Religion

“I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed,” poet John Mark Green wrote.

Leah Sottile is no stranger to conspiracy theories, extremist beliefs and fringe views.

When you read this column, think of me sitting in our new home in Hillsboro, Ore. !

It is yet another promise apparently broken by the federal government.

Hamblen Park Presbyterian Church has invited Global Immersion Co-Founder Jer Swigart to lead an Everyday Peacemaking Workshop on March 29.

A poet once said, “The busy have no time for tears.” Lately, I hardly have time for a sniffle.

For baby boomers who grew up attending Catholic school – or weekly classes on Sundays – in the 1960s and 1970s, the season of Lent was presented by the teachers, whether lay or vowed religious, as six weeks of gloom. This time of preparation for the “Triduum” of Jesus’ suffering – Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday – seemed to be a forced method of purifying the soul of sin for young, impressionable minds.

Having seen its 135th birthday last month, Spokane’s Calvary Baptist Church is known as the oldest Black church in Washington.

So what do a Methodist laywoman, a Catholic priest, a Baptist pastor, an Episcopalian Bishop and a Jewish servant have in common? First, they agreed to join me for an imaginary breakfast conversation. Second, they all fit the description of a biblical “prophet-servant.”

Multiple funding freezes initiated by the Trump administration prompted another legal challenge this week, this time in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

More than 40,000 pounds of food were delivered Tuesday morning to the Spokane Salvation Army by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I’m losing my patience, and I know I’m not the only one.

When the subject of prayer comes up in conversation, or people gather together to pray, the most common approach is to use words: for petitions and praise. Even the songs used during worship services rely on words to convey the message blended with the melody.

Even a few months before my 91-year-old father died, he told me that as he looked in the morning mirror, he couldn’t believe the old man’s face who stared back was his. At 82, I also find myself not always believing the mirrored-face that used to be my younger self, because both my younger and older selves are me.

Amid the local excitement since the debut of the Spokane Velocity and Zephyr professional men’s and women’s soccer teams last year, the bulk of the attention has naturally been directed at their competitive achievements, as with the Velocity’s surprise run to the final of the United Soccer League’s League One playoffs.

I’m estranged from most of my immediate family, though occasionally I get a ping from someone back home.

Life got in the way of my writing for all of 2024. I had many things in my mind to write about, but I decided to end 2024 with gratitude and start 2025 with compassion.

Though their prayers came from the depths of a church basement, God heard the appeals for a new place of worship.

In an early December Facebook meme, a cartoon man ponders this: “They said ‘keep Christ in Christmas.’ But wouldn’t that mean loving everyone, being inclusive, helping the poor, and working for peace on Earth?”