(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo selection includes Buddhists in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, an annual dancing devils festival in Venezuela and more.
Note: RNS is expanding Photos of the Week to include reader photos. Please submit current photos of your practice of religion, spirituality or beliefs HERE.
Dancing devils shake maracas during Corpus Christi celebrations in San Francisco de Yare, Venezuela, Thursday, June 3, 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Carnival-like dance, in which the devils pay penance and ask for relief from physical ailments, symbolizes the ongoing struggle between good and evil. The tradition dates to 1742, when liberal priests in Venezuela used it to include African slaves who were not permitted to worship in the same church as their white masters.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man dressed in a devil costume holds his mask during a celebration marking the Catholic holiday of Corpus Christi in Naiguata, Venezuela, Thursday, June 3, 2021. Carrying masks of animals and sea monsters, residents of all ages dance in the ritual known as Dancing Devils, which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Dancing devils sit outside a local Catholic church listening to the Mass taking place inside, in San Francisco de Yare, Venezuela, Thursday, June 3, 2021, amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Carnival-like dance, in which the devils pay penance and ask for relief from physical ailments, symbolizes the ongoing struggle between good and evil. The tradition dates to 1742, when liberal priests in Venezuela used it to include African slaves who were not permitted to worship in the same church as their white masters.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
People pray during the dedication of a prayer wall at the historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Greenwood neighborhood during the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Monday, May 31, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. The church was largely destroyed when a white mob descended on the prosperous Black neighborhood in 1921, burning, killing, looting and leveling a 35-square-block area. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People hold their hands on a prayer wall outside of the historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Greenwood neighborhood during the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Monday, May 31, 2021, in Tulsa, Okla. The church was largely destroyed when a white mob descended on the prosperous Black neighborhood in 1921, burning, killing, looting and leveling a 35-square-block area. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Tibetan women circumnavigate a Buddhist religious site in Namtso in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, as seen during a government organized visit for foreign journalists, Wednesday, June 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Buddhist faithful pray outside the Potala Palace in Lhasa in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, as seen during a government organized visit for foreign journalists, Tuesday, June 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Girls stand on a square in front of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa in western China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, as seen during a government organized visit for foreign journalists, Tuesday, June 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Reader Photos
Decatur First United Methodist Church gathers for the first Sunday service with congregational singing since March of 2020, Sunday, , May 23, 2021, in Decatur, Georgia. Photo by Madeline C. Mulkey
Deacon Joseph DePage takes a selfie while getting ready for the Solemnity of the Ascension at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Santa Cruz, California, on May 16, 2021. Photo by Joseph DePage
Archive Photos
Participants mark “Raoul Wallenberg Day” by placing candles at the Isaiah Wall near the United Nations on Mar. 27, 1980, in New York. Mr. Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in war-time Budapest helped save nearly 100,000 Hungarian Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Wallenberg was taken prisoner by the Soviet Army in 1945, and reported dead in 1947. Many groups, including the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and the U.S. Free Raoul Wallenberg Committee, believed reports that he languished in a Russian prison for years past 1947. RNS archive photo by Odette Lupis. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.
The new replaces the old as these two girls unfurl a scroll, covering the names of the three former separate churches in 1948 in Green Lake, Wisconsin. The unrolling of the Federated Church scroll signaled the three congregations, Congregational, Baptist and Methodist, to move forward to unite. The scroll bearers are Marion Palmer, left, and Roxanna Thrall. RNS archive photo by A.W. Grube. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.
