I visited Bethany Free Will Baptist Church’s 11 a.m. service Dec. 29. The church sits between the North Fox Hall and Sherwood neighborhoods on Azalea Garden Road. Sitting with Kathy and Mick Shaw, I ...

George Linney once compiled a list of 300 church hymns he knew by heart, first verse to last. But his favorite was “Blessed Assurance,” the traditional and quietly elegant ode to the power of faith ...

“Amazing Grace” as it appears in Ginny Hawker’s family heirloom songbook, Lloyd’s Primitive Baptist Hymns. You can see stains in the margins, left by the tobacco-covered hands of her aunt Annie Maud ...