Ron Sider, an author, seminary professor and evangelical social justice activist, has died, according to an online update from his son.
“I have some bad news: my father Ron Sider died suddenly last night (July 27, 2022), of a cardiac arrest,” Ted Sider wrote in a post on his father’s Substack newsletter website. “Please join our family in grieving for him.”
Historian Elizabeth Miller has been selected to head the Institute for the Study of Global Anabaptism at Goshen College. Additionally, she will teach in the college’s history department and direct the Mennonite Historical Library.
Religious social ethicist AnneMarie Mingo will be the next head of the Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Mingo comes to the seminary from Penn State University, where she was most recently an assistant professor of African American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
In a statement, Asa Lee, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s president, praised Mingo: “She is not only an expert in . . . Christian social ethics, but she is also a prolific writer and researcher with a proven track record of engaging students in the classroom.”
Influential United Church of Christ leader Teruo Kawata died July 1. He was 94.
Kawata, a Japanese American whose family was interned in an Arizona relocation camp from 1942 to 1944, was instrumental in creating the UCC’s Pacific Islander and Asian American ministries. He was also the first person of Asian descent to hold the office of conference minister in the Central Pacific Conference and in the Hawaii Conference.
William Bergkamp has been named the interim chief executive officer of Friendship Press, which supports the National Council of Churches and publishes the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
Bergkamp comes to Friendship Press after nearly two decades at 1517 Media, the publishing arm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He most recently served as editor in chief of the organization’s Fortress Press imprint.
In a statement, Bergkamp said he was excited to bring his experience to Friendship Press.
Betty Hinshaw had always lived in cities when her husband decided, in 1956, that they should move to rural Northwest Arkansas. She made him promise there wouldn’t be snakes.
They saw one the first day as they drove the dusty road to their old farmhouse. It had a newly installed bathroom but no air conditioning. The nearest school was two rooms—not counting outhouses.
After 42 years, the mysterious Georgia Guidestones, often called America’s Stonehenge, are no longer casting a shadow in rural Elbert County, Georgia. Early on July 5, one of the six slabs of granite making up a primitive-looking monument was destroyed by what the Georgia Bureau of Investigation believes was an explosive.
The remaining stones were removed the next day after officials determined they were unstable.
At the 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), held from June 18 to July 9 at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, the following actions were taken:
Fossil fuel divestment
The 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church—postponed a year because of COVID-19—conducted what Presiding Bishop Michael Curry had referred to during the planning process as “matters essential for the governance and good order of the church.”
Among those essential actions, the bishops and deputies approved the first reading of a constitutional change to clearly define the Book of Common Prayer and continued the church’s commitment to reckoning with its history of racism.
Faith leaders from a wide range of traditions, including those whose houses of worship have been attacked, were at the White House on July 11 as members of Congress and other gun control advocates gathered for a White House celebration of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed into law June 25.
Mike McBride, the leader of Live Free USA, who has long sought political support to help the nation’s urban centers, hailed the signing as an opportunity to address gun violence deaths that do not always make national headlines.