If you are looking for a traditional Christmas Eve service with candlelight and carols or a “Christmas Day” service you can attend on Thursday night, Spokane-area churches of a variety of denominations have a service just for you this holiday season.

Hanukkah began Sunday. And like all American Jews, I am a little nervous this year. Hanukkah ends on Dec. 26, creating an unusual confluence of holidays. And it comes during a time of growing antisemitism in the U.S. and the world. The number of antisemitic incidents in 2021 was the highest in nearly 50 years, and 2022 is going to be worse.

I can’t help but think about tradition this time of year, which makes me think of impermanence. Tradition is often thought of as something timeless and unchanging, passed down from a previous generation. It reminds me of the lyric from “Fiddler on the Roof.” You may ask, how did this tradition start? ... I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition …”

Consider the fate of two Baha’i women in Iran who, in November, were sentenced to their second 10-year prison terms after a hiatus of four years. Mahvash Sabet, 69, and Fariba Kamalabadi, 60, were first incarcerated in 2008 and released in 2018. At the time they were part of an informal group of five men and two women who tended to the basic pastoral needs of the Iranian Baha’i community. This was with “full knowledge of the Iranian government,” according to the Baha’I International Community (BIC) in Geneva. The BIC represents the worldwide Baha’i community at the UN and other international forums.

In its first year participating in a “friendly but spirited competition,” Gonzaga Preparatory School has won the Great Ignatian Challenge – a nationwide food drive contest among Jesuit high schools – by bringing in the most pounds of food per student.

Islam has six major beliefs, and one of them is the belief in the divine books revealed by God to His Messengers. Islam’s divinely revealed book is called, The Holy Quran. It was orally revealed to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, over the period of 23 years through angel Gabriel. Muslims believe that the Quran is the last holy book revealed to the last of the Prophets, and, after this, no sacred text or messenger will come. It is a continuation of and an end to the previously revealed divine holy books.