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By the end of the Beijing Olympic Games, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, Germany, had sent out 237,400 black silicon Olympic bracelets to protest the human rights record of the Chinese government.

The church raised about 50,000 euros ($74,000), donated by those who received the bracelets in Europe and as far afield as India.

Bishop Margot Kässmann of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, who launched the campaign, will hand over the contributions to the Asian Human Rights Commission, based in Hong Kong.

A New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt University Divinity School has been nominated to become senior minister of New York’s Riverside Church, one of the nation’s most prestigious pulpits. Brad R. Braxton would succeed James A. Forbes, who served at Riverside 18 years until his retirement last year. The multiracial, interdenominational congregation near Columbia University will vote on the nomination September 14.