Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On January 11, 2001, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "The Rev. Jose Soriano keeps everything he needs to preach the word of God in the back of his van. There's a bag of candles. A box of Bibles and hymnals. A cross, the communion. Even a small pad that he unrolls when his parishioners need to kneel. Every Sunday for the past nine years, he has unloaded the contents of his van into one elementary school gymnasium after another. He and the 90 members of the First Filipino Evangelical Methodist Church have...

Source: The Washington Post

On January 11, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "while many denominations make an effort to win lost souls, the Mormon church is run completely by lay clergy who maintain careers and volunteer enormous amounts of time and resources for the 11-million-member organization. The church has more than 60,000 volunteer missionaries in 162 countries, and the effort seems to be working. Since the Mormon church built its $ 16 million temple on Stoneybrook Drive in Kensington in 1974, Mormon leaders say, membership in area...

Source: New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/2001-01-10/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-95252.asp

On January 10, 2001, the New York Daily News reported that "Community Board 7 shot down [The Full Gospel N.Y. Church's] request for approval of a plan to expand, but the city will have the final say." The Church wants to expand to hold up to 1,500 worshippers and construct a large gym, but "citing traffic and other concerns, Board 7...

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On January 8, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that "voices in a multitude of languages joined in prayer Sunday for unity and cultural tolerance at the annual observance of National Migration Week at St.Pius V Church." 500 to 600 worshippers heard multiple languages in celebration of National Migration Week, which was "established by the National Council of Catholic Bishops to recognize the contribution every individual and every culture makes to the community." Rev. Mike Lydon, priest at St. Pius, said the...

Source: The Washington Post

On January 8, 2001, The Washington Post reported that "newly installed Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick delivered a message of inclusion yesterday to a congregation jammed with immigrants -- and asked for their prayers as a newcomer himself." McCarrick was the archbishop of Newark for 14 years, where he worked for social justice and especially to welcome immigrants. He is now serving the Archdiocese of Washington, replacing Cardinal James A. Hickey, who had worked for 20 years to support immigrants and the poor...

Source: The Boston Globe

On January 8, 2001, The Boston Globe reported that "Catholics, Protestants, and Jews yesterday welcomed a Supreme Court decision upholding the right of Mormons to build a giant temple in Belmont, saying the decision guarantees continued freedom for religious groups in Massachusetts." Many religious groups were watching the case, in which neighbors asked to have the temple bulldozed, arguing that allowing the temple "violated a constitutional prohibition against the government establishment of religion."

"At stake in the...

Source: Star Tribune

On January 7, 2001, the Star Tribune reported on the Santuario de Chimayo in New Mexico, which has begun to attract "the devout, and the merely curious" from all over the globe. Sometimes called the American Lourdes, a town in France which is known as a place of healing, this 200-year-old adobe church's dirt is considered sacred because it "was expressly built on land where a crucifix mysteriously appeared nearly 200 years ago." Within lies "a small, shallow pit called 'el posito,' or Little Healing Well." Pilgrims wait in lines for...

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 7, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported the celebration of Christmas by thousands of Armenian Christians in southern California on January 6. They "and some other Eastern churches recognize Jan. 6, not Dec. 25, as Christ's birthday." There are an "estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Southern California Armenians," most of whom "welcomed Saturday as a chance to reconnect with their church, culture and motherland." Armenian Christianity has most of the elements of its Western counterpart, but "the traditions are practiced in...

Source: The New York Times

On January 7, 2001, The New York Times reported that, "after more than three decades of debate, the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America inaugurated an alliance...that will allow them to share clergy members, churches and missionary work." Each "church will retain its own structure and worship style," but the contract, "Called to Common Mission," "brings together two denominations that have long been separated by fundamental differences over the role and authority of bishops." The alliance was celebrated...

Source: The Washington Post

On January 7, 2001, The Washington Post reported the conversion of thousands of Latinos nationwide to Islam. Hispanics are "the country's fastest-growing ethnic group," and Islam is "the nation's fastest-growing religion." There are 1 billion Muslims worldwide, and "the Muslim population in the United States is estimated at more than 4 million, nearly six times the number in 1970." The American Muslim Council, an advocacy group in Washington, estimates that 25,000 of these are Hispanic. "The largest communities are in New York...

Source: St. Petersburg Times

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/

On January 6, 2001, the St. Petersburg Times reported on this year's celebration of Epiphany, "one of the holiest days of the year in the Greek Orthodox Church." Because it falls on a Saturday, as many as 30,000 people, about twice the usual number, are expected in Tarpon Springs, FL. The ceremony at Spring Bayou is "the largest of its kind in the Western hemisphere" and "commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ...

Source: Daily News (New York)

On January 6, 2001, the New York Daily News reported on American Armenians' celebration of Christmas this year. "Armenians celebrate it Jan. 6 because they use both lunar and solar calculations to set dates for religious holidays....Millions of other Christians - almost all members of Eastern Orthodox churches established after a split with Rome in the 11th century - celebrate Christmas tomorrow, but "for most Christians, Jan. 6 is...the Epiphany, which, depending on church doctrine or tradition, celebrates the three kings'...

Source: Dallas Morning News

On January 6, 2001, the Dallas Morning News reported on the "Called to Common Mission" agreement between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church. The agreement "will allow the two churches...to swap clergy and share mission projects." The agreement was ratified by Lutherans in 1999 and by Episcopals in 2000.

Source: Los Angeles Times

On January 6, 2001, the Los Angeles Times reported on Christian Unity Week, which begins Jan. 18 with a concert in Orange County. "The unity week will feature eight days of prayer and two programs designed to bring together Christian denominations." The Times calls the event "a promising truce in the bitter near-1,000-year family squabble between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches....The Great Schism of 1054 between the Roman Catholic church in the West and the Orthodox church in the East...

Source: The Tampa Tribune

On January 6, 2001, The Tampa Tribune reported that Hillsborough County's proposed 2001-2002 school calendar "includes a day off in September coinciding with the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The calendar also shows a spring break from March 25 to April 1, 2002, which would span both Easter and Passover." Jewish parents call the proposed changes to the calendar "a step in the right direction." Phyllis Rogoff, a Jewish parent who served on the district's calendar committee, said the changes...