%1

Amani al-Khatahtbeh, founder of Muslim Girl, has become the first Mus­lim woman to run for Congress in New Jersey.

On April 4, al-Khatahtbeh announced her mission “to make democracy happen” by unseating 16-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Frank Pallone, chair

of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in the state’s Sixth Con­gressional District.

A New Brunswick native, al-Khatahtbeh studied political science and the Middle East­ at Rutgers University in the district.

Cardinal George Pell, who was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted in late 2018 of the sexual assault of an underage choirboy in the late 1990s, was re­leased April 7 in Australia and all charges were dropped.

Pell was the highest-ranking Catholic leader ever to be convicted of crimes relating to the sexual abuse of minors.

The High Court of Australia, comparable to the Supreme Court of the United States, voted 7–0 to release the cardinal immediately.

Kirbyjon Cald­well, the former senior pastor of Hou­ston’s Wind­sor Village United Meth­odist Church—the de­nomination’s largest in membership—surrendered his clergy credentials weeks before pleading guilty on March 11 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Yet, as he awaits sentencing this summer in federal court, Caldwell remains on staff at Windsor Village and is taking the pulpit there occasionally as a lay preacher. Caldwell is scheduled to be sentenced on July 22 and faces five to seven years in prison.

Joseph E. Lowery, a veteran civil rights leader who helped Martin Luther King Jr. found the Southern Christian Leader­ship Conference, died on March 28. He was 98.

A charismatic and fiery preacher, Lowery led the SCLC for two decades—restoring the organization’s financial stability and pressuring businesses not to trade with South Africa’s apartheid-era regime—before retiring in 1997.

In a unanimous vote, the Religion News Foundation’s board of directors has appointed marketing executive Deborah Caldwell as its CEO. In her new position, Caldwell will also be the publisher of Religion News Service. She has served as interim publisher of RNS since Decem­ber, following the abrupt departure of Tom Gallagher that same month.

Before her career in marketing, Cald­well was a media executive and a journalist. She covered religion for two local papers and cofounded Beliefnet.com. She won multiple awards as a reporter, including a National Magazine Award.

Roland Fernandes has been tapped as the next general secretary of Global Min­istries, the United Methodist Church’s worldwide mission agency. He will re­place Thomas Kem­per, who, after a decade of leading the organization, chose not to stand for reelection.

Fernandes, a layperson, has been with the organization since 1995, serving in various capacities, including interim general secretary. Since 2003, Fernandes has been the chief operating officer and chief financial officer.