They were lying in ambush. When the Boko Haram militants on board motorbikes saw a group of Christians returning home from church service, they opened fire, killing eight of them, according to survivors.
CHR Comment: The Nigerian government is trying to negotiate the release of kidnapped girls. Many of these girls come from Christian villages and families as earlier reports have shown. As negotiations failed, Boko Haram militants renewed their attacks.
The Vatican issued new rules for the process to determine if healings qualify as miracles for sainthood.
CHR Comment: Of all things to attract corruption, you wouldn’t think that the lives of honorable Christian people and miracles would be among them. But apparently there is always someone somewhere ready to make a buck no matter how disgraceful the enterprise. It’s good to see that the Vatican is responding to these reports of corruption and improving their process.
Roman Catholic Church officials pleaded on Thursday for the life of a priest who was kidnapped from his parish residence one day after two other priests were abducted and killed in another part of Mexico.
CHR Comment: Twenty-eight priests have been killed in Mexico since 2006. Father Jose Alfredo Lopez Guillen remains missing.
Source: Priest kidnapped in Mexico adds to worries after 2 killed – The Washington Post
Scientists have formally announced their reconstruction of the Ein Gedi Scroll, the most ancient Hebrew scroll since the Dead Sea Scrolls.
CHR Comment: The Ein Gedi Scroll contains a text of Leviticus that is consistent with the Masoretic text used by Jews and Christians today. This is also likely the kind of Hebrew text known to Jerome, who translated the Vulgate. The text stands between the Dead Sea Scrolls and those discovered in the medieval Cairo Genizah, helping to fill a gap in the story of the biblical text.
The second article below dates the text to between the second and fourth centuries AD.
Source: Computers Decipher Burnt Scroll Found in Ancient Holy Ark
CHR Comment: Rendlesham may be the location of a great hall mentioned by church historian Bede in the eighth century.
Source: Possible Anglo-Saxon Palace Discovered at Rendlesham – Archaeology Magazine
To the Afro-Creole Spiritualists of New Orleans, spirits were important, raced bodies were not.
CHR Comments: The article describes the liberal views and practices that prevailed in southern, French Catholicism, which is the religion in which these Spiritualists grew up.
Source: New History Finally Recognizes Afro-Creole Spiritualists | Religion Dispatches
Lawyers acting for the family of Terence Crutcher, the black pastor fatally shot by a white police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have said he posed no imminent threat despite claims by police that he was reaching into his vehicle.
CHR Comment: The article describes Crutcher as a “pastor” but I am not finding information about whether he was ordained or what congregation he served. I am linking to a second article that describes his involvement with a Baptist church.
How prayer meetings on Capitol Hill inspire fellowship and foster bipartisan lawmaking, though some argue it is too much religion under the rotunda.
CHR Comment: About one fourth of the Senate gathers for this weekly prayer breakfast with their chaplain each week. The article also gives some history of chaplaincy in the Senate.
At least six people have been killed in fighting between rival rebel groups in the Central African Republic, the UN mission in the country says.
CHR Comment: The violence began when Muslims ousted the president in 2013. Christian militias responded and there has been continued conflict ever since. The latest violence was Muslims against Christians. I have added a second link below that reports the number of deaths as 26.
Source: Central African Republic rival rebels clash in Kaga Bandoro – BBC News
A fire has ruined much of a famed 16th century church in the Peruvian city of Cuzco, authorities said Friday.
CHR Comment: The Temple of San Sebastian is a treasure of the Colonial Era and a tourist attraction, which in recent years went through renovation. Among the treasures there was the painting of Diego Quispe Tito who depicted the life of San Sebastian.
Source: Blaze destroys much of 16th century Peru church – The Washington Post
church history review 