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Religion

  • One journey to another

    INVERNESS — Thanks to Richard and Robin Smyth, the African country of Rwanda now has a decent bagel.


    The Smyths, along with their four young adult children, recently moved to Inverness after spending the past seven years as missionaries in Rwanda where they established the African Bagel Company, part of a training ministry that helps bring destitute African women out of poverty by teaching them a trade along with life skills, so they can provide for themselves and their families.

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  • Unearthing history

    Christopher Torchia
    Associated Press
    ISTANBUL — Few archaeological sites seem as entwined with conflict, ancient and modern, as the city of Karkemish.
     

    The scene of a battle mentioned in the Bible, it lies smack on the border between Turkey and Syria, where civil war rages today. Twenty-first century Turkish sentries occupy an acropolis dating back more than 5,000 years, and the ruins were recently demined. Visible from crumbling, earthen ramparts, a Syrian rebel flag flies in a town that regime forces fled just months ago.

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  • JUDI'S JOURNAL 11/17/2012: Why we still need Thanksgiving

    It’s after Halloween. Fall decorations are half-price, and you can get good buys on coats and hats. The air is clear and comfortable and the nights are cool. Yes, it is fall in Florida, and not a Thanksgiving decoration can be found. Oh, there are lots of Christmas things out, with Santas practically grabbing your arm and magically saying, “buy me, buy anything, just get Christmas going!” But before this shopping frenzy gets under way, in true Jewish fashion, I’d like to remind us all of the importance of Thanksgiving.
     

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  • GRACE NOTES 11/17/2012: Give thanks!

    An open letter to God, a psalm of thanksgiving:

    My Father who art in heaven —
     

    Truly, hallowed and holy is your name.
     

    As I begin to write my yearly psalm of thanksgiving, this my 12th or 13th year, I’m wrestling with where to start, what to say, how to even approach you.
     

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  • ON RELIGION 11/10/2012: Commandments for faith bloggers

    Popes rarely produce viral sound bites, but legions of Catholic bloggers continue to pass around a quote from Pope Benedict XVI in which he openly blessed the passion that drives them to their keyboards.
     

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  • GRACE NOTES 11/10/2012: Mirror magic

    A month or so ago, I met a man with part of his right arm missing — he was a tree trimmer and had an accident involving a chainsaw.
    I asked him if the missing part ever hurt. He said as a matter of fact, it was bothering him as we were talking.
     

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  • Crystal River church to offer free Thanksgiving meal

    Nov. 22 is the date for the sixth annual Thanksgiving Day dinner at First Baptist Church in Crystal River. The meal will be complete with all the trimmings. Dinner is available to all who would enjoy fellowship in a Christian setting on that day (parades and football included).

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  • Citrus Springs church welcomes new pastor

    CITRUS SPRINGS — Like most pastors, the Rev. Ted Lawrence thinks in alliteration.


    In August he and his wife, Diane, moved from upstate New York to accept the call as pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Citrus Springs. He said he came with the hope of emphasizing four areas of ministry: exalting Christ, expounding the Bible, edifying the people in the congregation and evangelizing the community.
     

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  • A curious kind of quest

    SWEET HOME, Ore. — During World War II, more than 100,000 GIs passed through an Army camp in Oregon’s Willamette Valley on their way to postings in North Africa, Western Europe and the Philippines. Before they shipped out, many of those soldiers said a prayer in one of the camp’s 11 military chapels.
     

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  • Breaking the glass ceiling

    Mary Ann Ford
    The Pantagraph
    BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — When Rabbi Lynn Goldstein was driving from St. Louis for an interview at Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington, she kept asking herself why she was doing it.


    She’s been a rabbi for more than 25 years, serving congregations in 14 locations, including St. Louis, New York and Miami. None of them had cornfields.
     

    But her opinion of the potential position at Moses Montefiore changed when she drove up to the synagogue on Robinhood Lane.
     

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