It’s a sad year when the most noteworthy religion story of the year in Alabama was three churchgoers killed at a church event.

It was also a traumatic year for churches in other ways, as the state’s second largest denomination, the United Methodist Church, went through a painful public split.

Here’s a recap of ten of the most newsworthy religion stories of the year in Alabama.

Three killed at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

A shooting on June 16 left three churchgoers dead at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills.

Robert Findlay Smith was sitting alone at a church potluck dinner and longtime church member Walter “Bart” Rainey approached him and invited him to sit at a table, said the Rev. Doug Carpenter, who founded the church in 1973 and retired in 2005. Smith declined, then later pulled a gun and shot three of those in attendance.

Rainey, 84, Sarah Yeager, 75, and Jane Pounds, 84, were all fatally shot.

“Nobody has any idea why he did it, any reason for it,” Carpenter said. “Three of our members have been killed.”

The assailant was stopped by another church member, Jim Musgrove, who hit the shooter with a chair and wrestled the gun away from him, Carpenter said.

Smith, 70, was charged with capital murder in connection with the shooting.

The congregation of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, just three days after the fatal shooting in the parish hall, returned on Sunday morning to worship, with a message of love.

“We come to weep at the foot of the cross,” said the Rev. John Burress, the rector of Stephen’s.

United Methodist split

The long-awaited, much-predicted split in the United Methodist Church finally began to unfold in dramatic fashion.

The first major domino to tumble was the 7,000-member Frazer Methodist Church in Montgomery, once the largest United Methodist Church in Alabama. Frazer Memorial voted Jan. 30 to leave the denomination and join the Free Methodist Church.

That became official when it was approved by the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 14.

Then steam began gathering for a mass exodus from the North Alabama Conference. On Dec. 10, 198 congregations were approved for disaffiliation and left the denomination.

Congregations still have until the end of 2023 to vote to disaffiliate under terms approved by the United Methodist General Conference that allows congregations to vote to leave and negotiate to take their property with them.

About a third of congregations have voted to leave, and more are likely to leave next year.

Even though the denomination has repeatedly voted to keep its traditional stance on marriage as only between a man and a woman, conservatives complain that progressives in the denomination have repeatedly ignored the rules.

Those leaving have opted to either remain independent for now, join the Free Methodist Church, or the Global Methodist Church, which was launched this year by conservatives leaving the United Methodist Church.

Samford bans Presbyterian, Episcopal clergy

A campus minister at Samford University turned away Presbyterian Church (USA) and Episcopal Church college chaplains that asked to be included in a campus ministry fair because the two denominations have stances supporting same-sex marriage.

Samford University defended its stance.

“We are welcoming of all denominations and have no policy or plan to restrict any denominations from our campus,” wrote Vice President of Student Affairs Philip Kimrey in a letter sent to students and shared with faculty and staff.

“Throughout its history, the university has consistently subscribed to and practiced biblically orthodox beliefs,” Kimrey wrote, and noted that “the university has a responsibility to formally partner with ministry organizations that share our beliefs.”

Alabama missionary escapes war-torn Ukraine

A Winfield minister returned to Alabama from Ukraine on March 1, arriving at the airport in Birmingham after a harrowing escape from Ukraine to Poland.

“My heart is still in Ukraine,” said Elder Mark Posey, pulpit minister of the Winfield Church of Christ, as he arrived in Birmingham.

Although he was glad to be able to escape the country as the war escalated, Posey said the sound of bombs in Ukraine and the desperation of families fleeing the country haunts him.

“The people are hurting,” he said. “They’re suffering. They’re scared, and we’re going to continue to help them. We love them.”

Sisters who survived Holocaust die 11 days apart

Two sisters who survived the Holocaust together, and made it their mission to share their memories with the world, died in Birmingham 11 days apart.

Ruth Scheuer Siegler, 95, died on Saturday, Sept. 3.

Her sister, Ilse Scheuer Nathan, 98, died less than two weeks before, on Aug. 23.

“They were always together,” said Ann Mollengarden, education director for the Alabama Holocaust Education Center. “When Ilse died, I think Ruth was ready.”

Briarwood’s Barbara Barker, daughter die

Briarwood Ballet founder Barbara Brown Barker, 85, died on Jan. 13, soon after her husband, Briarwood Presbyterian Church Founder and Pastor Emeritus Frank Barker, 89, who had died weeks before that, on Dec. 27, 2021.

Their oldest daughter died within two months of the death of her parents. Anita Barker Barnes, 59, died Feb. 18 after battling brain cancer. She led a ministry for high school students at Briarwood and was also known for teaching dance and exercise classes.

Mrs. Barker, who studied musical theater at Northwestern University and danced with a professional company in Chicago, founded Briarwood Ballet Ballet School in 1980 with 45 students. The school now has more than 400 students.

Ballet Exaltation, a classical performing troupe founded by Mrs. Barker, held frequent ballet performances in Alabama at venues such as Samford University’s Wright Center, but also traveled around the world on mission trips to Cuba, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, Spain and Brazil.

Highlands College opens new campus at former HealthSouth headquarters

The former corporate headquarters of HealthSouth on U.S. 280 in Birmingham was transformed by a $50 million renovation project and became the home of Highlands College in 2022.

On Feb. 3, Chancellor Chris Hodges and Highlands College President Mark Pettus led a ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening of the campus.

When Hodges was a youth pastor in Colorado Springs, before moving to Birmingham to become the founding pastor of the Church of the Highlands in 2001, he taught a religion class at the Air Force Academy. Hodges said he was impressed with how the Air Force Academy blended in academics with military training and character formation.

That gave him the inspiration for what became Highlands College, which was founded in 2011. Ministry students learn every aspect of producing worship services at the Church of the Highlands, which has become Alabama’s largest church with more than 20 branch locations.

There are currently 370 traditional students enrolled in ministry leadership classes, in the 18-22 age range, attending day classes. There are also more than 400 adults enrolled in classes one night a week, bringing the total enrollment to just under 800.

Hobby Lobby CEO David Green and his family last year donated $20 million to build the first residence hall, which is currently under construction on the 70-acre campus. It will house 252 students on campus. Another residence hall is planned next to it that will double the housing capacity.

Jefferson County battles anti-religion group over football prayers on loudspeakers

The Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Jefferson County School system went back and forth over public prayers broadcast on loudspeakers at public school football games.

After legal threats from the foundation’s lawyer saying the prayers were unconstitutional, the school system lawyer acquiesced and said the school would stop the practice. But after an uproar by parents and students, and assurances by the superintendent that voluntary prayer was still allowed, the school system reneged on the promise and prayers continued.

Caritas promotes visions of the Virgin Mary, sells gelato with strict rules

An Alabama group that promotes the controversial purported visions of the Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, got back into the public eye by opening a gelato shop on the busy U.S. 280 corridor in Shelby County.

Caritas, which runs a religious community in Sterrett that promotes the visions and occasionally hosts the visionary Marija Lunetti, opened a business called Villagio Colafrancesco.

Caritas founder Terry Colafrancesco wanted to re-create an Italian gelato shop in Rome, promoting family and community conversation by banning cell phones, laptops, profanity and scantily clad patrons.

The gelato shop got a conversation going, but it wasn’t necessarily what they hoped, as the strict rules and religious beliefs of the group became a lightning rod for critics.

Colafrancesco said the gelato shop is a franchise of the Old Bridge Gelateria in Rome, just outside the walls of Vatican City, a favorite of popes such as Pope Benedict XVI, who died today. Villagio Colafrancesco also has a coffee shop and a butcher shop that sells meat and cheese.

Faith Chapel founder hands church off to son

Faith Chapel Christian Center in Wylam, one of Birmingham’s largest predominantly Black churches, is known for its giant domes that house the church buildings and recreation facilities including a 12-lane bowling alley.

The Rev. Michael D. Moore founded Faith Chapel in his home in 1981. On Dec. 2, he ordained his son, the Rev. Michael Kenneth Douglas, as the new lead pastor, and handed leadership off to him.

Under Pastor Mike, the church built a $15 million, 3,000-seat sanctuary under a dome in 2000. It’s known as the Word Dome. In 2007, the 6,000-member church inflated the roof on the last of six smaller domes built during a $26 million second phase of construction on the 137-acre campus near the intersection of Minor Parkway and Alabama Highway 269. Each of the domes was built by inflating giant balloons, then spraying them with concrete for a hard shell roof. The smaller domes now form a connecting complex of activity buildings that house a bowling alley, café, banquet hall, basketball court, fitness center and playground.