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Associated Press photographers were on the scene — there and in scores of other locales ranging from the to the sacred volcano in Hawaii. Their mission: Finding myriad ways to convey how faith and spiritualism, in their many forms, manifested themselves around the world in 2023.

They accompanied Pope Francis on his epic journeys to and . They chronicled a weekend retreat in Utah where followers of partook in the psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca. The photos' subjects include weary, hopeful in northern Mexico near the U.S. border, and serving as chaplain for the men’s basketball team at Loyola University Chicago.

For the AP’s Religion Team, its flagship project of the year took a sweeping, in-depth look at a global phenomenon — the dramatic increase in the number of people who are nonbelievers or unaffiliated with any organized religion — the so-called “nones.� included reports from the U.S., Italy, South America, the Middle East, India, Japan and Nigeria.

The Religion Team also ran a year-long, intermittent series on sacred sites around the world facing threats related to climate change and human development. Among the featured sites — the famed and a deemed sacred by practitioners of Voodoo.

Many of the year's most compelling photos were somber: A providing suicide-prevention counseling aboard his ship; the working to conserve 8,000 shoes of children murdered during the Holocaust; and gathering for worship and prayers as the Israel-Hamas war raged in Gaza; an African American man in Baltimore wiping away tears while recalling the he endured at the hands of a white Catholic priest.

One stunning photo showed police snipers silhouetted on a Miami Beach rooftop, providing security as members of gathered for a commemoration of .

There was lighter subject matter as well — young people rehearsing a sacred at a Buddhist temple near Minneapolis; frolicking in the lake at their one-of-a-kind summer camp in California; the “FREE BIBLES� tent at the .

And there were photos that seemed almost magical: dancing on a spring evening across burning coals in a centuries-old ritual; the hauntingly beautiful isolation of a where a Catholic priest and nun started on the path to sainthood.

“It’s almost like a desecration to try to explain how beautiful it is," said one of the handful of nuns still based there.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.