Photos of the Year

This week’s selection looks back at the best photos from 2020.

A man wears a face mask in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican during Pope Francis' weekly general audience, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s selection looks back at the best photos from 2020.

The family of Bara Tambedou exercises at home after breaking the fast on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Dakar, Senegal, Saturday, April 25, 2020. This year the family celebrated Ramadan at home, with prohibitions on public gatherings and a dusk-to-dawn curfew in place to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

Cemetery workers in protective clothing bury a person at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Vila Formosa is the largest cemetery in Latin America. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)


Indian Hindu devotees cheer as colored powder and water is sprayed on them by a Hindu priest during celebrations marking Holi at the Swaminarayan temple in Ahmedabad, India, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, also marks the advent of spring. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

An image of the late Georgia congressman and civil rights pioneer U.S. Rep. John Lewis is projected on to the pedestal of the statue of confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue, Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Richmond, Va. The statue became a focal point for Black Lives Matter protests in the area. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

A man disinfects a chandelier in the Cobanija mosque in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Disinfection began in mosques in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and throughout the country, in order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 infections, ahead of holy month of Ramadan. Prayers were only be attended by Islamic clerics, as the rest of the community observed government restrictions on public gatherings and religious ceremonies. (AP Photo/Kemal Softic)

A Sri Lankan Buddhist monk climbs steps past statues at a deserted temple during curfew on Buddha Jayanthi, or Vesak, a day that celebrates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Thursday, May 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Alexis Williams, the widow of Bishop Carl Williams Jr., wears a mask with their picture on it during his funeral at the Institutional International Ministries church in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Thursday, May 21, 2020. Carl Williams Jr. was the emeritus pastor of the congregation, which was founded by his father, Carl Williams Sr. The congregation and Williams Jr. are more widely known for their gospel group, the Institutional Radio Choir. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, only a few family members were permitted to attend the service in person, but the church live-streamed the event for others that wanted to celebrate his life. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A child blows cigar smoke, meant to be cleansing, onto statues of the “Santa Muerte,” or Death Saint, outside an altar to her in Mexico City’s Tepito neighborhood, Monday, June 1, 2020 . Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, thousands of devotees, few wearing face masks amidst the dense crowd, made the monthly pilgrimage to pray or give thanks to Santa Muerte, one of several unofficial folk saints worshipped in Mexico. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)


Worshippers gather around candles stuck to jars of honey, arranged as a cross, during mass for the ‘sanctification of honey’ at the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Church in the town of Blagoevgrad, some 60 miles south of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020. Honey and beehives are sanctified by performing a ritual for health and rich harvest, marking the day of St. Haralampus, Orthodox patron saint of beekeepers. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

A Nepalese Hindu devotee carries water-soaked hay as part of rituals during Madhav Narayan festival in Thecho, Lalitpur, Nepal, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. During this month-long festival, devotees recite Scriptures dedicated to Hindu goddess Swasthani and Hindu God Lord Shiva. Unmarried women pray to get a good husband while those who are married pray for the longevity of their husbands by observing month long fast. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A Catholic priest peers from a window in the door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a place where Christians believe Jesus Christ was buried, before the arrival of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, during a lockdown following government measures to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, during Holy Thursday in Jerusalem’s Old City, Thursday, April 9, 2020. The traditional Holy Thursday procession took place inside the church without public attendance this year due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The congregation practices social distancing to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, with chairs arranged a distance apart, as they attend a Sunday morning Mass at the Bole Medhane Alem Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Sunday, April 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Traditional lanterns with Buddhism-inspired themes are displayed during Lotus Lantern Festival at the Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 22, 2020. South Korean Buddhist groups canceled a planned lantern procession to mark Buddha’s birthday, but still held celebratory services at temples across the country in accordance with the government’s quarantine rules. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

This drone photo shows a boat carrying ethnic Rohingya Muslims, off Lhoksukon, North Aceh, Indonesia, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. Indonesian fishermen discovered over 90 hungry, weak Rohingya Muslims on this wooden boat adrift off Indonesia’s northernmost province. Police say they were found on the rickety boat about 4 miles off the coast. They cried out for help and jumped onto the fishermen’s boat, but its engine also stopped working on the way to shore. (AP Photo/Zik Maulana)


Family members dressed in while stand as the body of Rayshard Brooks is carried out during his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 in Atlanta. Brooks, 27, died June 12 after being shot by a police officer in a Wendy’s parking lot. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

A Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol honor guard folds the retired Mississippi state flag after it was raised over the Capitol grounds one final time in Jackson, Mississippi, on July 1, 2020. The banner was the last state flag with the Confederate battle emblem on it. A condition on the retirement is that the next state flag include the phrase “In God We Trust.” (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Children wash sheep with soap before they are offered for sale for the upcoming Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, on the beach in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, July 30, 2020. Even in the best of times, many Muslims in West Africa scramble to afford a sheep to slaughter on the Eid al-Adha holiday, a display of faith that often costs as much as a month’s income. Now the coronavirus is wreaking havoc on economies, putting an important religious tradition beyond financial reach for many. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

Orthodox Jews, some wearing protective face masks amid concerns over the coronavirus outbreak, spend the day at a park in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. Orthodox Yeshiva students enjoy Bein Hazmanim (between the times) for two weeks of summer vacation. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A barber tonsures, or shaves, a child as part of a ritual at an ancient temple of Hindu goddess Kali in Jammu, India, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

A policeman consoles Fatima Tuyan, whose son Zekeriya Tuyan was shot at the Al Noor Mosque, as she prepares to enter the Christchurch High Court for the final day in the sentencing hearing for Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, in Christchurch, New Zealand, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020. Tarrant, a white supremacist who killed 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques in March 2019 was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)


Liza Durasenko, 16, from Oregon City, Oregon, prays during a rally in support of President Donald Trump, Aug. 29, 2020, in Clackamas, Oregon. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Shiite Muslim worshippers gather inside the holy shrine of Imam Hussein during Ashoura in Karbala, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

Tzvi Chalamish blows a shofar, a musical instrument made from an animal horn, during a shofar blowing course ahead of the Jewish New Year in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. Prompted by the coronavirus outbreak, the Tel Aviv municipality offered free shofar blowing courses in an attempt to thin out the number of worshippers in one place during the high Jewish holidays. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Organist Julian Lembke, center, changes a pipe on the organ of the John Cage organ project during a ‘chord change’ at the partially ruined Burchardi Church in Halberstadt, Germany, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. The performance of Cage’s “ORGAN/ASLSP,” or As Slow As Possible, composition began in September 2001 at the church in the eastern town of Halberstadt and is supposed to end in 2640. The last chord change was in 2013. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Indian Hindu Kanwarias, worshippers of the Hindu god Shiva, carry metal canisters filled with holy water from the Ganges River as they walk towards Padilla Mahadev temple, on the outskirts of Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020. Kanwarias are devotees performing a ritual pilgrimage in which they walk the roads of India, clad in saffron, and carry ornately decorated canisters of the sacred water from the Ganges River to take back to Hindu temples in their hometowns. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Followers of Franklin Graham pray at the base of the Washington Monument as they march from the Lincoln Memorial to Capitol Hill, during the Prayer March at the National Mall, in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)


People light candles inside the candle room of Our Lady of Aparecida Basilica, the temple of Brazil’s patron saint on her feast day in Aparecida, Brazil, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A Balinese man participates in the Hindu ritual of “Grebeg” at the Tegalalang village in Bali, Indonesia, on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. In this biannual ritual, participants daub their bodies with colorful paint and parade around their village to ward off evil spirits. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)

A Nepalese man unloads a goat from a vehicle as it is brought to be sold for sacrifice during the Dashain festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Oct. 19, 2020. Dashain, the religious festival of Nepal’s Hindus, commemorates the victory of gods over demons. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A man holds a piece of art from the Dadivank, an Armenian Apostolic Church monastery dating to the 9th century, as ethnic Armenians leave the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2020. The territory is to be turned over to Azerbaijan on Sunday as part of territorial concessions in an agreement to end six weeks of intense fighting with Armenian forces. Hundreds of thousands of Azeris were displaced by the war that ended in 1994. It is unclear when any civilians might try to settle in Karvachar, which will now be known by its Azeri name Kalbajar. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)

A Hindu devotee takes a dip while praying to the Sun God, standing in Hussain Sagar Lake during the Chhath Puja festival in Hyderabad, India, Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Goats offered by devotees walk down a flight of stairs by a Hindu priest at the Kamakhya Hindu temple in Gauhati, India, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. After being shut for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, Assam’s famous Kamakhya Temple re-opened on Sept. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)


A man holds a candle as people gather to honor soccer legend Diego Maradona, at the popular “Quartieri Spagnoli” neighborhood, in Naples, Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020. Maradona played for Naples from 1984 – 1991. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students light candles on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah in the Haredi or conservative Orthodox Jewish, city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020. Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day commemoration of the Jewish uprising in the second century B.C. against the Greek-Syrian kingdom, which had tried to put statues of Greek gods in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!