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The third wave of the National Congregations Study (NCS-III) was conducted in 2012. The 2012 General Social Survey asked respondents who attend religious services to name their religious congregation, producing a nationally representative cross-section of congregations from across the religious spectrum. Data about these congregations were collected via a 50-minute interview with one key informant from 1,331 congregations. Information was gathered about multiple aspects of congregations' social composition, structure, activities, and programming. Approximately two-thirds of the NCS-III questionnaire replicates items from 1998 or 2006–2007 NCS waves. Each congregation was geocoded, and selected data from the 2010 U.S. Census or American Community Survey have been appended. We describe NCS-III methodology and use the cumulative NCS dataset (containing 4,071 cases) to describe five trends: more ethnic diversity, greater acceptance of gays and lesbians, increasingly informal worship styles, declining size (but not from the perspective of the average attendee), and declining denominational affiliation.

Ecumenism refers to church or denominational relations and fellowship that seeks to maintain its nature of unity and oneness. Such movement is regarded as communion or cooperation that involves a visible unity with churches working together at different levels. Ecumenism takes different forms depending on the participants, location and purpose. Thus, there is conciliar ecumenism formed by the elite, namely the clergy and theologians who sit in the council of churches vis-à-vis the grassroots ecumenical engagement by the clergy and laity in local congregations. Usually, the aims and modus operandi are always different. Conciliar ecumenism refers to a top-down approach, while local ecumenism is a bottom-up approach that seeks to fulfil the spiritual and socio-economic needs of local rural communities. Local congregations’ ecumenism is usually guided by social-cultural setting of the people. Ukama is a Karanga social construct that emphasises relatedness in life. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that some of the tenets of ukama, such as communal living, hospitality and cooperation, can promote local ecumenism. The article seeks to discuss local congregational ecumenical engagement in Mberengwa in relation to the Karanga concept of ukama. This article is based on literature analysis exploring the significance of the ethic of ukama in relation to local ecumenism. It begins by discussing the tenets of ukama and then connects them with some theological views of ecumenism.ContributionThis article seeks to discuss how the church can learn from the local social construct to engage in ecumenism. In this article, I conclude that cooperation by local congregations in times of crisis and their fellowship form part of ecumenism from below, influenced by ukama, and the church can harness this concept to strengthen its unity.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically upended religious life and placed significant strain on religious congregations. However, the effects of the pandemic were likely not felt evenly across the religious landscape. Purpose We used data from the fourth wave of the National Congregations Study, gathered on the eve of the coronavirus pandemic in 2018-19, to identify the kinds of congregations that may have been especially vulnerable to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Using bivariate and multiple regression analysis, we examined two aspects of congregations' preparedness for the pandemic: technological infrastructure and financial stability. Results We found that, while many congregations were technologically and financially equipped for a time of social distancing and economic recession, there were stark inequalities in levels of preparedness among congregations on the basis of race, class, size, urban/rural location, religious tradition, and the age of congregations' parishioners. In particular, Catholic congregations and congregations with older attendees tended to lack streaming or online communication capacities, and both rural and small congregations had more limited technological infrastructure and less financial cushion. Somewhat surprisingly, predominantly Black congregations were more likely to have worship streaming systems set up prior to the pandemic, though these congregations were more likely to lack other kinds of technological and financial infrastructure. Conclusions and Implications Though COVID-19's full impact on congregations will not be known for several years, these results highlight variations in congregations' readiness for the pandemic's challenges, and they show that COVID-19's impact likely has not been felt equally across the religious landscape.

Honey bees ( Apis spp.) are important pollinators in many natural and agro-ecosystems across the world. Effective means of surveying wild populations are therefore key to their conservation and management. One available survey method infers honey bee colony density from the genotype of drones (males) sampled from sites known as Drone Congregation Areas (DCAs). While this approach has been commonly used for the Western honey bee ( A. mellifera ), its feasibility for other Apis species is unknown. Here, we investigate drone congregation behaviour in the Asian honey bee Apis cerana in north-east Australia and its suitability for inferring colony density. As this A. cerana population is invasive, surveys in this case can aid in monitoring the population’s growth and spread. Over 5 years, we identified 30 DCAs, many of which were stable across time. DCAs were sheltered areas beside tree-lines or openings in the forest canopy. A. cerana drones joined DCAs during 1–2-h afternoon intervals and could be sampled at heights of 2–24 m via adhesive lines attached to helium balloons carrying lures coated in queen pheromone. Drones were more likely to be present at a DCA as temperature increased, though abiotic factors did not predict overall drone abundance. Drones could be sampled in low numbers even where colony density was extremely low. Based on the genotyping and inferred sibship of drones sampled at DCAs between 2016 and 2021, we estimate population density in Australia’s A. cerana to be in the range 1.1–8.1 colonies/km 2 . This extrapolates to a total population size in the range 11,000–83,000 colonies, with more refined estimates requiring better knowledge of drone flight distance and the effect of habitat on colony density. We conclude that population surveys based on drones from DCAs are possible for A. cerana and propose that this approach be part of a toolkit of methods used to monitor Asian honey bee populations in both their native and invasive ranges.

The honeybee Apis mellifera L. is a crucial pollinator as well as a prominent scientific model organism, in particular for the neurobiological study of olfactory perception, learning, and memory. A wealth of information is indeed available about how the worker bee brain detects, processes, and learns about odorants. Comparatively, olfaction in males (the drones) and queens has received less attention, although they engage in a fascinating mating behavior that strongly relies on olfaction. Here, we present our current understanding of the molecules, cells, and circuits underlying bees’ sexual communication. Mating in honeybees takes place at so-called drone congregation areas and places high in the air where thousands of drones gather and mate in dozens with virgin queens. One major queen-produced olfactory signal—9-ODA, the major component of the queen pheromone—has been known for decades to attract the drones. Since then, some of the neural pathways responsible for the processing of this pheromone have been unraveled. However, olfactory receptor expression as well as brain neuroanatomical data point to the existence of three additional major pathways in the drone brain, hinting at the existence of 4 major odorant cues involved in honeybee mating. We discuss current evidence about additional not only queen- but also drone-produced pheromonal signals possibly involved in bees’ sexual behavior. We also examine data revealing recent evolutionary changes in drone’s olfactory system in the Apis genus. Lastly, we present promising research avenues for progressing in our understanding of the neural basis of bees mating behavior.

We review the bourgeoning literature on multiracial religious organizations. Although scholars have paid attention to racial integration in congregations since the 1940s, only recently has there been a concerted focus on this topic. This article—having reviewed the state of the field—argues that research on this topic must engage in three vital labors: explore more theory building or theory extension, interact with the broader field of sociology, and explicate how religious racial diversity contributes to or dismantles systems of social stratification. We discuss possible paths and approaches for future research on race, religion, and integration.

An unwilling, desperate nun trapped in the cloister, unable to gain release: such is the image that endures today of monastic life in early modern Europe. InBy Force and Fear, Anne Jacobson Schutte demonstrates that this and other common stereotypes of involuntary consignment to religious houses-shaped by literary sources such as Manzoni's The Betrothed-are badly off the mark. Drawing on records of the Congregation of the Council, held in the Vatican Archive, Schutte examines nearly one thousand petitions for annulment of monastic vows submitted to the Pope and adjudicated by the Council during a 125-year period, from 1668 to 1793. She considers petitions from Roman Catholic regions across Europe and a few from Latin America and finds that, in about half these cases, the congregation reached a decision. Many women and a smaller proportion of men got what they asked for: decrees nullifying their monastic profession and releasing them from religious houses. Schutte also reaches important conclusions about relations between elders and offspring in early modern families. Contrary to the picture historians have painted of increasingly less patriarchal and more egalitarian families, she finds numerous instances of fathers, mothers, and other relatives (including older siblings) employing physical violence and psychological pressure to compel adolescents into \"entering religion.\" Dramatic tales from the archives show that many victims of such violence remained so intimidated that they dared not petition the pope until the agents of force and fear had died, by which time they themselves were middle-aged. Schutte's innovative book will be of great interest to scholars of early modern Europe, especially those who work on religion, the Church, family, and gender.

The theme of the current Special Issue, ‘Faith in Action: Examining the Power and Purpose of a Public Theology in Contemporary Society’, leaves a lot of scope for definition. Here, the theme is addressed via the lens of the public life and practice of a Christian congregation and its generative qualities pertaining to public trust. Such an approach contrasts with more formal public theologies which tend to favour intellectual or academic discourse. It will be argued that the life of a local faith community and its embodied public interface provides a better starting point as it can be seen as the most directly presupposed concrete and public context of the phrase ‘faith in action’. As an analytical conduit, the congregation is a neglected category for rendering a public theology, even as it lies at the heart of the Christian faith’s constitutive practice. Here, a particular form of public exchange drawn from local experience will be set against the background of the recent trend in ecclesiology to turn away from abstracted notions of the church towards more practice-orientated understandings. The dynamics of developing public trust will be considered through reflection on an oft repeated response offered from non-practicing observers of my local church’s work: ‘You do so much good in the community’. Although a seemingly simple (and positive) sentiment, such a comment in fact bears complex layers of meaning and subtextual inflections to which a minister and congregation might give heed in search of public trust.