Clergy

A Fullerton minister whose family was recently targeted in a gang-related attack has a criminal history of lewd conduct and is facing an imminent 60-day jail sentence, according to court records. On Nov. 30, 2006, the Rev. Willie Holmes was arrested for lewd conduct in a public place and later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. An Orange County judge sentenced him to three years' probation. On Feb. 4, 2008, he was arrested on two counts of violating his probation.

Cotton swabs tucked between their jaws and cheeks, bishops from the nation's largest Lutheran denomination sat in silence for three minutes Thursday as they underwent testing for HIV. Those few minutes of silence would serve to break another kind of silence, one that the bishops say has kept the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from compassionately addressing the global AIDS crisis and welcoming AIDS victims into the pews. "We in the U.S.

Shiite Muslim clerics Friday called for the release of the Iraqi journalist sentenced to three years in prison for throwing his shoes at then-President George W. Bush. Sheik Suhail Uqabi, a follower of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, said the sentence imposed on Muntathar Zaidi is "a verdict against the Iraqi people who refuse the American occupation" of Iraq. Efforts to release detained Sadr loyalists and others who have opposed the U.S.

March was a busy month for courts weighing issues affecting churches and clergy in California and across the nation. Three rulings -- one from a church body, two from secular courts -- involved a California lesbian who hopes to become a priest, a dispute over church property in Colorado and whether children in Texas should observe a minute of silence before starting their school day.

Efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been defeated again, sealed by votes tallied Saturday. But the margin of defeat -- the final tally has yet to be determined -- is guaranteed to be closer than in previous years. That is encouraging for supporters of gay clergy and cause for concern for opponents, with both sides expecting the issue to be revisited. Last summer, the General Assembly of the 2.

To those who know it only by reputation, the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts is a forbidding place, plagued by violence and poverty and ruled by African American gangs. So naturally, Father Peter Banks brought 200 Latino parishioners there in December for a posada, a Christmas ritual that re-creates Joseph and Mary's search for a place for Jesus to be born. Banks, pastor of St.

As they retired from South Los Angeles pulpits, civil rights-era ministers known as the "old lions" took with them a kind of social justice-oriented "Bible in one hand, newspaper in the other" Christianity that has been quietly fading in African American churches. Theirs was neither the popular "prosperity gospel," which preaches that God will reward the faithful with material riches, nor the soul-saving ministry of televangelists and mega-churches dedicated to preparing people for Judgment Day.

In a small room above the crowds of Terminal 2, the Rev. Michael G. Zaniolo prepared to deliver his airport version of Mass. In other churches it can take an hour or more. But as an American Airlines pilot strode into the chapel with his luggage, Zaniolo was ready to deliver it a bit quicker -- 30 minutes or less. His homily, a thoughtful sermon with messages of hope, was whittled to 1 minute, 46 seconds. "People have to rock and roll," said Zaniolo, a 50-year-old Catholic priest.

For two decades he was considered to be above the petty political squabbles, a cautious elder contemplating questions of faith and Islam while guiding his nation into the future. But Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose title of supreme leader makes him Iran's ultimate authority, has gotten his hands dirty.

The Episcopal Church, casting aside warnings about further alienating conservatives within its ranks, on Tuesday lifted a de facto ban on the ordination of gay bishops and is continuing to weigh a measure that would sanction blessings for same-sex couples. Bishops, clergy and lay leaders voted overwhelmingly at the denomination's General Convention in Anaheim to open "any ordained ministry" to gays and lesbians.