Church

Alethea Allen, a Virginia resident, graduated this week from Wesley Theological Seminary in Northwest Washington after years of divinity classes. But she has no intention of becoming a minister. Instead, Allen plans to keep practicing as a pediatrician in the Winchester area. Her seminary training, she said, will help her be a better doctor. Allen is one of an increasing number of divinity students who don't plan to become pastors. Instead, they envision using their degrees to "minister" in any number of professions,...

PARIS — Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head. It's the first suicide in decades at the landmark site, Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, the cathedral's rector, told The Associated Press. "It's unfortunate, it's dramatic, it's shocking," Jacquin said. The motives for the suicide, and the contents of the man's letter, were unclear.

A Montgomery County Circuit Court lawsuit accuses past and current leaders of a 100-church evangelical denomination of covering up sexual abuse of minors, forcing small children to "forgive" abusers and ostracizing families who wouldn't hide the alleged crimes. The lawsuit filed Friday adds more accusers and more accused to a complaint filed last fall against Sovereign Grace Ministries, a movement founded in the 1970s in Gaithersburg. Among those named now is co-founder Larry Tomczak, who was...

The Supreme Court said Monday that it will review whether a New York town council that starts most of its meetings with a Christian prayer violates the separation of church and state. The court decided 30 years ago, in a case involving the Nebraska legislature, that legislative meetings that open with a prayer do not violate the First Amendment's prohibition of government-established religion as long as they do not advance a single faith. But a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

The night before his Sept. 5 wedding, all of Hannibal Jackson's groomsmen went out on the town. Jackson returned instead to his hotel room, opened his Bible, and bowed his head. Prayer brought him to this juncture, Jackson believed, so it would be prayer that ushered him through his last night of single life. In telling the story of how he came to marry Kellie Williams, the actress who played Laura Winslow in the '90s sitcom "Family Matters," Jackson, 33, starts in October 2001.

Over the past 150 years, Seventh-day Adventists have built one of Christianity's most inventive and prosperous churches — while praying for the world to end as soon as possible. A small band of believers has mushroomed to more than 17 million baptized members, including 1.2 million in the U.S. Nearly 8,000 Adventists schools dot dozens of countries. Hundreds of church-owned hospitals and clinics mend minds and bodies around the world. You might expect Adventists to celebrate their success...

Anne Graham Lotz enunciated precisely, speaking in distinctive clipped cadences reminiscent of her famous father, evangelist Billy Graham. She was calling to talk about her new book, "The Magnificent Obsession: Embracing the God-Filled Life," but of course she was willing to give an update on how "Daddy Bill" is doing. "He'll be 91 in November," said Lotz, the second of Graham's five children. "He has a hard time seeing and walking, but his mind is clear. He's very affectionate and content.

If you want some God with your grits, plan to show up around 9 a.m. That's when the line starts forming for the first of two gospel brunches held each Sunday at the Hamilton, a nightclub that opened in December in the shell of a shuttered Borders bookstore on 14th and F streets NW. Queues used to wrap around this corner in the name of Harry Potter. Now, the Sunday morning scrum includes churchgoers, church skippers, extended families and hung-over tourists, all eager to hear a choir deliver the good news...

The historic significance of the day was not lost on the congregation that packed St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Foggy Bottom two Sundays ago. People from across the region gathered to celebrate the anniversary of a church founded 145 years ago . They also had come to hear the morning's prized speaker: the 82nd attorney general of the United States, and the first African American, Eric H. Holder Jr. St. Mary's, the church my wife,...

I've been bad-mouthing organized religion since the late '70s, when my father had a spiritual epiphany on our living room couch and announced that he wasn't going to church anymore. My mom had always been a member of the Drinking-Coffee-Alone-in-My-House Church, so that was the end of that. But then, last March, in a perfect storm of personal calamity, my marriage imploded the same week that my best girlfriend and I broke up. The events weren't directly related, but it was colossally bad timing.

CANTERBURY, England — The Church of Scotland's General Assembly on Monday (May 20) passed a historic vote to allow actively gay men and lesbians to become ordained ministers. After more than six hours of debate, more than 700 commissioners attending the Presbyterian church's 2013 General Assembly in Edinburgh voted in favor of gay ministers, but in a mind toward compromise agreed to allow parishes that disagree to opt out of the new rules. The decision will now need to be endorsed by the church's 48 regional...

LONDON — Senior members of the Church of Scotland voted Monday to let some congregations choose ministers who are in same-sex relationships — an important compromise that must still pass further hurdles before it can become church law. The church's General Assembly backed a motion affirming a traditional conservative view on homosexuality, but permitted liberal congregations to ordain openly gay men or women if they wish. The assembly's vote would require the...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a new case on the intersection of religion and government in a dispute over prayers used to open public meetings. The justices said they will review an appeals court ruling that held that the town of Greece in suburban Rochester in upstate New York violated the Constitution by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the town should...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is calling for renewal in the Catholic church as he wrapped up two days of mass gatherings in St. Peter's Square aimed at energizing the faithful. About 200,000 people turned out Sunday for Mass celebrated by Francis, about the same size crowd that came to a pep rally for Catholics that the pope led the night before in the square. Francis urged his church to be more welcoming and avoid closing in on itself. But he warned that faithful should avoid...

When Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church moved to the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE nearly three decades ago, it was surrounded by urban blight. But on a recent Sunday, Pastor Alfred Owens wiped a tear from his eyes as he stood along the stretch of Rhode Island that is now home not only to the church, but the church's food bank, family-life center and thrift shop. Looming over it all: A new street sign reading "Greater Mount Calvary Way. " "I am overwhelmed by the...

Alethea Allen, a Virginia resident, graduated this week from Wesley Theological Seminary in Northwest Washington after years of divinity classes. But she has no intention of becoming a minister. Instead, Allen plans to keep practicing as a pediatrician in the Winchester area. Her seminary training, she said, will help her be a better doctor. Allen is one of an increasing number of divinity students who don't plan to become pastors. Instead, they envision using their degrees to "minister" in any...

A board of trustees selected by the late Apostle Betty R. Peebles, co-founder of Jericho City of Praise in Landover, on Wednesday fired her only surviving child, the Rev. Joel R. Peebles, as acting pastor and stripped him of membership in the church his parents created more than 40 years ago. Peebles, 42, the sole survivor of the Peebles family, said he was notified in writing of his dismissal just after 1 p.m. Wednesday, when he arrived at the...

Places of worship have long been informal breeding grounds for business relationships and deals among people who become close friends or professional allies. And although not everyone might think church is an appropriate place to form such alliances, members of one Prince William County church have started a group expressly for that purpose — to harness the church's networking potential and foster business relationships while delivering a dose of spirituality. Organizers of the Park Valley Business...

SALT LAKE CITY — The wife of the Mormon church's president shied away from the spotlight, but her lifelong work behind the scenes left a lasting impression on those who knew her. Frances B. Monson, 85, died early Friday at a hospital in Salt Lake City surrounded by her family, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said. Her daughter, Ann Dibb, said her mom was a supportive wife, a proud mother and one heck of a fixer-upper around the house. "My mother was just a woman who...

A house fire that killed a mother and daughter has been ruled accidental, fire officials in Fairfax County announced Thursday. Investigators said they traced the blaze , which ripped through a single-story home on Manor Road in Falls Church early in the morning on Jan. 23, to a wall-mounted natural gas heater in the living room. The exact point of failure could not be determined, officials said. The fire claimed the lives of 48-year-old Laura Snyder-Gardner, a math professor...