JUBA, South Sudan, June 18, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Hopes that the transitional government in Sudan would bring back Christianity as a school subject alongside Islam wilted when officials omitted it from an academic schedule released last week, sources said.

Doubly disappointed when an expected TV broadcast of school lessons on Christianity was omitted from the government-owned Television Station Khartoum International Channel this week, Christian parents suspected Islamist elements within the transitional government were influencing Khartoum State Ministry of Education planning.

The only Christian woman appointed to the council that oversees transition to civilian government in Sudan, Raja Nicola Eissa Abdel-Masih, told a group of Sudanese church leaders in an online meeting on Tuesday (June 16) that council members were working to resolve the issue.

“I have been in communication with the undersecretary in the Ministry of Education in regards to the removal of Christian Religion from the time-table of the subjects for the Basic School Certificate for the year 2020,” Abdel-Masih told the church leaders.

A Coptic Christian who long served as a judge in Sudan’s Ministry of Justice, Abdel-Masih was one of six civilians appointed to the 11-member Sovereignty Council last August. Christians who have suffered under the regime of Omar al-Bashir, deposed in April 2019, have hoped that she and…

(RNS) — This Juneteenth, Pastor Eddie Anderson will be among many social justice activists, educators and faith leaders around the country reflecting on the role of the black church in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Anderson will participate in a breakout discussion that is part of “JusticeCon: A Path Towards Freedom,” a virtual conference hosted by The Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York. The Rev. Al Sharpton, Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer are among those participating.

Anderson then plans to join Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles organizers along Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards for the “Juneteenth Black Freedom March” in South Central LA.

And on Sunday, he has a sermon prepared that will highlight what freedom looks like while commemorating Juneteenth.

“This year is different because of the moment,” said Anderson, pastor at LA’s McCarty Memorial Christian Church. “This is more of like a third reconstruction moment in our country that we are really leaning into.”

Juneteenth — a contraction of “June” and “nineteenth” — honors the day in 1865 when enslaved black people in Galveston Bay, Texas, were notified by Union troops they were free by executive decree. This was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863.

Public celebrations honoring the day have been…

Following nearly a decade without new music, Rebecca St. James is back in the spotlight with a new podcast, a new song, and – soon – a new album.

St. James released a new single June 12, one month after she launched a new podcast, Rebecca St. James Friends & Family, about faith and family life. Next month, she will release a new worship album, Dawn.

It’s been nine years since she released new music and about seven since she toured. But St. James – who has nine No. 1 Christian radio singles, multiple Dove Awards, and a Grammy – says she’s enjoyed the time out of the limelight. She was married during her hiatus. She also gave birth to two children, both girls. She’s now pregnant with her third child, a boy.

“I have enjoyed it very much,” she told Christian Headlines, referencing her time away from music. “I felt very called to kind of take a hiatus from music. … I was pretty exhausted at that point after doing nearly two decades of music. I just needed to live out this dream of establishing family life.”

During that time St. James helped her brothers – Luke and Joel Smallbone of King & Country – pen three songs on their album Burn the Ships. (They sang backup for her prior to forming their own group.) She also experienced multiple instances of joy and tragedy – experiences she discusses on her podcast.

“God just did a lot in our family’s life…

Twice as many black Christians as white Christians believe the United States has a race problem, according to a Barna survey that also shows a big difference in opinion about whether the U.S. has historically been oppressive to minorities.

Barna posted the data on its website Wednesday, although the survey was taken in 2019 and “can’t account for any shift due to the present, heated national discussion surrounding racism and white supremacy,” Barna said.

Still, “these recent responses point to a disconnection that has led us to this moment: disagreement about whether there is an issue in the first place,” Barna said. The survey was conducted with the Racial Justice and Unity Center.

According to the poll, 78 percent of black practicing Christians but 38 percent of white practicing Christians agree that the U.S. has a race problem. Overall, 46 percent of all practicing Christians in the United States agree with the statement.

Practicing Christians, according to Barna, are self-identified Christians who have attended a worship service within the past month and agree strongly that “their faith is very important in their life.”

Meanwhile, 75 percent of black practicing Christians either agree or strongly agree that, “historically, the U.S. has been oppressive to minorities.” By comparison, 42 percent of white practicing Christians…

A new survey says that most churches have not returned to in-person services, and many are uncertain about the future of worship gatherings.

The survey is from the Wheaton Billy Graham Center’s Send Institute, Exponential, and the Association of Related Churches. Some 767 responses were recorded for the study.

In a key finding, the survey showed that most churches have the potential to meet for in-person services, but 67 percent have not.

“Some church leaders explain that while they are allowed to gather in some capacity, the health and safety of their congregation and community outweigh their ability and desire to gather,” the study said. “Others have shared that restrictions on congregational singing, hesitation from ministry volunteers, and the inability to linger before and after services for conversations, greatly reduce the value of their in-person gatherings.

About 33 percent of pastors reported their churches have returned to in-person gatherings, but only about half of the congregation is attending.

As expected, 80 percent of large churches, those who boasted an attendance greater than 1,000 before the nationwide quarantines, reported they are not meeting.

In another key finding, half of churches will most likely return to in-person gathering this month, but about a third said they aren’t sure.

The survey said that one pastor said that “it does not make sense…

These history makers changed the world around them with their “yes” to God’s calling on their lives. Read stories of these inspirational missionaries and be encouraged!

William Carey

British born William Carey is often referred to as the “father of modern Missions.” Born in 1761 this Baptist minister was a missionary, a translator, a social reformer and a cultural anthropologist. He began his work in India founding schools for impoverished children. His work and writing is responsible for the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society, whose reach covers forty countries.

Over his years on the mission field, Carey translated the Bible into dozens of Indian dialects and founded a college to equip local ministers. He truly lived up to his own quote, “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

Mary Slessor

Mary Slessor lived a radical life as a missionary to Nigeria. Known for her powerful personality and sense of humor, Slessor fearlessly worked in regions where many missionaries before her had been martyred. Yet she remained unswayed by the imminent danger saying, “Why should I fear? I am on a Royal Mission. I am in the service of the King of Kings.”

In the regions she worked, twins were seen as a bad omen and abandoned by their villages to die in the jungle. Not on Slessor’s watch. She began scooping up the abandoned twins and taking them in. Over her years of service, she…

Texas pastor Tony Evans says churches have an obligation to help fix the current divide in America because churches stood on the wrong side of multiple issues of race during the past 200 years.

Evans made the comments this month to Scripps National News and to the Don Kroah Show on WAVA in Washington, D.C.

“The only reason this problem has existed this deep for this long is the failure of the church,” Evans said on the Don Kroah Show of racism and racial injustice. Evans is the author of Oneness Embraced and the pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas.

“Had the church not endorsed slavery, had the church not endorsed … segregation, Jim Crow and many of the systems, [then] they would not have been adopted and perpetuated in the culture. So since the church contributed to this mess, the church has got to fix it,” he said.

Evans gave examples of how he has experienced racism.

“I was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Dallas Seminary, but if I would have applied a few years before I did, they would not let me in because of the laws of segregation,” he said on the Don Kroah Show. “The only reason I’m on radio is [because] James Dobson intervened, because the radio stations told me that a black speaker would be too offensive to their white listeners. He intervened, and that opened up some doors. … 

“When I was in college in Atlanta, I walked…