Board says nope to glaring board, even with gussied up landscaping.
The Zoning Board of Appeal today rejected a proposal to replace two old-school billboards that advertise the Madonna Queen of the Universe Shrine on McClellan Highway in East Boston with a state-of-the-art electronic billboard that would beam electronic ads at passing motorists. Read more.
The Cambridge Fire Department reports Cambridge firefighters responded to Faith Lutheran Church on Broadway at 5:29 p.m. for what turned into a six-alarm fire. Around 8:15 p.m., fire was shooting through the steeple, on the verge of collapse. The department reports no injuries.
Lehrhouse, where the Jewish learning and discussion will flow along with food and cocktails from around the world, is set to open at 425 Washington St. in Somerville on March 13. Read more.
The Heights reports "five cardinals, six archbishops, 21 bishops, and 40 theologians from across the country" are gathering at Boston College this weekend for what it says is "the largest gathering of Catholic leadership at a university in US history." They'll be looking at synodality, the idea of decentralizing Church decision making.
Public Coffee Co., 182 Hyde Park Ave. in Jamaica Plain, affiliated with a Wesleyan start-up church, held its official grand opening this morning - with several people standing outside protesting Wesleyan positions on LGBTQ people and abortion. Read more.
First Church members would give away newborn slave children.
In a report for and on the First Church in Roxbury, Aabid Allibhai chronicles some of the horrible exploits of the colonial founders of the church, including its founding minister, as enslavers of both Blacks and natives, from their involvement in the slave trade to owning slaves themselves, to giving away newborn Black children "like puppies." Read more.
Rendering of proposed synogogue.
A group of residents living near the site of a proposed synagogue on Bennett Street in Brighton yesterday sued to block its construction, saying the new building and attached rabbi's residence would simply be far too large for a congested, narrow street. Read more.
The Puritans may not have been quite as dour as we think, but their aversion for celebrating Christmas is well known - and persisted in Massachusetts long after they were gone. Aline Kaplan recounts how 19th-century Boston Unitarians began to change that.
Rendering of proposed new synogogue.
The Zoning Board of Appeal today approved plans by Congregation Khal Tiferes Yosef to move from its current home in its rabbi's basement to a new two-story shul at 49 Bennett St., basically across the street. Read more.
A former staff nurse at Boston Medical Center who believes Covid-19 vaccines are an affront to her God-given immune system and were grown out of the remains of aborted fetuses today sued Boston Medical Center for firing her in October for refusing to get the shots. Read more.
GBH gets comments from the Archdiocese of Boston on Councilor Frank Baker's anti-Protestant assertion about City Council redistricting.
A federal judge today tossed a former BU theology grad student's attempt to permanently ban the school from ever making her take a nasal Covid-19 test should she return to classes and should the school resume Covid-19 testing. Read more
Update: Charges dropped.
A man the feds call "a purported Orthodox Christian monk" and his live-in lawyer were arrested today on charges they defrauded the government out of $3.6 million in Covid relief funds by filing bogus applications filled with lies about how many employees they had to obtain money that they then used to upgrade the properties they already owned and to buy a new one, rather than using the money to keep employing workers they did not, in fact, have. Read more.
Dan O'Brien spotted this sign in front of the Brighton Allston Congregational Church on Washington Street in Brighton Center today.
This sign was outside the Brighton Allston Congregational Church in Brighton Center last week.
KVH symbol on lower left of Sabra hummus, or homus, tub. From the KVH complaint
The Rabbinical Council of Massachusetts, which provides certification of kosher foods under the name KVH Kosher, today filed a trademark lawsuit against Sabra Foods of Norwood, which the council says continues to stamp its hummus with the council's "kashruth" symbol even after being told to knock it off. Read more.
The lawyer for the Satanic Temple in Salem provided a "status report" on the group's lawsuit against the City Council over its religious invocations to the judge in the case yesterday. It's pretty easy reading and explains the group's First Amendment claim about how the council starts its meetings and why he wants Michelle Wu to sit for questioning, so have at it at the link below, but some highlights: Read more.
A lawyer for the Satanic Temple of Salem says he's going to seek a bench warrant for Michelle Wu's arrest if she doesn't show up in Salem on Sept. 12 for a deposition in the group's lawsuit over how the City Council opens its meetings with an invocation by a religious leader, and never mind that a federal judge has already told the group it can't make Wu sit for hours answering questions about the invocations. Read more.
When Temple B’nai Israel in Revere closed in 2019, one question was what would happen to its last remaining torah scroll. The Jewish Journal recounts its journey to a new congregation, in Kenya. It was not as easy a transfer as you might think - the first time final B'nai Israel President Debbie Cherry flew to Kenya with it, the airline lost it.
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