This paper traces the role of the Black church in American history. The Black church is portrayed as an institution through which Blacks have worked to achieve social, economic, and political equality as well as spiritual guidance and social interaction. In the Colonial era the dominant purpose of having Blacks attend church was to condition them…

Discusses the case of Wisconsin vs. Yoder, now before the courts, in which the Amish defendents refuse to comply with the state of Wisconsin's compulsory school attendence laws. (RB)

A Supreme Court decision requiring a state university to allow a student group to hold religious services in campus facilities is reviewed. The decision was admittedly a narrow one, leaving several issues for later consideration, but it does signal a lightening of longtime prohibitions on campus religious activity. (MSE)

This article details the work of the Birmingham Initiative, a Methodist inspired, ecumenical research project that operated in Birmingham, in the West Midlands of the United Kingdom between 1995 and 1999. As the Christian Education Development Officer employed by this project, the author undertook doctoral research among twenty-six inner-city,…