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RNS @rns.org · 44m

Daniel Akin, the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, announced to students gathered for a chapel service today that he plans to retire this summer.
religionnews.com/2025/10/14/d...

Daniel Akin announces retirement from SBC seminary he led for 22 years

(RNS) — Akin has tried to hew a more cooperative path as head of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, located in a growing suburban town north of Raleigh, North Carolina.

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RNS @rns.org · 1h

With Trump announcing “the war is over” on Monday and Israel and Hamas trading hostages for Palestinian prisoners, aid from the UN and faith-based agencies began to flow into the Gaza Strip, with hopes of stemming a humanitarian disaster.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/a...

Aid to Gaza resumes, with UN and established faith-based agencies leading the way

(RNS) — President Trump's peace plan does not mention the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private entity created by the US and Israel to circumvent the United Nations.

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RNS @rns.org · 2h

BREAKING: Dallin H. Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice, was named to lead The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its more than 17 million members worldwide.
religionnews.com/2025/10/14/d...

Dallin H. Oaks, former Utah Supreme Court justice, is selected to lead Mormon church

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As president, Oaks is considered a prophet and seer who will guide the church through divine revelation from God alongside two top counselors and members of the Quorum.

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RNS @rns.org · 2h

Advocates are calling for the release of Filipino-American filmmaker Ya’akub Ira Vijandre, a Muslim who was detained by ICE outside his Dallas home last week, arguing he was detained illegally because he is protected under DACA.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/i...

ICE detains another Dallas Muslim activist, a DACA recipient

(RNS) — Ya’akub Ira Vijandre, who was arrested Oct. 7, was working on a documentary about another Muslim activist detained in the Dallas area last month.

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RNS @rns.org · 2h

OPINION: This should be a day of sober rejoicing. And yet, many on the progressive left appear silent.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/i...

Why isn't everyone celebrating the peace deal?

(RNS) — Anyone can join the chorus of those welcoming the hostages home — and contrast themselves to those who ripped posters of kidnapped children off lampposts.

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RNS @rns.org · 5h

As Adams prepares to leave office after a scandal-ridden mayorship, he leaves behind a new network of faith leaders mobilized by his crisis initiatives and concerned those partnerships will falter under a new administration.
religionnews.com/2025/10/07/d...

Despite scandals, clergy say Eric Adams' faith partnerships revitalized NYC aid services

NEW YORK (RNS) — Adams’ legacy among faith communities is marked by an unprecedented partnership that brought congregations to the front lines of city governance in ways no modern mayor had before.

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RNS @rns.org · 6h

“For 150 years, the Oromo were denied cultural expression, but reforms by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed six years ago now allow them to celebrate Irreecha in Finfine and express their culture,” Umer Ali said.
religionnews.com/2025/10/06/t...

Thousands celebrate Ethiopia's thanksgiving festival

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The Irreecha festival is held to thank God, whom the Oromos call Waaqa. Some still practice the traditional Waaqqeffannaa, which is the worship of Waaqa.

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RNS @rns.org · 6h

Faith leaders and aid groups say child abductions are rising, and children are being taken from their homes or schools. Some who are abducted are forced to work for armed groups, while others are married off.
religionnews.com/2025/10/09/a...

As child abductions rise in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado, churches serve as safe spaces

MAPUTO, Mozambique (RNS) — Villagers often bring children who have been kidnapped and released to churches, which have become safe hubs for finding their relatives with the help of local authorities…

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RNS @rns.org · 7h

OPINION: To illustrate how overdue this development is, consider that all “seven sisters” of mainline American Protestantism have already had female leaders or denominational heads. But these first female leaders came at a cost.
religionnews.com/2025/10/07/a...

A woman as archbishop of Canterbury will come at a cost. She may also bring more welcome change.

(RNS) — Mullally’s appointment is a landmark moment in a broader trend of women’s presence becoming gradually stronger in her denomination.

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RNS @rns.org · 7h

Read the full story: religionnews.com/2025/10/06/p...

Deportation flight to Iran included Christians at risk

(RNS) — The deportees, who include other minorities, may face harsh penalties for their religious beliefs upon return to the Islamic Republic.

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RNS @rns.org · 7h

“The world must pay attention. These refugees are not numbers. They are fathers, mothers, believers, and survivors. Their forced return to Iran places them at extreme risk of imprisonment, torture, and even death. Silence in the face of this injustice is complicity."

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RNS @rns.org · 8h

How many words can you create? Play now at rns.newsmix.ai

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RNS @rns.org · 8h

In "Dilexi te," Pope Leo XIV warns bishops that a Church indifferent to the poor “risks breaking down” and “drifting into spiritual worldliness.”
religionnews.com/2025/10/09/p...

Pope Leo calls on Catholics to care for the poor in first official exhortation

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Leo picks up where Francis left off, when the Latin American pontiff called for a ‘preferential treatment for the poor’ and the need for a ‘poor church for the poor.’

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RNS @rns.org · 9h

The group was surprised to find a government and society open and eager to move beyond the past. "Jews going to Syria, as Jews who are proud Jews … there is a very new beginning here," said Rabbi Asher Lopatin.
religionnews.com/2025/09/29/h...

Hopeful for a new beginning in the new year, American Jews make historic trip to Syria

(RNS) — Millennia of Jewish life in Syria came to a close in the 1990s. Today, only around half a dozen elderly Jews are believed to remain.

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RNS @rns.org · 9h

This week on "Complexified": A Secretary of War leads worship at the Pentagon – How far can faith go before it becomes policy?
religionnews.com/2025/10/06/b...

Baptizing the Battlefield: Pete Hegseth’s Holy War at the Pentagon

What happens when the Pentagon becomes a pulpit?

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RNS @rns.org · 10h

Many who raised kids via Dobson’s methods feel surprised or betrayed when their children limit contact; not only were they promised strong families, but because their kids acted compliant for years, they never realized there was a lack of authentic connection.
religionnews.com/2025/09/09/f...

For some Dobson kids, focusing on the family led to estrangement

(RNS) — These days, Focus on the Family is offering a new kind of parenting advice, this time tailored for parents whose adult kids have gone 'no contact.'

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RNS @rns.org · 10h

Homicides in houses of worship remain rare, but when they occur, firearms make them deadlier.
religionnews.com/2025/10/06/v...

Violent acts in houses of worship are rare but deadly – here’s what the data shows

(The Conversation) — Tragedies like the Sept. 28, 2025, shooting at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Michigan are part of a longer pattern.

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RNS @rns.org · 11h

At more than 5 million people, Indians are the second-largest immigrant population in the country and the highest earning and most educated, according to recent data from Pew Research Center.
religionnews.com/2025/09/05/h...

Hindu advocates, rejecting H-1B 'elite,' seek to defend all Indian immigrants

(RNS) — As anti-immigrant rhetoric expands to those who come both legally and illegally, many South Asian Americans feel it is high time to build solidarity with each other.

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RNS @rns.org · 11h

Pope Leo said being pro-life must be consistent, warning: “Someone who says I’m against abortion but favors the death penalty is not really pro-life.”
religionnews.com/2025/10/01/p...

Pope Leo XIV enters US political fray, challenging 'inhuman treatment of immigrants'

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The first American pope weighed in on a controversy roiling the Chicago diocese, telling journalists the Catholic Church’s political positions include more than opposing abortion.

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RNS @rns.org · 21h

Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri of the Zion Church was detained at his home in Beihai in China’s southeast Guangxi province on Friday evening, along with dozens of other church leaders in Beijing and at least five other provinces across China.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/z...

Zion Church pastor has been detained in China, his daughter and a religion monitoring group say

(AP) — Zion Church is among the largest so-called underground or house churches that are unregistered with the Chinese authorities. They defy Chinese government restrictions requiring believers to…

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RNS @rns.org · 22h

The Vatican office that manages clergy sex abuse cases, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the five judges named to hear the Rupnik case in a canonical court include women and priests who don’t hold jobs in the Vatican bureaucracy.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/v...

Vatican names judges for abuse trial of former Jesuit artist Rupnik

ROME (AP) — In an unusual step, Catholic church leaders announced they had named judges to decide the fate of the ex-Jesuit accused by more than two dozen women of sexual, spiritual and psychological…

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RNS @rns.org · 23h

“This is a fight to which every single Christian is called, and it’s not fought on a physical battlefield or even only in the public square.”
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/a...

'Share the Arrows' conference rallies 6,700 Christian women for culture-war battles

DALLAS (RNS) — Founded by commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, the event served as a rallying cry for women to carry on Charlie Kirk's conservative fight.

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RNS @rns.org · 1d

OPINION: Others invoked Scripture; she invoked the natural world and described sunlight through rain forest leaves as stained glass, and the gaze shared with a chimpanzee as a holy encounter.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/j...

Jane Goodall saw nature as a spiritual sanctuary

(RNS) — For Goodall, the sacred was not confined to ritual spaces; it was alive in the luminous weave of life itself.

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RNS @rns.org · 1d

Sister Jean retired from her role at the university in August due to health complications, although she stayed on as an adviser in the final months of her life.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/s...

Sister Jean, beloved Loyola college basketball chaplain and Chicago icon, dies at 106

CHICAGO (RNS) — Sister Jean was inducted into the Loyola Ramblers Athletic Hall of Fame in 2017. The school erected a memorial for her outside the train stop near campus that reads, 'Home of the…

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RNS @rns.org · 1d

The Gaza ceasefire held in its second day as tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to their neighborhoods Saturday and Israelis cheered Monday’s expected release of remaining hostages.
religionnews.com/2025/10/13/p...

Palestinians return to ruins and US expects hostages freed on Monday as Gaza ceasefire holds

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israelis applauded U.S. President Donald Trump, and some booed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner…

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