Following an eight-month delay, on March 30 the US Senate unanimously confirmed noted antisemitism scholar Deborah Lipstadt to be the State Department’s special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the nomination one day earlier, with only two Republican senators, Mitt Romney from Utah and Marco Rubio from Florida, voting in favor.
Influential preacher and hymn writer Thomas Troeger died from complications related to cancer on April 3. He was 77.
According to Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, hymns composed by Troeger appear in the hymnals of most denominations.
Troeger also wrote 24 books on preaching, poetry, hymnody, and worship during his career, which began at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1977.
Jean-Jacques Bauswein, one of the founders of the news service Ecumenical News International, died on March 30. He was 78.
Bauswein, a Lutheran pastor born in Strasbourg, France, was dedicated to both ecumenism and communications throughout his career. From 1972 to 1981, he served as the French and German press officer for the World Council of Churches. For 15 years, he led the John Knox International Reform Center in Geneva, Switzerland—a hostel and meeting space for religious and humanitarian organizations around the world.
Religious historian and Muslim womanist Debra Majeed died on March 20 from complications following surgery. She was 68.
Before becoming a full-time scholar, Majeed served as a United Methodist minister. She converted to Islam in 1998 while researching the appeal of Islam to Black Americans in Chicago as part of a joint doctorate program at Northwestern University and Garrett-Evangelical Seminary.
She would later say that she came to embrace Islam because of the “pious, charitable, loving Muslim women and men” whom she met during her research.
Gospel singer LaShun Pace died March 21 at age 60. Her family told local news outlets in Atlanta that the singer had been on renal dialysis for five years and died of organ failure.
Pace began her music career in the 1970s, first as a solo artist and then with her eight sisters in the Grammy-nominated group the Anointed Pace Sisters, commonly known as the Pace Sisters.
Clifton Daniel III, dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, has announced his resignation, effective June 30, after five years of leadership.
According to his resignation letter, Daniel’s appointment was always intended to be time-limited. Daniel was named dean of the cathedral in 2018 after serving as the interim dean for more than a year.
Peter Mageto has been elected vice chancellor of Africa University, the Pan-African, United Methodist–affiliated school in Zimbabwe. A Kenyan, Mageto will be the first non-Zimbabwean to lead the university.
Mageto, who was selected from among 63 applicants, has 12 years of university management experience. His previous experience includes positions at the University of Kigali in Rwanda, Daystar University in Kenya, and Kenya Methodist University.