Baptist (BWA)-Catholic dialogue: Representatives of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Baptist World Alliance held the second meeting of a four-year dialogue Dec. 2-8 at the Vatican.... More...

Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rate, Report Finds: More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life... More...

Surveys find Americans tolerant of religious beliefs: When it comes to religion, modern Americans think religious beliefs are good, but they tend to worry about beliefs that affect other people. As a rule, religious words are safer than religious actions. Consider these numbers from a new Ellison Research study... More...

Vatican prepares for meeting with Muslims: The first meetings were held earlier this week at the Vatican to prepare for the visit of representatives of the 138 Muslim scholars who have offered to conduct interreligious dialogue... More...

Survey: Non-attendees find faith outside church: More than one in five (22%) of Americans say they never go to church, the highest ever recorded by the General Social Survey, conducted every two years by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago... More...

Christian Churches Together (CCT) adds seven new members: The fledgling U.S. ecumenical grouping that has quickly become one of the largest and broadest-based ever in the country — wrapped up its second annual meeting Jan. 11 by adding seven new member organizations... More...

Protestants Verging on Becoming Minorities: Protestants are on the verge of becoming a statistical minority in the U.S., according to a study released today. Whereas nearly two thirds of Americans identified themselves as Protestant as recently as the 1980s, only 51 percent identify as Protestant today... More... 

The Evangelical Crackup: Immanuel has stood for Southern Baptist traditionalism for more than half a century. Until recently, its pastor, Terry Fox, was the Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State — the public face of the conservative Christian political movement... More... 

Orthodox, Catholics recognize pope's primacy, disagree on authority: Orthodox and Roman Catholics recognize that the bishop of Rome has primacy among all the world's bishops, although they disagree on the extent to which his leadership translates... More... 

The Truth About Israel & Sabbath/Sunday Legislation: The faithful Jewish remnant people like Orthodox and conservative movements will never give up the Sabbath for Sunday. We have to say and to preach that. If there is a remnant church, there is a remnant Israel which will keep faithfully the law of God... More...

Pope, in Austria, Says Sunday Must Be Protected as Day of Worship: Celebrating Mass in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral, Pope Benedict XVI urged Austrian Catholics to protect Sunday as a day of spiritual focus in an increasingly busy world... More...

Pope's Homily from Sunday Mass at St. Stephen's in Vienna: “Sine dominico non possumus!” Without the gift of the Lord, without the Lord’s day, we cannot live: That was the answer given in the year 304 by Christians from Abitene in present-day Tunisia, when they were caught celebrating the forbidden Sunday Eucharist... More... 

Mainstream Protestants, Adventists Make Efforts to Remove 'Stereotypes': Recently coming out of conversations with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Dr. Sheldon Sorge of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) noted, "We have mutual misunderstandings. I think one of the misunderstandings and stereotypes is [that] this group (Adventists) is a 'cult' because of their unique practice of Sabbath... More...

Towards an Ethical Approach to Conversion - Christian Witness in a Multi-religious World: The World Evangelical Alliance, together with Pentecostals from the United States were invited by the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID), to participate in a consultation entitled "Towards an Ethical Approach to Conversion - Christian Witness in a Multi-religious World" held in... More... 

Papal Diplomacy: God's Ambassadors: The job of representing the pope in Burundi brings with it a fine colonial villa, but nobody would say Archbishop Paul Gallagher has an enviable post. In 2003 his predecessor, Archbishop Michael Courtney, died in a hail of bullets... More... 

Evangelicals back other Christians on conversion code of conduct: A World Evangelical Alliance theologian says his grouping of Christians that stresses its proclamation of the Gospel is ready to support a code of conduct on seeking conversions to Christianity commonly agreed... More...  

China's House Churches Grow Despite Persecution:  Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ commanded His followers to take His Gospel to the ends of the earth. This command, known as the Great Commission has yet to be completed. But a movement out of China believes an inspiring vision will help them and Christians worldwide to fulfill that command, possibly within this generation... More...

On Guard for Religious Liberty: The Reverend John Leland was not a man to mince words when it comes to religion and politics. Candidates who advertise their personal faith, he insisted, should be avoided by... More...

Building a Wall Between Church and Hate: In a telling turn on a much-used phrase, former World Vision president Ambassador Robert Seiple today urged IRLA World Congress participants to promote “the separation of church and hate. This has been an extraordinary year for our issue of religious freedom,” noted Seiple, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious liberty... More...