Campbell concert set for Sherwood
Folk singer-songwriter Kate Campbell will perform at 7 p.m. on Dec. 8 and at 10:45 a.m. on Dec. 9 at Open Door Community Church, 709 W. Lee Ave. in Sherwood.
Her latest album, Damn Sure Blue, was released Sept. 21, and includes musical backup by artists including Will Kimbrough, Chris Carmichael, Dave Jacques and Bryan Owings, according to Campbell's website, and two of the album's five cover songs are Johnny Cash's "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" and "Forty Shades of Green."
Campbell's songs have been compared to the likes of Southern writers Eudora Welty, William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor.
The concert is free and open to the public. More information can be found at sherwoodopendoor.org or (501) 833-9500.
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
President: Ukraine church broken free
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president says the Constantinople patriarchy has approved a decree granting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church independence from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Ukrainian church has formally been under the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has portrayed an independent church as one of his major goals.
The Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church strongly oppose the move.
The Istanbul-based patriarch Bartholomew, considered "first among equals" of all Orthodox church leaders, earlier this year made the first major step toward granting the Ukrainian church independence.
Poroshenko said in a televised address Thursday that the Constantinople patriarchy has approved the decree, granting the Ukrainian church full ecclesiastic independence.
Ukrainian parishes will now convene to formally agree on the structure of a new church.
-- The Associated Press
Christmas song's 200th year marked
NEW YORK -- One of the most famous songs of Christmas was celebrated Tuesday as it approaches its 200th anniversary, with a concert at the New York City church where "Silent Night" is believed to have been sung in the United States for the first time and where a priest was the first to publish an English translation of the Austrian carol.
The performance of the carol by Austria's Kroll Family Singers and ensembles from Trinity Church took place in the darkened yard in front of the Alexander Hamilton memorial in Trinity's churchyard.
"Silent Night" debuted as a musical piece in December 1818, with words by Joseph Mohr, a priest, and music by Franz Xaver Gruber, in Oberndorf, Austria.
In 1859, a priest at Trinity, John Freeman Young, published the first English translation of three verses of the carol, including the well-known first verse that ends with "sleep in heavenly peace."
It has become one of the most recorded songs in the world and declared as part of Austria's cultural heritage.
-- The Associated Press
Religion on 12/01/2018