Center Delays Morris Move

ATLANTA – An Atlanta seminary is delaying its planned move to a location at Morris Brown College until it can assess how the school’s financial problems might affect the seminary.

The Interdenominational Theological Center recently spent $400,000 improving Morris Brown’s student center, planning to move classes there while the religious school underwent major renovations. Given Morris Brown’s recent bankruptcy filing, seminary officials say they’re trying to figure out their next steps. The historically black Atlanta college faces possible foreclosure. Court records show that Morris Brown has not paid some of its employees for months.

Religion Reporting To Get Upgrade

BELLAGIO, Italy – A new international journalism group has been formed to advance reporting on religion. The International Association of Religion Journalists was founded by reporters from 23 countries during a meeting at The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy. The group this week launched the English-language site theiarj.org to provide a range of resources, from statistics on religion in various countries to background on religious and ethnic conflicts. Maria Lopez, senior religion writer at La Vanguardia, in Barcelona, Spain, said the goal is to help journalists write “with accuracy, fairness and balance” on a complex topic. The International Center for Journalists and the Association of Religion Data Archives are partners in the project. The religion reporting group plans next to launch a website in Arabic.

Church Collapses In Pile Of Rubble

THOMASVILLE, Ga. – Members of a south Georgia congregation are planning their next steps after their church building collapsed. Church members gathered on Labor Day morning at a pile of rubble that housed St. Thomas AME Church in Thomasville for the past 88 years. Children playing nearby heard a loud noise coming from the direction of the church last Saturday afternoon. Pastor Clement Choice’s wife, Pat, says church members then discovered that the roof had fallen into to the middle of the building.

No one was injured. Authorities say three nearby houses were evacuated after the collapse when it was feared the church bell tower might fall onto a transformer. hurch members said they’ve had concerns about structural issues, and had been holding services elsewhere in recent months.

S. African Students Boycott Israel

JOHANNESBURG – Students at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand say they are adopting an academic and cultural boycott of Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people. A statement said the school’s student representative council is calling for an immediate investigation into any academic, financial and cultural relations with Israeli institutions. The University of Johannesburg last year became the world’s first to impose an academic boycott on Israel, ending its relationship with Ben-Gurion University. South Africa’s government angered Israel three months ago by issuing instructions that goods imported from Israeli West Bank settlements not be labeled “product of Israel.”