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Christian human rights investigator found dead in Congo

Michael J. Sharp, 34, a Mennonite peace worker in the Democratic Repub­lic of the Congo, was found dead on March 27.

Since 2015, Sharp had been working for the United Nations in the Congo. He previously worked with the Church of Christ in Congo, an association of more than 60 Protestant denominations, whose agencies respond to the needs of displaced people, support victims of violence, and encourage armed groups to demobilize and reintegrate into society.

Cardinal who led in Catholic-Jewish relations dies at age 86

William Henry Keeler, a Roman Catholic cardinal known for ecumenical and interfaith engagement and for his responsible handling of the sexual abuse crisis, died March 23 at age 86 in Catonsville, Maryland.

Keeler was archbishop of Baltimore from 1989 until his retirement in 2007, and from 1992 to 1995 served as elected president of the U.S. Con­ference of Catholic Bishops.

Muslim cleric to lead national association of chaplains in higher ed

An imam, Adeel Zeb, will lead the National Association of College and University Chaplains.

Members of the Baltimore-based organization chose Zeb, who is a chaplain at the Claremont Colleges, to be their next president at a recent annual conference. When he takes up his post in June, he will be the first Muslim to serve in the role since the association’s creation in 1948.

Among the challenges he sees for chaplains in higher education today is making religious traditions a tool for bringing students together.

Baptist ethicist and commentator dies at age 63

Baptist ethicist Robert Parham, the founder of the Baptist Center for Ethics and a critic of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Conven­tion, died March 5.

EthicsDaily.com, the center’s website, reported that Parham died at a Nash­ville, Ten­nessee, hospital. He was 63.

“His purpose was the same as the organization he founded and deeply cherished: to help people of faith advance the common good,” said Kevin Heifner, chair of BCE’s board of directors. “This was not a sound bite for him but the way he lived out his understanding of the essence of the gospel.”

"Borning Cry" songwriter dies at age 79

John Carl Ylvisaker, a songwriter and composer best known for “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry,” died March 9 at age 79 at his home in Waverly, Iowa.

His website gives the cause of death as complications from can­cer and multiple system atrophy.

He studied music and history at Con­cordia College in Moorhead, Minne­sota, and during part of the 1960s traveled around the United States working for civil rights causes, counting activist and folk musician Pete Seeger as a major influence, his website notes.

Richard Niebuhr, theologian and teacher, dies at age 90

Richard Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian and influential teacher, died Febru­ary 26 at age 90.

He began teaching at Harvard Divini­ty School in 1956, the school noted in an­nouncing his death, and retired as professor emeritus.

He was author, among other works, of the book Experiential Religion.

He was the son of theologian H. Richard Niebuhr, author of Christ and Culture, and father of Gustav Niebuhr, a religion journalist who now teaches at Syracuse University.

Catholic theologian who 'moved from left to right' dies at age 83

Michael Novak, a Catholic theologian who argued that capitalism fostered social well-being, died February 17 at the age of 83 in Washington, D.C.

The cause of death was complications from colon cancer, the Washington Post reported.

He authored or edited more than 50 books, his most well-known being The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, published in 1982. He received the Templeton Prize in 1994 for his “influential new insights into the spiritual foundations of economic and political systems.”