Free Republic

The information in this section comes largely from The Urban Character of Christian Worship, by Rev. John Baldovin, S.J. Footnotes refer to the pages in his text where further information can be found.Station Churches 2012 Each year, the North American College follows the ancient tradition of the Roman stational liturgy. All are invited to join us for the celebration of Mass each day. Using the side bar on the left, you will find the schedule and listing of the churches. Each page contains a short description and history of each church. At the bottom of each page, you will find...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation's largest protestant denomination will definitely remain "Baptist," but leaders are thinking about whether it will be "Southern" for much longer.

Although the New York State Senate has passed an amendment that would reverse the New York City Board of Education and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to evict nearly 70 churches from the public school spaces they have been renting, many of them for years, most of these congregations are already packed up and prepared for an exodus as the deadline for departure is this Sunday, Feb. 12. The state Senate overwhelmingly voted Monday 52-7 in favor of Bill A8800A/S.6087A but the NY State Assembly also has to approve its own version of the bill to successfully block the City and...

Because of a court’s ruling against one particular small church in the Bronx, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has now decreed that come February 12, 2012, all churches and fellowships meeting in public schools – 160 in total - have to be evicted. This terrible decision against religious freedom could impact the souls of thousands of people in New York City. And if this precedent is allowed to stand, the cancer could spread to other cities as well. These churches generally have great relationships with the community. They provide services and revenue for the city. But it seems that is trumped by...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Sir, I would ask that you would reconsider your decision to evict the houses of worship from public schools in New York City. Do you have any idea of what is going on in your city – let alone the rest of the country? This is not the time to be evicting churches, the lifeline of worship and hope, from the people of your community. Are you deliberately trying to sabotage your own community and increase the crime? Why would you take away something positive, that brings money into your system, when you have nothing to replace...

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has offered the Palestinians a powerful tool of propaganda: the comparison with Jesus’ passion. “We are to be freshly attentive to the needs of those who, like Jesus himself, are displaced and in discomfort”, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said during his Christmas Mass sermon at Westminster Cathedral. “A shadow falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight … We pray for them tonight”. It would have been more in keeping with Nicholas’ mission to mention hundreds of Christians losing their lives to Islamic terrorism and oppressed by Palestinian Muslim...

A drastic exodus from the church is underway in the Netherlands. With two churches shuttered each week, one man has become the country's top advisor on how to repurpose the once holy buildings. Some are demolished, while others find new life as mosques, stores and even recreation centers. The church pews will be sold according to size. The shortest ones, at 3.6 meters (12 feet) long, can be purchased for €40 ($52), the longer six-meter pews for €60. Churchgoers in the Dutch town of Bilthoven have already carried 17 pews out of their sanctuary. The pews will not be a...

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, California is buying Robert Schuller's celebrated Protestant Crystal Cathedral megachurch for $57.5 million, the LA Times reports. The spacious, light-filled house of worship is a "a monument of 20th century modernist architecture," the Times writes.

An Orange County bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday that the Crystal Cathedral, a monument to modernism in faith and architecture, will be sold for $57.5 million to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which plans to consecrate it as a Catholic cathedral. The ruling was a blow to Chapman University, which had fought bitterly down to the final moments of the bankruptcy case for the right to buy the property as a satellite campus. It also marked the end of a remarkable chapter in the history of American Christianity, one that was written in glass and steel by the Crystal Cathedral's...

Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, MD has penned an interesting Op-ed on the respective church communities of President Obama and Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain. Both worship--worshipped in the case of the President--in a predominantly black church. [quote] Like President Obama, Mr. Cain belongs to a mostly black congregation with a black pastor. But that is where the similarities end. Stark differences between the political philosophies of these two men may be rooted in their profoundly different theological heritages. The churches both men are (or in the case of Mr. Obama, were) longtime members of are...

Pulpit Freedom Sunday, sponsored by the Allied Defense Fund is in its fourth year.   This year has seen participation up nearly five times as many participants as last year's total of 100 pastors.  Pulpit Freedom Sunday is a demonstration, of sorts, and a test of freedom of religion as an IRS law says pastors endorsing political candidates from the pulpit can mean forfeiture of their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.   Forbes reports: The 1954 version of the Internal Revenue Code added restrictions on 501(c)(3) organizations such as churches so they couldn’t participate in political campaigns.   For many of us who grew...

Nairobi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Chinese companies are building churches in Africa for all the various Christian denominations, taking over a job in the past occupied by Europe, and more recently by U.S. companies. At the Basilica of the Holy Family in Nairobi, for example, the Zhongxing Construction company is building a new building for the offices of the archdiocese of Nairobi. "We worked with them previously, and we had a positive experience. We held a public competition, and they presented the best offer," said an official of the diocese. In the past, countries that sent missionaries to Africa also...

A new faith coalition out in Cleveland, Ohio, raises some interesting questions about the intermingling of organized religion and leftist politics. The founding of the Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC), a group that describes itself as “a non-partisan coalition of faith communities and partner organizations in Cuyahoga County working together to build power for social justice,” claims that its focus is uniting the masses to improve local neighborhoods. While many would see this as a worthy endeavor, others — mainly those with fears about the use of faith to progress the liberal agenda — are questioning the GCC’s motivations. The central...

A member of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is calling for a ban on marriages at Christian churches if they refuse to also perform same-sex unions. “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples, there will be inequality,” wrote Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade, in an August 21 letter to Cameron. While Weatherley’s proposal is currently a “minority view,” it “could quickly become a main stream point of view,” warned Neil Addison, national director of the U.K.‘s Thomas More Legal Centre. The U.K.‘s 2004 Civil Partnership Act, which legalized...

We ask all who read these words to keep the parish family of St. Andrew, Los Angeles, CA in their prayers during these difficult days. In the early morning hours of 15 August, an intruder broke into the parish Church and desecrated the Holy Altar, Tabernacle, Iconography and the entire altar and sacristy area. The most devastating aspect of this horrendous crime was the scattering of the Reserve Sacrament on the floor among and beneath the various altar crosses, candles and vestments strewn throughout the church. The Holy Altar itself was pulled from its foundation and dragged through the Royal...

Destruction, 1931-1990The site of the Cathedral is a very important one for urban developers. After the revolution this, along with ideological principles, became the reason for the decision to destroy the Cathedral. The plan entailed constructing a grandiose Palace of Soviets on the site of the Cathedral. This palace was meant to be the largest building in the world - a monument to victorious socialism and Lenin - the leader of the world proletariat. A new Moscow, with no vestiges of the "cursed past and its' monuments" was to arise around this Palace. A massive wave of propaganda preceded the...

Scroll down on the Divinely Designed Church entry for this bonus entry: Stephen Huneck’s Dog Chapel, complete with statue of a man walking his dog After his dogs (and loving wife!) helped him recover from a serious illness that doctors thought would kill him, artist Stephen Huneck decided to build a chapel in honor man’s best friend. Huneck built the dog chapel on his mountain-top farm in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Inside, there are four pews with dog sculptures, a fantastic dog stained-glass window and other interesting dog-themed arts.

  Antivirus − Not for Computers, for Ourselves David C. Stolinsky Aug. 22, 2011 Viruses infect computers and cause serious harm. But some viruses attack not computers but human minds. They do similar damage – they interfere with information processing, corrupt memory, and ultimately may cause a crash. The WeShrinkEm Virus. The “core” inflation rate understates real inflation, because it omits food and fuel − hardly an insignificant omission. But beyond this, it omits shrinking value. Paper towels now come in a “Big Roll,” which is half the size of the old roll. A laundry detergent became watery, then...

Edged out by corn dogs and chocolate-dipped bacon, one of the few remaining church dining halls at the fairgrounds is calling it quits. File this one under E, for End-of-an-Era. Or at least the beginning of the end. When the State Fair opens for its 148th year next Thursday, it's going to be the last season for the Epiphany Diner. The landmark dining hall, operated by the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids and one of the fair's three remaining church-run operations, is closing up shop after this year's fair. Its space will be used for tasting Minnesota wines....

At this week's White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Obama used the occasion to reiterate his endorsement of a proposed mosque at Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks in Lower Manhattan.