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Thousands of Twin Cities religious leaders and other participants are expected to gather at the University of Minnesota Mariucci Hockey Arena tonight to celebrate the National Day of Prayer.

In addition to praying for the Twin Cities, the 7 p.m. event will feature worship led by band Leeland, singer and songwriter Jamie Grace, the United Twin Cities Worship Band and a message from evangelist Nick Hall. Church pastors and ministry officials from institutions across the metro will lead participants in prayer.

All are welcome to attend the free event or watch online stream at unitendop.com. Last year, 4,000 people were involved  through attending and live streaming online, according to a released statement about the event.

Started in 1952 by joint resolution of the United States Congress, the National Day of Prayer is an annual observance on the first Thursday of May. Organizers say its purpose is to communicate the need for personal repentance and prayer while offering support for the nation’s leaders.

For more information, visit www.NationalDayofPrayer.org.

Minnesota churchgoers are flocking to nondenominational congregations while membership is falling in Catholic and mainline Protestant churches, according to a religious census of the United States released Tuesday.

For the first time, the ten-year review by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies attempted to count membership in nondenominational churches, and Minnesota numbers echoed the national picture.

While the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America still rank as the two largest denominations in Minnesota, they are losing ground to nondenominational churches and other Evangelical Protestant congregations.

Find out more about the study and see what’s happening nationwide and in Minnesota here.

The Twin Cities Jewish community is celebrating Israel’s 64th Independence Day on Sunday.

Hundreds of people are expected to attend a festival to celebrate Israeli Independence Day – Yom Ha’atzmaut – which recognizes Israel’s declaration of independence and establishment in 1948.

The event starts at 1 p.m. with a Solidarity Walk, with participants walking along the North Cedar Lake Regional Trail to the Sabes Jewish Community Center (JCC), where there will be a celebration with Israeli musicians, dancing, Moroccan food, a marketplace and games.

The event is organized by the United Jewish Fund and Council of St. Paul and the Minneapolis Jewish Federation and is sponsored by more than 50 local businesses and Jewish organizations, according to a released statement from the United Jewish Fund and Council of St. Paul.

Some 250 faith leaders from 150 congregations are launching a statewide “voter education” campaign that “will teach people how to view public leaders, candidates and policy.”

The faith groups ISAIAH, Jewish Community Action and His Works United/Stairstep Foundation will start the “Prophetic Voices” campaign on Thursday at a day-long conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul, according to a released statement from ISAIAH.
 

“Every day I see the pain of families losing their homes, their jobs, their health care, and their retirement savings, and I’m outraged by the indifference shown by our government and corporate leaders,” the Rev. Paul Slack, president of ISAIAH and pastor of New Creation Church in Minneapolis, said in the statement.
 

The campaign aims to engage congregations and clergy “under a common prophetic narrative, a five-point values statement that can be agreed upon by most faith traditions.” 
 

“Issues such as the Voter ID ballot initiative and racial disparities in education, health care and jobs will be looked at through a faith perspective.

“The Prophetic Voices campaign will take place in cities including Alexandria, Duluth, Minneapolis/St. Paul and their suburbs, Northfield, Rochester, St. Cloud, St. Joseph, and Willmar.

“Congregations from 12 denominations will participate including the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), Church of God in Christ, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ (UCC), Presbyterian, United Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Unitarian Universalist, Mennonite, and Jewish congregations."

 

 

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat is slated to discuss his just released book “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics” tonight at 7 at the O’Shaughnessy Educational Center at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Douthat is expected to discuss his argument that “American religion has declined as a mainstream, bipartisan voice in American politics,” according to released statement from the university.

He’ll be interviewed by Stephen Smith, executive editor of Minnesota Public Radio’s American RadioWorks and host of the station’s monthly discussion series, Bright Ideas.

The program is part of MPR’s 2011-2012 Broadcast Journalist Series, co-sponsored by St. Thomas’ College of Arts and Sciences and its Communication and Journalism Department. The program is free, but tickets are required.
 

“Douthat, 32, became an online and op-ed columnist for The New York Times in 2009 and is the youngest regular op-ed writer in the paper’s history. A convert to Catholicism during his teen years, he is a 2002 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University. Douthat was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com before joining the Times.”

“He is a film critic for National Review and has written for the Claremont Review of Books, GQ, Slate and other publications.”

 

Today is Yom HaShoah — also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day — and this year’s Twin Cities commemoration of the tragic event will be held tonight at 7 at Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights.

Featured in the commemoration is Ovation, the performance choir of One Voice Mixed Chorus, with a special performance by Minnesota Orchestra associate principal cellist Janet Horvath.

The annual event honors the memory of the six million Jews and other victims murdered in the Holocaust.  Survivors of the Holocaust are invited to light candles in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.  Members of the Children of Holocaust Survivors Association in Minnesota (CHAIM) will also assist in lighting candles.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas has organized and hosted the Twin Cities Yom HaShoah Commemoration for nearly three decades.  The commemoration is free and open to the public. 

The commemoration is co-sponsored by CHAIM, Beth Jacob Congregation, Minneapolis Jewish Federation and United Jewish Fund and Council of St. Paul.