Rev. Kenneth Bell, with his daughter Fiona, accompanied the return of an important Buddha statue to Sri Dalada Maligwa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic), in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on 17 December. The grandson of British archeologist and explorer Harry Charles Purvis Bell—better known as HCP Bell (1851–1937)—returned the statue to Sri Lanka after it had been in the family’s possession for a century.

Pope Francis has tapped an Italian lawyer to be the first woman to hold a management position in the Vatican’s most important office, the Secretariat of State.

Researchers from the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute are working with conservators from the National Museum of Afghanistan to repair some of the earliest physical depictions of the Buddha, which were destroyed in 2001 when the Taliban shattered religious images at the museum. The team, supported by grants from the US Embassy in Kabul, are carefully reassembling statues from more than 7,500 fragments that had been saved in trunks in the museum’s basement after the rampage of the Taliban.

Ominous turbulence hangs over the world, bringing the grave threat of violent conflict that would have a devastating impact on the Middle East and far beyond it. 

“We cannot be silent”, six Italian bishops have alerted on the environmental crisis, adding on that front “we are facing a real drama that already marks the present and will certainly mark the future of the new generations”.

Sakyadhita Australia has launched a fundraising portal for people around the world to offer help to those affected by this year’s devastating bushfires. The 2019-2020 fires have been of exceptional intensity, killing 25 people, an estimated 500 million animals, and destroying over 1,500 homes. Areas affected by the fires have included Wat Buddha Dhamma, One of Australia’s Oldest Buddhist Monasteries, and areas in southeast Australia’s famed Blue Mountains where Sakyadhita International held its annual meeting in June 2019. Funds are being raised through GoFundMe and will be distributed to a variety of organizations in need.*

Opponents of Montenegro’s new law on religion plan more rallies against what they call an attack on the Serbian Orthodox Church, after thousands of protesters took to the streets and Moscow and Belgrade voiced concerns.

The Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs has introduced an application-based religious conflict early warning and response system in a bid to track any religious discordance in the community.

US President Donald Trump has urged Americans to unite against the "evil scourge of anti-Semitism" after a man stabbed five people at a rabbi's house in New York during Hanukkah celebrations on Saturday.

Boko Haram jihadists have killed seven people on Christmas Eve in a raid on a Christian village near the town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, local militia and residents told AFP Wednesday.

Pilgrims from around the world gathered Tuesday in the biblical city of Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, ushering in Christmas celebrations across the globe.

Harvest pastor Greg Laurie and Liberty University president Jerry Falwell are among the nearly 200 evangelical leaders to have signed an open letter condemning Christianity Today magazine's editorial backing the impeachment of Donald Trump. 

After accepting the resignation of 92-year-old Cardinal Angelo Sodano as dean of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis changed the norms of the office so that the dean would be elected to a five-year term renewable only once.

The Bangkok-based International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) has announced the imminent launch of its new School of English for Engaged Social Service (SENS 2020), an annual three-month transformative learning program to nurture young Asian adults and mentor them as community leaders and agents of compassionate social change. The 2020 course kicks off in Thailand in January under the theme “Transform Your English, Transform Your World.”

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Saturday condemned religious violence following attacks on multiple mosques in the Amhara region, the latest unrest targeting religious institutions.