A monastery in western North Dakota is ending a century-old practice of raising cattle because of a lack of monks with cowboy skills. The Assumption Abbey in Richardton intends to sell its herd of about 260 cows and rent pastures to other ranchers, monastery officials told the Dickinson Press. Brother Placid Gross, 76, has tended Read more
A prayer for every occasion. The prayer books are full of them, you name it, some one has made up prayer for it. But this one may well be the daddy of them all; Pastor Joe Nelms offers a prayer before last Saturday night’s Nationwide Series race at Nashville Speedway. A scene straight out of “Talladega Nights,” with Read more
Ricky Gervais, a self-proclaimed atheist is creating a new sitcom called the “Afterlife”. Teaming up with “Dexter” producer Clyde Phillips, the English comedian and atheist, will start a show about an atheist who dies and goes to Heaven – with controversy sure to follow. Though Gervais will not star in the show himself, he will Read more
Meet our new son. We call him Lucifer. Or we would have if the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages hadn’t knocked the name back. The list of baby names queried or rejected by the official registry in the past two years shows the agency is at least being consistent. There were three attempts to register Read more
Niko Alm wanted to test an Austrian law saying that head coverings would only be allowed in official documents for religious reasons. So the tongue-in-cheek atheist applied for a new driver’s licence in his country with a photo of himself wearing a pasta strainer as headgear. Alm said he was a “pastafarian” and that the Read more
A bride-to-be’s dream of being the fourth generation of her family to be married at a Welsh church has been shattered after it was announced the dilapidated building would have to close. Emily Morton is now staging a sit-in protest at All Saints Church, along with 50 villagers in Maerdy, Rhondda Valleys. Read the rest Read more
Can something that we take as sacred as religion become like a shopping mall – try this out for a month? It really seemed a very post-modern phenomenon, but one of the biggest challenges of attempts to bridge religious divides is the fact that faiths are seen as long-term, lifelong commitments.Would it be possible for Read more
Just one of many hilarious bloopers collected from church newsletters and notices. Here are some more: The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon. This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring Read more
Fred Dagg would have approved. At Sunday’s 10am service at the Waiapu St John Cathedral in Napier the clergy wore gumboots under their robes. And all the parishioners had theirs on too. Some had even decorated their gumboots for the occasion. The Fred Dagg theme was reflected in a special “hymn” which had been arranged by the cathedral’s director Read more
It might sound like a baa-rmy sendoff, but Jill Crampton-Eason has become the first New Zealander buried in a coffin made of wool. The 84-year-old was laid to rest in Nelson in a $2800 oval casket made from three sheep fleeces. It was lined with 100 per cent cotton, a woollen blanket and pillow but Read more