%1

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Canada’s Indigenous services minister has asked Pope Francis to issue a formal apology for the role the Catholic Church played in Canada’s residential school system after the remains of 215 children were located at what was once the country’s largest such school.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia said the remains of 215 children were confirmed in May at the school in Kamloops, British Columbia, with the help of ground-penetrating radar. So far none has been excavated.

Lenny Duncan, a queer, Black pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is joining Pacific Lutheran The­ological Sem­i­nary as a public theologian to help de­velop a two-year certification program.

In a statement to the Century, Dun­can said he was humbled by the opportunity to help prepare people “for a world beyond the institutional church.”

Russell Moore, the embattled South­ern Baptist ethicist and “never Trumper,” is resigning as president of his denom­ination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Moore will be joining the staff of Christianity Today as a public theologian.

In his new role, Moore will help launch a public theology project and serve as its leader, said Tim Dal­rymple, president and CEO of Chris­tianity Today. The project will host events and gatherings about public theology and publish content, including Moore’s writing and his Signposts podcast.