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A pastor who had been locked out of the church she was appointed to lead in June preached for the first time from its pulpit on October 31. The lockout was allegedly due to her gender.

“God is still worthy to be praised,” preached Ratona Stokes-Robinson, pastor of St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Thorofare, New Jersey, just south of Philadelphia. “And for the rest of my life I promise, no matter what I go through, I come to serve the Lord.”

Thema Bryant-Davis, an ordained elder in the African Methodist Epis­co­pal Church, has been elected as the 2023 president of the American Psy­cho­logical Associa­tion. Bryant-Davis currently directs the Culture and Trauma Research Lab at Pepperdine University, along with the mental health ministry at First AME Church in South Los Angeles.