Religious Rites

About 500 people of Persian descent sang, exchanged hugs and prayed for hours Sunday evening at the California Zoroastrian Center during a celebration of two of the most important events in their ancient religion. One of the events, Nouruz, the Persian New Year, took place during Wednesday's vernal equinox; the other celebrates Zarathustra, prophet to the Zoroastrian religion, who is said to have been born 3,764 years ago today.

The haze from burning esfand, a Persian weed, and the scents of thick-brewed tea and rose water fill the black funeral tents that have bloomed across Tehran. Sweeping black banners of mourning and small green lights hang outside mosques. In the Grand Bazaar, thousands of new customers have descended on the stands selling paraphernalia for the upcoming holiday. On the streets, at bus stops and on the subway, young Iranians ask one another: What mosque are you going to for the holiday?

The bat mitzvah girl was not alone. There were nine of her, dancing like a bat mitzvah-girl chorus line across nine--count 'em, nine--television sets. "This is broadcasting television technology that we're making available to the bar mitzvah market," said Vince Doyle, a bar mitzvah professional, as he hovered before his flashing "video wall" at Los Angeles' first bar mitzvah planning show Sunday. "You can turn it into the 'Arsenio Hall Show.' " Oy. So you want to do a bar mitzvah?

The church bells rang all afternoon. Archbishop Rafael Romo Muñoz was on his way to say a Mass marking the transfer of Father Raymundo Figueroa, the beloved priest at Santisimo Sacramento parish. Hundreds of men, women and children answered the call of the bells. But they weren't there to greet the bishop. They chained the gates and locked the doors. They hung signs. "This church belongs to the people; not the church," read one. When Romo stepped out of his SUV, 20 robed priests from the Tijuana diocese tried to form a procession, but burly men blocked their way. The archbishop tried to say a prayer, but the crowd drowned him out with bullhorns and bells.

The central temple ceremony in the Mormon Church has been changed to eliminate the woman's vow to obey her husband and other elements that some members said were offensive and outdated. In the new version of the rites, women now pledge to obey God and to merely listen to the advice of their husbands.

Re "Marriage Is a Misstep for Gay Rights," Commentary, March 22: Imagine my surprise when I read that marriage should be done away with because people like me want in! Apparently Alexander Cockburn doesn't want to belong to Western civilization, but I do. I was raised in a strong and spiritual family, and I believe in the sanctity of family. I also believe that my partner and I should be allowed by our state and country to make the same choices, wise or not, that all the other adult members of our families are permitted to make.

They streamed into the modest living room and made the sign of the cross to the statue of the Virgin Mary that stands regally on a mantle draped with white cloth. Then the 50 or so people knelt on the floor as they sang hymns, prayed and recited the rosary, never taking their eyes off the Blessed Mother. With the rites finished, the entourage ferried the statue to another house to recite another set of prayers and welcome the Blessed Mother into the home.

Soldiers of American Indian descent will be permitted to use the hallucinogenic plant peyote in religious services under a draft rule proposed by the Pentagon. The rule would apply to more than 9,200 service members who belong to the Native American Church, who until now have been subject to court-martial or lesser punishment for what they describe as the sacred sacrament of a 10,000-year-old faith.

Visible five abreast in the hazy distance, the horsemen kicked their steeds into motion, as if jump-starting a car. Out of a cloud of red dust they thundered, galloping past the ancient mosque of Kano and straight for the dun walls of the emir's palace, as if trying by sheer momentum to burst through its tiny dark doorway into the labyrinthine chambers within. But at the last moment, the horses skidded to a stop and reared high on their hind legs.

Human sacrifices and religious rites are no longer the essence of the game, but in Mexico a 3,000-year-old sport remains an addictive national pastime. For pre-Hispanic Indians, hulama , which is somewhat like volleyball, had sacred significance. But most of today's aficionados play it as a sport in its own right rather than for its historical meaning.

Thousands of supporters of Iran's most senior dissident cleric marched through streets in his hometown and descended upon the country's main theological center today to mourn his passing just days before the climax of a politically charged religious commemoration. Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a pillar of the Islamic Revolution three decades ago who became a staunch defender of the nation's current opposition movement, died late Saturday of complications due to advanced age, diabetes and asthma, his doctor told state television.

After weeks of listening to parishioners sniffle in the pews, and worrying about the spread of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend decided its flock needed to make some sacrifices this flu season. So this week, the priests will be locking up their Communion chalices and, as a precaution against the spread of germs, temporarily stopping the practice of offering wine during the sacrament. "When you have 4,500 people showing up for Mass, and you have eight cups for the populace, it's easy to see how this could become a problem -- fast," said Father John Kuzmich of St. Vincent de Paul in Fort Wayne, whose church in northeastern Indiana has about 10,000 members.

A Sioux City man has been convicted of killing his two stepdaughters during a ritual from a satanic bible. Sentencing for Lawrence Harris Sr. is scheduled for Feb. 18. The first-degree murder convictions carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Ten-year-old Kendra Suing and her 8-year-old sister, Alysha Suing, were found stabbed and strangled on Jan. 6, 2008, when authorities responded to a fire at their home.

The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles has announced that church leaders can bless the unions of same-sex couples as a matter of policy. The Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, whose diocese encompasses Los Angeles County and five other Southern California counties, made the announcement Friday during a diocesan convention in Riverside.

More than 2 million Muslims from across the globe descended on Saudi Arabia over the weekend to perform the ancient rituals of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is considered the spiritual pinnacle of a devout Muslim's life. As Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj notes in a website on the event, the word "hajj" merely means "to set out for a place."

Every seven years since AD 301, priests from around the world have trekked to the ancient Cathedral of Etchmiadzin in Armenia to retrieve jarfuls of freshly brewed muron -- a sweet-scented holy oil stirred with what is said to be the tip of the lance driven through Jesus' side -- and carry them back to their respective dioceses.

At the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, director Salam Al-Marayati has been fielding dozens of calls in recent days from non-Muslims asking about the Million Man March set for Monday in Washington, D.C. "They call because the march is sponsored by the Nation of Islam, we're Muslims, and they figure we must be connected," said Al-Marayati. "They have no idea there's any difference."

Did the Roman Catholic church ever bless homosexual unions in ritual ceremonies resembling the sacrament of marriage? The question, explosive by nature and certain to excite ideological reflexes among gay rights advocates and their opponents, has acquired new urgency this week with the publication of Yale University history professor John Boswell's latest book on human sexuality and the church.

Still in a daze from the crash, Donald Ashman walked over to the first body. Ashman knelt down and lifted a corner of a white blanket covering the body, placed his hand on the man's forehead and said the words he had said so many times before, almost always at a hospital: "May God Almighty have mercy upon thee, forgive thee thy sins and bring thee to everlasting life." The prayer took just a few seconds.

The bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies mark Jewish children's public passage into a new identity as people responsible for their actions and for living in accordance with their faith. What about autistic children, however, whose identities seem locked away inside them? How can they profess themselves responsible members of a community?