The Church of England will test-run stand-alone services for blessing same-sex couples after its ruling body, the General Synod, voted to move ahead with implementing special prayers of thanks and dedication for gay couples. The vote to go ahead with the pilot program followed hours of emotionally charged debate about the church’s pastoral responsibilities toward gay people. (Pepinster, Religion News Service)
Read MoreUnder the surface and on the sidelines, there was friction over topics including the church’s approach to politics, and Pope Francis’s recent global gathering on the church’s future, which has rankled some conservatives. The meeting also came just days after Francis made clear that transgender people could be baptized and serve as godparents. (Graham, The New York Times)
Read MoreMeta is pushing for rival tech giants such as Google and Apple to play a bigger role in keeping teens off potentially harmful sites, calling for the first time for legislation to require app stores to get parental approval when users age 13 to 15 download apps. (Lima & Nix, The Washington Post)
Read MoreDo you know what a gyat is? What about a rizzler? And how, precisely, does one pay a Fanum tax? Welcome to the language of Gen Alpha, the cohort coming up right behind Gen Z. These children of millennials have begun a generational rite of passage — employing their own slang terms and memes, and befuddling their elders in the process. (Kircher, The New York Times)
Read MoreAFinnish court ruled in favor of the free speech of a member of Parliament and a Lutheran bishop on Tuesday morning, affirming they have the legal right to say that homosexual acts are sin and marriage should be between a man and a woman. (Silliman, Christianity Today)
Read MoreChristians have less confidence in artificial intelligence (AI) than non-Christians, especially when it comes to AI use by churches, Barna Group and Gloo researchers found. More than half of Christians, 51 percent, said they don’t believe the church and AI should ever intersect. About the same portion, 52 percent, said they’d be disappointed to learn their own church was using AI. (Chandler, Baptist Press)
Read More