Fittingly, in photographs depicting aspects of faith, it’s often the light that is most riveting.
An Apache dancer whirling around a bonfire during a coming-of-age ceremony in New Mexico. The towers of Notre Dame Cathedral illuminated against the twilight sky ahead of its reopening five years after a devastating fire. A vast display of earthen oil lamps glowing alongside India’s Saryu River on the eve of Diwali.
Photographs are an essential aspect of how The Associated Press covers religion and spirituality around the world, as evidenced by this gallery featuring some of 2024’s most compelling images.
Our photographers were with Pope Francis in East Timor and New Guinea, on the longest trip of his papacy. One of them trekked to a village in Uganda for a traditional circumcision ceremony. Another was in Fatima, Portugal, as thousands of motorcyclist pilgrims held up their helmets to be blessed. Two of them joined hundreds of Tibetan Buddhists in Minnesota celebrating the 18th birthday of a U.S- born lama before he heads off to a Himalayan monastery.
For the faithful around the world, joy — by tradition — is often shared collectively, as our photos illustrate.
In a Cairo neighborhood, Muslims light flares as they celebrate Iftar, the meal that ends their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Indian army soldiers, dancing in their camouflage uniforms, celebrate Diwali near the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. In Haiti, a dove takes flight as throngs of people attend a celebration of St. George, a Christian martyr revered by both Catholics and practitioners of Vodou.
In Lakeland, Florida, a more intimate joy is palpable as Sam and Tori Earle watch their infant daughter, Novalie, swing in their backyard. Novalie was born through an embryo adoption; the Earles credit God for providing such as option to families struggling with infertility.
Another mesmerizing image of parental love: A child is baptized in Lalish, holiest temple of the Yazidi people, 10 years after an onslaught by the Islamic State group led to the killings, abductions and displacement of thousands of Yazidis.
Sometimes faithfulness leads to sorrow, as several images reveal.
In the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, women weep as the body of their mother, who died from a stampede at a religious festival, is carried for cremation. Another haunting photo shows the flames rising from the cremation pyre.
In the Kenyan town of Malindi, a woman whose religious sect was targeted with horrific mass killings orchestrated by its leader, retreats into a thatched house after disclosing her ordeal.
And in Israel, mourners listen in the rain as a rabbi delivers a eulogy for Zvi Kogan, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi killed in Dubai, where he ran a kosher grocery store.
Several of the photos vividly depict the depths of religious devotion — and the myriad forms it takes.
In Pakistan, Hindu pilgrims climb a steep path to reach the top of a mud volcano during a festival at one of their faith’s holiest sites. During the annual Hajj, Muslim pilgrims gather atop a rocky hill known as the Mountain of Mercy, near the holy city of Mecca.
On Good Friday, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians — one of them bearing a large cross glinting in the sun — walk the Way of the Cross that commemorates Christ’s crucifixion.
In Havana, Gloria Esperanza Reyes makes her monthly offering to Yemaya, the Yoruba goddess of the sea, by tossing flowers and sugarcane syrup into the waves.
A different form of devotion was on display at a campaign rally for Donald Trump in Vandalia, Ohio, as evidenced by the hats for sale reading, “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.”
Prayer is a practice shared by many faiths, in a limitless array of settings. We see youthful surfers praying during a service at the Surf Church, close to a beach near Porto, Portugal. We see a Muslim woman with her prayer beads near the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. And two boys praying at recess in the mosque of their private Muslim school in Marseille, France.
In Haiti, we see Vodou pilgrims praying earnestly at a Mass amid the pervasive violence in their country.
In the U.S. heartland, we see Ethiopian Orthodox women at prayer in Worthington, Minnesota, and a mix of Catholic nuns and laypeople praying beside the Ohio River in Steubenville, Ohio, during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
While some major religions continue to view homosexual behavior as sinful, our gallery includes some eye-catching depictions of inclusion — LGBTQ-friendly services at a synagogue in New York and Christian church in Cuba; a Black pastor in Massachusetts embraced by his congregation after he summoned the nerve to disclose that he is gay; a tearful woman in New Jersey on the verge of being reinstated as a United Methodist pastor, 20 years after she was defrocked due to a now-repealed LGBTQ ban.
To close, we’ll highlight a few of the change-of-pace photos that enliven this gallery, including two from Nashville, Tennessee. It’s renowned for its country-music scene and boisterous bars along Broadway, but it’s also a place of deep faith.
At The Cove, a Christian nightclub with a no-alcohol rule, youthful patrons jubilantly raise their arms in worship. At Robert’s Western World, the Rev. Ron Blakely — sporting a cowboy hat and a wide grin — leads the Broadway honky tonk ’s Sunday Gospel Hour.
A different kind of music rings out in a Spanish village as Josep-Maria Grosset, a student at a bell ringer school performs at the bell tower of a 12th-century church. The school, seeking to revive the manual ringing of church bells, has graduated its first class of 18 students.
And our photographers were mindful of a hymn writer’s memorable phrase, “All creatures great and small.”
At monasteries half-way round the world from each other, a Buddhist monk in Bhutan and an Orthodox Christian monk in New York state display their love of dogs. Not to be outdone, Presbyterian pastor Lee Scott pets one of the cows on his family farm in Pennsylvania.
AP photo editor Patrick Sison curated this photo gallery,
Crary has headed AP’s 11-person Religion team since 2020. Among previous AP jobs, he was a foreign correspondent for 14 years, and has used that experience to bolster AP’s worldwide religion coverage.