People nailed to crosses in Good Friday ritual AP reports: At least 24 Filipinos were nailed to wooden crosses to re-enact Jesus Christ’s suffering in a local Good Friday rite rejected by Catholic church leaders but witnessed by throngs of believers and thousands of tourists. Romeo Ranoco / Reuters Portraying Jesus Christ, Menandro Penafiel, 34, falls to the ground after being whipped and kicked by Roman soldiers to reenact Christ’s persecution and death during Good Friday in Boac town, Marinduque island, central Philippines, on Friday. Ruben Enaje, a 50-year-old sign painter, screamed in pain as villagers dressed as Roman centurions hammered four-inch, stainless steel nails through his palm and set…

PRESBYTERIANS The Presbyterian Church has maintained a presence in Oklahoma for more than 180 years. Beginning in the early 1800s the church developed foreign missions and evangelistic enterprises with Native tribes that were located in the southeastern United States. Most of this work was conducted under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM), an organization composed of both Congregationalists and Presbyterians. The first organized missionary effort in the region that is now Oklahoma was Union Mission, a project of the United Foreign Mission Society, which included Presbyterians. Organized by Rev. Epaphras Chapman for the Osage Indians in 1820, Union was built in Mayes County. There,…