Weekly religion news roundup (September 5-11, 2025)
Photograph by Utsav Srestha via Unsplash
Rev. Dr. Anna Piela
National Baptists feature first woman preacher at evening service in annual meeting. The Rev. Tracey L. Brown of New Jersey became the first woman ever to preach at the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.’s annual meeting, a 145-year-old historically Black denomination. She said she felt “humbled and honored,” and scholars noted how local churches were ahead of the denomination’s leadership in recognizing women’s preaching roles. (Religion News Service)
One of the world's most sacred places is being turned into a luxury mega-resort. For years, visitors would venture up Mount Sinai with a Bedouin guide to watch the sunrise over the pristine, rocky landscape or go on other Bedouin-led hikes. Now one of Egypt's most sacred places - revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims - is at the heart of an unholy row over plans to turn it into a new tourism mega-project. (BBC News)
Carlo Acutis, ‘God’s influencer’ who died age 15, declared a saint by Pope Leo.
A London-born Italian teenager, who died in 2006, built websites to spread Catholic teaching and is now canonized as the Catholic Church’s first “millennial saint,” alongside 20th-century Catholic activist Pier Giorgio Frassati. (The Guardian)
How coca leaves remain central to daily life and tradition in Bolivia. In Bolivia, the coca leaf continues to be sacred and deeply integrated into cultural, medicinal, spiritual, and social practices, even amid global controversies about its association with illicit drug trade. (AP News)
Minnesota churches are sharing land with homeless people. They say it’s the Christian thing to do. In the Twin Cities region, three churches are building or establishing tiny homes to offer shelter for people without housing, arguing that this ministry of hospitality is a concrete expression of Christian faith. (Star Tribune)
Each Friday in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.
As Africa prepares for COP30, Catholic bishops urge African-led climate solutions. At the Second Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, Catholic bishops (alongside interfaith leaders) called for climate solutions that are rooted in African communities and driven by local agency — not foreign agendas. They emphasized justice, renewable energies, respect for cultural heritage, and moral clarity in addressing climate change and ecological debt. (Religion News Service)
At NatCon, a confusing resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment. The National Conservatism Conference’s negative focus on Islam makes for a potential preview of what conservatives will be concerned with in the next year, especially in midterm election campaigns. (Religion News Service)
MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk shot dead in Utah. Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old Christian nationalist political activist and founder of Turning Point USA, was shot dead during an event he was hosting Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University near Provo. (Baptist News Global)
Faith communities unite to fight hunger. Congregations across cultural and theological lines must see hunger as an affront to justice and unite in the struggle to eradicate food insecurity, according to a new campaign launched by Church World Service. (Baptist News Global)
A US Orthodox influencer spoke against Russia’s war. Then, she was ousted as a nun. Before 2022, Sister Vassa Larin was best known as an Orthodox nun who taught thousands on YouTube about saints and holy days. She became one of the most prominent female intellectuals in Orthodoxy — widely respected within the highly patriarchal religion where all clergy and bishops are male. (AP News)
Rev. Dr. Anna Piela is senior writer at American Baptist Home Mission Societies and assistant editor of The Christian Citizen.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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