Photos of the Week: United Methodists; Orthodox Holy Week

By Kit Doyle · May 3, 2024
 (RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes large changes for United Methodists, Orthodox Holy Week and more. First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., hosted hundreds of LGBTQ people and their allies May 1, 2024, for a celebratory sing-along after the United Methodist General Conference lifted a ban on gay ordination. (RNS photos/Yonat Shimron) Bishop Tracy Malone, president of the United Methodist’s Council of Bishops, in purple suit, joins a large crowd of LGBTQ people and allies celebrating the striking down of a ban on the ordination of gay clergy at the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., on May 1, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron) Bishop David Graves of the Alabama-West Florida Area presides over a debate about the United Methodist Church’s stance on marriage during the 2024 United Methodist General Conference, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. Delegates affirmed “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith into union with one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community.” (Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News) First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosted hundreds of LGBTQ people and their allies Wednesday, May 1, 2024, for a celebratory singalong after the United Methodist General Conference lifted a ban on gay ordination and allowed its clergy to officiate at gay marriages. Many of the hymns sung were original compositions by Mark Miller, a composer and professor of church music. (RNS photos/Yonat Shimron) A large crowd of LGBTQ people and allies celebrate the striking down of a ban on the ordination of gay clergy at the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., on May 1, 2024. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron) In this aerial photo taken from a drone, Hindu pilgrims climb stairs to reach a mud volcano to perform Hindu religious rituals at the start of the annual festival in the ancient cave temple of Hinglaj Mata in Hinglaj in Lasbela district in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, Friday, April 26, 2024. More than 100,000 Hindus are expected to climb mud volcanoes and steep rocks in southwestern Pakistan as part of a three-day pilgrimage to one of the faith's holiest sites. (AP Photo/Mohammad Farooq) Hindu devotees exit a bus and walk toward a mud volcano to perform rituals for an annual festival in an ancient cave temple of Hinglaj Mata in Hinglaj in Lasbela district in the Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, Friday, April 26, 2024. More than 100,000 Hindus are expected to climb mud volcanoes and steep rocks in southwestern Pakistan as part of a three-day pilgrimage to one of the faith's holiest sites. (AP Photo/Junaid Ahmed) Romanian Orthodox priests and believers stand outside the Patriarchal Cathedral after an Orthodox Palm Sunday pilgrimage in Bucharest, Romania, April 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) Archbishop Abune Enbakom of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Jerusalem, center, attends the Washing of the Feet ceremony at the Ethiopian monks' village Deir Al-Sultan, located on the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Coptic Orthodox Christians receive holy water thrown by a priest during a Palm Sunday Mass in the Samaan El Kharraz Monastery in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, April 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil) Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, center right, attends the Washing of the Feet ceremony outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem's Old City, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Pope Francis is greeted by gondoliers upon his arrival in Venice, Italy, Sunday, April 28, 2024. The Pontiff arrived for his first-ever visit to the lagoon town, including the Vatican pavilion at the 60th Biennal of Arts. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) Archival Photos Lovely Jackson Lake and the soaring peaks of Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyoming, provide a beautiful wilderness setting for worshipping vacationers. Minutes before this 1964 photo was taken, Donald Scaar, a student minister in his second year at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., had placed his rustic cross at the water's edge. Soon, worshippers from the nearby campground arrived for the scheduled Sunday service. To be ordained as a minister of the Reformed Church of America, Scaar was one of some 200 college and seminary students participating in the National Council of Churches' Ministry in the National Parks. Over one million vacationers in 36 parks were served in the summer phase of the program. (RNS archive photo by Jean McNeil. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.) Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goodman, center, join hands with students of the Walden School in New York City and sing the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” in Feb. 1965. They stand before a tree dedicated to the memory of their son, Andrew, who was one of three volunteer civil rights workers murdered in summer 1964 in Mississippi. Andrew was a graduate of Walden School. The student body raised funds to purchase the tree and the plaque. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
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