Religion

The Supreme Court of Canada is shrouded in fog in Ottawa, on Friday, Nov 4, 2022. The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal from three British Columbia churches who argued their constitutional rights were violated when provincial restrictions banned indoor religious services during the COVID-19 pandemic.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Highest court refuses to hear B.C. church appeal on COVID-19 ruling

Langley, Chilliwack and Abbotsford churches contesting ban on indoor religious services

 

FILE - A bronze statue of the Archangel Gabriel blowing a trumpet stands at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as the sun rises in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan in New York on Sunday, March 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

Do you believe in angels? Poll says about 7 in 10 Americans do

‘People are yearning for something greater than themselves — beyond their own understanding’

 

In June, a pride flag was hung from the bell tower at Summerland United Church. The flag was later moved to the overhang at the front entrance to the church. The flag has since been taken. (Contributed)

Pride flag taken from Summerland church

Summerland United Church displayed flag as sign of inclusiveness

 

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks during her closing address at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Archibald says the Pope’s willingness to return Indigenous artifacts stored at the Vatican Museum suggests the items will make their way home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

Pope’s willingness to return sacred items means they will come home: national chief

Much of the Vatican’s current collection is from a world exposition in 1925

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks during her closing address at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Archibald says the Pope’s willingness to return Indigenous artifacts stored at the Vatican Museum suggests the items will make their way home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Pope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope allows women to vote at upcoming bishops’ meeting

‘This is a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling’

Pope Francis leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in a ceremonial yellow hat arrives at the Tsuglakhang temple to give a sermon in Dharamshala, India, Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama apologized Monday after a video showing him kissing a child on the lips provoked outrage.(AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia,file)

Dalai Lama apologizes after video shows him kissing boy

Incident occurred at a public gathering in February in Dharamsala, where the exiled leader lives

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in a ceremonial yellow hat arrives at the Tsuglakhang temple to give a sermon in Dharamshala, India, Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama apologized Monday after a video showing him kissing a child on the lips provoked outrage.(AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia,file)
Archbishop and Primate Linda Nicholls of the Anglican Church of Canada will tour the Northwest during Easter weekend, April 6 to 9, visiting eight different parishes and serving community members in the Smithers soup kitchen.

Canada’s first female Anglican Archbishop to tour Northwest B.C. Easter weekend

Visit will take Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, to 8 parishes

Archbishop and Primate Linda Nicholls of the Anglican Church of Canada will tour the Northwest during Easter weekend, April 6 to 9, visiting eight different parishes and serving community members in the Smithers soup kitchen.
Pope Francis waves to faithful during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Pope Francis went to a Rome hospital on Wednesday for some previously scheduled tests, slipping out of the Vatican after his general audience and before the busy start of Holy Week this Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Responding to Indigenous, Vatican rejects Discovery Doctrine

Vaticans says decrees ‘did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples’

Pope Francis waves to faithful during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Pope Francis went to a Rome hospital on Wednesday for some previously scheduled tests, slipping out of the Vatican after his general audience and before the busy start of Holy Week this Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
The Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., is shown in a 1989 file photo. The Archdiocese of Vancouver and a private Catholic school in British Columbia have denied any wrongdoing in claims of sexual abuse by former students and filed their own lawsuits against the alleged abusers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Vancouver archdiocese and private school deny wrongdoing, sue alleged abusers

Legal filings come after class action lawsuit certified alleging abuse at two Catholic schools

The Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., is shown in a 1989 file photo. The Archdiocese of Vancouver and a private Catholic school in British Columbia have denied any wrongdoing in claims of sexual abuse by former students and filed their own lawsuits against the alleged abusers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan
A phone sits on a paper sheet reading: “I believe in the human beings, today people judges you for the image that you have, they see only masks they don’t know even who you are” inside the Chicco community of L’Arche, an International charity that helps people with intellectual disabilities, in Ciampino, near Rome, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. The findings of expert reports commissioned by L’Arche itself reveal that their founder, Jean Vanier, perverted Catholic doctrine to justify his own sexual compulsions and abuse women and that the movement he created had at its core a secret, a mystical-sexual “sect” founded for the precise purpose of hiding the sect’s deviant activities from church authorities. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Shattered: Catholic community of L’Arche confronts its founder’s lies

Once-revered, Jean Vanier abused at least 25 women through a secret, mystical-sexual ‘sect’

A phone sits on a paper sheet reading: “I believe in the human beings, today people judges you for the image that you have, they see only masks they don’t know even who you are” inside the Chicco community of L’Arche, an International charity that helps people with intellectual disabilities, in Ciampino, near Rome, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. The findings of expert reports commissioned by L’Arche itself reveal that their founder, Jean Vanier, perverted Catholic doctrine to justify his own sexual compulsions and abuse women and that the movement he created had at its core a secret, a mystical-sexual “sect” founded for the precise purpose of hiding the sect’s deviant activities from church authorities. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Francis and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon watch a traditional dance during the final public event of his papal visit across Canada as he prepares to leave Iqaluit, Nunavut on Friday, July 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Pope Francis’s tour came with a minimum $55-million price tag for Ottawa

‘Think of all the money that could have gone to survivors’

Pope Francis and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon watch a traditional dance during the final public event of his papal visit across Canada as he prepares to leave Iqaluit, Nunavut on Friday, July 29, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
The Jesuits of Canada have released a list of priests they say were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over the past 70 years. The Jesuits logo is seen in this undated handout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

Jesuits of Canada releases list of 27 members ‘credibly’ accused of child sex abuse

Names the result of probe examining records dating back to the ’50s

The Jesuits of Canada have released a list of priests they say were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over the past 70 years. The Jesuits logo is seen in this undated handout. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
(Black Press Media Creative)

Mormon church fined $5M for obscuring size of portfolio

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its investment arm…

(Black Press Media Creative)
A statue of Mother Earth sits at the front of an altar used by a Colombian shaman, healer and traditional medicine man who leads the Hummingbird Church ayahuasca ceremonies, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, in Hildale, Utah. Like many groups using psychedelics as sacraments, Hummingbird functioned underground for many years, hosting word of mouth ceremonies. But in Feb. 2021, they decided to go public. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Psychedelic churches in US pushing boundaries of religion

Growing numbers of people turning to ayahuasca in search of spiritual enlightenment

A statue of Mother Earth sits at the front of an altar used by a Colombian shaman, healer and traditional medicine man who leads the Hummingbird Church ayahuasca ceremonies, on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, in Hildale, Utah. Like many groups using psychedelics as sacraments, Hummingbird functioned underground for many years, hosting word of mouth ceremonies. But in Feb. 2021, they decided to go public. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
(Pastor Arthur Lucier/Instagram)

Lawyer questions consitutional right for B.C. pastor to be denied COVID appeal

Arthur Lucier wants to challenge the ‘constitutionality’ of 2021 Public Health Orders and his freedoms

(Pastor Arthur Lucier/Instagram)
Tourists take pictures with a stuffed polar bear upon arriving to Longyearbyen airport, Norway, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Church helps Norwegian mining community evolve in dark, warming Arctic

Northern community navigating a drastic change in its identity

Tourists take pictures with a stuffed polar bear upon arriving to Longyearbyen airport, Norway, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Pope Francis touches the coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before it is carried away after a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Benedict died at 95 on Dec. 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Faithful mourn Benedict XVI at funeral presided over by pope

Heads of state, royalty, clergy from around the world, and thousands more attend ceremony

Pope Francis touches the coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI before it is carried away after a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Benedict died at 95 on Dec. 31 in the monastery on the Vatican grounds where he had spent nearly all of his decade in retirement. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Nuns arrive at dawn to view the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as it lies in state in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict died on Dec. 31, 2022, aged 95, and that his funeral will be held on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope praises ‘gentle’ Benedict ahead of funeral

Nearly 160,000 people had passed through the basilica for former pope’s official viewing

Nuns arrive at dawn to view the body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as it lies in state in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2023. The Vatican announced that Pope Benedict died on Dec. 31, 2022, aged 95, and that his funeral will be held on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, third from left, meets with the winners of the 2022 Ratzinger Prize, Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler, left, and father Michel Fedou, partially hidden at right, at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican where Benedict XVI lives, in this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Second from left, is the foundation’s president Father Federico Lombardi, and fourth from left is Benedict XVI’s long-time personal secretary Bishop Georg Gänswein. (Fondazione Vaticana J.Ratzinger via AP)

Benedict XVI, first pope to resign in 600 years, dies at 95

German theologian tried to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, third from left, meets with the winners of the 2022 Ratzinger Prize, Joseph Halevi Horowitz Weiler, left, and father Michel Fedou, partially hidden at right, at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery inside the Vatican where Benedict XVI lives, in this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Second from left, is the foundation’s president Father Federico Lombardi, and fourth from left is Benedict XVI’s long-time personal secretary Bishop Georg Gänswein. (Fondazione Vaticana J.Ratzinger via AP)
Rabbi Bentzi Shemtov of Chabad of Nanaimo lights a candle on the menorah at Maffeo Sutton Park to mark the start of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 18. (Greg Sakaki/News Bulletin)

Nanaimo’s Jewish community lights first candle as Hanukkah begins

Menorah-lighting ceremony held Sunday, Dec. 18, at Maffeo Sutton Park

Rabbi Bentzi Shemtov of Chabad of Nanaimo lights a candle on the menorah at Maffeo Sutton Park to mark the start of Hanukkah on Sunday, Dec. 18. (Greg Sakaki/News Bulletin)