MISSING CLIMBERS
Chaplain: families of missing climbers "grieving and hoping"
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. (AP) — A chaplain for the police and fire departments in Sandy, Ore., says the three young Christians who failed to return from climbing Mount Hood on Friday met through church activities.
The body of 26-year-old Luke Gullberg was found Saturday, but the search continued Sunday for 24-year-old Anthony Vietti and 29-year-old Katie Nolan.
Chaplain Dennis Simons says Nolan has traveled extensively for Christian causes.
Simons has been praying with relatives of the climbers at a ski lodge near Oregon's highest mountain. As the search continued, he said the families "are grieving and hoping."
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
CLIMATE-RELIGION
Ecumenical service held to support world climate summit
COPENHAGEN (AP) — Christian leaders from around the world have held an ecumenical worship service at Copenhagen's Lutheran cathedral to support efforts to stop global warming.
Sunday's service was led by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the world Anglican leader.
He was joined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and church leaders from Tuvalu, Zambia, Mexico, Greenland and Denmark. They carried symbols of climate change: a glacier stone from Greenland, bleached corals from the Pacific Ocean and a dried-up cob of corn from East Africa.
After the service, church bells in Copenhagen and around the world chimed 350 times to draw attention to global warming. Many scientists say 350 parts per million is the upper level of what is considered a safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
STORM-DAMAGED STEEPLE
Church restores cross toppled by tornado
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minneapolis church has returned its 14-foot-tall cross to the top of its steeple, which was damaged by a tornado last August.
Central Lutheran Church held a ceremony as a 200-foot crane raised the 900-pound solid brass cross back to the spire and reattached it. The spire's cross was originally mounted in 1928.
Part of the church's steeple toppled when a tornado struck downtown Minneapolis on Aug. 19. The church was hosting events for the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America convention being held next door at the Minneapolis Convention Center when the storm hit.
Central Lutheran spokesman Joe Bjordal (BYOR'-dahl) says the storm caused almost $300,000 in damage to the church. No one was hurt.
PASTOR-STIMULUS
Pastor gives away his pay raise
ALCESTER, S.D. (AP) — A pastor in the South Dakota town of Alcester (AHL'-sehs-tur) has come up with his own "stimulus" package.
The Rev. Tim Worthington of the United Church of Christ was given a $1,100 raise earlier this year even though he didn't want one. So, he handed out $20 bills to dozens of people.
Churchgoers could use the money however they wanted. Some raised calves for market. Others hosted an Italian dinner night. One bought quilting material, sold individual squares to benefit the church and stitched a blanket for the pastor.
Worthington says his initial $1,100 investment continues to grow through the various projects in which his congregation has invested. He says the total now is well over $10,000.
PASTOR KILLED
Oklahoma town unsettled by pastor's unsolved slaying
ANADARKO, Okla. (AP) — Three months after the slaying of an Oklahoma pastor in her church, some residents of Anadarko say they still have a sense of unease.
The killing of The Rev. Carol Daniels remains unsolved. The 61-year-old Daniels' body was mutilated and posed behind the altar of her tiny Christ Holy Sanctified Church.
There has been little public word from investigators since the killing. Police say their leads have evaporated and there is little to say, other than that they want to catch the killer.
Anadarko Mayor Jerry Marcum says there is a lingering fear in the city of 6,300 people. He says Anadarko is supposed to be a safe place, but that feeling is absent with the killer still loose.
EPISCOPAL-BISHOPS
Episcopalians to pray about consecrating lesbian bishop
DALLAS (AP) — Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says her church should respond with "prayer and discernment" to the election of a lesbian bishop to be an assistant bishop in Los Angeles.
At a weekend news conference, Jefferts Schori said that the Rev. Mary Glasspool must be approved by a majority of Episcopal dioceses before she can be consecrated, and that could take several months.
The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. In 2003, it caused an uproar by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The following year, Anglican leaders asked the Episcopal Church to hold off on any more gay bishops while they tried to prevent a permanent break in the fellowship.
But in July, the U.S. church's top policy making body affirmed that gay and lesbian priests were eligible to become bishops despite pressure from other Anglicans.
NATIONAL MENORAH
Rahm Emanuel lights National Menorah outside White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has lit the National Menorah on the Ellipse in front of the White House in celebration of Hanukkah.
The Sunday ceremony marked the 30th anniversary of the first National Menorah lighting in 1979. President Jimmy Carter attended that ceremony.
Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem in 164 B.C. after its desecration by Syrian-Greek invaders. The eight-day festival began on Friday.
Emanuel, who is Jewish, was the guest of honor at the lighting ceremony. He stood in a cherry picker to light it in front of more than 1,000 onlookers on a cold, rainy day.
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS
Israeli rabbis denounce mosque vandalism in West Bank
TAPUACH JUNCTION, West Bank (AP) — Israeli rabbis have visited a Palestinian village in the West Bank where Jewish extremists are believed to have vandalized a mosque.
Jewish settlers in the West Bank have been enraged over the Israeli government's decision to limit settlement construction for 10 months.
The delegation of rabbis met with Palestinians on Sunday to denounce the attack on the mosque as a crime and to seek reconciliation. The leader of the delegation, Rabbi Menachem Froman, said: "This is destroying a house that is built for worshipping God."
Froman said, "We are representatives of the religion of Israel and we want to say very clearly that the deed is against our religion."
Sound: (3:06 a.m. audio feed)
SOMALIA-EXECUTIONS
Islamist militants stage flogging, executions
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — In Somalia, witnesses say Islamist militants have executed two men accused by the fighters of murder and adultery.
Witnesses in a town southwest of the capital say the Hizbul Islam militants on Sunday stoned to death the man accused of adultery and shot the man accused of murder. They say the militants summoned the town's residents to watch the executions.
An 18-year-old woman was also seen being whipped for adultery with the man who was stoned to death.
Islamic courts run by radical clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months. In some areas militants have also banned movies, musical telephone ringtones, dancing at weddings and playing or watching soccer.
