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Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life congre­gation has chosen internationally re­nowned architect Daniel Libeskind to design a new building for the site where 11 Jews were gunned down nearly three years ago in the deadliest antisemitic attack in Ameri­can history.

Libeskind was the unanimous choice of the steering committee as well as of Tree of Life’s board of trustees, and for reasons beyond his architectural qualifications: Libeskind was born to Holocaust survivors living in a homeless shelter in Lodz, Poland, after the war.

Womanist theologian Chanequa Walker-Barnes has joined the faculty of Columbia Theo­logical Seminary as professor of practical theology and pastoral counseling.

In a statement, Millie Snyder, one of the seminary’s board of trustees, said Walker-Barnes’s ex­pertise will help equip seminarians for the work of reconciliation in both the church and the world.

“Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes has woven together the best scholarship in clinical psychology with an incarnational faith grounded in justice and faith,” she said.

India’s large diaspora—long a boon to India’s economy—is tapping its wealth, political clout, and expertise to help its home country combat the catastrophic coronavirus surge that has left people to die outside overwhelmed hospitals.

Around the world, people of Indian descent are donating money, setting up telehealth consultations and information sessions, and personally delivering desperately needed oxygen equipment in hopes of beating back the outbreak.

When the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops holds its next national meeting in mid-June, the bishops will be deciding whether to send a tougher-than-ever message to President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians: don’t receive communion if you persist in public advocacy of abortion rights.

Jeff Weddle, a wisecracking, self-deprecating, Bible-loving, self-described “failing pastor” from Wisconsin, was already thinking of leaving the ministry before COVID and the 2020 election.

After two decades as a pastor, he was, as he put it, fed up with church life.

Then feuds about politics and the pandemic put him over the edge. People at church seemed more interested in the

latest social media dustup and online conspira­cy theories—one church member called him the Antichrist for his views on COVID—than in learning about the Bible.

Happy Cleaners, an independent film set in the diverse Flushing neighborhood in Queens, New York, is about a Korean American family that owns a struggling dry-cleaning business. It’s an attempt by filmmakers Julian Kim and Peter Lee, both United Methodists, to confront some of the assumptions often made about their community.

Even before the ribbon was cut to officially open Trinity Haven—Indiana’s first residential facility for LGBTQ youth and young adults who are at risk of homelessness—on April 30, two people were living in the house.

“As soon as we announced our opening date, young people began contacting Trinity Haven,” said Leigh Ann Hirsch­man, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Indianapolis and the founding president of Trinity Haven’s board of directors. They knew they would be imminently homeless, she continued, making the real need for such a shelter all the more obvious.

Veteran broadcast journalist Bob Abernethy, who founded the PBS program Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly, has died at the age of 93.

He died on May 2 in Brunswick, Maine, his daughter Jane Montgomery Abernethy announced in a Facebook post. She said her father died of natural causes.

Abernethy was a correspondent for NBC News for more than four decades. Working in Washington, Los Angeles, London, and Moscow, he covered the fledgling US space program, Congress, and the Soviet Union’s collapse.

Faith leaders in Minnesota and across the United States ex­pressed hope that their advocacy work for racial justice will gain momentum from the guilty verdict rendered against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of killing George Floyd.

In the wake of the FedEx shooting in Indianapolis that left eight people dead, including four members of the Sikh community, the Sikh Coalition wants President Joe Biden’s administration to enact policies to address “long-standing challenges” impacting Sikh Americans.

To begin doing so, the advocacy group said the Biden administration should appoint a Sikh American liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement to ensure a “wide range of the community’s voices are heard and acted upon.”