1+ week, 6+ day ago (875+ words) Pastor Lamar Ferrell shock his head in disbelief when he thought about how his life spiraled out of control in 2015. Ten years ago, Ferrell, pastor at Berachah Church in Middletown and longtime chaplain of the Middletown police and fire departments, was so depressed, so distraught, that he remembers crawling on his hands and knees in his Middletown home. "Life caught me," he said recently while sitting in his church office. "It surprised me. It shocked me. The man that I was never would have dreamed I'd go to such depth of despair. "There was absolute horror and darkness in my life. My battery was absolutely done, spent. I had nothing else to give." Then the lead pastor, the one who shoulders the concerns of his congregation, firefighters and police officers, dropped this bomb: "Just begging for life to end." Ferrell,…...

4+ day, 12+ hour ago (651+ words) The oldest chartered congregation in Clark County will finish out the Thanksgiving weekend with an evening of memories and fellowship after which it will permanently close its doors. New Carlisle's Honey Creek Presbyterian Church, 212 Jefferson St., will have its final service and a special celebration of its 221 years of service beginning at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 30. The public is invited. A congregation that boasted several hundred members at its peak has fallen victim to a trend that has affected many other churches in recent years " an aging membership and fewer newer, younger members and families according to Ron and Jane Fowler, Honey Creek Presbyterian's ruling elders. "It's just been a continuing decline in membership," Ron Fowler said. While sad to see the church they raised their children in ending, they want to preserve its rich history and memories. Ron Fowler is its…...

23+ hour, 9+ min ago (510+ words) The head of Turkey's Diyanet religious affairs directorate showed Leo the soaring tiled dome of the mosque and the Arabic inscriptions on its columns, as Leo nodded in understanding. The Vatican had said Leo would observe a "brief minute of silent prayer" there, but it wasn't clear if he had. The imam of the mosque, Asgin Tunca, said he had invited Leo to pray but the pope declined. Speaking to reporters after the visit, Tunca said he had told the pope that the mosque was "Allah's house." "It's not my house, not your house, (it's the) house of Allah," he said. He said he told Leo: "If you want, you can worship here,' I said. But he said, "That's OK." "He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very pleased,…...

3+ day, 20+ hour ago (485+ words) After what has been a difficult year for many, people in the region are still finding things to be thankful for as Thanksgiving Day approaches, including family, faith, health and work opportunities. "I'm thankful for my dog and my family," said Taylor Silberman while at the Flyer Field at Kittyhawk Park in Huber Heights this week. She recently moved to the area from Florida. "I am thankful for the blessings I receive each day: family, friends, food plus my church," said Kim Williamson, a lifelong Springfield resident. After years of decline in the number of Americans who identify as Christians, it appears to be leveling off, according to the Pew Research Center, which also says religion is gaining influence in the U.S. "God blesses me everyday," said Cathy Albin, of Middletown, who said she was thankful for her family and being…...

1+ day, 23+ hour ago (1798+ words) Pope Leo XIV marked a high point of his his first foreign trip to Turkey with a pilgrimage to the site where early Christian church leaders met 1,700 years ago under the auspices of the Roman Emperor Constantine to host the Council of Nicaea. Leo prayed with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, at the site of the A.D. 325 gathering, now the town of Iznik, and sign a joint declaration in a show of Christian unity. The unprecedented gathering of at least 250 bishops from around the Roman Empire during the first council established the first version of the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that millions of Christians still recite each Sunday. Eastern and Western churches were united until the Great Schism of 1054, a divide precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope. The American pope…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago (819+ words) I just was not going to be a part of forcing or imposing religious doctrine onto my students," she said. Texas is undertaking the nation's largest attempt to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools, and in the rush to navigate the Republican-led mandate that took effect in September, the rollout has forced some districts to confront hard choices. I'm not evangelizing," said eighth grade U.S. history teacher Dustin Parsons, who has a Ten Commandments poster hanging in his classroom in the small city of Whitesboro. He said the display helps him to demonstrate the influence of Christianity on the country's founding principles. I'm doing it more from a history source perspective in how they were building the Constitution," he said. The law says schools must put donated posters in a conspicuous place" and requires the writing to be a size…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago (509+ words) The church's history and tradition, said Washington National Cathedral Provost Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, put it "at the intersection of the civic and the sacred." The funerals held there shed light both on the deceased and their place in the country's history. Titans of American history keep watch over the cathedral, as statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln stand in two separate bays near the entrance of the nave. The cathedral has five chapels on the main level and four chapels and burial vaults on the lower level, or the crypt. French-born architect Pierre L'Enfant's original design for Washington included a church "for national purposes." In 1893, a congressional charter was authorized to build a cathedral dedicated to religion, education and charity. Construction on the Protestant Episcopalian church began in 1907, with President Theodore Roosevelt present to help lay the…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (186+ words) Pope Leo XIV opened a virtual meeting with American Catholic young people Friday by revealing a closely held pontifical secret: He uses a different Wordle start word each day. Leo divulged his strategy playing the popular New York Times online game before fielding questions via videoconference about artificial intelligence, social media and the future of the Catholic Church. Leo was hooked up from the Vatican to speak remotely to the National Catholic Youth Conference, an annual Catholic rally held this year in Indianapolis, via a feed from U.S. Catholic broadcaster EWTN. After Leo's election in May, his brother John Prevost revealed that Leo plays Wordle every day and that the brothers compare notes, as many friends and family do. Leo was asked about his strategy at the start of Friday's Q&A, which was otherwise somewhat scripted. Playing along, Leo revealed…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago (535+ words) The holiday season is just around the corner, and while it could be a festive time, some of us can imbibe too many alcoholic drinks. Do you have issues with alcohol? Would you like to stop consuming that completely legal drug? The book "Alcohol Was My God - a Catholic Alcoholic Reflects on His Faith" might be a good way for you to better understand just how it can be done. The author is writing under a pseudonym. He had a drinking problem in his youth, during high school and college, and after he finally stopped drinking alcohol he has not consumed it again for over fifty years. He credits the organization Alcoholics Anonymous for helping him to break out of that alcoholic cycle to embrace sobriety. This is also a book about faith and spirituality. A.A. is not a religious organization…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (254+ words) One of the Miami Valley" s most popular Christmas traditions is soon opening for the 31st time. The annual Nativity display at the University of Dayton"s Marian Library opens Nov. 24 in Roesch Library and features Nativity sets from the Marian Library"s international collection. The free exhibit features a different theme each year " this year"s is "Seeking Shelter: Beyond the Stable." This exhibit is a self-guided experience spanning two floors of the Roesch Library building, UD officials said. It is for all ages. There are activities for young children who visit, including ornament craft making and a "seek-and-find" search for details among the Nativity scenes. Last year, we asked Bridget Retzloff, the Marian Library"s visual resources librarian, "what are Nativity sets and how are they generally used?" Retzloff leads the team responsible for planning and implementing the creative…...