Photos of the Week: Baptists in Indy; Muslims in Mecca

By Kit Doyle · June 14, 2024
 (RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca and more. Messengers vote at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (RNS Photo/AJ Mast) Newly elected SBC president pastor Clint Pressley speaks during a press conference at the conclusion of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (RNS Photo/AJ Mast) Former Vice President Mike Pence, left, speaks with Brent Leatherwood, right, during a luncheon across the street from the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, June 11, 2024. (RNS Photo/AJ Mast) A messenger speaks from the floor at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Indianapolis, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (RNS Photo/AJ Mast) Lifeway, the Southern Baptist Convention publishing house, in the exhibit hall of the SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (RNS Photo/AJ Mast) A man, his face painted in the likeness of a spirit, participates in the He Neak Ta rituals in Phum Boeung village, northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) Participants in the the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage leave the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, June 8, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain) Muslim pilgrims surroung the Kaaba, the cubic building at the center of the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Saudi authorities expect the number of pilgrims to exceed 2 million this year. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) A Saudi man embroiders Islamic calligraphy, using either pure silver threads or silver threads plated with gold, during the final stages in the preparation of a drape, or Kiswa, that covers the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure at the heart the Grand Mosque, at the Kiswa factory in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) Muslim pilgrims surround the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, June 11, 2024. Pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba seven times, in a counter-clockwise direction.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) A forensic official inspects a bus that fell into a deep gorge on Sunday after being fired at by suspected militants in Reasi district, Jammu and Kashmir, Monday, June 10, 2024. The bus carrying pilgrims to the base camp of the famed Hindu temple Mata Vaishno Devi was fired at by suspected militants on Sunday causing the vehicle to fall into a deep gorge, killing nine and injuring 33. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) Archival Photos Since a billboard was erected outside the Ector County Courthouse in 1945, attendance at all 11 churches in Odessa, Texas, noticeably increased. Sponsored by the Odessa Ministerial Association, the sign prompted tourists to compliment the town on its church-mindedness. (RNS archive photo by William J. Davis. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.) Four small ancient bronze figures retrieved by fleeing refugees from temples in Communist-overrun Tibet were earmarked for safekeeping in four Kalmuk Buddhist temples in New Jersey and Philadelphia in 1963. The sacred objects, believed to be from 200-300 years old, were presented in New York by Church World Service, Protestant overseas aid agency, to Thutben J. Norbu, brother of the Dalai Lama. Mr. Norbu (right), who was, in turn, to give the figures (shown at bottom) to the monasteries, received them from James MacCracken, associate executive director of CWS. The agency obtained the figures from a group of private American citizens who bought them to aid Tibetan refugee relief. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
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