Word: rite
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...best fundraisers the Association ever had, founded one of PBH's most solid programs (Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment), and did his best as president in the face of soul-less "pragmatists." It is almost a crime that one who devoted his life to PBH did not recieve a Stride-Rite Public Service Award...
...joyous reception of Mandela was also a rite of self-congratulation for the American civil rights activists who have used the struggle in South Africa as a rallying cry. Such leaders had started to make connections with the battle against apartheid long ago. The American Committee on Africa, the first antiapartheid organization in the U.S., was created in 1953. But it was during the 1980s that civil rights activists discovered in the fight to free Mandela an effort they could throw themselves into with gusto -- and little moral ambiguity...
...from Chicago." When an offer came to join the U.S. attorney's staff in Chicago, he and Annette jumped at it. "I thought it was the best job imaginable, that it had the power to help shape the community." The return to their native city marked an important rite of passage for the Turows, a sense that the onetime prodigal children had returned and were prepared to become adults. "I had been taught that all writers have to find their roots," Turow says. "Well, I found mine in the upper-middle class...
Jews have bar mitzvah, Catholics have confirmation, and Mormons have . . . endowment. Never heard of it? Not surprising, since this coming-of-age rite for all regular church members occurs only in temples that are strictly off limits to nonbelievers, and initiates vow to die rather than reveal details of the ceremony. Despite the secrecy shroud, news has leaked that Mormon officials last month instituted the most sweeping ritual changes in a century...
...been altered over the decades, most notably by eliminating the oath to avenge church prophets and blood-curdling secrecy vows ("We agree that our throats be cut from ear to ear"). Ritual secrets are believed to let a Mormon pass into the highest levels of heaven. After performing the rite for themselves, Mormons may repeat it over and over for the vicarious benefit of dead relatives. But by some accounts, the number performing such "temple work" has been falling off. A briefer, modernized ritual could help reverse that trend. Says Mormon author Allen Roberts: "The ceremony is less harsh, less...