in favor of the store is affirmed, where: 1) the church's solicitation was not protected by In re Lane (1969) 71 Cal.2d 872, because there was no relation between the church's expressive activities and the store's location; and 2) the church did not contend or present evidence to establish that the store or the sidewalk in front was a public forum within the meaning of Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center (1979) 23 Cal.3d 899.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a suit by two former ministers against the Church of Scientology claiming they were forced to provide labor in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, district court's judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed, as the plaintiffs have not established a genuine issue of fact regarding whether they were victims of forced-labor violations. Moreover, the district court was right to recognize that courts may not scrutinize many aspects of the minister-church relationship in basing its rulings on the ministerial exception.

(United States Second Circuit) - In plaintiffs' suit alleging violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) over a longstanding land-use dispute to build a church and a school, district court's judgment is affirmed where: 1) the town violated the Church's rights under RLUIPA; 2) the town lacked a rational basis for delaying and denying the church's project and therefore violated the church's Free Exercise rights; 3) the church has adequately established a class-of-one Equal Protection claim; and 4) the district court's injunction was specifically tailored to the injury the church had suffered and did not exceed the district court's discretion.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a religious organization's suit against a subdivision of a national anarchist group under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and common law trespass, district court's sanction order granting attorneys' fees and costs to non-parties, which followed the quashing of a subpoena seeking identifying information for seven e-mail account holders, is reversed where Rule 45(c)(1) cannot properly support a sanction where the cost of complying with the subpoena is minimal and there is no showing that the subpoena was facially defective or issued in bad faith.

(California Court of Appeal) - In an unlawful detainer action between two non-profit religious organizations, trial court's order compelling defendant's pastor, who was not a party to the action, to sign the written settlement agreement in his individual capacity, is reversed and remanded where: 1) the parties' oral settlement agreement did not require the pastor to release any personal claims against the plaintiff or sign a written agreement purportedly conforming to the oral settlement in his individual capacity; and 2) the trial court lacked jurisdiction over the pastor.

(California Court of Appeal) - In a dispute between two factions of a church over control of church property, the trial court's judgment is affirmed over meritless claims that it erred: 1) when it found in favor of respondents based on appellants' excommunication from the Holy Hill Community Church (Church) by the Western California Presbytery (WCP); 2) by admitting evidence of events occurring after the cross-complaint was filed; and 3) when it prevented appellants' counsel from cross-examining a representative of the WCP whose testimony was sought by respondents.

(United States Seventh Circuit) - Revived a church's claim that a city's zoning code violated federal and state statutes protecting religious freedom by treating religious uses of property on unequal terms with analogous secular uses and unreasonably limiting where religious organizations may locate in the city. Reversed a grant of summary judgment and remanded.