RELIGION HEADLINES MON 9-15-25

Audio By Carbonatix

(SRN NEWS)-  )   Belgium’s prime minister traveled to neighboring Germany over the weekend for a concert led by an Israeli conductor whose appearance was canceled by a Belgian festival.  German Chancellor Friedrich Merz thanked Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever in a social media post Sunday for “his strong signal of solidarity”.  De Wever attended the concert given in Essen on Saturday evening by the Munich Philharmonic and conducted by Lahav Shani, who is due to become the orchestra’s chief conductor next year.  Shani is also the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

(  )  A Maine principals’ group is fighting a subpoena from the Department of Justice that seeks the names of all students playing interscholastic sports in the state as the DOJ attempts to ban boys from competing against girls.  President Trump’s administration sued Maine in April for not complying with an executive order barring transgender athletes from sports.  The Justice Department followed up with a subpoena of the Maine Principals’ Association, a nonprofit that oversees school sports in Maine, seeking a wide range of data.  The full scope of the subpoena isn’t public because a judge has sealed it.

(  )  A Rhode Island judge has temporarily stopped the Trump administration from changing the criteria for using tens of millions of dollars in funding to aid homeless people.  One of the rules the administration wants to institute is that shelters must not let males have access to women’s bathrooms and changing rooms if those shelters want to receive federal dollars.  The administration also wants to require that homeless facilities do not hide illegal immigrants.  In their lawsuit, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Women’s Development Corporation argue that HUD lacks the authority to make the changes.

(  )  Sister Vassa Larin is an American nun who is best known for teaching about the Eastern Orthodox faith to thousands of viewers on YouTube.  But she was ousted as a nun in the U.S. branch of the Russian Orthodox Church after she criticized its leader’s blessing of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The Moscow church has already censured dissenting priests within Russia.  But Larin and her supporters say hers is the first known case of Moscow extending its punitive reach to an American Orthodox person who opposed its pro-war stance.  She is now a nun in the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.