Pennsylvania

A T-shirt design that was intended to foster school spirit on the campus of Penn State University has become a center of media-brewed controversy that will likely fizzle out before ever catching fire.

The design, which was selected this year by Penn State students out of about two dozen entries, was created as part of an annual Penn State tradition, during which students don white clothing for a designated football game and fill their 107,282-seat stadium to capacity, thus “whiting out” supporters of the opposing team.

Made by Penn State senior Emily Sabolsky, this year’s winning design appeared on the official 2009 “White Out” shirts, which hit the shelves of the university’s bookstore ahead of this year’s “White Out” game against the University of Iowa. more >>

Racial barriers were broken as blacks and whites came together for worship on Sunday at a Philadelphia church that once espoused segregation.

Members of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in the late 1700s by a group of blacks who walked out of St. George's Methodist Church because of segregated seating, were welcomed back for a "reunion" and integrated worship.

"You bless us in a way mere words fall short. The memory of what happened – hurt, hostility, disgrace, and disappointment – did not keep you from being here today. You grace us in coming," said the Rev. Fred Day, pastor of Historic St. George's Church, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. more >>

Pittsburgh clergy who left The Episcopal Church over its liberal direction will not be stripped of their ordinations.

In an announcement on Monday, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh said it will not take disciplinary action against the approximately 100 priests and deacons who left to join a conservative Anglican group.

"We’re doing this for pastoral reasons," said the Rev. Dr. James Simons, president of the diocesan Standing Committee, in a statement. "We do not want to see our priestly brothers and sisters deposed." more >>

Ahead of the G-20 summit, faith leaders gathered in Pittsburgh Wednesday to urge world leaders to focus more on the poverty issue.

Noting that poverty is low on the summit's agenda, religious leaders said it was their responsibility to pressure leaders to address the “moral crisis.”

“As religious persons, we come at this with a conviction that at the core of human existence the creator of all has will that all should share in the bounty of his creation,” said Dr. William J. Shaw, former president of the National Baptist Convention, USA. more >>

A month after his prayer was rejected by the state House, the Rev. Gerry Stoltzfoos was allowed to pray in Jesus' name before the Pennsylvania Senate on Wednesday.

"I am painfully aware that there are many here today, who have embraced beliefs systems other than mine," Stoltzfoos, lead pastor at Freedom Valley Worship Center near Gettysburg, prayed. "I am not here to say that everyone ought to believe as I do. But I can only pray to my God. If you believe in some other power, I invite you to address yours as I address mine.

"For those of us who are Christians, we pray in Jesus' name." more >>

A group of Episcopalians in Pittsburgh have demanded $20 million in assets from conservatives who left The Episcopal Church.

Some 21 parishes that voted against disaffiliation filed a court motion Thursday, saying the breakaway group has no legal rights to the assets since it severed ties with the denomination, as reported by The Associated Press.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh had voted overwhelmingly in October 2008 to split from The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of Anglicanism – and align with the more conservative Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America. It was the second diocese, or regional body, to secede from a denomination conservatives say has abandoned Christian orthodoxy and traditional Anglicanism. more >>