The members of Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York honored Reverend Forrest Church, their pastor for 30 years, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. But there was a great poignancy to the festivities because everyone present knew that Reverend Church is terminally ill.

Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz explains the process of repentance and forgiveness during the Jewish High Holidays.

Rachel Barton Pine was once a child prodigy on her way to world-class status as a violinist before she was struck down in a terrible accident. But she's coming back now, with great courage and faith.

What do religious voices have to say about the economic crisis and the various proposals to solve it?

We explore the ethical issues underlying the financial meltdown with Rebecca Blank, an economist, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and co-author of the book "Is the Market Moral?"

Especially since 9/11, major Christian and Muslim scholars and religious officials have been working together to find ways believers in each religion can live side by side in peace.

Vincent Pannizzo lives in East Oakland, California. He provides a ministry for those with nowhere else to go, although he himself is homeless.

Some doctors are proposing that their patients consider "slow medicine". It is a practice that tries to let nature take its course rather than aggressively fighting the ravages that sometimes accompany old age.

Menachem Youlus, a Torah scribe who has been called the Indiana Jones of rabbis, has traveled to dangerous places all over the world in his mission to find, rescue, and recover sacred Torah scrolls.

In most of the world, the poor and sick are ignored. In Lourdes, they are number one, and people say they are drawn there because they believe it is a place of great faith.

The Dalai Lama leads one of the four schools, or denominations within Tibetan Buddhism. The 23-year-old Karmapa Lama leads another. His supporters believe he may one day succeed the older man as Buddhism's leading international voice.

"Buddhist ethics is intense about nonviolence, but it's also pragmatic," says Buddhist studies professor Robert Thurman.

Of all the world's refugees, the plight of the Palestinians may be the most long-running and dangerous. When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, 700,000 Palestinians chose to leave their homes or were forced out. Now that population has grown to four-and-a-half million scattered throughout the Middle East, many of them in crowded refugee camps.

After hearing his story, a large Texas church is helping a passionate but cash-strapped pastor continue his ministry.

Dr. Joseph Mamlin’s medical practice in Kenya began with one small anti-AIDS clinic in the late ’90s. It now serves 60,000 patients with the back-home support of a church in Indiana. During a recent outbreak of violence, Dr. Mamlin’s clinic also served as a safe haven where Kenyans of different tribes found common ground.

In Kenya, ethnic clashes killed more than a thousand and displaced 600,000 following disputed elections in late 2007. Kenya received its independence from Britain in 1963, inheriting a similar parliamentary system and a strong legacy of Christianity. Neither proved an adequate bulwark against the inter-tribal tensions that have festered in the decades since self-rule began.

36 states permit capital punishment for murder. Should that penalty be extended to those who rape children? Criminologists say people are punished to prevent them from committing another crime, as a deterrent to others, to rehabilitate them and as retribution — revenge. Does revenge for child rape justify execution?

In June 2008, Barack Obama held a closed door meeting with about 40 faith leaders, including megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes and evangelist Franklin Graham. They discussed issues from poverty and human rights to abortion and gay rights. Meanwhile, in New York John McCain held a private meeting with Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Tom Monaghan developed a new town, complete with it's own massive house of worship and university, out of farmland in southwest Florida. He's hoping that the town, and the university, will produce more than diplomas.

The practice of "familial searching" is causing a conflict between solving crimes and protecting privacy. Police can now take DNA from a crime scene and compare it to millions of DNA samples in a government database. If there is even a partial match, that could lead to the criminal by way of his or her family members if their DNA is in the database.