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In an area the size of Texas, a United Methodist pilot is often the difference between life and death for Congolese people in need of care.

[Religion News Service] Prominent pastor and anti-poverty activist the Rev. William Barber and two others were arrested while praying in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday (April 28), an action he said would be part of a recurring series of demonstrations aimed at challenging the Republican-led budget bill. The arrests occurred roughly 15 minutes after Barber, the Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Steve Swayne, director of St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, started praying in the Rotunda as dozens of police stood nearby, some prepared with plastic handcuffs. The three took turns praying, lamenting potential budget cuts to social safety-net programs such as Medicaid, often chanting together: “Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy. “When we cannot depend on the courts and the legislative power of human beings, we can still depend on … the power of your love and your mercy and your truth,” Barber said in the Rotunda as police began to surround him. While arresting protesters at the Capitol is not unusual, the response to Barber’s prayer was unusually dramatic: After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda — including credentialed press — and shut the doors, obscuring any view. Press and others were then instructed to leave the floor entirely. Speaking with RNS shortly after he was released from police custody on Monday, Barber, who has a chronic illness that affects his ability to walk, said he was in pain from the prolonged ordeal but that his interactions with police were “cordial.” Barber — who is founder of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, where he also teaches — said he was handcuffed by police and briefly detained. While he found the incident unsettling, he hoped it would draw attention to those who will be impacted by potential budget cuts, he said. “To think that we went in to pray — pray against the budget, but to pray nonetheless — and the order now is that, evidently, if you pray, you are seen as violating the rules of the Rotunda,” he said. “What we hope is that folks will see this and it will begin to remove some of the fear, and people will understand that this is the time — now — that we must engage in nonviolent direct action to register our discontent.” Reached for comment, a Capitol police spokesperson said Barber and two others were charged with “crowding, obstructing and incommoding,” explaining demonstrations in congressional buildings are “not allowed in any form, to include but not limited to sitting, kneeling, group praying, singing, chanting, etc.” The spokesperson also said the Rotunda is “not a dedicated press area unless it’s for a pre-approved event.” Some quickly argued that Barber’s arrest appeared incongruous with President Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate “anti-Christian bias” in federal agencies. “Arresting Rev. Barber and others at the Capitol after announcing a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in government is an absolute travesty,” Anthea Butler, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a text message. “Seems like this administration only wants Christians who are supporters of Trump to have access to pray in the Capitol and express their faith.” She was echoed by the Rev. Paul Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance and a critic of the Trump administration. “The arrest of Bishop Barber feels like the most clear example of hypocrisy of the Trump administration when they talk about anti-Christian bias,” Raushenbush said. “They are not interested in the broad expression of faith as exemplified by Bishop Barber, but rather only Christians approved of by the Trump administration.” The arrests followed a rally nearby outside the U.S. Supreme Court building, where Barber rallied with other clergy and faith leaders, as well as federal workers who lost their jobs, to condemn the GOP-led budget. Speakers at the rally, which was organized by Repairers of the Breach, focused specifically on how the budget would impact women and children. Among those who addressed the crowd at the rally or press beforehand were: the Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Sheila Katz, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women; Imam Talib M. Shareef, president and imam of historic Masjid Muhammad, also known as “the Nation’s Mosque”; Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; and Sarah Anderson with the Institute for Policy Studies. “Forty-three percent of women and almost half of all children are poor and low income,” Barber told the crowd, citing an assessment of Economic Policy Institute data. “Somebody ought to say something … Somebody gotta challenge this budget.” Speakers expressed particular concerns about potential cuts to Medicaid, for which some conservatives have advocated. But on Monday, speakers such as Anderson noted a dozen House Republicans recently sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson opposing cuts to Medicaid. “Soften the hearts of representatives, like the 12 who wrote to the speaker today,” Wilson-Hartgrove, an author and activist, said while praying in the Rotunda. “Twelve Republicans asking their speaker to not cut Medicaid. We ask you to move all those hearts, Lord.” The protest was the beginning of a “Moral Monday” campaign that Barber said he hopes will feature demonstrations every week moving forward. It’s an approach to activism the pastor has used to great effect in the past. Today’s protest was launched on the 12-year anniversary of the original Moral Monday protest movement he organized in North Carolina in 2013, which was credited with helping unseat the governor in that state. A Repairers of the Breach spokesperson acknowledged in a statement that the three people were arrested in the Rotunda after the rally, while “practicing their First Amendment rights.” “On this, the first Moral Monday in D.C., faith leaders and impacted people came to the people’s house to demand a moral budget — one that lifts from the bottom, prioritizing poor and low-wage […]

After more than ten years of separation, Mr. Khan finally reunited with his wife and daughters in Texas—thanks to his unshakable determination, the support of Church World Service and a community ready to welcome. Their story is a powerful reminder of the resilience of refugee families and the transformative impact of welcome. A Journey Marked by Separation and Strength Imagine ... Read More

No two United Church of Christ congregations are alike, and not all UCC congregations identify with the progressive ideologies and statements from the National Ministries or General Synod, the national decision-making body of the denomination. While the UCC is known…

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[Episcopal News Service] Disarmory Ministries, a non-profit Christian ministry that offers gun buybacks every Friday and Saturday in Berkley, Michigan, promoted its efforts with a news conference on April 29 in the parking lot where it works. The ministry is the nation’s first ongoing gun buyback program, according to its website. It provides gift cards to local grocery stores in exchange for unwanted firearms. “This is a needed service for many people in our state,” the Rev. Chris Yaw, Disarmory Ministries president, said. Yaw also is rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, Michigan, where he has hosted gun buyback events that have disposed of more than 650 firearms since 2022. Yaw said that in the United States, about a fourth of the firearms are owned by people who didn’t purchase them. “Inherited and gifted firearms may be unwanted and less cared for, posing a potential public safety hazard,” he said. Disarmory Ministries was not created to engage in debate around the Second Amendment, Yaw said. “This is about the voluntary surrender of an unwanted firearm,” he said. “We have no agenda other than helping people who want to safely, conveniently and economically dispose of their firearm. Period.” The ministry’s website further says that by eliminating unwanted guns, children, for whom firearms are now the number one cause of death, and those in mental distress, for whom firearm access increases the risk of suicide, especially, will benefit. In addition, communities will generally be safer, since a high percentage of crimes are committed with stolen weapons. Oakland County Commission vice-chair Marcia Gershenson said, “We’re excited to provide an alternative for the owners of unwanted firearms.” Michigan Bishop Bonnie A. Perry and other local faith leaders helped dedicate and bless the ministry’s equipment for gun disposal. The Disarmory Ministries arrive when people’s sense of fear and isolation are growing, Perry said. “I am in this so we can decrease the anxiety in one place for people,” she said. “We have got to address the end game around guns and this project is going to make that happen.” On April 22, Perry joined hundreds of others at the state capitol in Lansing to rally for gun violence prevention. Perry is one of the conveners of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence, and is also a cofounder of End Gun Violence Michigan, which has fought for the past two years for passage of gun violence prevention laws.

When the Rev. Quinn Caldwell leads communion during a weekly worship service for students at Cornell University, he is intentional about connecting the sacrament to a broader sense of responsibility and inclusion.   “Communion is a thing to fill you up,…

The post Growing faith: How three campus chaplains are attending to the sacred work of meeting student needs   appeared first on United Church of Christ.

[Scottish Episcopal Church] Scottish Primus Mark Strange took part in a gathering of representatives from across society held in Glasgow, where civic, faith, trade union and political leaders committed to protect democratic values and tackle people’s feeling of being unheard and disempowered. The April 23 event was hosted by First Minister John Swinney, who described the pledge as demonstrating a “strength of unity” which reflects the democratic values felt by communities across the country. The event saw more than 50 leaders meet to assess the robustness of Scotland’s democratic system. Across the day, there were focused discussions, moderated by civic leaders, addressing areas which contribute to a breakdown in democratic trust, after which participants considered a mission statement that seeks to address some of the issues identified. Other faith group leaders in attendance were the Very Rev. Shaw Paterson, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; the Rt. Rev. Brian McGee, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll & the Isles; Chief Imam Sayed Ali Abbas Razaw; Rabbi Rubin from Giffnock Synagogue and Maureen Sier, director of Interfaith Scotland. A more detailed report, including the full statement, is available on the Scottish Government website here.  

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed shock and outrage over the horrific massacre committed in Salha, Omdurman, on 27 April. Reports received from the area describe mass executions of unarmed civilians, arbitrary arrests under the so-called "Strange Faces Law," and the appalling treatment of human remains, with bodies piled among car tires.

The Dakotas Conference’s vote to let the multicampus Embrace congregation leave with property violated church law, said The United Methodist Church’s top court.