World Religions News

NEW YORK (RNS) — New York Zendo Shobo-ji was quiet on a Saturday morning in late June, far removed from the muted hum and chatter that lingers in Lenox Hill, in Upper Manhattan, even on rainy summer days.

Inside, a small group of young adults sat zazen as an ordained member of the Triratna order led them through a mindfulness meditation. “Be aware of the sounds around you, the quality of the air,” the practice leader said. As if on cue, a bird began cooing in the temple’s garden.

The fact that everyone in attendance was on the younger side was by design: The practice is part of the Young Buddhist Initiative, a program designed to help those age 35 and under explore Buddhist teachings and meditation — no experience needed. Previous sessions have covered topics such as mindfulness, the three poisons (greed, hatred and delusion, the root mental states that Buddhists say cause human suffering) and the meaning of enlightenment.

The initiative is run by the Triratna Buddhist Community of New York and New Jersey, part of the international Triratna Buddhist Community founded in 1967 by Sangharakshita, the British spiritual teacher born as Dennis Lingwood. “Triratna” refers to the Three Jewels or Three Refuges of Buddhism: the Buddha, Dharma (the Buddha’s teachings) and Sangha (the Buddhist community). The fellowship describes itself as bringing Buddhist traditions into the modern world in a way that suits contemporary lives.

In the United Kingdom, young people’s retreats can attract more than 100 attendees; in the United States, it’s just getting started. While the New York-area branch doesn’t have a permanent headquarters, it runs regular Zoom events as well as in-person meetings and retreats at various locations, such as New York Zendo Shobo-ji.

Ananta, who goes by a single name and is CEO of the nonprofit Karuna USA, led the recent day’s practice, guiding the meditation from awareness of one’s breath, body and surroundings to a reflection and discussion on recent actions that participants felt either proud of or guilty about — not to be deemed morally good or bad but to reflect on and let go.

“Experiences are preceded by mind, led by mind, and produced by mind,” he read from the Dhammapada, a collection of the Buddha’s sayings. “If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows even as the cart wheel follows the hoof of the ox … If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.”

The Young Buddhist Initiative began out of a desire to create a nurturing space where young people could support each other in their spiritual practice. Ananta came across Buddhism at age 18 through a meditation group at his university in London and knows the value of having a cohort of like-minded peers. “There are people like you who also have spiritual aspirations and are interested in leading a particular lifestyle. That can be very supportive.”

Tamojyoti, an ordained member of the Triratna community who goes by a single name, agreed. “We just have a different consciousness than young people. And I think maybe why those young people groups work so well is because that consciousness can flourish,” she said.

One of the attendees at the session, Kizzy Joseph, a 28-year-old therapist from Brooklyn, was seeking to have conversations about spirituality with people in her age group and had been looking for Buddhist spaces across the city. Most groups she found took a too-intellectual approach to Buddhism, skewed older or were predominantly white.

Headed to her first meeting with the Young Buddhist Initiative, Joseph feared she would be the only Black person in the room. “To my happy surprise, there were three other women of color and another person of color — I think they identify as nonbinary. I was really surprised by how diverse the space was.”

According to the 2023 PRRI Census of American Religion, the average age of a U.S. Buddhist is 52, but survey numbers come with the caveat that gathering statistics about Buddhists is difficult, as many people, like Joseph, engage in Buddhist beliefs and practices without formally identifying as Buddhist.

Protestant by birth, Joseph became unhappy with the rigid religious structure she was raised in and began exploring different approaches to spirituality in her teens. She feels a “gentle calling” toward Buddhism and finds it less forceful than the faith of her childhood, but doesn’t define herself as a Buddhist. In her personal life, she also practices ancestor veneration and Reiki.

Still, the Young Buddhist Initiative provides something that she hadn’t found in other spaces: a feeling of connectedness and emotional safety. 

“It’s first and foremost about creating an environment where people of all ages, including younger people, feel comfortable and welcome. One of the things I’m noticing is that we have a number of transgender people that are young, and so I think it feels almost like the environment is open and welcoming for everyone,” said Michael King, a 58-year-old New Yorker who has been attending Triratna meetings and practices for four years. (Despite its name, New York’s Triratna practice attendee ages typically range from 40 to 60, hewing closely to PRRIs national average.)

The group tries its best to cultivate that environment. Those in attendance at the late June session spoke quietly but frankly about fights in personal relationships or embarrassing moments at work, receiving acceptance, not judgement, in return. A break for tea and cookies in the temple’s kitchen made room for casual conversation. When it was time to discuss karma and hypothetical moral situations, we were reminded that it’s not about a strict binary of “good” or “bad,” but “skilled” or “unskilled”: that is, aligned with Buddhist precepts and leading to either happy or unhappy results.

The five precepts of Buddhism — abstaining from killing living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and intoxication — were also interpreted through a modern lens. Alcohol, for example, was considered not to be bad if used moderately; on the other hand, mindlessly scrolling through social media could become a form of intoxication. The group discussed white lies, supporting friends and power dynamics, never landing on an answer that was considered universally correct.

For Tamojyoti, Buddhism can provide a way to transform the anxiety that many young people feel in response to the state of the world into action. “Young people want to stand for something, and Buddhism is all about your truth, your values, interconnection, compassion.”

“If we’re going to change the way this world is operating, it’s going to happen through young people,” King said, expressing a desire for young people to come to the Dharma and make an impact. “I think a lot of people in my generation have wanted to live more of a Dharmic life, meaning that we’re pulling away from those structures. But those structures can’t change unless we’re in there changing them.”

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. / Credit: USCCB video

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 18, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has called for peace and an “immediate ceasefire” following the bombing of the only Catholic church in Gaza.

“With the Holy Father, the Catholic bishops of the United States are deeply saddened to learn about the deaths and injuries at Holy Family Church in Gaza caused by a military strike,” Broglio wrote in a Thursday statement. 

The July 17 Israeli strike killed three people and injured nine others, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.

“Our first concern, naturally, goes out to Father Gabriel Romanelli and all his parishioners, most especially to the families of those killed,” Broglio said. “Our prayers are for them during these tragic times.”

The statement follows a message from Pope Leo XIV on the social media platform X that said: “I commend the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of Almighty God and pray for their families and the injured. I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Only dialogue and reconciliation can ensure enduring peace!”

In agreement, Broglio wrote: “With the Holy Father, we also continue to pray and advocate for dialogue and an immediate ceasefire. Yesterday was the memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel; through her intercession, may there be peace in Gaza.”

On Friday, CNA reported that Pope Leo received a phone call from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, following yesterday’s Israel Defense Forces attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza.

During the conversation, the Holy Father renewed his call for the urgent reactivation of the negotiation process in order to establish a ceasefire and end the war. He expressed his deep concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the urgent need to protect places of worship “and the faithful and all people living in both Palestine and Israel.”

Human embryos. / Credit: Andrii Vodolazhskyi/CNA

CNA Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Here is a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related news.

California couple that had 21 kids via surrogate mothers charged with neglect, endangerment

A California couple that had 21 children via surrogacy has been charged with felony child endangerment and neglect.

Authorities also alleged that their nannies were physically abusing the children. 

Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, own a mansion in Arcadia and a business called Mark Surrogacy. 

Unbeknownst to the surrogate mothers the couple was working with, the embryos the mothers were carrying belonged to the company owners — and each embryo was one of many. 

Seventeen of the children are toddlers or infants, and the oldest is 13. All 21 children have since been taken in by the state Department of Children and Family Services.

The investigation took place after a 2-month-old child was brought into a hospital with a traumatic brain injury.

Cops alleged that the family nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, had injured the baby and committed other abuses. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Li shaking and hitting the infant. Footage also showed other nannies abusing the children, according to the authorities. 

Federal court upholds West Virginia ban on abortion drugs

The 4th Circuit Court has upheld West Virginia’s ban on chemical abortion, ruling that the law cannot be overridden by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations.

Mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPro asked the court to strike down West Virginia’s protections for unborn children against chemical abortion, arguing that the FDA has the final say in whether drugs are legal.

In a 45-page opinion by Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson III, the court found that in approving the drug, the FDA “did not create a right to utilize any particular high-risk drug” simultaneously. Rather, the FDA regulations constitute the “minimum safety rules for administering drugs like mifepristone where they may be legally prescribed.”

March for Life President Jennie Bradley Lichter called the decision “huge,” noting that it meant that a state could ban a federally approved drug.

It was the first time a federal appeals court had said states can restrict mifepristone use.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said the decision was a “big win.”

“West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life,” Morrisey stated. “We will always be a pro-life state!” 

8 babies born via IVF from DNA of 3 people

Eight healthy babies were born via an in vitro fertilization procedure where doctors created embryos with DNA from three people.

The United Kingdom made the procedure legal in 2015 and granted the first license in 2017 to a fertility clinic at Newcastle University.

The doctors used the third-party DNA to prevent children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders. The mothers were at risk for passing on life-threatening diseases to their babies, but the babies have no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they were at risk of inheriting. Four boys and four girls — including one set of identical twins — were born to the seven women.

We’re blessed to have so many professional activists who fight back on behalf of Jews and Israel, why not begin a movement of Jews who fight forward?

The post Jews Must Fight Back, But Also Fight Forward appeared first on Jewish Journal.

NEW YORK (RNS) — More than two dozen members of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, dressed as if for a Sunday service, filled a lower Manhattan courtroom Thursday morning (July 17)  to attend the first hearing in a lawsuit seeking to remove the Rev. Kevin Johnson as the historically Black church’s senior pastor, alleging irregularities in how Johnson’s election was conducted and a lack of transparency.

The suit, filed in October by four current and former church members — C. Vernon Mason Sr., Kevin McGruder, Jasmine McFarlane-White and Clarence Ball III — claims Johnson’s election didn’t comply with the church’s bylaws. The plaintiffs also question whether the pastoral search committee, which presented Johnson as the sole candidate to the congregation, was biased.

In their suit, filed in the Civil Branch of the New York Supreme Court, the group demands that the court nullify the election and render Johnson ineligible in future rounds of church elections. 

The church sought to dismiss the lawsuit in December, claiming it was “nothing more than a scheme developed by Petitioners to remove the duly-elected pastor of a historic Baptist Church in Harlem, simply so they can propose a candidate whom they believe is more spiritually qualified for the position,” according to the motion.

According to the church, the plaintiffs’ request to have the court nullify the election and order a new vote without Johnson would force the court to become intertwined in ecclesiastical matters.

The congregation, where Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was pastor for three decades and current Senator Raphael Warnock was once an assistant pastor, has been enmeshed in a bitter succession war following the death of longtime leader the Rev. Calvin O. Butts in 2022. The current suit is the second attempt to dislodge Johnson through the courts in a dispute that has prompted some to leave the church.

RELATED: Calvin Butts, leader of Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, dies at 73

Johnson, a graduate of Morehouse College and Union Theological Seminary, first came to Abyssinian in the 1990s, serving as an assistant pastor to Butts. In 2014, he resigned from his position as senior pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia after the congregation disapproved of his handling of the church’s financial affairs and his plan to run for mayor of Philadelphia, which he eventually abandoned.

In 2015, he founded Dare to Imagine Church in Philadelphia, an interdenominational church.

Johnson’s election has prompted another lawsuit from the Rev. Eboni Marshall Turman, a candidate for senior pastor who did not get the job. In December 2023, Turman filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in a district court, claiming she had been excluded for sexist reasons. Her suit was dismissed in March.

A longtime Abyssinian member and a former assistant to Butts, Turman appeared in court on Thursday, saying she had come to show support to the dissenting group. “I came today because I love my church. I came today because I love the good news of Christ, which is about justice, which is about love, and which is about righteousness, and something terribly wrong happened in this process. I came as a witness to that, and I came to be in place to help right the wrong,” she said.

Abyssinian’s bylaws state that a senior pastor needs to be elected by “the majority vote of the members in good standing who are eligible to vote.” Those contesting Johnson’s election believe that means that the majority vote of all registered members is needed to win the election, not only that of those present for the vote.

On Thursday, Abyssinian’s attorney, Brian Pete, argued that the petitioners’ dispute constitutes a “narrow reading” of the bylaws. “Elections are decided by those who choose to vote. … Petitioners don’t like that, so here we are,” said Pete.

Pete said the plaintiffs had engaged in a “monthlong campaign to convince the congregation to vote ‘no'” before the election and called their complaint motivated by a simple desire to overthrow Johnson after a valid election. 

RELATED: Abyssinian Baptist Church’s Kevin Johnson has history of following prominent clergy

“Why should four people be able to tell 3,000 people who they elected?” asked Pete. “If there was in fact all of these no votes, how is he still the pastor a year later?”

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Jonathan Robert Nelson, of Madden Black LLP, a law firm specializing in religion law, noted that of the 2,738 registered church members at the time of the election, a total of 1208 cast a ballot in the election. Due to the low turnout, the election failed to “elect a successor in spirit of the rules set by Reverend Butts,” said Nelson.

The plaintiffs are also demanding Johnson’s yearly compensation be made public.

LaToya Evans, a spokesperson for the church, said the congregation will await the judge’s decision and remain “hopeful and prayerful that he makes the right call.”

“Abyssinian was able to have its day in court and defend its fair pastoral search, vetting process and election,” wrote Evans in a statement emailed to Religion News Service. Johnson didn’t attend Thursday’s hearing, as he was traveling abroad, according to Evans.

Though church representatives say the congregation has continued to grow under Johnson’s leadership, the dispute over his election has fragmented the group and prompted some longtime members to leave. 

Mason, 78, who is one of the plaintiffs, left the church after he was removed from his position as a deacon because of his role in the dispute. A member of the pastoral search committee, he claims Johnson didn’t meet the criteria set by the church for a candidate “who had successfully pastored a black Baptist Church for 12 to 15 years.”

Mason said leaving was “deeply painful for me and my wife and my children, who grew up in that church.

“I pray for the future of Abyssinian … A whole lot of members did not appreciate what happened,” he said. 

RELATED: Abyssinian Baptist Church welcomes dismissal of pastor candidate’s discrimination suit

Jasmine McFarlane-White, one of the plaintiffs, worried that the dispute may harm some of its community programs, which she said have had fewer donors in the wake of the controversy, mentioning especially the church’s food pantry. (A church spokesperson said the food pantry is still open and “100% funded by Abyssinian.”)

But McFarlane-White, who grew up in the church, said she wouldn’t consider leaving despite the dispute.

“It is a stain, but I think that that’s why we’re doing this, because this is a first step of washing away that stain and to rebuild the church,” she said. “I am hoping that this case will help to put us back on the right track, so that we can be a community leader like we once were in the past.”

(RNS) — In February 2022, as Russian tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border, a small group of Russian Orthodox Christian clergy did something extraordinary. They published an open letter calling for peace and an immediate ceasefire. Within days, nearly 300 clergy had signed it — an unprecedented act of collective dissent in Putin’s Russia.

Today, many of these signatories face administrative or criminal charges, or in some cases, ecclesiastical punishment. Their stories, often suppressed and hidden from public view, demand documentation. A comprehensive new report from Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center, written at the request of United Nations Special Rapporteur Mariana Katsarova, reveals a hidden truth that American Christians need to hear: There is a vibrant, faith-based resistance to the war in Russia, and believers are paying a terrible price for their witness.

The numbers tell only part of the story. Since Russia’s invasion began, more than 100 religious leaders and activists have faced persecution for opposing the war: 79 Orthodox Christians, seven Baptists, seven Pentecostals, three Catholics, among others. Nineteen have been convicted on criminal charges, with sentences ranging from two to 12 years. Two Christians have died in custody. At least 38 Orthodox clergy have faced ecclesiastical trials, with 17 defrocked and 14 suspended from ministry.

Behind these statistics are stories of remarkable courage that echo the witness of Christians of the late 20th century who dissented from Soviet rule. 

The Rev. John Koval, 47, a Moscow priest, changed just one word in the mandatory prayer “for the victory of Holy Rus” that had been imposed by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, replacing “victory” with “peace.” The priest’s own altar server reported him to the church authorities. He was swiftly defrocked and forced to flee Russia within hours in May 2023. This transformation of liturgical prayer into a political test represents what the report calls “a profound distortion of Orthodox canonical tradition.”

Or take the case of two young Orthodox seminary graduates, Denis Popovich and Nikita Ivankovich, 28 and 29, both ethnically Ukrainian. They have been held in a detention facility in Moscow run by the Russian intelligence service since February 2025. After being held on fabricated administrative charges, they now face terrorism accusations carrying decadeslong sentences. Their real crime? Private conversations in messaging apps about the consequences of the war.

Pastor Nikolai Romanyuk, 62, a Pentecostal minister in Moscow, has been in detention since October 2024, awaiting trial for a 2022 sermon in which he stated that his church “does not bless” those who participate in combat operations in Ukraine.

Pavel Kushnir, 39, a gifted pianist and Baptist, died in pre-trial detention in Russia’s Far East after a hunger strike, his body reportedly showing signs of beating.

What makes this persecution particularly insidious is the coordination between the Russian Orthodox Church and state authorities — between Kirill and Putin. Ecclesiastical courts have perverted canon law for political purposes, transforming ancient spiritual disciplines into tools of political control.

Yet resistance continues in various forms. At least 27 Orthodox priests have voluntarily left active ministry rather than serve in what they consider a morally compromised environment. Entire parishes across Western Europe have voted to leave Moscow’s jurisdiction, including a dramatic case in Bergen, Norway, where 135 parishioners voted to sever ties with the Moscow Patriarchate after their Ukrainian priest faced harassment for signing the February 2022 peace letter.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople has quietly become a refuge, receiving nearly 30 priests and deacons, including those suspended or defrocked by Moscow for anti-war positions. These clergy now serve Russian émigré communities across Europe. They represent that Orthodox witness against sanctifying violence that lies in our shared calling to stand with the persecuted church. As Hebrews 13:3 commands: “Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

International religious institutions and ecumenical organizations, meanwhile, have remained largely silent. A few individual bishops have courageously spoken against Russian aggression, but of 14 autocephalous, or independent, Orthodox Churches around the world, only the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its autonomous church in Finland have taken public action. Most Catholic and Protestant bodies have issued no statements of solidarity thus far. This silence effectively abandons the persecuted and normalizes the suppression of religious conscience.

Explicit opposition to the war isn’t required for the government persecution. Jehovah’s Witnesses, banned as “extremists” since 2017, currently have 143 believers imprisoned — more than all anti-war religious prisoners combined. The state’s message is clear: Religious communities must submit to political authority or face elimination.

What we’re witnessing is not merely political repression but a spiritual crisis. The Russian state, with the Russian Orthodox Church’s active collaboration, seeks to subordinate the Gospel to a neo-imperial ideology with clear nationalist overtones. This represents what Fordham’s researchers call “a fundamental challenge to the prophetic vocation of religious communities — their calling to speak moral truth regardless of political consequences.”

The Christians resisting this coercion understand what’s at stake. As one suspended priest, the Rev. Sergei Rybakov, wrote: “This war has distorted the face of the Russian Orthodox Church and transformed it into a grimace twisted by anger and malice.” Yet he continues his ministry online, hoping the church might eventually “regain its human face.”

American Christians have concrete ways to respond. We can support the U.N. Special Rapporteur’s mandate on human rights in Russia. We can advocate for our communities to express solidarity with the persecuted. We can establish humanitarian pathways for religious refugees and support organizations monitoring these abuses.

Most importantly, we can pray — not abstractly, but specifically by name — for all who chose conscience over comfort. Their witness reminds us that authentic faith sometimes demands costly choices. In a world where institutional Christianity often seems compromised by political power, these Russian believers demonstrate what it means to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.”

This week, we at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center attempted to present this striking report to members of the All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America meeting in Phoenix. This church originated from the Russian Orthodox Church’s American Metropolia and, in the 20th century, was vocal in supporting religious dissidents in the Soviet Union.

Yet OCA officials declined our proposal on procedural grounds. In response, we published an open letter to the council that captured the urgency: “The Church’s mission includes being a voice for the voiceless. When clergy are punished for preaching Christ’s Gospel of peace, our silence—and especially the silence of our bishops—can be interpreted as tacit approval of their persecution. We cannot accept this.”

The original peace letter that sparked this movement contained a simple plea: “We call on all sides to engage in dialogue, because there is no alternative to violence except dialogue.” Nearly three years later, that call echoes not from grand cathedrals but from prison cells, exile communities and underground gatherings where Christians continue to choose faithfulness over safety.

Their courage challenges us: Will we remain silent while our brothers and sisters suffer for righteousness’ sake? Or will we amplify their witness, ensuring their sacrifice for peace is neither forgotten nor in vain?

The persecuted church in Russia is speaking. The question is whether the global church is listening.

(Sergei Chapnin is director of communications at the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University and author of the report “Religious Communities Under Pressure: Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia 2022-2025.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, and Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0/Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 18, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV received a phone call Friday from Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, following yesterday’s Israeli army attack on Holy Family Church in Gaza.

According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office, the pope received the call at Castel Gandolfo, where he is on vacation.

On July 17, the Israeli army struck with a projectile Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, which had been used as a shelter for more than 600 people since the beginning of the war in October 2023.

The attack killed three people and left a number of injured, some of them seriously.

During the conversation, the Holy Father renewed his call for the urgent reactivation of the negotiation process in order to establish a ceasefire and end the war.

He again expressed his deep concern for the humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza, “whose heartbreaking price is being paid, in particular, by children, the elderly, and the sick.”

Finally, Pope Leo XIV reiterated the urgency of protecting places of worship and, above all, the faithful and all people living in both Palestine and Israel.

Also on Friday, the Holy Father called Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, to whom he expressed his strong condemnation of the attack and asserted that “it is time to stop this slaughter.”

Israel Defense Forces stated that “fragments of a projectile fired during a military operation in the area mistakenly hit the church” and that the cause of the incident is currently under investigation.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.