Charisma Magazine

Notre Dame University, the University of Chicago and Union College are among a string of educational institutions selected to receive grant money to conduct research on the growing Pentecostal-charismatic movement. 

The Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California (USC) will award five centers and 16 individual scholars and their teams a total of $3.5 million for research.

Updated: Roughly 550 pastors in Haiti participated in a two-day event aimed at teaching church leaders to pray for physical and emotional healing in nation still reeling from a January earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.

Led by evangelist Joan Hunter, daughter of healing ministers Charles and Frances Hunter, the training event began Wednesday in Port-au-Prince and led up to a three-day Healing 4 Haiti crusade Easter weekend that  drew roughly 200,000 people in the nation's capital.

Photo: Healing 4 Haiti will be held outside the government's National Palace, which was devastated by the earthquake.

Four years after Nepal became officially secular, fear is growing that the country could revert to the Hindu state it was till 2006, when proclaiming Christ was a punishable offense and many churches functioned clandestinely to avoid being shut down.

Concerns were heightened after Nepal's deposed King Gyanendra Shah, once regarded as a Hindu god, broke the silence he has observed since Nepal abolished monarchy in 2008. During his visit to a Hindu festival this month, the former king said that monarchy was not dead and could make a comeback if people so desired.

Jason Maehl / IstockPhoto: Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal, housed the royal residence until the 19th century.

A Protestant prisoner of conscience who had called for democratic freedoms in Vietnam was released earlier this month after serving a three-year sentence for "propagandizing to destroy the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."

Attorney Le Thi Cong Nhan's sentence had been reduced by one year after an international outcry over her sentencing. She was released on March 6. Remaining in prison for another year is her colleague, Christian lawyer Nguyen Van Dai.

An Oklahoma-based ministry that advocates for persecuted Christians worldwide refutes an online connection with a militia group accused of plotting an attack against law enforcement officers.

The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) said its staff did not know the Hutaree militia group existed or that there was a link to VOM on its Web site before several Hutaree members were arrested Sunday in a three-state raid.