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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.

Conservative synagogues can now officially accept non-Jews as members

Although some Conservative synagogues have already welcomed non-Jews as members, the body that governs America’s second-largest stream of Judaism has now officially sanctioned the practice.

The 94-8 vote of the general assembly of the United Synagogue of Conserva­tive Judaism, the umbrella group for the movement, allows individual congregations to decide whether they will extend membership to non-Jews.

Nonprofit offers Talmud in English online for free

For some, the notion of delving into the Talmud in English for free with the click of a mouse was something they could only dream of. Now that dream is becoming a reality.

Sefaria, a nonprofit organization devoted to Jewish text learning, recently announced it had uploaded 22 tractates of the renowned Steinsaltz English-language edition of the Babylonian Talmud and will post the remainder as they are translated and annotated.

Egyptian Copts finally fulfilling dream of being pilgrims in Jerusalem

For decades, Refaat El-Sayeh, a Coptic Christian merchant in el-Kosheh, Egypt, had wanted to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and visit the Church of the Nativity in nearby Beth­lehem. He wanted to feel closer to God.

But for years those pilgrimages were discouraged for Egypt’s Coptic Christians.

“To visit Jerusalem and the holy places was always my wish,” El-Sayeh said. “You feel the hand of God. This is the lifelong dream of every Christian in el-Kosheh.”

Turkey’s president builds an Islamic nationalism while amassing power

(The Christian Science Monitor) The builder-handyman and his fiancée, a cleaner, work for a small Istanbul company that has been going through tough times.

Harun Demir and Seniz Kaya could not look less religious, or less political. Yet they are the face of a new politics in Turkey, a staunchly held view of Islamic nationalism deliberately and painstakingly shaped by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

Sanctuary churches, cities may face legal consequences

Pilgrim–St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in Buffalo, New York, consulted lawyers before deciding to join the sanctuary movement and offer shelter to undocumented people. When it came time for the vote in the congregation of about 110 people, it was unanimous.

“No one blinked,” said Justo Gonza­lez II, the church’s pastor.

The legality of congregations housing undocumented people to keep them from immigration authorities is unclear.

Dutch election highlights divisions about religion and immigration

Dutch Muslims are breathing a sigh of relief after the worse-than-expected performance by anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders in the mid-March election.

“We have trust in the future” of this traditionally welcoming country, said Rasit Bal of the Muslim government contact organization, an advocacy group for Muslims in the Netherlands, which feared that a victory by Wilders’s PVV party would strengthen anti-immigrant sentiment in the Netherlands.