Religion and Faith

Clergy on the pandemic front lines: 'How do we really grieve?'
The work of ministering to the sick and consoling the grieving has been a heavy burden for many faith leaders in the time of COVID-19.
Mobile ‘strike team’ brings COVID vaccine to the most vulnerable
Because of their age and their close living arrangements, the nuns at St. Benedict’s Monastery are at high risk from the coronavirus. But traveling to a clinic or hospital to get a vaccination would be a challenge for many of them. So, the vaccine came to them.
California to revise indoor church guidelines after Supreme Court ruling
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said Saturday it will issue revised guidelines for indoor church services after the Supreme Court lifted the state's ban on indoor worship during the coronavirus pandemic, but left in place restrictions on singing and chanting.
Through grief, Hmong families torn between honoring the dead, keeping loved ones safe during COVID
In normal times, relatives and friends would gather for days or weeks, cooking side by side and consoling one another as part of the funeral proceedings. But with COVID-19 ravaging through the community, they’re left wrestling with how to plan a funeral that won’t be as big and lavish as they imagined.
'We will continue on': White Earth doctor finds hope, resilience in connection despite pandemic
Native nations in Minnesota managed the early months of the coronavirus pandemic with relatively few cases and deaths. But that changed in the fall, as COVID-19 cases and deaths surged. A doctor helping lead the coronavirus response for the White Earth Nation talks about fighting the virus with science and spiritual practices.
'How did we get here?' A call for an evangelical reckoning on Trump
Evangelicals, says Ed Stetzer of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, should start to reckon with their own behaviors and actions that may have helped fuel the insurrection at the Capitol.
For one woman in recovery, staying sober during a pandemic has been a lesson in resilience
For most of her adult life, sobriety has been hard for Heather Russell to maintain. When the pandemic hit, she worried she’d go back to drinking, after nearly a year of sobriety. Instead, Russell says 2020 was a lesson in tapping resilience she didn’t know she had.
Pope on Christmas: Vaccines for all; needy, vulnerable first
Instead of speaking in front of a crowd of thousands, Pope Francis delivered his Christmas Day message from inside a hall at the Apostolic Palace and urged authorities to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy.
At the Vatican, a Christmas Eve Mass shaped by the pandemic
Only 100 or so people attended the service, and they wore masks and socially distanced. The Mass began two hours early so all could make it home before Italy's virus curfew.