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Increasing numbers of Black Ameri­can mosques are closing, while the overall number of mosques in the United States continues to grow, according to a new report.

The American Mosque 2020: Growing and Evolving, released June 2, shows key changes in Muslim demographics as they relate to places of worship. The report, jointly published by the Islamic Society of North America, the Center on Muslim Philanthropy, and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, was written by Ihsan Bagby, who produced similar survey reports in 2001 and 2010.

In May, tensions over the evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem boiled over into 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas. Before agreeing to a May 21 cease fire, Hamas fired rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli cities, while Israel launched air strikes that leveled buildings in Gaza. Those attacks, along with clashes in Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police, reportedly left at least 260 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead and hundreds more injured.

There are usually lots of cheers and applause at university commencements.

But 2020 and 2021 graduates of Wilberforce University, a school affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, had an extra reason to celebrate during their May 29 ceremony in Wilberforce, Ohio.

University president Elfred Anthony Pinkard announced that any debts graduates still owed to the historically Black university had been forgiven.

Jay Williams says he never feels more connected to the earth and to God than when he’s “surrounded by a million venomous insects.”

While Williams’s statement may surprise some people, he and other United Methodist apiarists—or beekeepers—say delving into the complex world of bees has deepened their faith.

Five months after allegations of past sexual abuse first were made against him, the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago has concluded there is “insufficient reason to suspect” Michael Pfleger is guilty of the allegations.

The result of the investigation by an independent review board was announced May 24 in a letter from Cardinal Blase Cupich to the church Pfleger has led for years, the Faith Community of St. Sabina.

The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago has postponed the consecration and ordination of Paula E. Clark, both the first African American and the first woman elected to lead the diocese, after Clark suffered a brain bleed in April.

Clark was elected bishop in Decem­ber and scheduled to be consecrated on April 24. Her consecration has been pushed back to August 28, Pre­siding Bishop Michael Curry an­nounced in a May 21 video message to the Diocese of Chicago.

The delay will allow Clark to assume her role as bishop in “the healthiest and most wholesome way,” Curry said.

Temitope Balogun Joshua, one of Africa’s most popular televangelists, died on June 5. He was 57.

The Nigerian-born pastor, known as T. B. Joshua, was founder of the mega­church Synagogue, Church of All Na­tions, which also runs the Emmanuel TV station in Lagos.

No cause of death was given.

“God has taken His servant Prophet T. B. Joshua home—as it should be by divine will,” SCOAN said in a statement, adding that “his last moments on earth were spent in the service of God. This is what he was born for, lived for and died for.”

(Photo courtesy of the United Methodist Council of Bishops)

After a two-year prison sentence, Amber Bjornsson moved into a recovery home. She took a minimum wage job at a restaurant within walking distance of her transitional housing. But she still faced the substantial court fines she’d accumulated prior to her prison term.

“Everything in front of me was burnt by kerosene, and I had to get across it,” Bjornsson said. “I had $7,000 of fines to pay off, and I worked at a pizza place. How am I supposed to pay those off? I needed help.”

Help came in the form of a coach from Jobs and Hope West Virginia.

Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first woman to be elected as a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, will retire from active ministry at the AME general conference in July. She currently leads the AME’s tenth district, which encompasses the entire state of Texas.

The AME denomination retires all bishops at the general conference closest to their 75th birthday. (The general conference takes place every four years.) McKenzie was scheduled to retire in 2020, but the general conference was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.