A Roman Catholic church in the rural community of Cow Island, Louisiana dumped 100 gallons of holy water from a crop duster airplane onto the people and their land below. From NPR:

"I've blessed some buckets for people and such, but never that much water," (Rev. Matthew Barzare of St. Anne Church) said.

The pilot had instructions to drizzle certain parts of the community, including churches, schools, grocery stores and other community gathering places...

The idea was first proposed by a parishioner who is studying to become a missionary who was looking for a way to spread both community togetherness and holy water across Cow Island.

And the more Barzare considered it, the more it made sense.

"Most parishes have a central location, but my area that I have to cover is a good 30 minutes to the next church, and so by plane, we realized, it might be the easiest way to sprinkle people's fields, rather than me going in a car to different locations," he said.

A young gay Christian man in Oklahoma says his fellow church-goers tackled him, pinned him down, punched him in the face, and tried to ‘pray the gay away,’ because he and his boyfriend are “guilty of homosexuality, an “abomination of a sin.” Read the rest

"Pantomime at church, in school, or on TV is another form of dramatic expression for anyone who wants to give deeper meaning to words and to thoughts."

This is "The Art of Pantomime in Church" (Meriwether Contemporary Drama Service filmstrip FS-33, 1982).

(r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

On Sunday, Pastor Bartholomew Orr of Southaven, Mississippi's Brown Baptist Church flew down from the rafters to deliver a sermon about the unexpected second coming of Jesus Christ.

Gotta spend money to make money, I guess.

(UPI) Read the rest

Salem Chapel BME in St Catharines, Ontario, built by slaves who settled in the area after escaping the United States of America, is in desperate shape.

A GoFundMe has been created to help preserve this important piece of actual North American heritage.

Via the Grio:

The members of a church in Canada that was attended by Harriet Tubman say that the building is in desperate need of repairs.

Salem Chapel BME (British Methodist Episcopal) was built by the former slaves who settled in St Catharines, Ontario, in 1853 and was designated a Canadian National Historic Site in 2000, though it remains privately owned by the congregation.

In the nineteenth century, Tubman would bring escaped slaves to Canada rather than the Northern states in the United States, once famously stating, “I wouldn’t trust Uncle Sam with my people no longer, I brought them all clear off to Canada.”

“The church represents a gateway to freedom for many, many African Americans who fled,” church historian Rochelle Bush told the CBC. “It was a hub for abolitionist activity.”

While the church once served 200 people in its congregation, now, that number has dwindled to only 11. And while nearly 4,000 visitors a year come to tour the site, the congregation says that the money raised that way barely covers the basics to keep the lights on.

A GoFundMe page started by the congregation states that the church needs more long-term help, including cables or earthquake straps to secure the 162-year-old frame of the building from traffic and nearby construction.

A priest at St. Christopher Parish in Rocky Hill, Ohio says a man resembling this police sketch reportedly gave confession while pointing a gun at him the entire time. The fellow is still at large.

"He just came in, you know, to go to confession, and before he sat down, he pulled out this gun from behind his back," the priest said in a call to 911 after the incident. "So I did confession at gunpoint."

The question is, what did he confess? Well, that's between him and his priest, and the man of god isn't breaking "the sacred seal of confession."

(ABC News) Read the rest

French cinematographers BigFly took their drone into Byzantine cathedral Église Saint-Louis de Paimbœuf, and the breathtaking results are almost otherworldly. Read the rest

Troy Walker of Farmington, Utah was cooking dinner for a church function when she opened a can of green beans and discovered a snake's head inside!

“As I got closer to lift it off the spoon, I saw eyes," she told 60abc.com. "That’s when I dropped it and screamed."

The manufacturer, Western Family, promised to investigate.

I'd like to remind the reader that Walker was making food for church and that a snake is a symbol of the devil. Just sayin'.

Read the rest

BB pal Scott Matthews snapped this sublime photo of Gabriel on the roof of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. Scott says, "Twice a year the sun rises aligned behind the statue, it's kind of my personal Manhattanhenge." Read the rest

Just hours after Pope Benedict XVI quit, a lightning bolt struck St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Yeah, yeah, lightning probably strikes the church on days when the pope hasn't resigned too. But it's more fun to ignore that as you appreciate this. (The Guardian) Read the rest