Children sing at the Living Water Community Church.

Photo Courtesy of Stephanie Pipe

The Rev. Clark Cothern, pastor of Living Water Community Church, sums up his church’s mission in one acronym - R.E.A.C.H.

It stands for Recognize Everyone And Communicate Hope, and the Ypsilanti-area Baptist church has been successful in achieving that mission, Cothern says.

Volunteers worked working on a Habitat for Humanity house for Hosanna Vivas and her daughter, Andrea, Saturday, April 27.

Courtney Sacco I AnnArbor.com

The county’s 12 congregations — plus Saint Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital — have raised funds to sponsor and renovate a home with Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley. The non-profit organization provides homeownership opportunities and assistance for low-income families in Washtenaw County.

The group raised the pledged $30,000 to sponsor the property and has been sending construction volunteers since early April to renovate the home at 2143 Merrill St., Ypsilanti, in what they have dubbed, the “Catholic House.”

On March 13, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina became the first international religious leader to come from south of the equator when Catholic cardinals elected him the next pope. He is pictured appearing on the Vatican balcony. Photo in public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The most recent sign of the Rise of the South was the election last week of Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina to become the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Among other things, this choice signals that the future of the Catholic Church resides in the South. His election also highlights the rise of the Global South in human development.

Each year since 1990, the United Nations has published a human development report that evaluates each nation for economic development and human well-being. The Human Development Index is a single number that summarizes each nation’s development. The index measures life expectancy, levels of formal education, and gross national income per person. This single number produces a list of the “most developed” to “least developed” nations.

Who’s at the top? Norway, Australia, and the United States take the top three spots, according to the just-released 2013 report.

Pope Benedict's retirement raises questions for Catholics around the world—including one in four Americans who identify themselves as Catholics. What happens throughout the Catholic church is no trivial matter!

Why do so many people stick with the Catholic church, despite all that we know about the horrors that have been perpetrated in its name for so long?

Earlier this week, we talked about the connections believers feel to their own parishes, and to the appeal of the Catholic “stories” that provide structure and meaning to the lives of its members.

For millions of Americans, the Catholic Church is not half a world away in Rome. The Church is where people gather and meet the needs of the community. The Obamas are not Catholic, but when they want to volunteer at a soup kitchen in Washington D.C., they show up at So Others Might Eat, a Catholic community founded in 1970 by Father Horace McKenna, a Jesuit. (White House photos by Chuck Kennedy, top, and Pete Souza; released for public use.)

One reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s “renunciation” of the papacy last week has been a recitation of the great sins perpetrated by the Catholic church and its hierarchy, both in recent years and over the millennia.

No question about it, the Catholic church is guilty of many wrongs, and some of its leaders will have a lot to answer for at the Pearly Gates.

So the question you have to ask: Why would anyone stay? Why is anyone still Catholic?

The closest most Catholics get to a pope is a TV screen, a newspaper—or sometimes a postage stamp.

VATICAN-BREAKING NEWS:

Around the world, 117 Catholic cardinals are preparing for a conclave to choose a new pope, a successor to Benedict XVI, whose resignation earlier this month was reported to have shocked the world’s 1 billion Catholics.

Well … not really.

Most Catholics never see a pope — except on television, in newspapers or on postage stamps. Most Catholics never read a word he writes. In fact, many Catholics don’t buy what he’s selling. But the news did open the door for some serious criticism of Catholicism and questions about why Catholics stick with it, despite all the church’s well-documented failings. (Catholic author Catherine Wolff just released an entire book about this question: Why do we stay?)

ASTROLOGY is popular. One in five Americans believe in the idea.

Churches remain a dominant institution in America, despite a rising number of Americans who say they don’t have a religious affiliation. Both the religiously unaffiliated and affiliated believe churches do a lot of good. Large majorities of both groups say that churches bring people together and strengthen community bonds, according to a Pew poll last year. Large majorities also say the churches play an important role helping the needy and the poor.

But will our eclectic spiritual tastes threaten the church?

One of the most popular programs to build attendance among children 100 years ago were “Church Attendance Stamps.” Most popular in Great Britain, the trend crossed to America after World War I. In the 1920s, kids attending such churches were given pretty paperback stamp albums with a rectangle labeled for each Sunday of the Christian calendar. If you missed a Sunday, you missed that colorful stamp for the year!

Seven of 10 Americans are very or moderately religious, according to a Gallup poll last month. About 40% are very religious—they attend religious services on a regular basis and report that religion is important in their lives. America continues to defy the secularization trend, but it is not immune. Today, let’s look at …

Is worship attendance changing? If so, is it heading up or down?

Most U.S. congregations are not growing. Worship attendance at more than half of the congregations participating in the U.S. Congregational Life Survey shrank by 5 percent from 2003 to 2008. Fewer than 20 percent reported that their worship attendance increased by more than 5 percent in the same period. The rest of the congregations in the study were stable during this time.

(These and other facts are reported in the latest publication from the U.S. Congregation Life Survey, Leadership That Fits Your Church. I’ve been reporting on this data since Monday; you might also care to read an interview with the chief researcher.)

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama during the official swearing-in ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House on Inauguration Day, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2013. First Lady Michelle Obama, holding the Robinson family Bible, along with daughters Malia and Sasha, stand with the President. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

President Obama was sworn in yesterday inside the White House, fulfilling the Constitutional mandate that the official swearing-in take place before noon on January 20. Like most presidents, Obama’s left hand was on a Bible. This Bible belonged to the First Lady’s paternal grandparents (a famous Lincoln and MLKing Bible will be used in the public ceremonies today).

At least two presidents famously declined to use a Bible—Teddy Roosevelt and John Adams. The nation’s founders were an eclectic group when it came to religion, as we’ve discussed before.

How typical is Obama?