Media centre brings faith coverage to global audience

Jehovah’s Witnesses jailed in Russia. A shortage of clergy in the United Kingdom. A dispute between the Catholic Church and the Trump administration over a sacred site in New Mexico. Baptist churches in Ukraine providing warmth to people in that country in winter.

These are stories you likely don’t know about. But you could have known about them if you subscribed to the Religion Media Centre.

The Centre is an organization in the United Kingdom that reports on religion and belief in that country — and around the world — in an effort to promote cohesion and understanding in society.

Describing itself as impartial, the Centre doesn’t promote any one religion or belief; it has no editorial line other than “religion matters.”

I have subscribed to its newsletter for several years now. That’s how I found out about the six Jehovah’s witnesses who have been jailed in Russia for “extremist” activity.

They were arrested after a Russian security agent infiltrated their group. A spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses said the Russian government frequently uses informants to infiltrate prayer groups to obtain evidence for prosecutions against members of the church, which has been banned as an extremist organization in Russia since 2017.

Two of the six were sentenced to five years each in a penal colony, while four received compulsory labour sentences of up to four years. In July, a Moscow court also ordered the seizure of 123 properties belonging to the church. A total of 174 Witnesses are currently in prison in Russia.

And why is Russia persecuting Jehovah’s Witnesses in that country? Because of the church’s commitment to conscientious objection to participation in war on religious grounds, and its belief that members owe their allegiance only to God — not to any country, including Russia.

The Centre also highlighted a report from the Church of England about the plummeting numbers of people entering church ministry. It warned that clergy in that Church are becoming “an endangered species.”

The report calls on Church leaders to instigate robust measures to support clergy through things such as mental health support, improvement in theological training and providing mentoring for new clergy.

Here in Canada, something similar is happening as Roman Catholic dioceses search for priests in places like India and Vietnam, while Protestant denominations are seeing fewer people studying at seminaries for pastoral ministry — many are choosing counseling or other church-related positions for a career.

There was also a story about how Baptist churches have become places of warmth and refuge in Ukraine — an important consideration now that winter is just around the corner. These churches were key to helping communities face freezing temperatures and prolonged power cuts last winter, the Centre said.

Altogether, more than 400 churches in Ukraine provided warm spaces, hot drinks, humanitarian aid, phone charging and practical support to around 480,000 people last year.

Finally, there was a story about a dispute between the Trump administration and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces in New Mexico over land the government wants to expropriate for its border wall.

The land in question forms part of a religious pilgrimage site that belongs to the Diocese and lies at the foot of Mount Cristo Rey. The Mount, which is topped by a 29-foot statue of Jesus, attracts thousands of pilgrims from the U.S. and Mexico each year. The Diocese is challenging the government’s attempt to seize the land, arguing that the border wall would infringe religious freedom by obstructing access to the sacred site.

Those were just a few stories from one week’s worth of reporting by the Centre. But it’s not the only place you can turn to find news about religion around the world. Another good source of religion information, although it is U.S.-heavy, is Religion News Service (RNS).

Among the stories RNS has recently posted are “Sainting Charlie Kirk serves the MAGA movement. It doesn’t serve the girls who believe it”; “Mainline pastors are running for office again”; and “Two pastors detained, a student dead: Haitians in Ohio turn to faith amid fear of ICE.”

And let’s not forget the Free Press, which through its partnership with Broadview continues to provide readers with news about faith across Manitoba.

All of these sites and publications exist because they believe religion still plays an important role in the world today — and that the media, policy makers and the public need to know about it. In fact, in this polarized world today, you could argue the need for that kind of reporting has never been greater.

Or, as the Religion Media Centre put it, the bottom line is that “religion matters.”

Jdl562000@yahoo.com

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