%1

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.

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.

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.

Two hotels near the airport in Oakland, California, are receiving unusual guests now that coronavirus has eviscerated tourism: people who are homeless after being released from jail.

It’s part of an experiment to provide government-paid hotel rooms to people who are homeless, including those released from jail under emergency orders, in an effort to limit the spread of the virus both behind bars and in this state’s sprawling homeless encampments. California and New York appear to be the first states trying it.

For weeks, churches have been rushing to use the internet in new ways, live streaming and video conferencing to keep the faithful together for weekend worship.

But when some political and health officials said coronavirus-related social distancing rules applied to religious gatherings, at least a handful of churches across the country intentionally decided not to worship online on recent Sundays.

Liberty Baptist Church in Missouri is one of them.

On March 14, six days before New York governor Andrew Cuomo implemented a shelter-in-place order for the state, effectively shutting down all nonessential services, Reagan Reed was notified that 50 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings had been canceled across New York City’s metropolitan area. As executive director of the Inter-Group Association of AA of New York (NYIG), an umbrella organization for the area’s 6,000 AA chapters across the five boroughs and surrounding counties, it was her job to update the website’s event page.

National Christian groups are urging larger and more stable churches to financially help small churches that could potentially close in their communities due to a steep decline in offerings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Through the Churches Helping Churches Initiative, a relief fund has been set up to provide $3,000 grants to churches at risk of closing this spring due to a decrease in financial giving. The initiative is led by the AND Campaign, with support from other organizations like the National Latino Evangelical Co­alition and the Pinetops Foundation.

With their eyes closed in prayer, asking God to help the country’s overburdened health-care workers, members of the Impact Movement ministry group never saw the attack coming.

“God is dead, God is dead,” they suddenly heard a young male voice say in their Zoom video conference. Then other voices joined in, laughing and chanting: “N****r, n****r, n****r.”

When members of the national black Christian campus ministry group opened their eyes at the unexpected voices and words, the screen was showing footage of the New Zealand mosque shooting.

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.

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.