Over the past 15 years there’s been a revival of young people - mostly Christians - participating in traditional masquerades, despite these being branded as pagan.
A form of ‘canceling’ was common among Baptists in America.
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Excommunicating a church member, like ‘canceling’ someone on social media, serves to cleanse the body politic of behavior deemed damaging, suggests a scholar of political theology.
The number of self-described evangelicals as a share of US population has held steady for the past decade. What is different is that they appear to identify less with church and more with politics.
Joe and Jill Biden attend Mass at St. Matthew the Apostle before the inauguration.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
St. Matthew is the patron saint of civil servants – making the Washington, D.C., church bearing his name a fitting venue for presidents, both past and present.
Even when singing does take place, voices are muffled.
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A choral conductor and scholar of sacred music explains what’s missing from church worship with singing banned due to the pandemic – and why live choir rehearsals are still a ways off
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Sunshine Cathedral holds a drive-in Easter service in its parking lot. Each car received a Ziploc bag with a prayer card, palm leaf and pre-packaged communion.
Getty Images / Joe Raedle
Justices have lent weight to state officials who want churches to remain closed until the public health crisis is over. But not every place of worship is following the rules.
A volunteer sets up beds in what would have been a field hospital in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Images of religious buildings being used to treat the sick shouldn’t come as surprise. The practice has a long tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages.
As the pandemic continues with Easter on the horizon, physical distancing means that many churches are closed and in-person religious ceremonies are paused.
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Will a pandemic cause more people to return to Christianity or will the closure of churches become permanent?
Deaf worshippers sign a hymn while following sign language interpreter Diely Martinez at Holyrood Episcopal Church-Iglesia Santa Cruz in New York City, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019.
AP Photo/Emily Leshner
Deaf Christians can often feel excluded in churches. But the Christian contemplative tradition that celebrates silence and considers it a form of prayer can bring a new understanding of faith.
Halloween can also be a time of expression of cultural and social anxieties.
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
In the early 1970s, rumors about poisoned candy on Halloween led to mass paranoia. A historian explains why such fears emerge – and what, in reality, feeds them.
Up to 10% of deceased people in big cities get no burial ceremony, in many cases because they requested it.
Honduran migrant Vicky Chavez with her daughter Issabella on May 31, 2018 in the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City, where she sought protection from deportation in late 2017.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Mario Garcia, University of California, Santa Barbara
The number of migrants living in churches has spiked recently in anticipation of threatened immigration raids, but churches have long protected refugees in an act of faith-based civil disobedience.
Flames and smoke rise as fire rages in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
AP Photo/Thierry Mallet
The Notre Dame Cathedral was long a powerful symbol of church authority - but it wasn’t static. The design kept changing to keep up with the changing times.
St Peter’s Square, 2014. The Pope benefits from a wide popularity especially in Europe, but does it really influence people’ decisions on political issues?
Alfredo Borba/Wikimedia
Pope Francis has been a staunch voice for a world free of nuclear weapons. But should he be involved in defence politics at all? And how does the Pope’s message resonate among the European public?
The deeply religious Scott Morrison is Australia’s first Pentecostal prime minister.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Forty years ago, the Mormon church reversed restrictions on its members of African-American descent. Today, the church wants to celebrate the value of its diversity.