Religion
Downtown KC Renaissance Seeds Congregations
As civic, commercial and residential life has blossomed in Kansas City’s Downtown in recent years, religious life has grown there, too. But that doesn’t mean it’s been easy for newly planted Downtown faith communities to flourish. “It’s been tougher in one sense than we thought it would be,” says the Rev. Troy Campbell, pastor of…
Gay Bishop Reflects Evolution of Evangelical Lutheran Church
Almost 20 years ago, I devoted a long column in The Kansas City Star to an interview with two local pastors, both in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a Mainline Protestant denomination. The ELCA was then debating whether to change its rules to allow the ordination of LGBTQIA+ people as clergy. The Rev. Donna…
Kansas City’s ‘Stunning’ Array of Sacred Music
Rockhurst University music professor Timothy L. McDonald grew up near New York City where, he says, “we have a lot of sacred music, but it’s my perception that New York has not nearly as many professional and semi-professional sacred music groups as in Kansas City. “It’s stunning to me how many such groups we have…
Retreat Centers Serve as Oases from Stressful Times
Stress — including that caused by our nation’s current political turmoil — is such a common experience that people have devised many ways to describe it, including the simple exclamation “I’m stressed out.” There’s also the phrase you’re likely to hear only in parts of New England: “I’m right out straight.” Sometimes people under age…
Sharpening Teeth of Acclaimed KC-Based Catholic Watchdog
A national (and international) Kansas City company has a new leader who grew up here but doesn’t live here now and may never call Kansas City home again. James Grimaldi began a few months ago as the new executive editor of The National Catholic Reporter, an award-winning, progressive newspaper voice for Catholicism. Given Grimaldi’s long…
Aging KCK Congregation Bequeaths Building to Serve Youth
Across much of the nation in recent decades, shrinking churches have confronted the painful question of whether they can afford to maintain a building for worship and other activities. Time and again the answer has been no. Sometimes that means finding other places in which to continue offering worship. But often it means either abandoning…
Clergy Sex Abuse Survivor Reflects on His Reform Work
A 2002 series of Boston Globe articles turned a scandal about Catholic priests who sexually abuse children (and bishops who protect those priests) into a national story. The Globe, however, wasn’t the first newspaper to expose this reprehensible crime. Credit for that goes to the independent, Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporter. NCR was writing about…
Kansas City’s Muslim Community Prepares for Ramadan
Kansas City’s Muslim community is preparing for the holy month of Ramadan, which is marked by spiritual introspection, ritual prayers and fasting from dawn to dusk.
Behind the Scenes of ‘The Black Church,’ Coming Next Week to Kansas City PBS
Rewire spoke with Stacey L. Holman about her role as series producer on “The Black Church,” which premieres Feb. 16, 2021 on PBS.
Buddhism: Religion, Philosophy or Way of Life?
Many spiritual seekers are drawn to Buddhism, whose followers debate whether its a religion, a philosophy or just a way of life.