Photos of the Week

This week’s gallery includes Easter, lockdowns around the world, and more.

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s selection includes Easter, lockdowns around the world, and more.

People gather at the Mount Davidson cross in San Francisco on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020. Mount Davidson’s annual Easter Sunrise Service was canceled for San Francisco’s shelter in place orders over coronavirus concerns, but people still gathered at the cross. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)


An aerial view of the ancient Kiev Monastery of the Caves, which is closed for coronavirus quarantine, in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, April 13, 2020. More than 90 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed at the monastery, of which 63 were monks, making the 1,000-year old historical and religious center the biggest hotbed of coronavirus outbreaks in the Ukrainian capital. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A Hindu priest looks out from a temple during lockdown to prevent the spread of new coronavirus in Hyderabad, India, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown to head off the epidemic’s peak, with officials racing to make up for lost time. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

In an archival RNS photo, Elwin Boice stands outside of his Los Angeles gas station in September 1955 with the sign he puts out every Sunday. Mr. Boice said that, although he was warned he would go broke if he closed on Sunday, business and profits have increased. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society

Ultra-Orthodox Jews wears face masks and maintain social distancing during the funeral of Israel’s ex-Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, who died from coronavirus, in Jerusalem, Monday, April 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Novice Buddhist monks wearing protective masks and face shields maintain social distance as they participate in a religion class at Molilokayaram Educational Institute in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. All schools in Thailand were closed earlier than the scheduled school break due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but about 200 novice monks remain in the monastic school due to travel restrictions and lockdowns implemented in provinces in Thailand. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Kaden Poole, 10, foreground, and his cousin Bralyn Washington, 9, sing a hymn while Ca’Loni Booth, 6, bangs away at what remains of the drum set on the slab that was James Hill Church in Prentiss, Miss., Tuesday, April 14, 2020. The church and much of its south Prentiss neighborhood was heavily damaged by a tornado Sunday, one of several that swept through the state, causing a number of deaths. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

A Christian woman prays from her house during a special Easter service led by a local pastor due to a government-imposed lockdown to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, in a Christian neighborhood of Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)


Wearing a face mask, Erlinda Ortega, top left, cleans a pulpit, while Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, center, with the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, prepares to record a homily, after Budde led Easter Sunday services via livestream to an empty Washington National Cathedral, Sunday, April 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C. in light of coronavirus pandemic precautions. The large cathedral is normally full on Easter Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Wearing a mask to help halt the spread of the new coronavirus, the Rev. Walter Pavel, a Catholic Franciscan priest, hands food to the homeless in downtown Lima, Peru, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. Pavel, 52, distributes 600 lunches a day to the homeless outside the San Francisco de Asis dining room. “The only requirement is to be hungry,” says Pavel. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

In an archival photo, employees of a Hermitage, Pennsylvania, cemetery raise another flag to the collection marking the days that the U.S. hostages are held in Iran in February 1980. The flags are loaned by area families who are determined — despite often gloomy reports from Iran — to keep them flying until the captives are finally freed. Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!