Photos of the Week: Ramadan begins; Bulgarian patriarch dies

By Kit Doyle · March 15, 2024
 (RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes Ramadan beginning, the death Patriarch Neophyte I and more. Palestinians perform the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan near the ruins of a mosque destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) Muslim women read the Quran while waiting to break their fast during the first day of Ramadan at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) Children help a baker to organize bread for sale on the street as Muslim worshippers leave the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex after Friday prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) Muslims break their Ramadan fast together at an Iftar meal in the courtyard of Jama Masjid on the first Friday of the holy month in Ahmedabad, India, Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) A message in lights is installed between the minarets of the Suleymaniye mosque ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, March 10, 2024. The message, in Turkish, reads “Ramadan is the month of the Quran.” (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel) Members of the Compañía Romana del Santísimo Cristo del Sepolcro de Bolaños, from Ciudad Real, Spain, prepare to march past St. Peter's Basilica as Pope Francis holds his weekly general audience in the St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Followers of the Sabean Mandaean faith, a pre-Christian sect that follows the teachings of John the Baptist, perform rituals in the Tigris River during a celebration marking "Banja," or Creation Feast, in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Iraqi Sabaean Mandeans submerge themselves in the Tigris during the annual five-day ritual. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) Bulgarian Orthodox Priests pay their last respects to Bulgarian patriarch Neophyte I at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria, Friday, March 15, 2024. National mourning was declared by the Bulgarian government on March 15 and 16 to honor Neophyte, who was the first elected head of the Orthodox Church in the country's post-communist era, died at a hospital in Sofia on March 13. He was 78. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova) Bulgarian Orthodox believers wait to pay their last respects to Bulgarian patriarch Neophyte I at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Friday, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova) Members of the Freedom Life Church pick through the remains of the church building in Winchester, Ind., Friday, March 15, 2024, after it was destroyed in severe storms overnight. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) Worshippers carry a crucifix of the Holy Christ of the Blood as they process through the streets of downtown Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, March 9, 2024. The procession, organized by the Brotherhoods of the Archdiocese of Barcelona, marched through the city asking for rain. Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia declared a drought emergency for the area of around 6 million people, including the city of Barcelona. The event coincided with the rainiest day of the year. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Police with dogs stand guard at a farm about 20 miles north of Harare, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. It is believed that hundreds of children were used as cheap labor on the compound, which includes a religious shrine. (AP Photo) Archival Photos The Rev. Alan J. Kieffer reads an ancient litany by flickering candlelight to his congregation gathered in a basement for a simulated "catacomb" service, at Prince of Glory Lutheran Church in Detroit, Mich., in 1964. "We want to remember the early setting of the church, the persecution, the necessity of secretiveness," said Kieffer of the church's Wednesday evening Lenten services. Meditations stressed that the church today "cannot remain hidden" but "must come out of hiding and bear a fearless witness," the pastor said. At right, homemade candles illuminate the symbol of a fish under the Greek word for the fish, "Ichthus." (RNS archive photo by David Meade. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.) An Italian missionary blesses his Indian congregation following Mass on Easter Sunday in 1964. Father Bussolini has worked in the Garo Hills of India for 14 years. His chapel is the simple hut shown in the background. (RNS archive photo by Luvisca D'Souza. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
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