Denomination

Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson is leaving the Episcopal Church for the Catholic Church to distance herself from the pro-choice agenda.

Johnson, along with her husband, Doug, and 4-year-old daughter, are in the process of joining the Catholic Church in Bryan, Texas. Her decision was fueled by her Episcopal church’s reaction to her conversion from pro-choice to pro-life.

“They weren’t all that supportive of her decision to leave Planned Parenthood,” said Shawn Carney, campaign director for 40 Days for Life, to The Christian Post. Carney was the first person Johnson reached out to from the pro-life movement after she rejected the pro-choice stance. She is also attending the Catholic Church that Carney had attended while living in Texas. more >>

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has asked an association of churches to leave its Fort Worth, Texas, campus because the seminary says the group has a member church or churches that tolerate homosexuality.

A 1997 affiliation agreement between Tarrant Baptist Association and the seminary for use of an office building on the campus requires that the two organizations remain in "theological harmony."

The seminary, which is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, contends that the association has violated the agreement for retaining fellowship with a church or churches that don't adhere to the denomination's position that homosexuality is a sin. more >>

Pastor Craig Groeschel still considers LifeChurch a "start-up" church despite the fact that his message reaches well over 26,000 worshippers every week.

The current scale of the Edmond, Oklahoma-based church is a far cry from what it looked like 15 years ago.

Groeschel, now 43, preached from a two-car garage during the church's humble beginnings. He said it was so cold during the first meeting that the small group that gathered had to wear hats and gloves to keep warm throughout the service. more >>

Christians around the world are praying for Sudan as Southern Sudanese begin Sunday a seven-day referendum to vote whether to remain united with the North or become independent.

The long-awaited referendum marks the conclusion of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended decades of bloody civil war between the predominantly Muslim North and the mainly Christian and animist South.

Southern Sudanese are expected to vote for independence from the North, which they say treats them as second-class citizens. more >>

Two lesbian Episcopal priests kicked off the New Year by marrying in Massachusetts.

The Very Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School, and Mally Lloyd, canon to the Ordinary, married on Saturday at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston in front of nearly 400 guests. The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, solemnized the marriage.

For orthodox Anglicans, the lesbian union was another act of defiance. more >>

A victim of sexual abuse filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).

Sean Coppedge claims the denomination failed to protect him and other children during their stay at a boarding house in Congo, where his parents were serving as missionaries.

"On the night I was sexually abused I immediately informed the Presbyterian authorities, but little was done, even though they knew the perpetrator had abused at least one other person prior to me," Coppedge said of his 1988 experience on Monday, according to The Courier-Journal. more >>