Sun coverage: Religion in the news

Black preachers agree to disagree on Rev. Wright

The Rev. Alvin C. Hathaway Sr. considers the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. to be a tremendous pastor and a brilliant theologian. But sitting in the audience of the National Press Club in Washington this week, Hathaway found himself wincing at some of the remarks by Sen. Barack Obama's embattled former pastor.

Quick cuts part of Passover tradition

The Sunday before the holiday is a big day for a hair salon in Pikesville as parents rush their kids in for one more trim.

From the altar, a vow of protest

Some clergy say until Maryland allows same-sex marriage, they'll conduct religious rite but others must sign legal papers.

Edward Gunts: A monument to a pope and a green retreat for all

Baltimore native Joseph Sheppard has painted public figures including former President George H.W. Bush and filmmaker John Waters, and his portraits can be found in government buildings, churches and galleries.

Episcopalians elect leader

Maryland Episcopalians elected the Rev. Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton, canon pastor of the National Cathedral in Washington and an advocate of environmental causes, as the diocese's 14th bishop yesterday on a single ballot.

Catholic bicentennial

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will celebrate its bicentennial starting next month with work on a new prayer garden near downtown, musical performances in the Basilica of the Assumption and an exhibit of the Catholic community's history at St. Mary's Seminary.

Politics hit local pulpits

Ministers at black churches know the power of words.

First Easter challenge to new pastors

With Sunday rapidly approaching, the Rev. Mervin McKenney admitted to being a bit nervous as he prepared his first Easter sermon as an ordained minister.

The moon, sun, equinox, and Easter's elusive dating

If the youngsters are shivering in their new Easter finery - instead of basking in the gentle April sun most of us are accustomed to - you can blame it on the stars.

St. Leo's takes a holy day to the streets of Little Italy

The bells of St. Leo's started tolling at 4 p.m. as parishioners filed out of the church onto the streets of Little Italy. They had just attended a Good Friday service.

Piety vs. March Madness

Mount St. Mary's students torn over Good Friday

Clergy lobby Md. lawmakers to curb pollution

The Rev. Lee Hudson is preaching at the State House this week, urging legislators to protect God's creation from global warming pollution.

Academy resumes dipping U.S. flag

Midshipmen are again dipping the American flag before the altar cross at Sunday services at the Naval Academy chapel, restoring a tradition that supporters say shows reverence but that critics say violates the separation of church and state.

Creating divine designs

Catholic University students devise -- and Md. firms build -- the furnishings for Pope Benedict XVI's papal visit in April.

Organ crew builds the 'voice of God'

To the crowd assembled on the lawn of a Severna Park church, each of the thousands of oddly shaped segments was created to do one thing: evoke the voice of the divine.

Religious America is changing faith

The United States is on the verge of becoming a country in which Protestants are no longer the majority - probably for the first time in history, according to an extensive survey whose findings illustrate the ever-shifting landscape of religion in America.

Cherry Hill to Capitol Hill

City native Barry C. Black marks several 'firsts' as U.S. Senate chaplain

Questions, concerns over pastor's divorce

Controversy surrounding the divorce case of the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant - the flashy, influential pastor of the Empowerment Temple - will likely be addressed at the annual conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church next month.

Clicking with Jesus

Internet-savvy Christians want to save their fellow man, one video at a time

4 candidates named for Episcopal diocese

Four candidates from across the country have been chosen by a search committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland to replace retired Bishop Robert W. Ihloff.

Allergies lead churches to new practices

The Rev. Bill Miller-Zurell was recently presiding at Communion, moving from congregant to congregant, offering the body, offering the blood, until he got to a little boy who, seeing the piece of bread, stopped the pastor short.

Maryland Journal

Celebrating a miracle legacy

Hundreds of Peruvian-American Catholics reinforced ties to their religious heritage yesterday as teams slowly carried an image of Jesus that is revered in their native country for its miraculous powers through the streets of Fells Point.

At St. Leo's, nourishing a tasty tradition

A church kneads, stirs and rolls its way toward dinner for 2,000

Transgender man allowed to remain as church pastor

The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church announced yesterday that a transgender man can remain pastor of a congregation in Charles Village.

Lombard as center of Jewish life

Museum exhibit recalls time when street was bustling with merchants and immigrants

Serving others during Ramadan

Mallory Terry, who lives on a Northwest Baltimore block in Upton where half the rowhouses are vacant, wasn't expecting to see a throng of people collecting food and clothing outside the Ul-Haqq mosque when she took her two sons for a walk yesterday.

High Holy Days head outside

As the sun sets tonight, when faithful Jews across the region flock to synagogues to honor creation in services steeped in tradition, thousands of others will gather with picnic dinners in a Baltimore County park.

Cultivating knowledge of Jewish culture

In a Reisterstown field, a circular garden connects nature with the months of the Jewish calendar and ties agriculture to Jewish heritage.

It's goodbye, hello for a congregation

Members of Beth Jacob Congregation are celebrating their last Shabbat service today.

Hope floats

The steel skeleton is more visionary art than ark. Still, a visitor can make out the arklike bowed front of Pastor Richard Greene's roadside attraction off Interstate 68. Three stories high and set in concrete, the steel structure shares a foothill with its loyal billboard: "Noah's Ark Being Rebuilt Here."

O'Brien's long path leads to Baltimore

In a beige brick Gothic church on an East Bronx thoroughfare, the future archbishop of Baltimore found a home that he never really left.

Baltimore Catholics look to a new era

The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the mother ship of American Catholicism and, for more than a century, a refuge for progressive Catholic thinking, has a new archbishop - Edwin Frederick O'Brien, a man who has made no secret of his concerns about gays in the priesthood and one who has spent much of his career ministering to the tradition-oriented U.S. military services.

New home for a new archbishop

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien had barely moved in before he got orders to ship out.

Burned church beset by debt

Just days before a 140-year-old church in West Baltimore was destroyed by fire, the nonprofit corporation that owns it was twice threatened with foreclosure - on both the historic house of worship and a separate 9-acre plot purchased in 2002.

Keeler legacy will continue

Accepting the resignation of Cardinal William H. Keeler, Pope Benedict XVI turned over leadership of the birthplace of American Catholicism yesterday to Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, a prelate known for ministering to U.S. troops on the battlefield and strictly supervising the education of priests.

O'Brien spent past decade ministering to military

He has leapt from military airplanes, served in jungles during the Vietnam War and traveled extensively to current battle zones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pontiff asserts Catholic primacy

Pope Benedict XVI asserted yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church is the "one church" that Christ "established here on Earth" and that other Christian denominations "cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense" - a statement that prompted condemnation and confusion as well as expressions of understanding from Protestants and Orthodox Christians.

Yes, teach the Bible - but how?

There is a growing movement to teach the Bible "as literature" to children in public schools. The case is made that the Bible has been so central to Western civilization that ignorance must be seen as a form of "illiteracy." However, if we take off the thick religious lens through which the Bible has been traditionally read (as any public school teacher should be required to do), we will find a far more remarkable tale than is taught in Sunday school, but one that challenges traditional Jewish and Christian conceptions of the nature of God and his relationship to mankind.

St. John's and its pastor are reborn

The pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church wasn't worried about the congregation's reaction to his transition from Ann Gordon to Drew Phoenix.

Catholics retain hope for Latin Mass revival

Mary Ellen Lamantia wept through the entire service the first time she attended a traditional Latin Mass.

Sun profile

Mentor to priests steps down

The responsibilities of a Roman Catholic priest have changed over the last quarter-century - and so have the expectations at St. Mary's University and Seminary, whose president-rector, the Rev. Robert F. Leavitt, is stepping down after nearly three decades of leadership.