VIDEO: July's AOA Meetup? Oklahoma City

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy Ernest Disney-BrittonOKLAHOMA - The next AOA Meetup is in Oklahoma City, July 7-9 and features a visit to the largest exhibition ever on the Holy Bible. The Oklahoma Museum of Art exhibition, "Passages: Sacred Texts of the Bible" includes original materials and interactive robotics to bring the stories to life as never before. Other highlights of this month's Meetup include visiting the Oklahoma City Hindu Temple,...

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Book Review: "Rome by Robert Hughes"

THE TELEGRAPHBy Mathew Sturgis"Rome by Robert Hughes" (November 1, 2011)ITALY - Robert Hughes made his first visit in 1959 as an ardent young Australian who had never encountered a proper piece of religious art. And, like Goethe before him, he felt born again. Now, 50 years on, he has produced a hefty book on the city: Rome. The suggestive monosyllable stands unencumbered by any subtitle, and prompts one to wonder which – or how many – of Rome’s...

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Egyptian Artist, Shawky on Display at Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival

MIDDLE EAST ONLINEJerusalem’s ‘Al Masjed Al Aqsa’ mosque spinning on an axis. The work deals directly with a number of complex religious issues.UNITED KINGDOM - Wael Shawky, one of Egypt’s most prominent contemporary artists, will be displaying a selection of his work at the Walker Art Gallery from July 1 to August 29 as part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival. Shawky has exhibited internationally, with shows at the Venice and Istanbul Biennales....

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Museum of Biblical Art's July Celebrations of King James Bible

AOA NEWSNEW YORK - The Museum of Biblical Art and the American Bible Society are commemorating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible by presenting a series of free events in July. Since its first publication in 1611, the King James Bible has become one of the most significant books in history. It was designed to be the common translation that united Bible readers everywhere. The KJB has become an enormous influence, not only...

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Bay Area Artists Paint the Legacy of Quran as Peace

TRI-CITY VOICECALIFORNIA - American artists tracing their ethnicities from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, China, Europe, Africa and the United States of America participated in an Art Exhibit, organized by a local non-profit, Islamic Art Exhibit. "We have so much diversity in the Bay Area Muslim community. In order to showcase their artistic talents and display the many characteristics of Islamic Art, we invited them to participate...

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John 5:1-15 (Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?)

Todays verse for me is a good reminder that God is always working in our lives. We sometimes take a blessing as turn of good luck. We need to look deeper and know through our Savior all things are made possible and go...

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A&O Meetup to Evansville: June 18, 2011

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy Disney-Britton"Spirit of Cain" by Thomas Henderson, collection of Evansville Museum of ArtsOn June 18, I led our monthly A&O MEETUP, and this time we headed to Evansville, IN. The Meetup included stops at Temple Adath de Isreal, St. Marys Catholic Church and First Presbyterian Church as well as a tour of the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science. Two highlights of the museum's collection (both...

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Govt Consider's Rating System for Artworks in Galleries

THE ADVERTISER | HERALD SUN"Only woman bleed" (2008) By Adam CullenAUSTRALIA - The visual arts industry is appalled by a proposal to apply a classification scheme to artworks exhibited in galleries across the nation. In 2008, the inclusion of [Adam] Cullen's "Only Woman Bleed" in the Blake Prize for Religious Art prompted one judging panel member to quit and another label his work "really offensive". Throughout his career Cullen, who in...

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Masterpieces on Paper at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

ARTDAILYClaude Mellan, The veil of Saint Veronica, engraving, 1649.DENMARK -As part of its Masterpieces on Paper series, the Rijksmuseum presents the exhibition The Secret of Lines. This minor exhibition features 18 masterfully crafted 16th - and 17th-century prints and drawings from the Rijksmuseum collection, which demonstrate the incredible artistic versatility of lines.  [li...

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Critic's Notebook: LACMA's Magical Ardabil Carpet

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES | BlogBy Christopher KnightArdabil Carpet, one of the two greatest Persian rugs ever wovenCALIFORNIA - Now's your chance: The breathtaking Ardabil Carpet, an incomparable 16th-century masterpiece that ranks among the greatest works in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's permanent collection, is on view at the museum through Labor Day. It's the centerpiece to "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Court,"...

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China's Ulan Bator is an Art-lover's Paradise

CHINA DAILYThe Monastery-Museum of Choijin Lama is a storehouse of jaw-dropping papier, mache masks and elegant bronze sculptures. Photos by Chitralekha Basu / China DailyCHINA - At the heart of Ulan Bator is an art-lover's paradise waiting to be discovered. If you stood in front of Sukhbaatar Batbold's now cellophane-wrapped statue in Ulan Bator's central square and drew a circle with a 1-kilometer radius, you would be at the hub of a never-ending...

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Religious Art Stolen from Connecticut Church

NEWS 8 WTNHBy Tina Detelj CONNECTICUT - Police in Colchester are looking for the crook that stole more than two-dozen color prints of religious figures and icons from a church. Police say the stolen items were pretty pricey, totaling more than $750. The religious icons were similar to a painting seen in the front entrance of St. Andrew's in Colchester. Religious images mounted on wooden plaques. "They're all from different saints. St. Augustine, or St. Francis," said Helene Soucy-Williams from the St. Andrew Church. [li...

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The Painted History of Carpets

CHRISTIESUNITED KINGDOM - William Robinson, Christie's International Specialist Head of Islamic Art and Carpets, finds two rare Islamic carpets in portraits from Cowdray Park. Added as decoration and to underline the sitter’s wealth by the artist at the time of painting, these now provide a hugely valuable source of information for the history of carpet making. Contemporary Islamic miniatures did not aim for pictorial accuracy, so European pictures that include accurately represented carpets are absolutely vital to today’s understanding and chronology...

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Cross A Day | Day #30 (Final Day)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONMy Garage Door CrossToday's final photo is my "Garage Door Cross", but I may come back from time to time (If Tahlib permits?). I am grateful to Gerda Liebmann, a Christian and NJ artist who was the real inspiration for to do this 30-day project to find My Daily Cross.  It's time to start your own project. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's in her 3rd month,...

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Video: Henri Matisse Gallery at the Vatican, Opens After 30 Yrs

GLORIA TVWindow of the Rosary Chapel in FranceVATICAN CITY - It has taken roughly 30 years for this exhibit to open, but now the grand opening is finally here. This Vatican room holds a collection of works from the French artist Henri Matisse. It's based on the sketches he drew to adorn the Rosary Chapel in St. Paul de Vence in France. [li...

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Andy Warhol’s Electric Chairs Join the Cross in a Lutheran Church

THE ART NEWSPAPER"Electric Chair" (1967) By Andy WarholFINLAND - In Finland’s medieval city Turku, this year’s European Capital of Culture, four pieces of Andy Warhol’s “Electric Chair” series (1971) have been hang up in an surprising location — the city’s Lutheran cathedral. The works, depicting the execution device from Sing Sing maximum security prison in upstate New York, are hanging in one of the church’s chapels. The display is part of a performance...

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Aiming to Spread Judaism One Book at a Time

THE NEW YORK TIMESBy Mark OppenheimerTodd Parr, at his home in Berkeley, Calif., was commissioned by the PJ Library to write a book. MASSACHUSETTS - In 2004, Harold Grinspoon, a local real estate mogul, heard a story on National Public Radio about the Imagination Library, founded by the singer Dolly Parton to give free books to children in her native rural Tennessee. The PJ Library, a program of his Harold Grinspoon Foundation, made its debut...

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Willie Mays Is No Surfing Madonna

NBC San DiegoWillie Mays may be forever enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but as the new face of Encinitas’ “Save the Ocean” campaign, he didn’t last long. An unknown artist recently spray-painted the baseball legend’s face on the same Encinitas wall that once hosted the Surfing Madonna, a popular mosaic that attracted controversy when a Leucadia man mysteriously placed it on public property in April. The Surfing Madonna read “Save the Ocean” in vertical blue tiles, and Mays carried the same message — “’Say Hey’ve the Ocean,” a play-on-words...

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Vatican Portal Begins Aggregate Church’s News Today

THE NEW YORK TIMESBy Associated PressVATICAN CITY - The Vatican is leaping into the world of new media with the introduction this week of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a click. Vatican officials said on Saturday that Pope Benedict had been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop shop for news about the Holy See. The portal, http://www.news.va/, is to be introduced...

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University Exhibit Showcases Pakistani and Muslim Art

DAWN.COMBy StaffPAKISTAN - The students of National University of Modern Languages (Numl) displayed their artworks at an exhibition on the campus. Jointly organised by students and the faculty, over a dozen participants displayed almost 250 items of their artworks in different categories such as regional art and craft, miniature paintings and calligraphic works, oil painting, graphic designing, printmaking and flower arrangements. “The aim of this exhibition during summer course is to provide students a chance to showcase their artistic talents,”...

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Cross A Day | Day #29 (1 day left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONStone Path CrossThis is from a short path of stones in my backyard. I started to straighten them out but then I saw the cross in the alignment. After that, I decided to leave it as is. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for...

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John 4:1-30, 39-42 (All People are his Flock)

4Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” 2—although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3he left Judea and started back to Galilee.4But he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”...

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Inking Masterpiece Since the 16th Century in India

THE HINDUIntricate and ornate: A 47 feet by 11 feet Kalamkari painting. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar INDIA - This eighth century art continues to be popular even today. Once patronised by the Mughals, Kalamkari now has a niche market. The art of painting on cloth dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization and ancient Greece. Kalamkari, which means work done with a pen, a kalam, is an ancient art of India. There is archaeological evidence of this resist-dyed...

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Marc Chagall's Jewish Lazarus

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE | ICONIABy Menachem WekerMarc Chagall. Resurrection of Lazarus (1910).Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.PENNSYLVANIA - Marc Chagall (1887-1985) included two peculiar elements in his painting of the risen Lazarus. According to Michael Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where Chagall’s Lazarus is on exhibit in Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle,...

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30th Anniversary of the Apparitions of Mary in Bosnia

ALLVOICESBy CatspiritBOSNIA - Today [6/24] is the thirtieth anniversary of the first apparition to six youngsters in the Bosnian village of Medjugorje. While still not accepted as a true miracle by the Catholic Church, believers and pilgrims flock by the thousands this week to bear witness to what they believe is a thirty-year, ongoing miracle.  In 1981, the country of Yugoslavia held the small hamlet of Medjugorje. The country divided, the site of the alleged visitations by the Virgin Mary is in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The ongoing “miracle” has...

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Rana Riaz Ahmed's Solo Exhibition of Paintings on Islamic Art

PAKISTAN OBSERVERPAKISTAN - The solo exhibition on Islamic art exploring Muslim heritage by Rana Riaz Ahmed concluded here Sunday at National Art gallery. The show portrayed a collection of 32 exquisite calligraphy paintings presenting a mosaic of technique, style and color to provide the art lovers with opportunity to enjoy the glimpses of the heritage of Muslim Ummah. The exhibition entitled “Dot to Design” featured beautiful calligraphy which serves as the art of writing which earned a unique status in the creative sphere. The artist also donated...

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Methods of Historiography in Islamic Art

IRAN BOOK NEWS AGENCYIRAN - Iranian researcher and university professor, Sadegh Rashidi has compiled "Methods of historiography in Islamic art". According to him the book is the first research work which seriously criticizes and studies the methods of Islamic art historiography. Firstly the book presented the historiography methods as 3 styles; descriptive, analytical and historical and then discusses the methods in the Islamic art. He underlined:" In fact the book holds a main question; what were the ups and downs of the Islamic art historiography,...

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Brad Pitt is God in "Tree of Life"

WALL STREET JOURNALBy Dennis NishiCALIFORNIA - Fox Searchlight recently arranged an invitation-only screening in Los Angeles, Calif. for “The Tree of Life,” the fifth film by director Terrence Malick that is set for wide release on July 8. The story is set in Waco, Texas during the 1950s and Malick uses a tragic death in the central O’Brien family to frame an exploration of grace and nature. The studio also invited a multi-denominational panel of religious leaders and writers to offer their theological insights about the film and its director. [link]Prior...

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Cross A Day | Day #28 (2 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONGlass block CrossNJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a ye...

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Catholic "Treasures of Heaven" in England

THE INDEPENDENTBy Adrian HamiltonReliquary pendant from the Holy Thorn (c.1340)Treasures of Heaven, British Museum, London WC1 (020 7323 8181) to 9 OctoberENGLAND - To hold an exhibition of sacred Roman Catholic relics in a country with quite so secular and Protestant a history as Britain's was always going to be a delicate affair. Which poses the question for any museum: do you present them as art objects, things of beauty and fascination in their...

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Sacred Spaces: Inside DC's Hindu Temple

CNNBy Anthony UmraniHindu temple with corresponding dietiesMARYLAND - On a cool spring evening just outside Washington, a steady stream of worshipers arrive at Sri Siva Vishnu Temple for prayers. People are dressed in a mixture of colorful Indian attire and customary Western clothing. In this residential Maryland neighborhood about 12 miles from downtown, the temple stands out with a striking white exterior adorned with statues depicting Hindu...

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Valley of the Lost Scrolls of Dunhuang, China

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALDBy Joyce MorganTemple Grotto in the Mogao Caves of ChinaCHINA - The main reason to visit the oasis [Gansu Province of Dunhuang] is to see the nearby painted Buddhist caves. The Mogao Caves, or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, are a network of sacred grottoes hand-carved into a cliff face about 15 kilometres outside Dunhuang. They contain the world's greatest gallery of Buddhist art. Set in a river valley, the caves, with...

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Methodist Youth Ministry Links Art & Faith in Indianapolis

AOA NEWSBy Ernest BrittonINDIANA - Founded by Free Methodists, LYNhouse offers a summer arts program that links art & faith to inspire under priviledged youth in Indianapolis. The LYN House ministry is a multi-age summer youth program called, "Express Yourself." During this program, the students are being challenged to learn about their "God-given strengths and talents" by creating a group mosaic which will retell significant events of their lives. An Open House for the general public will be held on July 11 entitled, "Capturing Inno-sense"...

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Book Review: "Long Gone"

THE MIAMI HERALDBy Jeff AyersLong Gone. Alafair Burke. Harper. 368 pages. $24.99FLORIDA - Alafair Burke delivers her best book to date with her first stand-alone thriller, Long Gone. In it, Alice Humphrey has landed her dream job: running a Manhattan art gallery. Drew Campbell, who hired her, says the artist of the new photography displays wants to stay out of the spotlight. Though the pieces offend her, Humphrey agrees. Everything is going...

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Cross A Day | Day #27 (3 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONMat CrossThis one might be a bit abstract but I am see the cross in this floormat outside a neighbors home. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a ye...

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Cross A Day | Day #26 (4 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONSewer Drain CrossI was inspired by Gerda Liebmann's comment, "my heart sees the cross everywhere." This sewer cross has multiple meanings, and thanks to Gerda I can feel its power in new ways. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rules. She's doing it for a ye...

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RELIGIOUS ART | TALK OF WEEK

AOA NEWSBy TahlibAOA PICK OF WEEK: Controversial artist, Enrique Chagoya's gift of a painting about Jesus as Love to a Colorado evangelical church is among the most talked about religious art stories of the week. Today, you can "comment online" about it (Sunday only). Americans are also talking about:Are recent auctions of Hindu and Islamic artworks a sign of the return of interest in religious art? (Comment online)Is the future for Christian art to...

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Green Hindu Goddess Sold for $1.3 Million at Auction

BLOOMBERGBy Pratish Narayanan "Untitled (Kali)" by Tyeb MehtaUNITED KINGDOM - A painting of a Hindu goddess sold for more than three times its estimate at a $4 million online auction by a Mumbai-based company as demand for Indian artworks is boosted by the country’s growing number of billionaires. The green goddess picture fetched $1.3 million, beating a top estimate of $402,300. Rival collectors pushed 53 percent of the lots above high estimates,...

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Music Video: "I Lost, You Win" by @Aoedemuse

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Cross A Day | Day #25 (5 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONChina Cabinet CrossYou can see me in the reflection of this image. It's from an oak china cabinet that's for sale, and sits in my garage. It's the first time I saw in it something of value. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rul...

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New York Makes it 6 States With Freedom to Marry

THE NEW YORK TIMESBy Nicholas Conferssore and Michael BarbaroNEW YORK---Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born. Just five states currently permit same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia. same-sex couples could begin marrying in New York by late July. [li...

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Review: Treasures Of Heaven at The British Museum

THE LONDON EVENING STANDARDBy Brian Sewell Pied noir: reliquary of St Blaise, a 4th century Armenian bishop, c.1260UNITED KINGDOM - By 1387, or then about, driven by unquestioning belief that the bodily remains of the righteous were lively conduits of the spiritual power that they exercised in Heaven, pilgrims turned to them for the forgiveness of sins and the curing of ills, and were prepared to suffer the physical and often even mortal hazards...

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$100 Million Facelift Transforms Israel Museum

THE JEWISH CHRONICLEBy Dina KraftTim Hursley, courtesy of the Israel Museum, JerusalemISRAEL - A tawny sandstone sculpture of Nimrod, an ancient Hebrew warrior and hunter figure with a razor-straight back and proud stare, sits at the intersection between modern Israeli art and native art from Africa and the South Pacific at the recently renovated Israel Museum. The 1939 sculpture by Israeli artist Yitzhak Danzinger is an example of the kind of cultural...

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'Jesus Chair' For Sale On EBay For $25,000

HUFFINGTON POSTBy Eliza FisherCalifornia couple sells their chairCALIFORNIA - There's a new object to add to the list of oddities offered on eBay--a chair with the face of Jesus. Lou Balducci of Mission Viejo noticed the image on an old rocking chair in February, reports NBC. He had been planning on throwing the chair away, but instead sent pictures to local news outlets and began showing it to family and friends. Now, after about four months of...

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Blackstone’s Studzinski Backs British Museum Show of Relics

BLOOMBERG NEWSBy Farah NayeriUNITED KINGDOM - John Studzinski, senior managing director of Blackstone Group LP (BX) and a cultural philanthropist, is sponsoring the British Museum’s new show on the art of the Christian relic. The exhibition, which features elaborate containers for sacred human remains from 1000 to 1500 A.D., runs through Oct. 9. Highlights include reliquaries said to contain pieces of the Crown of Thorns and the Virgin Mary’s breast milk. “So much of philanthropy is being part of a tribe,” he said. “People do want to be a part...

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Cross A Day | Day #24 (6 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONSaturn CrossWho says a cross has to be perfectly horizontal and vertical? This shot of my car emblem (Saturn) was inspired by a church I saw in Evansville, IN whose cross on the church facade was wrapped around it in a similar fashion. I didn't visit but I would like to one day. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better...

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The Immovable Surfing Madonna Taken Down in 2-Hrs Unharmed

SACRAMENTO BEEBy Associated PressFor updates, "click here"CALIFORNIA - Crews have removed the popular but illegal Surfing Madonna mosaic from the wall of a railroad bridge underpass near San Diego. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the removal began at 9 p.m. Wednesday and was completed about two hours later. Patterson says the piece was not damaged when it was taken down. [The artist, Mark] Patterson says he will now focus on finding a permanent...

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Art Review: Artist's Work Removes Man's Interpretation from Religious Text

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTEBy Mary ThomasMs. Aylon's "Self-Portrait: The Unmentionable."PENNSYLVANIA - After considerable thought, Ms. Aylon came to the realization that it was not God's voice that was exclusionary, misogynistic, militaristic -- but man's interpretation over time of that voice. She saved the religion. But she challenged the patriarchy that she believes sullies it. The work that both carried out and represents that save -- simultaneously...

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The Buddha: The Story in Manga and Art, Tokyo National Museum

FINANCIAL TIMESBy Mure DickieIllustration for “Buddha” vol.3 from Osamu Tezuka Manga Complete Works, 1983, BB Kent paper, watercolor, 38.1 x 27cm. Credit: Tezuka ProductionsJAPAN - Mounting an exhibition that matches some of Japan’s most precious Buddhist sculpture with the work of a comic book artist might sound like an exercise in going from the sublime to the ridiculous. Not so. Though Buddha: The Story in Manga and Art, which runs until...

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The Naxi of Ancestral China at Rubin Museum of Art, Thanks to a Roosevelt

NEW YORK OBSERVERBy Maika PollackRitual Card; Northwestern Yunnan Province, ChinaNEW YORK - Chances are you haven’t heard of the Naxi (pronounced NAH-shee), a group of 300,000 people living on the east end of the Himalayas at the boarder of Sichuan, Tibet and Burma. Their religion is a hybrid resulting from this crossroads: Dongba blends Buddhism, Tibetan Bon, Taoism, Confucianism, Mongolian shamanism and local cults. At age 19 Theodore Roosevelt’s...

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NYC's Jewish Art Salon Panel Discussion: Diversity in Jewish Art

AOA NEWS"Finding Home#89 Vashti (Fereshteh)" by Sonja BenjaminNEW YORK - On Monday, June 27 at 7pm, The Jewish Art Salon hosts an evening discussion entitled "Jewish Diversity in Art" centering around the works of artist Sonja Benjamin. Benjamin's work is currently on exhibit at The Laurie M. Tisch Gallery at the Jewish Community Center. The event is free. Benjamin's work presents the multi-dimensional identities of...

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Symbolism in Saffron Clothes or Robes Worn by Hindu Saints

HINDU BLOGHINDU SAINTS generally wear saffron colored clothes. Today saffron color is associated with holy men of other religions too. White is another preferred color by Hindu saints. The choice of saffron robes by Hindu saints has a deep symbolism associated with it. Saffron symbolically represents Agni or fire. Agni is light. A saint ushers in the light of knowledge and leads a person from darkness into light.Another quality of Agni is that it accepts anything and transforms it. A saint similarly accepts everything and purifies and...

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Do U Text @Church?

UNITED METHODIST REPORTBy Joey ButlerMISSOURI - Most pastors would be upset if they looked up from their sermon notes to find most of the congregants texting on their phones. For the Rev. Mike Schreiner of Morning Star Church in O’Fallon, Mo., that’s just part of weekly worship (http://twitter.com/mscwired). Schreiner invites churchgoers to text him questions during his sermons, be it clarification of a point he made or some other topic. [li...

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Cross A Day | Day #23 (7 days left)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy ERNEST BRITTONHorse Cross #23The small horse farm down the street has a beautiful fence surrounding it. It is sturdy, smooth and unyeilding. The perfect cross reminder. NJ artist, Gerda Liebmann inspired me to start this 30-day project. You can follow My Daily Cross project online or better yet, create your own. Go to Gerda's blog for her Daily Cross rul...

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Ai Weiwei Released: 'Life is never guaranteed to be safe'

GUARDIANBy Tania Branigan"Zodiac Heads" By Ai Weiwei,On display in NYC through July 15CHINA - Chinese police have released detained artist Ai Weiwei on bail after he confessed to tax evasion and because he suffers from a chronic disease, according to the state-run news agency. Beijing police said they released him on bail "because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes" and because he has a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported. No...

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