From Journalists Around the World
COVER STORY—What religion stories are most important to lift up in 2017? What stories are under-covered in the media? Two of us at ReadTheSpirit participated in a global online forum sponsored by the International Association of Religion Journalists (IARJ) asking for responses to those important questions. You’ll be intrigued and inspired to discover what reporters from the six continents had to say. This week our Cover Story is based at the website of the IARJ.
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WELCOMING SPRING
ALL THE HOLIDAYS—Check out www.InterfaithHolidays.org.
EQUINOX, OSTARA, NOROUZ—It’s spring! That’s the simplest way to describe this cluster of holidays known by many names: Equinox, Ostara or in various traditions with origins in the Middle East and Asia—Norouz, Nowruz or Naw-Ruz. Stephanie Fenton has the story about these global responses to the changing of seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.
PASSOVER—Jewish families around the world mark the ancient festival of freedom starting at sunset on April 10. Stephanie Fenton has the story about this observance, which involves recalling the story of freedom from slavery—and always prompts questions about the need to respond to injustice in our contemporary world, as well.
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EASTER and PALM SUNDAY—As Stephanie Fenton reports, this is one of those rare years when Eastern and Western Christians converge on the same date for Easter, the most important holiday in the Christian year. Before that, though, comes the colorful festival of Palm Sunday.
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FEED THE SPIRIT
AFRICAN COOKING—This week, FeedTheSpirit Editor Bobbie Lewis brings us a guest column by Detroit-based artist and writer Sarah Rose Sharp about a community partnership involving a Catholic church and two regional nonprofits presenting classes called “A Taste of African Heritage”—a nutritional education effort that explores the intersection of healthy eating practices and African heritage.
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A New Jesus Movement
DIVE INTO BLUE OCEAN—Recently, we introduced Dave Schmelzer, head of a daring new religious movement launching nationwide this spring: Blue Ocean Faith. The book, and the movement is taking off coast to coast!
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FILM, FAITH
& POPULAR CULTURE
ED McNULTY—Enjoy all of the free resources from Ed McNulty’s faith-and-film website: VisualParables.org. For many years, the one publication Ed asks subscribers to pay for is the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with complete study guides to films and other news about multi-media resources for discussion. The March 2017 issue now is online! Please, consider subscribing—or giving a gift subscription to someone you know. It’s great for clergy, teachers and anyone who enjoys movies as a springboard to spiritual reflection.
Among Ed’s latest free movie reviews are:
- NERUDA—Ed writes: “Chili’s best known film director Pablo Larraín and scriptwriter Guillermo Calderón must have enjoyed making this somewhat whimsical, semi-biographical film inspired by the life of Nobel prize winner Pablo Neruda.” (4.5 out of 5 stars)
- WHITE HELMETS—”We are indebted to Netflix for making documentarian Orlando von Einsiedel’s short film so widely available to the public,” Ed writes. (5 stars)
- BEAUTY AND THE BEAST—It’s terrific! That is Ed’s verdict on the new family film. (5 stars)
- BEFORE I FALL—”Ry Russo-Young’s adaptation of Lauren Oliver’s YA novel will is a dramatic version of Ground Hog Day, involving teenagers rather than adults,” writes Ed. (4 stars)
- 2 MOVIES YOU CAN SKIP—Ed calls Bitter Harvest, a second-rate Dr. Zhivago love story, then he says the only good thing about the comedy Table 19 is that it’s short. Ouch.
- THE SHACK—Ed explains why he gives this controversial Christian film 4.5 out of 5 stars. There are some redeeming moments in the movie, he says.
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