Clergy

Barack Obama announced Saturday that he and his wife had resigned as members of their Chicago church in the wake of controversial remarks from its pulpit that have become a serious distraction to his presidential campaign. In a letter dated Friday to the pastor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, had come to the decision "with some sadness."

A Russian court reduced the three-year prison sentence of a U.S. preacher convicted of smuggling rifle ammunition and ordered him set free. The Moscow City Court reduced Phillip Miles' sentence to 10 months and ruled that he should be freed without serving all of it. Miles, who has been in jail since Feb. 3, was likely to be set free today after the completion of the necessary formalities, his lawyer said, and he will be allowed to leave Russia....

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (USA) overturned a long-standing ban on the ordination of gays and lesbians Friday, providing yet the latest example of a religious denomination struggling with how, and whether, to incorporate homosexuality into church life. At the same time, the church's national governing body, meeting in San Jose, refused to alter its definition of marriage, calling it a "covenant between a woman and a man."

It was a question that many were thinking, but no one dared ask. When Christopher Laurie, son of Harvest Christian Fellowship leader Greg Laurie, was killed in a car crash July 24, the first order of business was tending to the family -- particularly Christopher's wife, Brittany, who is due to give birth later this year, and their young daughter, Stella. Sooner or later, though, someone would have to raise the issue: What about the Harvest Crusade?

Britain agreed to delay the extradition to the U.S. of a radical Muslim preacher to face charges that he helped set up an Al Qaeda terrorist training camp in Oregon. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, ruled Monday that Abu Hamza al Masri should not be extradited until judges can examine his case. Britain's Home Office said it would abide by the court's request. U.S. officials accuse Abu Hamza, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, of conspiring to establish a training camp in Bly, Ore. They also say he helped extremists who kidnapped 16 foreign tourists in Yemen in 1998.

Former Roman Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo, whose election broke a six-decade legacy of dictatorship and one-party rule, was sworn in Friday as president of this poor, landlocked nation in the heart of South America. "Today a new Paraguay is born," Lugo told thousands of supporters and various heads of state assembled outside the congressional palace in the normally sleepy capital. "Today marks the end of an exclusive Paraguay, a secretive, notoriously corrupt Paraguay."

For more than 13 hours, Pastor Tony Amatangelo had prayed and watched over his friend and fellow minister as he lay in a county hospital after being pulled from the wreckage of Metrolink 111. Paul Long died, and four hours later, physically and emotionally spent, Amatangelo returned to his Moorpark home. Sunday service was coming. What would he say? The pastor felt chances were slim that the sermon he had written for the service would be relevant after the crash. Then he remembered.

Two Orange County ministers were among dozens across the country taking politics to the pulpit Sunday in hopes of influencing the Nov. 4 presidential election. Unlike some pastors elsewhere who endorsed Republican John McCain during "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," the two ministers stopped short of explicitly recommending that worshipers vote for either McCain or Democrat Barack Obama. But they were not shy about raising politics in church. Pastor Stephen B.

With the Nov. 4 election fast approaching, rabbis, priests and ministers across California are ratcheting up their public appeals over Proposition 8 -- using their religious platforms to alternately highlight the perils of passing or rejecting the same-sex marriage amendment. More than a dozen Lutheran ministers are to appear after services today at St.

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller removed his son Saturday as preacher on the syndicated "Hour of Power" television show less than three years after handing over to him the ministry he began more than 50 years ago. Schuller announced the removal of his son, Robert A. Schuller, in a statement read to some 450 Crystal Cathedral congregants by Jim Coleman, the church's president.