PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The congregation that worships at the nation's oldest synagogue prevailed Monday in a bitter legal fight that threatened its existence, as a federal judge ruled it may now control its own destiny and decide what to do with a set of ceremonial bells worth millions.The lawsuit pitted congregants at the 250-year-old Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, against the nation's oldest Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel in New York City.

Source: Judge: Congregants can take control of oldest US...

Near the end of his Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago to Albuquerque in December, Gill Parker Payne decided he had to take action.Seated a few rows in front of him was a woman he had never met before. She was wearing a religious headscarf, known as a hijab, which Payne recognized as a Muslim practice. He stood up, walked down the aisle and stopped next to her seat. Looking down at the woman, Payne instructed her to remove the covering.“Take it off! This is America!”

Source: ‘Take it off! This is America!’: Man who...

“If you were to identify Catholic prophets in the twentieth century,” says Georgetown University professor Chester Gillis, Daniel Berrigan “would be right there with Dorothy Day or Thomas Merton.” His activism, adds Gillis, is “rooted in prayer. It is done out of the commitment to the Gospel. That differentiates it from all the other secular movements” Daniel Berrigan, SJ died on April 30, 2016. He was 94 years old. More →

Source: Daniel Berrigan: 1921-2016 | May 5,...

(RNS) Pastafarianism is satire, not sacred, ruled the U.S. District Court of Nebraska.

Source: Court to spaghetti: You are not a god | Religion News Service