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2018 in review: A year of reckoning for powerful religious figures

(RNS) — A year ago Bill Hybels was the well-respected pastor of one of the most influential megachurches in the nation. Theodore McCarrick was a prince of the Catholic Church, and Michael Curry was the relatively unknown head of a mainline Protestant denomination.

What a difference a year makes.

In April, Hybels stepped down from Willow Creek Community Church after being accused of years of sexual harassment and misconduct. Hybels denied the allegations. But the suburban Chicago church — after initially defending him — called his behavior sinful. Eventually, Hybels’ successors and all the church’s elders resigned, leaving the church with a $3.3 million budget deficit and an uncertain future.

In July, McCarrick was forced to resign from the College of Cardinals and was ordered by Pope Francis to lead a “life of prayer and penance” after being accused of sexually assaulting a minor four decades ago. McCarrick was also accused of sexually harassing seminarians for years.

Meanwhile, Curry skyrocketed to international fame after nearly 2 billion people tuned in to a royal wedding and heard his sermon, “The Power of Love.”

“I’m talking about power,” he said as Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle — and a global audience — listened. “Real power. Power to change the world.”

That sermon made Curry perhaps the best-known Protestant clergyman on the planet and earned him recognition as the “Religion Newsmaker of the Year,” according to the Religion News Association.

The popularity of Curry’s sermon was a testament to the enduring power of religion in a year full of tumult in the world of faith, as it was elsewhere.

Read more at Religion News Service. 

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