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Jean-Jacques Baus­wein, one of the founders of the news service Ecumenical News International, died on March 30. He was 78.

Bauswein, a Lu­th­eran pastor born in Strasbourg, France, was dedicated to both ecumenism and communications throughout his career. From 1972 to 1981, he served as the French and German press officer for the World Council of Churches. For 15 years, he led the John Knox International Reform Center in Geneva, Switzerland—a hostel and meeting space for religious and humanitarian organizations around the world.

Influential preacher and hymn writer Thomas Troeger died from complications related to cancer on April 3. He was 77.

According to Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, hymns composed by Troeger appear in the hymnals of most denominations.

Troeger also wrote 24 books on preaching, poetry, hymnody, and worship during his career, which be­­­­gan at Colgate Ro­­­­chester Divinity School in 1977.

Following an eight-month delay, on March 30 the US Senate unanimously confirmed noted antisemitism scholar Deborah Lipstadt to be the State Department’s special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the nomination one day earlier, with only two Re­publican senators, Mitt Romney from Utah and Marco Rubio from Florida, voting in favor.

According to the Talmud, the first instructions on how Jews should celebrate the holiday of Purim were set down by one of its founders: Queen Esther, who with her cousin Mordechai helped save the Jews in Persia from the evil Haman. In writing her book on Purim, Esther became one of two women, with Jezebel, whose writing is recorded in the Bible.

Henry Masters has a thing for Simon of Cyrene.

Nearly two decades ago, Masters wrote and published a book about the African man summoned from the crowd to carry Jesus’ cross to Calvary. Now, at age 76 and retired as a United Methodist pastor, Masters is producing his own full-length musical about Simon.

Others might write Simon off as a bit-part biblical character. Masters finds him fascinating—and highly relevant in a 21st-century America still struggling with race and racism.

The 90-year-old Southeast Tabernacle Baptist Church has been a spiritual refuge in Ward Eight in Washington, DC, for decades. Ward Eight’s struggles include some of the highest rates of poverty and teenage pregnancy in the city,  according to pastor Donald Isaac.

“We have a very challenging community,” Isaac said. “We have been fortunate enough to own an entire block, and we have now undergone a process to develop a project we call the First Street Village.”

The words “Jesus Lives” are emblazoned across a dilapidated, unoccupied structure in Orange County. The building’s windows are boarded up. Varying shades of white and unmatched paint cover graffiti and highlight cracks in the property’s exterior.

This is the historic Wintersburg Japanese Presbyterian Church which sits on a 4.5-acre landscape that, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is among the only surviving Japanese American properties acquired before California enacted the Alien Land Law in 1913, which barred Asian immigrants from owning land.

After Cara Quinn became a Christian in her early 20s, she began wondering where all the women were.

It’s not that they were missing from the pews. Women generally outnumber men when it comes to church attendance. But they were never in the pulpit. And Quinn wasn’t sure where to find them in the Bible, either. They didn’t really come up in any of the other male-centric resources she read as she dove into her new faith.

Peter Mageto has been elected vice chancellor of Africa University, the Pan-African, United Methodist–affiliated school in Zimbabwe. A Kenyan, Mageto will be the first non-Zimbabwean to lead the university.

Mageto, who was selected from among 63 applicants, has 12 years of university management experience. His previous experience includes positions at the University of Kigali in Rwanda, Daystar University in Kenya, and Kenya Methodist University.

Clifton Daniel III, dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, has an­nounced his resignation, effective June 30, after five years of leadership.

According to his resignation letter, Dan­iel’s appointment was always intended to be time-limited. Daniel was named dean of the cathedral in 2018 after serving as the interim dean for more than a year.