Elizabeth E. Evans
Elizabeth E. Evans is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Elizabeth E. Evans
Nuns in a time of nones: The winding path to today’s religious vocations
By Elizabeth E. Evans — February 29, 2024
(RNS) — From 2020 to 2022, more than 900 women and men entered religious life. They all took their own, sometimes circuitous routes to get there.
Can American congregations learn to embrace the uncoupled?
By Elizabeth E. Evans — February 15, 2024
(RNS) — Many American congregations tend to focus on traditional families, recollecting a mid-20th-century model for church growth or else simply as a model of what a Christian life should be.
In Catholic men’s religious orders, diversity brings new opportunities — and occasional friction
By Elizabeth E. Evans — February 1, 2024
(RNS) — ‘Their lives are so much more complicated and distracting than mine was,’ said Brother Larry Schatz, vocation director for the Christian Brothers Midwest province.
In a secular age, some young Americans still choose religious life
By Elizabeth E. Evans — January 2, 2024
(RNS) — While the numbers of priests and nuns have declined in recent decades, many millennials and Gen Zers still find a calling to religious life in the Catholic Church, even if the path to discernment has changed.
As churches shrink and pastors retire, creative workarounds are redefining ministry
By Elizabeth E. Evans — July 28, 2023
(RNS) — As older clergy get set to retire, there are few younger seminarians to replace them — and few churches that can afford to pay them.
How the teen mental health crisis is turning some youth pastors into first responders
By Elizabeth E. Evans — April 18, 2023
(RNS) — Young people, youth pastors say, are pushing the church to be more willing to talk about mental health.
These Catholic nuns are raised up on Eagles’ wings
By Elizabeth E. Evans — February 10, 2023
(RNS) — Catholic nuns in the Philadelphia area are preparing for Sunday's Super Bowl between their beloved Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs with prayer (and a few small wagers).
As Pennsylvania’s ‘Bible belt’ evolves, clergy look to one another for mutual support
By Elizabeth E. Evans — February 6, 2023
LANCASTER, Pennsylvania (RNS) — The difficulties of the pandemic and the widening gap between people of different political persuasions have put a strain on the clergy of one small town in this historically religious region. They have found mutual support in a 'ministerium' dedicated to community unity.
In ‘Raising Lazarus,’ Beth Macy summons the stone rollers
By Elizabeth E. Evans — November 4, 2022
(RNS) — A new book chronicles an addiction-recovery movement known as 'harm reduction,' an alternative to strict abstinence that has drawn many people of faith as helpers.
For clergy, COVID-19 has brought both burnout and breakthrough
By Elizabeth E. Evans — February 21, 2022
(RNS) — For clergy, the COVID-19 pandemic has been both a long haul and a time of new beginnings.
Streaming online has been a boon for churches, a godsend for isolated
By Bob Smietana and Elizabeth E. Evans — February 1, 2022
There's been a lot of bad news about churches in recent years. Online church has been one bright spot.
Matthew Dowd stakes his run for Texas lieutenant governor on kindness and faith
By Elizabeth E. Evans — November 11, 2021
(RNS) — Can a Democrat find the right mix of interfaith values voters to get him over the top?
As COP26 conference gathers, faith-based environmentalists fight ‘eco-grief’
By Elizabeth E. Evans — November 2, 2021
(RNS) — For some veteran climate change activists, a positive perspective is central to their faith.
How Philadelphia’s reform DA is teaming with clergy to tackle rising gun violence
By Elizabeth E. Evans — July 1, 2021
(RNS) — Clergy and activists are looking to address the long-term problems that they believe drive the crisis, and they are urging faith leaders to mobilize their flocks in addressing them.
Catholic schools’ push for in-person learning counters record enrollment drop
By Elizabeth E. Evans — March 2, 2021
(RNS) — While public school districts debate in-person learning, many elementary Catholic schools opened their doors in fall of 2020 and have stayed open.
Page 1 of 2
