Sunday, June 2, 2013, will be different from all the Sundays that preceded it. It will be a friendlier, more cheerful and more affirming day. Gone will be the rancor and demeaning verbiage. Across the nation churches will celebrate the Seventh Annual Say Something Nice Sunday. As bullying has escalated in all walks of life including some churches, the imperative to be more Christ-like in our speech takes on even greater significance.
It’s arguably the fastest-growing religious movement in the world. Yet, despite increasing from less than 1 million adherents at the beginning of the 20th century to as many as 614 million today, the story behind the “spectacular rise of global Pentecostalism” has gone largely untold.
Pope Francis on Wednesday told leaders of women’s orders from around the world to be “fertile” spiritual mothers in the Catholic Church, not “spinsters.”
The number of people attending Sunday services at Britain’s Anglican churches is continuing to drop, but church officials say there are signs that the decline is starting to stabilize.
A Korean-American sentenced to 15 years hard labour in North Korea was a missionary who used his tourism business to form groups to overthrow the government, the state’s Supreme Court said.
Kenneth Bae, 44, was sentenced earlier this month after being detained late last year leading a tour group in the North Korean city of Rason, on the border with China.
The Historical Society of Church of God Movements announces its upcoming 12th annual meeting for Thursday, May 30, 2013. This year’s theme is “A Study of R.G. Spurling: His Legacy and Influence” and focuses on the founder of the Christian Union, which later gave rise to the various Church of God groups prominent in Pentecostalism. The meeting will be held near Spurling’s home area at the “First Assembly House” adjacent to Fields of the Wood at 10000 Highway 294 near Murphy, North Carolina.
