Harbor Gateway will soon be home to another gentleman's club, and one nearby church is especially disenchanted by its future neighbor. Members of Calvary Chapel South Bay are voicing concern over the Bay Girls Gentleman's Club - slated to open next weekend - and have penned a petition against the adult entertainment venue's opening. more ›

A church preschool director who lost her job because she lives with her boyfriend also lost her case in court last week, reports the OC Register. Sara Henry was hired by the Red Hil Lutheran Church in Tustin in 2002. She later moved in with her boyfriend and the two had a baby. more ›

When the parents of a 15-year-old in Irvine found evidence that their son might be smoking, they knew exactly who to call to discipline him: Paul Kim, a member of their church congregation. more ›

A bishop from the OC has been arrested on charges of molesting a child in his congregation, reports ABC News. Bishop Oscar Perez Perez, 68, was taken into custody after the boy told his mother about an incident with the bishop. It's unclear whether the molestation happened once, or was ongoing, and the child's age also hasn't been released, although authorities are saying he's under the age of 12. more ›

Kobe Bryant is gracing news sources again and is apparently extremely camera shy, especially during prayer. The L.A. Lakers shooting guard allegedly seized a man's wrist and cell phone at St. Therese of Carmel in San Diego County on Sunday, reports CBS LA. more ›

A nearly century-old church in Boyle Heights returned to a normal day of piety just hours after LAPD cleared out following a deadly standoff in one of the building's hallways, according to The Eastsider LA. more ›

After 25 years as the Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony has handed over the reigns to Archbishop Jose Gomez, the first Latino to hold the position. The transition ceremony took place yesterday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown, reports the Daily News, and was attended by over 4,000 people. more ›

A church meeting turned ugly last night in Yorba Linda when a 47-year-old woman allegedly stabbed her boyfriend in the parking lot, according to the OC Register. more ›

Father Luis Olivares, who was the presiding pastor at La Placita across from Olvera Street in the 1980s, may be soon recognized with a street named after him for social contributions. more ›

Yesterday leaders of the Episcopal Church here in Los Angeles announced the six candidates they've selected as nominees for two open Suffragan (assistant) Bishop positions, reports the LA Times, and among those in the running are two openly gay priests. more ›

Shortly before noon, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved moving the LA Marathon back to a Sunday date in the month of March beginning next year. During public comment, most speakers supported the date change, but a few stood up to save Sundays. "For those who have made this into a religious issue, this is not a religious issue... This has not and has never been a religious issue," said a determined Father John Bacchus who said that a single event should not tie down the city to the degree it prevents people of faith attending their institution. A compromise within the approved motion instructs city agencies involved with the race's logistics "to design a new point-to-point route which will minimize disruption to Sunday church services." The agreement also allows for the "Stadium to Sea" route, which could include Santa Monica, announced last week. more ›

Remember these people at the Oscars? It's the infamous Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church and they are protesting various locations in Los Angeles tomorrow including Fairfax High School, a Jewish temple, a community center and the Anti-Defamation League's headquarters, according to the LA Times. more ›

A priest at Santa Monica Catholic Church made an unpleasant discovery just before Easter Sunday services were due to begin last weekend: Their 55-year-old statue of the Virgin Mary had been decapitated. The marble Mary has previously been the target of vandals, when in 2002 her hands and feet were removed by vandals, reports the LA Weekly. Worshippers were "shocked" according to a live report from the Church, where the statue has been draped in plastic and people have left flowers in tribute. Police are treating the beheading as a hate crime because of the significance of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic faith. Santa Monica Catholic Church is where Gov. Arnold Schwarzegger frequently attends services. more ›

From 8 a.m. to around 3:15 p.m. yesterday, an unidentified nude twentysomething man, reported to be suicidal, sat 50 feet in the air atop the cross at West Bethel Presbyterian Church on La Brea Ave. between Wilshire and Olympic. He finally came down after a seven hour confrontation with the fire and police departments (including SWAT), who had placed an air cushion on the ground in case he fell and a ladder for him to climb down on, which he used. more ›

A representative from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove has confirmed that a man in his 40s committed suicide inside the church this morning. The victim reportedly "shot himself in the head this morning at the altar," according to the Daily News. The church rep says the "unidentified man walked up three steps to the altar area, knelt before a gold cross and put the gun to his head." The man was not immediately familiar to anyone affiliated with the church. Some reports indicate he "handed a cathedral tour guide an envelope containing a note and his driver's license and mentioned that his vehicle was parked outside." This is the third suicide at the church, but the first at the altar. Rev. Robert Schuller, the Cathedral's founder, is currently in Hawaii and is taking some time off from his church duties. more ›

Evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who was recently chosen to lead the invocation at Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration, spoke publicly yesterday at the 8th Annual Convention of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Long Beach, about his stance on homosexuality and California's Prop 8. more ›

But Marjorie Chrisoffersen, who is also a Mormon, is not feeling good about her actions. She wants to speak to people about it tomorrow before lunch at the restaurant on Beverly Blvd. near La Brea: more ›

A fight that broke out between opponents and proponents of Prop 8, the November 4th ballot initiative that sought to ban gay marriage in California, ended with two people apparently being sent to the hospital. Leah Murphy of Westwood said she was walking with a group of ten friends at Thursday's protest outside the Mormon Temple on Santa Monica Blvd. when two women who were said to have come from within church grounds began to call them derogatory names. more ›

An LAist reader caught some disturbing signage while videoing her vote today at The Aroma of Jesus Mission Church on Pico:

the church had put up the sign weeks ago and had lots of literature "left around"...not sure if they should host polls again!

"I'm going to talk about the un-biblical stands that Barack Obama takes. Nobody who follows the Bible can vote for him. We may not be politically correct, but we are going to be biblically correct. We are going to vote for those who follow the Bible." That's Rev. Wiley S. Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park in the LA Times speaking about the "pulpit initiative," which has churches in California and 21 other states illegally delivering political sermons or giving endorsements to presidential candidates. more ›

Church of Scientology stories are usually left for the internet and are rarely the subject of mainstream media stories. But when two women stood up to City Council last week (video) to tell them what it's like to be a neighbor to the church's L Ron Hubbard Way location during weekly street closures for special events, the Council listened and continued the motion rather than approving it in order to look into the issue a little more in depth. Then CBS2 visited the street in question to check it out for themselves (video below). more ›

It is a rather worrying and tragic fact that each year thousands of people seem to vanish from the face of the earth, never to be seen again. Of course, many of these absentee's may well have been murdered or suffered accidental death, but what about the victim in the following case....the weird disappearance of Dixie-Lee. more ›

Remember when the IRS investigated All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena for a sermon that they thought might void the church's tax-exempt status due to political endorsement during the 2004 Presidential Race (it was a What Would Jesus Do if he were Bush or Kerry on the war)? Now churches in California, including one nonprofit, are using their pulpits as political platforms against Propositions 4 and 8, the abortion and gay marriage state props that are scheduled to appear on November's ballot. The Gay & Lesbian Times reports: more ›

Yesterday marked 40 years since Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. But did you know this? MLK Jr spoke at a packed congregation in Los Angeles just three weeks before his assassination: more ›

The global day of action was initially announced last month after a video attributed to "Anonymous" coincided with an online effort that managed to temporarily knock out Internet servers belonging to the Church of Scientology. more ›

In order to inspire you to get those last-minute cards in the mail today, here are four very personal holiday messages to and from your favorite musicians. more ›

My mother has been making these Central/Eastern European influenced cookies since before I was born. Every Christmas, we have these delicious powdered sugared, jam filled treats. It turns out, the dessert is also interchangeably a cookie and/or a pastry and has quite an old and varied history:The oldest ritual leavened loaf which came into being soon after the Slavs embraced Christianity is shaped in a round, ring or like a cart and is called... more ›

What's the holiday season without one of the most popular and famous works in Western choral literature -- George Frideric Handel's "Messiah"? And who doesn't like sing-alongs? (Remember our love for The Sound of Music Sing-A-Long at the Hollywood Bowl?) So many questions, so many... Los Angeles Master Chorale: Messiah Sing-Along Monday, December 10 & Sunday, December 16 @ 7:30 pm Walt Disney Concert Hall Angeles Chorale: George Frideric Handel Messiah December 15 @... more ›

more ›

1812: A major earthquake struck Southern California, destroying the church at Mission San Juan Capistrano and damaging the San Gabriel Mission. more ›