New Mexico

Southern Baptists are introducing a new “twentysomething” initiative this week to get more college students onto a career path in missions rather than a short-term experience.

Hundreds of students have joined National Collegiate Week, Aug. 4-10, at LifeWay Conference Centers in Glorieta, N.M., and Ridgecrest, N.C., where seminary recruiters and mission agencies have set up booths to bring more young people into their loop. And coming out for the first time is the "Hands On" project, a new initiative of the International Mission Board (IMB) – the international mission agency of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"Hands On," which is still in its development stages, aims to recruit college students to serve 4-12 months in mission work overseas. Students will use their own interests, skills or school major in community development projects, meeting human needs or working on university campuses. more >>

Homosexual couples from New Mexico can “marry” in Massachusetts. But those who do must be prepared to live with uncertainty, gay “marriage” advocates cautioned Thursday.

Massachusetts officials ruled earlier this month that same-sex couples from New Mexico are now eligible to tie the knot in Massachusetts which is the only state that allows same-sex "marriage." New Mexico joins Rhode Island as the only states whose gay residents can “marry” in Massachusetts.

A July 18 notice instructed Massachusetts' city and town clerks to give licenses to gay couples from New Mexico because the Southwestern state does not explicitly ban marriage between parties of the same gender. It does not, however, endorse it either. more >>

One of the top leaders in The Episcopal Church visited a divided diocese advising Episcopalians to "keep calm."

Episcopal House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson addressed more than 275 people from 21 of the 60 congregations in the Diocese of Rio Grande in Albuquerque, N.M., on Saturday, urging them to "hang in there with us" a month after the diocese asked for alternative pastoral care for many of its parishes wanting to leave The Episcopal Church.

"Keep your eyes on the prize, which is the reconciliation of the world through Jesus Christ, whom we love more than life itself," said Anderson to those wanting to remain in The Episcopal Church, according to the Episcopal News Service. more >>

One month after a detention center in New Mexico reversed its decision to block a local prison ministry from performing public baptism, six inmates have been baptized and more are to be expected.

Last month, legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel sent letter threatening a federal lawsuit over Curry County Detention Center’s refusal to permit public baptism, prompting the center to reverse its position and allow Sixteenth & Pile Church of Christ to baptize inmates in a portable baptismal pool.

“Rather than throwing up roadblocks to Christian faith and worship, prisons should welcome the positive changes that the Christian conversion brings and the role that baptism plays in the inmates making a public confession of burying the old life and being resurrected in Jesus Christ,” commented Mathew Staver, lawyer and founder of Liberty Counsel, said in a press statement after the detention center’s reversal. more >>

NEW YORK – The governor of New York has joined the other 49 governors in issuing a proclamation supporting this year’s observance of the National Day of Prayer.

On Monday, less than a week before Americans across the fifty states were scheduled to pray for the nation, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s issued proclamation appeared on the Democratic governor’s website declaring May 3, 2007, as a Day of Prayer and Reflection in the Empire State.

Although the proclamation is dated Apr. 25, there was no indication from the governor’s office prior to Monday that a proclamation was forthcoming and the only official proclamation listed last week for the month of May was for Cinco De Mayo. more >>

Just as Southern Baptists commissioned its second largest group of missionaries, the denomination's domestic missions agency is considering a recommendation for its new head.

The presidential search committee of the North American Mission Board on Thursday recommended Geoffrey A. Hammond, senior associate director of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia state convention, as the next president.

A vote on Hammond is scheduled to take place at a March 20-21 meeting, over a year since the former head stepped down. more >>