With new executive order, this immigrant is leaving church sanctuary after 3.5 years
DURHAM, N.C. Dozens of others who took sanctuary in churches after former President Trump’s aggressive deportation policies are now checking with their lawyers to see if it might be safe for them to leave. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, right, with José Chicas at the School for Conversion on Dec. 17, 2019, in Raleigh, North Carolina. RNS photo by Yonat Shimron
January 21, 2021
DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) Jose Chicas, a native of El Salvador who has been living in church sanctuary for more than three years, will move out Friday (Jan. 22) after President Joe Biden signed an executive order temporarily halting the deportation of undocumented immigrants.
COVID-19: 250 Ocala seniors vaccinated Wednesday at local church
Corine Shelton, 85, has been quarantining in her Ocala home for nearly a year, only leaving to get a few groceries every so often. Even then, if too many people were inside the store, she would wait patiently outside until she felt comfortable enough to go inside.
As a member of Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Shelton heard about appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations to be administered through a partnership between the Heart of Florida Health Center and the local health department.
Shelton immediately asked for an appointment. On a chilly Wednesday morning at New St. John Missionary Baptist Church, located in west Ocala just off Silver Springs Boulevard, Shelton was one of 250 residents to receive the first of two shots of the Pfizer vaccine.
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Luke 4:18-19.
An Oklahoma legislator and retired Baptist minister shared a message of hope Sunday on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
Sen. George Young, D-Oklahoma City, spoke at St. John Missionary Baptist Church's virtual worship service.
For several decades, the northeast Oklahoma City church has held an annual citywide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Church Service on the afternoon of the Sunday before the national holiday
In a service full of hopeful songs and encouraging words, St. John s Missionary Baptist Church kept the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. alive Monday with its annual MLK Youth Program.
The program opened with a few words of welcome from the Rev. Allen Smith followed by the singing of Lift Every Voice and Sing.
A big theme of the day was about King s dream to unite people from different backgrounds in the United States to make it better and to move forward by loving those people.
The first speaker was a Kansas Wesleyan University student, D Andre Childress, who told the story of his life, about the questions he had to ask, such as who the Ku Klux Klan is and why people look at him differently because of the color of his skin.
Following long tradition, Black clergy take the lead in coronavirus pandemic
By Meghan E. Irons Globe Staff,Updated January 17, 2021, 4:58 p.m.
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Rev. Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at 132 Odell Clark Place, in Harlem in Manhattan, NY. His wife also received the vaccine. He said he received the Pfizer vaccine.Jennifer S. Altman
When the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a newly elected senator from Georgia and pastor of the church Martin Luther King Jr. once led, got his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Friday, he joined a long line of Black pastors taking the lead in a national crisis.