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Willem T. P. Simarmata, Indonesian politician and moderator of the Christian Conference of Asia, died June 17 at the age of 68.

Simarmata, widely seen as one of the most influential leaders of the Asian ecumenical movement, also served as head of Indonesia’s largest non-Catholic denomination, the Batak Christian Protestant Church, from 2012 to 2016.

In a statement, Mathews George Chuna­kara, general secretary of the Chris­tian Conference of Asia, called Simar­mata’s death a great loss to the Asian ecumenical movement.

Gloria Foster wasn’t ready for hospice, even though, with a prognosis of less than six months to live, she qualified for it. She was debilitated by diabetes and congestive heart failure and was living with both a pacemaker and a device to help pump blood from her heart to the rest of her body.

Foster didn’t want to enter hospice if, as is normally required by Medicare, she would have had to forgo treatments that might, against all odds, reverse the course of her disease.

About half of Jewish households in Los Angeles include an immigrant to the United States or someone whose parent is an immigrant, according to a new demographic report released by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. These Jewish immigrants to the Golden State come from a range of countries, including Russia, Israel, Iran, Europe, and across Latin America.

“LA has always been, as West Coast Judaism has been, more diverse than Jewish life on the East Coast,” said Noah Farkas, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

Black students at Columbia Theo­logical Seminary, a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminary in Decatur, Georgia, are protesting the surprise firing of a beloved admissions director, saying it’s the latest in a series of firings of faculty and administration of color since 2019.

On June 21, after most faculty, staff, and students had left campus for the summer, the Columbia community received an email from President Leanne Van Dyk informing them that it was Samuel White’s last day.

After the deaths of 53 migrants in San Antonio, United Methodists in Texas and Mexico are responding with lament, prayer, and renewed efforts to follow Jesus’ command to welcome the stranger.

“We grieve their loss and will continue to work for justice through our United Methodist connection,” Bishop Robert Schnase, whose area includes San Antonio, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, as Republicans and Democrats clashed over Christian nationalism, religious exemption requests, and access to communion, the Supreme Court showed that it’s still possible to tame the partisan tensions suffusing religious freedom debates. Its rulings in the term’s first two religion cases were unanimous or nearly so, and each featured a shared vision of what the country owes to people of faith, including those on death row.