Nestled in the mountains of Southwest Germany in the heart of the historic Black Forest, the Church of God’s European Theological Seminary (ETS) annually trains dozens of future church leaders from across Europe, the former Soviet countries, and the Middle East.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the lower court orders involving the emergency petition of Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry. The Court stated in its order:

“The application for injunctive relief, presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court, is treated as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment, and the petition is granted. The September 2 order of the United States District Court for the Central District of California is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with instructions to remand to the District Court for further consideration in light of Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, 592 U. S. ___ (2020).”

Tuesday, Liberty Counsel filed the final reply brief to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding its request for an injunction pending appeal in the churches’ federal lawsuit against California Governor Gavin Newsom’s unconstitutional worship ban and discriminatory treatment. The emergency petition also requested the extraordinary relief that the Court alternatively consider it as a petition for writ of cert before judgment. Today, the Supreme Court granted the petition, vacated the lower court orders, and remanded the case for further consideration in light of its ruling last week that granted an injunction pending appeal for churches and synagogues in New York.

The restrictions against places of worship in California are more severe than those in New York. Governor Gavin Newsom’s orders ban ALL in-person worship for 99.1 percent of Californians.

Harvest Rock Church has multiple campuses in California, including in Pasadena, Los Angeles, Irvine and Corona. Harvest International Ministries (HIM) has 162 member churches throughout the state. Irreparable harm is being suffered every day as the churches remain subject to the unconstitutional restrictions, coupled with daily criminal threats, fines, and closure.

The Code Enforcement Division for the City of Pasadena and the Criminal Prosecutor have threatened criminal charges, fines, and closure for being open for worship against the governor’s orders and local health orders. The letters threaten up to one year in prison, daily criminal charges and $1,000 fines against the pastors, staff, and parishioners.

The discrimination has become more obvious and severe in Gov. Newsom’s new “Blueprint” issued on August 28, 2020, which established a system of four Tiers. The “Blueprint” discriminates against religious meetings in churches and places of worship in every Tier. The chart attached to the petition makes this discrimination very clear. For example, the consequence of the sea of purple in the “color-coded executive edict” is that indoor worship services are completely prohibited for 99.1 percent of Californians, including most of Harvest Rock and HIM churches. However, warehouses, big box centers, shopping malls, liquors stores, family entertainment and destination centers, gyms, fitness centers, and museums receive preferential treatment with either no capacity limits or no numerical limits.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court provides great relief for churches and places of worship. The handwriting is now on the wall. The final days of Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘color-coded executive edicts’ banning worship are numbered and coming to an end. It is past time to end these unconstitutional restrictions on places of worship.”

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(SOURCE: Liberty Counsel via Christian Newswire)

A former drug addict, Leon du Preez doesn’t care what it takes to carry out his mission. No matter what, he has vowed to bring the gospel and a supernatural encounter to the next generation in South Africa, even if it costs him his life.

On Friday and Saturday, December 4-5, 2020, the office of Church of God Church Planting will launch its first virtual Church Planters Launch Intensive, live-streamed from the T.L. Lowery Global Ministry Center in partnership with Dr. Bryan Cutshall and the International School of the Word (ISOW).

Richard Rossi was a maverick minister in Pittsburgh when he discovered televangelists faking miracles for money. He vented his anger with writing. Rossi journeyed from scripture to script, writing “Canaan Land” a novel about a con-man preacher who falls in love with a sincere Christian and repents of fleecing the flock.

Orlando’s One School of the Arts has found a unique way to bring creative, real-life learning and community to the virtual classroom.

Michael Nations, founding director of The VITAL Initiative, along with Church of God General Overseer Dr. Tim Hill, will host a gathering for pastors via Zoom on Monday December 7, 2020 at 8:00 EST.

Spanning three weeks in January and covering five states, pro-life advocates from around the Midwest will gather in multiple locations leading up to the March for Life Chicago. The march, an annual event, draws thousands from across the Midwest to celebrate all human life from conception through natural death. Overseen by weDignify and dozens of local organizations, this year’s March for Life Chicago will lead the Midwest pro-life movement in voicing its support for life in a new way – through the Moving the Movement, a multicity tour with stops in Des Moines, IA, Indianapolis, IN, Omaha, NE, Madison, WI, Mundelein IL, and Fort Wayne, IN, in the weeks leading up to the March for Life Chicago downtown in the Chicago loop.

Los Angeles County issued a new stay-at-home order taking effect today that clearly protects faith-based services from being shut down.