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A gay Pride rainbow flag flies with the U.S. flag in front of the Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village, Kan., on Friday, April 19, 2019. As of June 2023, more than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

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United Methodists lose one-fifth of US churches in schism driven by growing defiance of LGBTQ bans
By PETER SMITH - Associated Press
Thu,07/06/23-7:01AM , 129 Reads
More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination.
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AP correspondent Peter Smith reports a truck driver Robert Bowers, who spewed hatred of Jews, has been convicted of barging into a Pittsburgh synagogue and fatally shooting 11 congregants.

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Pittsburgh synagogue gunman is found guilty in the deadliest attack on Jewish people in US history
By PETER SMITH - Associated Press
Fri,06/16/23-8:34AM , 63 Reads
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A truck driver who spewed hatred of Jews was convicted Friday of storming a Pittsburgh synagogue and shooting everyone he could find on a Sabbath morning, killing 11 congregants in an act of antisemitic terror for which he could be sentenced to die.
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Rick Warren speaks at the Southern Baptist Convention at the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center, Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in New Orleans. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

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Impassioned appeals by ousted churches spotlight Southern Baptists' stance against women pastors
By PETER SMITH - Associated Press
Tue,06/13/23-6:54PM , 114 Reads
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Longtime pastors of two churches — one massive and one modest-sized — made their final appeals to Southern Baptists on Tuesday, asking to have their churches returned to the denomination's fold after being
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Pastor Rick Warren speaks during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., Tuesday, June 14, 2022. Warren, who is expected to speak on behalf of Saddleback on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at the opening of the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, has been intensifying a media blitz in what he acknowledges may be a lost cause. He is trying to get the Southern Baptist Convention to reverse its ouster of the California megachurch he founded, Saddleback Church, for having women pastors. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

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Saddleback's Rick Warren ramps up appeals to Southern Baptists to let church with women pastors stay
By PETER SMITH - Associated Press
Mon,06/12/23-5:05PM , 163 Reads
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Retired pastor Rick Warren, author of the publishing phenomenon, “The Purpose Driven Life,” has been intensifying a media blitz in what he acknowledges may be a lost cause.
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