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For students hoping to become pastors in the Presbyterian Church (USA), the exegesis exam is already stressful.

The dayslong exam—which requires students to answer multiple essay questions about a single passage of Scripture, looking at its original context, reviewing commentaries on the passage, and then interpreting it for a modern pastoral context—is one of the last things standing between them and ordination.

Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man fatally beaten by police officers after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, was mourned on February 1, the first day of Black History Month, in a funeral that featured messages of faith from Vice President Kamala Harris and Al Sharpton.

The service at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis mixed prayers with promises to work toward change to prevent future violence against Black people at the hands of police.

Pauli Murray, the first African American woman to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church and a pioneer in the struggles for racial and gender equality, will be featured on US quarters in 2024, the US Mint announced on February 1.