Source: Dayton Daily News

On June 28, 2001, the Dayton Daily News reported that Ashton McDaniel is the newly elected president of Church Women United in Greater Dayton. "Church Women United is an ecumenical movement of Christian women who witness to their faith through worship, study, action, celebration and global relationships." It is open to all denominations.

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

On June 27, 2001, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the nation's Reform rabbis are expected to make major changes in conversion guidelines today by embracing, for the first time in 100 years, traditional rituals such as circumcision long required by the other two branches of Judaism."

Source: cair-net

On June 27, 2001, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported that "Bret Schundler, the mayor of Jersey City, N.J., won the Republican nomination for governor..., defeating a former congressman in a race tainted by accusations of Islamophobia." Schundler had been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for speaking at a meeting of the American Muslim Alliance on the grounds that AMA's leaders had challenged policies of the state of Israel. Schundler said that "he would be caving in to anti-Muslim bigotry if he shunned AMA representatives...

Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette

On June 27, 2001, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that "the [Westboro, Massachusetts] Board of Selectmen...approved a menorah display for the downtown rotary in December, reversing its earlier position on the issue...Selectmen worried that allowing a menorah display would open it to any number of unwanted displays...Westboro Town Counsel Alan F. Dodd said in a report to selectmen last night that the town cannot forbid the free exchange of ideas at the rotary."

Source: The Seattle Times

On June 27, 2001, The Seattle Times reported that "students would be permitted to say nondisruptive prayers in the classroom, and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny could be part of holiday displays in school hallways, under proposed policy changes that will be presented tonight to the Kent School Board. The changes would replace strict guidelines the district put into effect last fall," that drew objections from students, parents and others.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

On June 27, 2001, The Christian Science Monitor reported that, "even if [Bush's faith-based initiative] makes it through a thicket of opposition in Congress, recent experience shows that synagogues, churches, and mosques are often reluctant to embark on social-service crusades, including government-funded ones...As one minister [said], 'With the government's shekels come the government's shackles.'"

Source: The Providence Journal-Bulletin

On June 26, 2001, The Providence Journal-Bulletin reported that "delegates to the Biennial Meeting of the American Baptist Churches-USA voted by a ratio of 4 to 1 to approve a statement highly critical of [Bush's faith-based initiative] but without enough votes to make it official...The debate [at the meeting] made clear that the issue of separation of church and state remains a fundamental concern for American Baptists."

Source: The New York Times

On June 26, 2001, The New York Times reported that "16 United States senators are at loggerheads with 18 bishops from various denominations...The senators...have urged the department to drop [an] enforcement effort, in which inspectors found wage violations at...51 poultry plants [and told the plants to pay $350 million in back wages]...But the religious leaders want the Labor Department to press ahead, saying the poultry workers need the government's protection."

Source: The Hartford Courant

On June 24, 2001, The Hartford Courant reported on "Little Italy" in southern Hartford. "To...walk the...streets of southern Hartford in 2001 is to see a multicultural postcard -- groups of white, black and Latino [people]...Many of the newest ethnic arrivals are white Europeans -- Albanians and Bosnians fleeing racial and religious persecution...'The Italian South End' as a residential community has been remade through a dramatic population shift during the 1990s...The city must make the quality of life in the South End a...

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On June 23, 2001, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that "thousands of Baha'i believers, followers of a faith whose teachings say the time has come for all people to be unified in a single global society, will converge on Milwaukee next week for a national conference unlike any they have held before... Invitations...have gone out to 10,000 non-Baha'is across the country...'This conference is specifically designed to demonstrate not only to the Baha'is but to the general public the community building aspects of a...

Source: The Boston Globe

On June 23, 2001, The Boston Globe reported on Ukraine, "an extraordinarily tense spot on the map of world religion, where three branches of Orthodoxy and two branches of Catholocism vie with one another, with Protestant missionaries, and with the legacy of 70 years of state-enforced atheism. 'Ukraine is ground zero of Orthodox-Catholic tension in the late 20th and early 21st century, and the tension has spilled onto the international scene,' said one member of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. "From the vantage point of...

Source: The Morning Call

On June 23, 2001, the Allentown Morning Call reported on the Columcille Megalith Park near Bangor, in Pennsylvania. "The park is a spiritual retreat and meditation sanctuary for the public...in Upper Mount Bethel Township...Today...Columcille holds its annual Summer Solstice Celebration... Historically, sacred rituals held at megalith sites signaled such seasonal crossings... The array of activities at [the] event is symbolic of that New Age philosophy that draws equally on Celtic legend. The sacred sounds of Native American...

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On June 23, 2001, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Southside Bosnian Services Collaborative in St. Louis, which is an organization formed last year to help Bosnians in the region. It is composed of representatives from 40 organizations, including south St. Louis churches, Christian faith-based social agencies, medical clinics and hospitals. Several churches are trying to make Bosnian immigrants in the region feel more welcome.

Source: Newsday

On June 23, 2001, Newsday reported that many Catholics have begun practicing Zen, a Buddhist form of meditation. One of them explained that "practicing meditation doesn't mean you have to give up your Catholic faith. I find it helps me to bring more to...my Catholic exercises." Another said "he believes Zen is becoming more popular because the world 'is shifting away from the dogmatic religion and moving toward a meditative type of spirituality.'"

Source: Religion...