United Church of Christ congregations based in New England recently helped to eliminate $26.2 million in medical debt for families in seven states and first responders nationwide.

The amount was raised by a coalition of 122 UCC congregations, four associations, and over 100 households based in the mainline Protestant denomination’s Southern New England Conference.

The regional UCC body worked to raise the money in cooperation with a New York-based nonprofit called RIP Medical Debt, which buys medical debt at a reduced price.

This is the second major buy that the denomination has overseen, making the total amount of medical debt paid for $51.8 million, according to a UCC announcement on Sunday. 

The Rev. Jocelyn Gardner Spencer, senior pastor of the United Church on the Green in New Haven, Connecticut, was part of the charitable endeavor.

“Our scriptures call us to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free,” said Gardner Spencer in a statement.

“In the midst of a pandemic that is…

Following a mediation process, megachurch pastors Ron Carpenter and John Gray have finally settled after years of lawsuits between the two.

According to The Christian Post, the two had been fighting after the Carpenters reportedly tried to evict the Grays from the church Carpenter previously pastored, but handed over to Gray when he moved his Redemption Church brand from South Carolina to California in 2018. Gray, who rebranded the Redemption Church to the Relentless Church in South Carolina, fought back.

According to Gray’s lawyers, the dispute was really over church membership.

“In essence, this is not a dispute as much about leases and occupancy of church buildings, as much as it is a fight over church members. Pastor Gray has come into Greenville at the urging of Ron Carpenter, even moving to be here before school was out for the summer for his children because Carpenter said he had to leave immediately for California.”

However, Carpenter’s lawyers asserted that Gray had been “shady” and “dishonest” during the closing procedures for changing hands of the church. However, the agreement allegedly couldn’t be concluded anyways because the International Pentecostal Holiness Church technically owned a portion of the property.

The settlement allows Gray to stay until 2021 and then find a new building for his church. In statements made at a joint announcement,…

Sadie Robertson Huff, pregnant with her first child, was admitted to the hospital recently due to COVID-19 complications. She has since been discharged and is now resting at home.

“I’m not going to lie, this has been one of the most challenging things,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I got Covid-19 and ended up getting very sick. I know everyone experiences covid differently, but wow these symptoms are wild. I’ve definitely struggled through this one!”

Robertson told her 3.9 million Instagram followers that Baby Huff “is doing great and healthy.” But the experience tested her faith in a new way. She confessed, “I’ve learned a lot and I have been challenged in a lot of new ways. I will say my dependency on Jesus has never felt greater in some of the hardest moments of this sickness.”

Robertson shared that she is grateful for her swift recovery and “a Savior who is with me in these moments that feel rather lonely.”

Thousands of people commented well wishes for the 23-year-old author and speaker.

Earlier this month, Robertson announced her pregnancy with her husband Christian Huff on Instagram.

“We are thankful to be carrying a miracle into the world! Baby, you are already loved and already believed in. Can’t wait to welcome you into the world with all the joy, hope, and excitement you will bring into the life of so many by your…

Actor Matthew McConaughey says in a new interview that he sees no contradiction between science and faith, and that the Bible has helped him become a better person.

He also says Hollywood is sometimes “condescending” to people of faith. 

McConaughey, a professing Christian, made the comments during an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.  

Asked if he considers himself religious, McConaughey replied, “Yeah, absolutely.” He told GQ Magazine in 2014 that he attends a non-denominational church that is “based in the faith that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins.”

McConaughey told Rogan he took a role in the 1997 film Contact in part because of his beliefs about the compatibility of science and faith. The movie tells the story of scientists attempting to make contact with extraterrestrial life. 

“I had written a college paper called ‘John Wayne goes West,’ and it was about how do you – how can you – be a believer in a world of science. And I remember writing things during the making of that movie, like, ‘Science is the practical pursuit of God.’ The two are not exclusive. They dance together. They go together – belief and science. 

“I never saw those as contradictions. And that’s part of the reason I attacked that role and became part of that movie. I wanted to play a person that had that point of view, of a…

Souls to the Polls is encouraging Black churches to vote in the presidential election.

“Family, this is the most important vote of my lifetime. And this Sunday, October 25th, is an early voting Sunday. We’re asking everyone to leave church. Leave virtual or in-person service … and vote!” the Rev. Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls Milwaukee, said in an announcement on Facebook Friday.

Souls to the Polls started before the 2008 presidential election, where church leaders asked members to “take your souls to the polls” and go directly from Sunday services to the polls.

Souls to the Polls Milwaukee Program Coordinator Bruce Colburn told The Christian Post this week that the response to the effort has been “very good, very supportive.”

“People understand that this is a very important election and it affects their future very strongly,” he said.

In South Florida, hundreds of voters and volunteers showed up at an event Sunday to rally others to get to the polls.

“We’re celebrating getting out the vote,” said Katrice Johnson, a Hallandale Beach resident and organizer with the non-partisan group Faith in Florida. “We don’t care who you vote for. We just want you to vote.”

Minister Tim Griffith, of Pembroke Pines, told the crowd that every vote matters.

“It’s bigger than you,” he said of the…

(RNS) — A Charlotte, North Carolina, church was declared an “imminent hazard” and ordered closed until Nov. 6 after an outbreak of COVID-19 led to more than 121 cases and at least three deaths. The closure took effect Saturday (Oct. 24).

The abatement order from the state’s health director, Gibbie Harris, was issued for the United House of Prayer for All People, which hosted more than 1,000 people at a weeklong event held Oct. 4 through Oct. 11. The event, described as a convocation, led to the largest community-based outbreak in Mecklenburg County, according to Harris.

Based in Charlotte, the Pentecostal church meets in several locations, but its leadership has refused to comply with recommendations for social distancing and wearing masks.

Harris said the church has also refused to provide information for contact tracing of those infected.

The closure was implemented in part because the church was planning a “Whirlwind Revival,” Oct. 26 to Oct. 31.

Calls to the church were not answered on Monday.

Nationwide, numerous churches have resisted state orders limiting the size of indoor gatherings and requiring social distancing guidelines. Some have sued, claiming that banning religious gatherings is a violation of the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clauses.

In Los Angeles, Grace Community Church pastor John MacArthur defied California’s…

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of Christians from all over the country assembled on Sunday evening to worship on the National Mall to intercede for the nation amid an ongoing pandemic and tense election season.

As part of worship artist Sean Feucht’s multi-city nationwide tour called Let Us Worship, the Sunday event was the 45th place the California-based musician had led worship, often in places where violence and discord have manifested earlier this year such as Seattle, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon. A cold drizzle periodically rained down on the crowd with temperatures in the 40s. 

Feucht explained from the stage that the Let Us Worship movement was in part born out of alarm and distress over California Governor Gavin Newsom’s policies related to the shutdown of churches, particularly his words prohibiting singing. These draconian measures, he said, have caused many in the Church to react in fear and intimidation but the Church should be comprised of the least fearful people.

JOS, Nigeria, October 23, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Protests against police brutality in Nigeria that grew into generalized unrest over poor government took on a religious dimension this week with attacks on Christians and church buildings.

Following peaceful protests that began earlier this month against torture and killings by Special Anti­­-­Robbery Squad (SARS) forces, counter-demonstrations against the #EndSARS protestors and shootings by security forces escalated tensions. On Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 19-20) Christian leaders in Plateau, Kano and Kogi states led prayer walks of thousands of Christians in appeals for peace.

As various cultural and political groups expanded the protests to include their own interests, suspected Muslim agitators took advantage of the chaos to attack churches, sources said. In Kogi state on Monday (Oct. 19), following a prayer walk in Anyigba, Christians praying inside the Dunamis Christian Centre were attacked by suspected Muslim antagonists, an area resident said.

“A dozen pastors and more than 400 Christians were praying in the church when they were attacked,” Friday Adah told Morning Star News by text message. “I watched in horror as violence was used against Christians in Anyigba town. A peaceful prayer walk seeking God’s help for our country, Nigeria, for God to restore peace and love, was suddenly met with undue force as…