Special coverage
This year's Piccolo Spoleto festival includes the Notes for Nourishment concert series aiming to provide healing for hearers and funds to help the area's hungry, homeless and hurting.
Is it possible that one can become overloaded with compassion and begin to drift into the lane of the ridiculous?
In last week’s column, I promised to tell you the story of Army Sgt. Robert Stucki from Clarksville, Ky. I interviewed the sergeant for this column 10 years ago when he was a patient, and I the chaplain, at the Air Force Field Hospital in Balad, Iraq.
Victor Hugo wrote “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in 1831 because the cathedral was in a state of horrible disrepair. If the fire at Notre Dame can prompt society to come together and examine its priorities, then he would be glad to know that his novel is still fulfilling its purpose.
Months after the United Methodist Church voted to tighten LGBTQ restrictions, youth and young adults in the church remain optimistic about their future with the denomination.
While pastors preach, teach and provide spiritual leadership, church members also view them as chief executive officers overseeing large organizations and say management skills are important for the task.
These days, I often hear journalists being compared to a dishonest used-car salesman or sleazy bill collector. Ten years ago, I experienced that mistrust firsthand while serving as the chaplain for the Air Force Theater Hospital at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
Holmes Avenue Baptist Church has several personal assisted listening devices that help parishioners hear worship music and sermons more clearly during service.
Second Presbyterian Church will host a free community screening of "Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story" at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9. The screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmaker Martin Doblmeier.
About 400 acres of the 6,000-acre monastery are maintained by a diverse group of volunteers who find spiritual significance in what some may see as simple garden work.
In the wake of losing its main worship center to flames, St. Andrew's parishioners and the Mount Pleasant community came together to charter a path forward for the centuries-old congregation.
Imagine taking a virtual plane ride today and meeting me in San Francisco for a 30-minute drive south to Moffett Federal Airfield, formerly known as Moffett Naval Air Station.
On the heels of church bombings that killed several hundred and Sri Lanka and the burning of multicolored flag — commonly associated with LGBTQ pride — in West Ashley, local faith and community leaders said there's more work that needs to be done to address discrimination.
While Easter Sunday is the day we celebrate Jesus’ biggest miracle, the resurrection, I have friends who jokingly suggest I attempt one of his lesser miracles.
While the Easter story offers hope, power and inspiration for worshippers, some sermons coming from church pulpits Sunday will discuss the resurrection in light of recent tragedies and societal issues.
In an age where church attendance is declining in many houses of worship, Seacoast continues to grow, attracting parishioners with its contemporary worship, variety of ministries and community-based programs.
They heard irony in someone who insisted he didn’t know the very language he was clearly speaking. I dare say you will experience this same sort of irony if you attempt to speak a language of faith that you don’t really know.
Palm Sunday, a religious festival that commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem before his crucifixion, marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians who recount the biblical events that lead to Jesus' resurrection. The week also includes the Passover celebration where Jews remember the Hebrews' liberation from Egyptian bondage.
Rob Taylor, director of choral activities at the College of Charleston and founder of the Taylor Festival Choir, loves Bach’s Mass in B minor.
My career as a health care chaplain often leaves me feeling like I’m pastoring a parade. That’s because, by definition, my chaplain relationship with patients is a temporary one.
Even as LifeWay Christian Resources shuts down all 170 of its shops — including seven in South Carolina with one in North Charleston — other Christian book stores in the Lowcountry are staying open by offering non-Christian materials. The establishments are functioning less as a book store and more as community centers.
Aimed at engaging youth, serving those in need, and attracting individuals who would otherwise be too intimidated to enter a church building, Charleston area congregations will combine preaching and prayers with food and fun through "praise in the parks" and other outdoors events this spring.
Some have suggested that Norris Burkes refer to himself as "America’s Favorite Chaplain,” but he thinks "The Bomb-Dump Chaplain” might be a better fit.
Do you ever find it helpful in risky situations to disregard worrisome thoughts and push yourself past tragedy, pain and danger?
The father of Emanuel AME Church's slain pastor tooled around its fellowship hall Saturday visiting dozens of booths set up by vendors and health professionals on hand to continue his legacy of caring for those in need.
Louise Brown, 84, and Vera Smalls, 72, were among the 12 women at Charleston’s Medical College Hospital in 1969 who refused to air their grievances about low wages and long hours individually, as their supervisors insisted they do. They had banded together and wanted to show solidarity.
To expand the reach of her nonprofit, which focuses on female empowerment, Fields launched the Dream Girls Conference — an annual North Charleston event that currently attracts about 3,000 middle and high school girls and helps them make wise decisions.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, a program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Charleston Hospital Strike will be held inside Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston.
On the second day on Utila Island, I meet our neighbor, Ken Nelson, a missionary with Legacy Mission International. Ken offers me a golf-cart tour into a barrio called Camponado. In literal minutes, we move from stunning beauty to staggering poverty. I’ve not seen a landscape like this since my National Guard deployment into the muddy wards of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Marion L. Usher, author of "One Couple Two Faiths: Stories of Love and Religion," will give a book talk at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 19.
Cinderella days and projects have become a staple in a lot of communities, and for the Lowcountry, it’s the same. The events are a culmination of local community members and businesses coming together to donate dresses while local girls are able to pick out one of their choosing at no cost
While many churches with dwindling congregations have shuttered their doors, one church in Charleston will get a new lease on life.
On a recent Monday, my wife, Becky, and I boarded a plane flying south to Honduras. From several thousand feet aloft, we cross a border that, according to The New York Times, “76,000 migrants crossed without authorization in February ... approaching the largest numbers seen in any February i…
In recent weeks, Israeli politics and American reactions to them have been much in the news.
Perhaps no symbol, beyond the Confederate flag, is as steeped in the dueling historical narratives of South Carolina and its people as its most beautiful crop: cotton.
For many Christians, Lent involves abstaining from favorite foods, beverages or habits and spending more time in prayer and meditation. Here’s what some worshipers plan to give up for the season.
My interest in public safety comes from the tragedies I’ve witnessed in my chaplain career. In death’s aftermath, I’ve offered comfort to those whose loved ones were accidentally struck, shot, suffocated, burned, poisoned, fallen or electrocuted.
In the 18 years I’ve been writing this column, many readers have shared their impression of what a chaplain is. And more than a few have certainly told me what a chaplain is not.
A special session of the general conference, held Saturday through Tuesday in St. Louis, Missouri, will decide whether the denomination will permit same-sex weddings in churches and ordain openly gay clergy — a hot-button topic that recently threatened to split to denomination. Charleston area congregations are hoping for unity and clinging to their values.
Rural Mission, a faith-based Johns Island charity in its 50th year, will suspend operations at the end of the month. The charity is turning over its assets to the South Carolina United Methodist Camps and Retreat Ministries, with which it is affiliated.
“Would I have to understand all religions to become a chaplain?” asked a woman considering a career change. I shook my head, chuckling at this question I’m so often asked.
Even though the Christian faith is prominent among the black population today, a recent report indicates that many African-Americans also follow Islam and often convert to the faith from other religions.
Bach "tempered" (retuned) the chromatic scale, dividing it into 12 equal semitones. He codified the rules of Western harmony, and he set the standard for performance practice in the first part of the 18th century. It’s a legacy that has influenced all musicians since, including The Beatles, whose songs — “Love Me Do,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Penny Lane” — depend on the rules of harmony and voice leading that Bach established.
“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.”
Rev. Robert Schenck serves as president of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute in Washington, D.C. Using Scripture and Bonhoeffer's teachings, Schenck travels the nation advocating for gun control.
It was one of the bloodiest episodes of the civil rights movement, and it changed South Carolina's reputation when it came to race relations. It was no longer known as a moderate state that had avoided the violent confrontations seen in Mississippi and Alabama.
Have you ever found yourself under fire for saying or writing something that you believed to be clearly innocuous? As a public speaker and a writer, I can say yes to this a thousand times.
Charles Markowitz, a Charleston resident and Holocaust survivor, died on Jan. 26. He was 91.
In South Carolina, laws allow students to obtain credit for courses in Bible history, literature and even devotion.
I was stooped over a dustpan lamenting my lot in life when I remembered something the French existentialists believed about struggle: not that struggle would redeem us, but that it was the only sane response to an absurd world.
Do you ever wonder what people think about you? I do and, most especially, I wonder what my readers think of me.
The groups will host their third annual Food & Faith: A Dialogue Between Muslims and Jews. At the program, which begins with a conversation between Rabbi Michael Davies, who leads Dor Tikvah, and Imam Shamu Shamudeen of the Central Mosque of Charleston, guests will learn blessings and enjoy foods from both religious cultures.
Members of New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh joined Sunday worship at Emanuel AME Church to show unity between two houses of worship devastated by mass shootings.
