The Rev. B. Penrose Hoover, bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will travel to Israel and the West Bank later this month with eight other Lutheran bishops on a mission to promote peace and to strengthen church advocacy in the region.

The trip, planned for Nov. 28 to Dec. 8, is part of the ELCA bishops' initiative to support a churchwide strategy for engagement in the region, according to a news release.

The bishops plan to meet with United Nations representatives, visit and worship with local congregations, visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, hold discussions at a synagogue, visit refugee camps and Hebron, a West Bank city where Palestinians and Israeli settlers reside.

In the wake of this month's mass shooting at Fort Hood, a number of leading Muslim-American soldiers and scholars are -- in addition to condemning the heinous crimes -- discussing the alleged gunman's belief that serving in the U.S. military compromised Islamic faith.

They're debating Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's interpretation of Islamic teachings, theorizing that the religion prohibits Muslims from fighting in wars against other Muslims, as Hasan perceived the U.S. military to be doing, RNS reports. Instead, Hasan said the military should allow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors. Read more at the jump.

At their fall meeting in Baltimore, the U.S. Catholic bishops this morning elected Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of the Diocese of Harrisburg to head a key standing committee.

The 145-93 vote favored the moderate Rhoades -- newly appointed to the Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend -- over Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, who is more conservative. Read more about the committee.

In an edition of Sightings from last week, a federal judge from Illinois dissects a legal brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court from a diverse group of religious organizations arguing a moral case for why the should stop the sentencing of juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses to life without the possibility of parole.

The groups make a claim "rarely heard in contemporary culture, that the duty of a judge, and of a society imposing judgment, is to make adequate provision for ... values" of mercy, forgiveness and passion, writes U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall.

Several Yorkers were among a group of midstate Lutherans who left last week for a trip to the Konde Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania in eastern Africa. They'll attend the diocesan assembly there, where a bishop will be elected (or current Bishop Israel-Peter Mwakyolile reelected).

After just five years as the Catholic bishop in Harrisburg, the Rt. Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades is being transferred to the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese.

The Fort Bend diocese is smaller than Harrisburg's geographically and in its number of Catholics, but it's home to the University of Notre Dame, widely considered the crown jewel of American Catholic education.

Rhoades, 51, was among the 75-plus U.S. bishops who condemned the university's decision to invite President Obama, who supports abortion rights, to speak at the school's commencement earlier this year -- which now-retired Fort Bend Bishop John D'Arcy skipped out of protest. Rhoades told reporters Saturday, "that's now in the past -- let's move to the future," according to the South Bend Tribune.

Catholic bishops are required to submit their resignation to the pope by age 75, and D'Arcy, 77, did so two years ago. Read more at the jump.

Next year, Luzerne County officials are likely to remove the property-tax exemption from closed churches and religious schools, according to this report.

Pennsylvania's tax code allows exemptions only for "actual places of regularly stated religious worship." The county's assessment director says this condition isn't met when there's no regular worship.

The new policy could significantly affect the Catholic Diocese of Scranton, which is closing 45 churches and some schools in the county. Northampton and Carbon counties took similar steps, after which the Diocese of Allentown filed suit, claiming that the buildings should still be exempt from taxes under a provision forgiving taxes on charities.