Published November 7, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by DAVID O'CONNOR

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - It's a lot more "than just music and lyrics," the Rev. Antony Raja said, looking at a CD case sitting on the table in front of him.The 12-song, 90-minute "Lord, You Know I Love You" was recorded in Lancaster and Chennai, India.And it relied on no fewer than 47 singers, musici...

Published November 7, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by ELIZABETH EISENSTADT-EVANS

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - This is the first part of a two-part series on troubled clergy and what can be done to help keep congregations and clergy healthy.What's going on with our clergy?Once upon a time, they were regarded as role models.Serving at the altar, baptizing babies, delivering a sermon on a Torah portion, as...

Published November 7, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by JOAN KERN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Reamstown Church of God left a cozy village last month for a sprawling new $7.5 million hilltop home in the country.Founded 74 years ago, the full gospel, Pentecostal church moved two miles from its first home, at 57 E. Church St., to spacious new quarters with room to grow at 400 Pfautz Hill Road, ...

Published October 31, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by JOAN KERN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Sister Maruca Cipriano has a dream that one day the world will be free of war.The Catholic sister, who grew up in a poor Mayan family of migrant workers in Guatemala, knows firsthand about the horrors of war.During a brutal civil war from 1960 to 1996 between the military and guerrillas in the Centr...

Published October 31, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by RON OROZCO

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - SACRAMENTO, Calif. — This is a busy time for Wiccans as they observe the pagan New Year.Today is Samhain (pronounced sow-in), the celebration of endings and beginnings and of remembering the dead. Pagans believe it's the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead becomes ...

Published October 24, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by LORI VAN INGEN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Many North Americans think they are immune from disasters, that our wealth and technology will protect us.But it didn't protect us from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 or Hurricane Katrina in 2004, said Kevin King, executive director of Mennonite Disaster Service."Most peop...

Published October 24, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by The Rev. Robert M. Lamparter

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - On Sunday, local Lutherans will join with Evangelical Lutherans and other Reformation churches throughout the world in the observance of the evangelical reformation of the church.The Reformation is observed on the Sunday nearest to the 31st of October, the eve of All Saints Day.It was on the eve of ...

Published October 17, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by JOAN KERN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - The Most Rev. Kevin Rhoades will celebrate his fifth anniversary as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg this year.And he wants to mark the anniversary by promoting spiritual renewal.So he declared this year a diocesan Marian Year, in honor of Mary. It will begin Saturday with a pilgrimage o...

Published October 17, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by JOAN KERN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - She's every gal's best friend.She's funny and hip.But sometimes her advice is a little off.Like the time she tries to persuade Sarah she's too old to have that baby. That's Sarah, as in the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac.She's actually Satan disguised as everyone'...

Published October 10, 2009, 12:01 AM EST

by LORI VAN INGEN

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Immigrants have played a key role in the life of St. Joseph Catholic Church for the past 160 years — and immigrants will continue to be the key to its future, according to Monsignor Thomas Smith.St. Joseph Church was started in 1849 by German immigrants.The only other Catholic church in the ar...