SHIAWASSEE COUNTY — The state-ordered “stay home, stay safe” order by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak isn’t stopping many area churches from holding services — online, that is.
OWOSSO — St. Phillip Lutheran Church is canceling its Easter Bake Sale, originally scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 4, due to the coronavirus.
Every year brings new things, of course, but 2020 has brought — well, “unprecedented” — that’s the word I hear bandied about quite often — unprecedented things.
LANSING — The Catholic Diocese of Lansing is suspending public services and events at all of its parishes through April 8 amid coronavirus concerns, the diocese said in a press release.
OWOSSO — Due to the continued concern over the coronavirus, the Owosso Area Ministerial Association is canceling all community Lenten services.
Those of us who write and speak need to remember the importance of brevity. Larry King, known for his television and radio interviews, reminded us in one of his books about Abraham Lincoln, who knew when to stop talking. His Gettysburg Address lasted less than five minutes.
Ever since the Last Supper, Catholics have pondered what happens during the Mass when they believe the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus.
Typically, when you walk into a Catholic Church there is a font for holy water. It’s a sacramental, sacred sign meant to remind us of baptism. But one recent weekday, I dipped my hand into a familiar font in a prominent church in our nation’s capital before morning Mass, and encountered it e…
OVID — The United Church of Ovid is hosting a chili cookoff at 4 p.m. March 21.
OWOSSO — The only baby pantry in Shiawassee County is still open, but it’s now being operated by the church that has provided space for the facility since 1998.
OWOSSO — Two students from Salem Lutheran School recently won local competitions in the 51st annual America and Me essay contest.
The second wave of influenza in the fall of 1918 was the worst yet. By the time Father Nicola Yanney reached Wichita, Kansas, a citywide quarantine was in effect.
Darcy Olsen’s motivation in life is the babies in America crying not for the normal reasons that babies cry, but because they are born addicted to meth, inheriting that addiction from their mother. Olsen wants states to protect those babies from their parents instead of putting them in foste…
Remember the little engine that could? I don’t know the origin of the story, but it first appeared in print in the early 1900s as part of a sermon.
OWOSSO — The Owosso First United Methodist Church — 1500 N. Water St. — will host speaker Douglas Carmel at 6 p.m. March 22 for his presentation “Jesus in the 7 Feasts of Israel.”
DURAND — Christ-based nondenominational programs Trail Life USA and American Heritage Girl will meet from 6:45 to 8 p.m. Monday nights at the Durand Church of the Nazarene, 9725 E. Monroe Road.
OWOSSO — Women from First Church of Christ, 585 E. North St., welcome other women from the community to their annual women’s celebration March 28.
OWOSSO TWP. — When the idea of launching a private, nonprofit Christian school was posed at Life In Christ Church, Sherri Semans decided to run with it.
OWOSSO — Karl Manke’s new novel, “Hope From Heaven,” takes a deep dive into the themes of forgiveness, redemption and life after death.
OWOSSO — The 133rd meeting of the Shrove Tuesday Club took place Tuesday at the Wrought Iron Grill.
This is a leap year, which is why February has 29 days instead of 28.
As a teenager, Trey Smith kept praying that he would reach 6-foot-5 — the right height for a blue-chip lineman coming out of high school, and then a college star who would rise high in the National Football League draft.
He killed his grandmother. And he did so brutally, dumping her in the water before she was even dead, if the coroner is correct that her cause of death was drowning. He killed two others — all evil acts. And then once in prison, he managed to kill a fellow inmate. So, I get why the governor …
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY — A series of community Lenten services are slated for 7 p.m. each Wednesday this month.
OWOSSO — The Salvation Army in Owosso not only has a new staff, it is also changing its approach to helping people in the community.
Few politicos at the National Prayer Breakfast were shocked when President Donald Trump brandished copies of The Washington Post and USA Today to celebrate their “AQUITTED” headlines.
Presidents Day is observed in our country as a national holiday on the third Monday of February, but it hasn’t always been that way.
"I love you” are three of the most powerful words you can utter. You probably are not comfortable uttering those words to just anyone, but when you do say them, they are powerful.
The email was signed “Worried Wife,” and contained a blunt version of a question Bronwyn Lea has heard many times while working with women in and around churches.
Everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. Every person has a purpose on this Earth. Do we believe this?
President Donald Trump and Democrat Pete Buttigieg recently offered radically different stands on abortion, as both attempted to reach out to Catholic and evangelical swing voters trapped between their parties.
Little February, the smallest of months, breaks out of its shell of inferiority every four years, puffs itself up and bursts at the seams, producing an extra day.
CHESANING — ProPublica, a nonprofit national online news site, this week released what it calls the only national database that attempts to list every Catholic priest credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Fred Craddock told about going for a drive with his family on a Sunday afternoon. The family relaxed as they drove down the highway. Suddenly, his two children began to beat their father in the back.
Andrew Neil of the BBC kept asking Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn the same question — over and over.
In a few days we will observe Martin Luther King Day.
It’s hard to talk about the horrors of human trafficking — including young women and children forced into the sex trade — without mentioning the I-10 corridor across northern Florida and over to California.
Rachel weeps. That biblical mother weeping for her children is all I could think of when I heard that that a California woman named Michelle Reaves had died in childbirth. She had been serving for the second time as a surrogate for a family. And while the baby was born, Reaves, a wife and mo…
OWOSSO — The Right to Life of Shiawassee County group is organizing a Motorcade For Life Sunday.
SHIAWASSEE TWP. — Cal Emerson has kept busy since retiring as the pastor at Northgate Wesleyan Church in 2012, penning five books with spiritual themes.
This is a leap year, which is why February has 29 days instead of 28.
As a teenager, Trey Smith kept praying that he would reach 6-foot-5 — the right height for a blue-chip lineman coming out of high school, and then a college star who would rise high in the National Football League draft.
He killed his grandmother. And he did so brutally, dumping her in the water before she was even dead, if the coroner is correct that her cause of death was drowning. He killed two others — all evil acts. And then once in prison, he managed to kill a fellow inmate. So, I get why the governor …
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY — A series of community Lenten services are slated for 7 p.m. each Wednesday this month.
OWOSSO — The Salvation Army in Owosso not only has a new staff, it is also changing its approach to helping people in the community.
Few politicos at the National Prayer Breakfast were shocked when President Donald Trump brandished copies of The Washington Post and USA Today to celebrate their “AQUITTED” headlines.
Presidents Day is observed in our country as a national holiday on the third Monday of February, but it hasn’t always been that way.
"I love you” are three of the most powerful words you can utter. You probably are not comfortable uttering those words to just anyone, but when you do say them, they are powerful.
The email was signed “Worried Wife,” and contained a blunt version of a question Bronwyn Lea has heard many times while working with women in and around churches.
Everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. Every person has a purpose on this Earth. Do we believe this?
President Donald Trump and Democrat Pete Buttigieg recently offered radically different stands on abortion, as both attempted to reach out to Catholic and evangelical swing voters trapped between their parties.
Little February, the smallest of months, breaks out of its shell of inferiority every four years, puffs itself up and bursts at the seams, producing an extra day.
CHESANING — ProPublica, a nonprofit national online news site, this week released what it calls the only national database that attempts to list every Catholic priest credibly accused of sexual abuse.
Fred Craddock told about going for a drive with his family on a Sunday afternoon. The family relaxed as they drove down the highway. Suddenly, his two children began to beat their father in the back.
Andrew Neil of the BBC kept asking Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn the same question — over and over.
In a few days we will observe Martin Luther King Day.
It’s hard to talk about the horrors of human trafficking — including young women and children forced into the sex trade — without mentioning the I-10 corridor across northern Florida and over to California.
Rachel weeps. That biblical mother weeping for her children is all I could think of when I heard that that a California woman named Michelle Reaves had died in childbirth. She had been serving for the second time as a surrogate for a family. And while the baby was born, Reaves, a wife and mo…
OWOSSO — The Right to Life of Shiawassee County group is organizing a Motorcade For Life Sunday.
SHIAWASSEE TWP. — Cal Emerson has kept busy since retiring as the pastor at Northgate Wesleyan Church in 2012, penning five books with spiritual themes.
Ray Ortlund Sr. told a great story about a family of raccoons that found their way into his backyard every springtime. These funny animals at mealtimes would wash their food in the Ortlunds’ swimming pool. The Ortlunds’ young son was amazed and at the same time was learning some truths in Su…
You may have seen the Michelle Williams Golden Globes speech by now.
The scene during the Vatican’s Christmas concert was simple and even childlike, as a young woman from Latin America instructed participants — including smiling cardinals — to fold their arms over their chests.
“This time, with freedom!” Sisters Mary Karen and Mary Gabriel implored. It was a rare day for Sisters of Life from different convents to get to be together at the religious order’s motherhouse in the suburbs of New York. There, they gathered around an outdoor Nativity scene with fire for wa…
Martha was a doer. If something had to be done, she was the person to do it; that’s just the way she was wired.
It was a week before Christmas, and I found myself anxious and angry. I was paying more attention to minute-by-minute politics than I had on any other day of the year.
The year 2019 is gasping for breath. Its days are numbered.
Protest rallies have been common during the #MeToo era, but many of the demonstrators outside the 2019 Southern Baptist Convention were quoting scripture.
During a dozen years of ministry, the Rev. Ted Giese estimates that he has performed 200 funerals and made 1,000 hospital visits to the sick and the dying. He also spends many hours in theaters, working on his movie reviews featured at The Canadian Lutheran website.
BENNINGTON TWP. — The Pittsburg United Methodist Church, at M-52 and Grand River Road, is hosting a Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m. Dec. 24.
David Jeremiah, a pastor in southern California, tells in one of his books about being introduced as the speaker at a Bible conference.
The news reports shocked Christians worldwide, as Chinese police units demolished the giant Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi Province early in 2018.
We switched to a pre-lit tree a few years ago. It saves a lot of time and the lights are distributed evenly. We fit the three sections of the tree together and voila, it’s ready for the ornaments.
CORUNNA — Christian musicians Mike Reath and Lynn Webster will share a potpourri of gospel classics and original songs at 5 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Corunna Church of the Nazarene, 230 N. Woodworth St.
VENICE TWP. — The Northwest Venice United Methodist Church at the corner of Geeck and Wilkinson roads is conducting its annual program at 7 p.m. Dec. 22.
The ancient Christian leaders who wrote the Nicene Creed never produced a scroll explaining the mysteries of the Holy Trinity to children.
Several years ago, Hollywood came out with a blockbuster movie about the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The 1989 Cher song “If I Could Turn Back Time” comes to mind when I think about the end of the Kamala Harris’s campaign to be the Democratic candidate for president. Maybe you remember the song — “If I could turn back time/if I could find a way/I’d take back those words that’ve hurt you and …
OWOSSO — St. Paul Catholic School will move to the former St. Joseph School for the fall of 2020, but will still carry the same name, school officials announced Friday afternoon via press release.
HAZELTON TWP. — Several upcoming events are taking place at the Juddville United Methodist Church.
SHIAWASSEE COUNTY — The Owosso Salvation Army’s ongoing annual Red Kettle Drive appears to have been targeted by thieves, impairing the charity’s biggest fundraiser of the year.
VENICE TWP. — The Northwest Venice United Methodist Church, located at the corner of Geeck and Wilkinson roads, is having its annual Christmas Fellowship Supper at 7 p.m. Dec. 6.
OWOSSO — The Argus-Press is seeking year-end stories and photos from clubs, organizations, churches and businesses.
What’s this world coming to?
When it comes to having priests at altars, the Anglican Church of Canada is in good shape for the next few decades.
OWOSSO — Area residents will be able to watch the story of the first Christmas come to life, thanks to a reenactment of the birth of Jesus presented by the Owosso First United Methodist Church.
OVID — A children’s Christmas musical, “The Present Is The Future,” will be performed at United Church of Ovid, 131 W. Front St., at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Dec. 8.
BANCROFT — The 2019 Christmas Sing Along is slated for 5 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Bancroft United Methodist Church, 101 S. Beach St.
OWOSSO TWP. — Santa Claus will stop at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2510 N. M-52, Dec. 15 for Supper with Santa.
Soon after the internet boom in the 1990s, the Christian consulting firm WisdomWorks obtained software that could run automated chat groups — allowing anonymous teens to ask candid questions.
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