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January 26, 2022

Volume 139, Issue #2
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Features

First Person

Parenting on a planet in pain

How do I teach my children to care for an ailing world?

by Melissa Kuipers

Critical Essay

Whose Father in heaven?

In Matthew, the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for enemies.

by Charles Manto

A rural church, a small budget, and a giant community meal

Feeding bodies and souls at Everyone’s Table

by Kathryn Haueisen

Interviews

Seattle’s Interfaith Community Sanctuary includes Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus

“People from every religious tradition want to be of service to God’s creation in a genuine way.”

 Amy Frykholm interviews Jamal Rahman

First Person

Baptist and Buddhist

Stuck in the throes of a chaplain’s crisis, I leaned on the everlasting arms while consulting the ancient dharma.

by Tony Coleman

Desmond Tutu’s transformative vision

He thrived on the process of endearing himself to all who hope for better days.

by David Mesenbring

Books

Trauma and embodiment

Hillary McBride draws on psychology and theology to encourage us to befriend our bodies.

by Valerie Weaver-Zercher

Anya Silver’s heart-wrenchingly beautiful last poems

Saint Agnostica is a chronicle of grief, love, and mystery.

by Jill Peláez Baumgaertner

Stephanie Spellers’s bold, practical wisdom for American Christians

Kenosis, solidarity, and discipleship

by Herman Baxter Jr.

Departments

On Art

Praise, by Martin Wenham

For decades, British artist Martin Wenham has been honing and reinventing the art form of lettering in wood. Here he sets a line from the Benedicite, a canticle based on the song of the three young men in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3....

art selection and comment by Jonathan Homrighausen

Faith Matters

The witness of trees in uncertain times

There’s just one oak left at Mamre.

by Isaac S. Villegas

First Words

Is there an antidote to White grievance?

It’s hard to imagine this fear-driven resentment responding to outside counsel.

by Peter W. Marty

Screen Time

The power of The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s subversive new western

In her new movie, the filmmaker’s fascination with the myth of masculinity unfolds in 1920s Montana.

by Kathryn Reklis

From the Editors

The Biden administration’s offshore drilling bonanza is voluntary—and dangerous

It’s time for the president’s actions on fossil fuels to match his words.

News

UMC to pay $30 million in historic Boy Scout settlement

Negotiators for the United Methodist Church have reached a settlement for the denomination to pay $30 million as part of the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy reorganization plan....

by Sam Hodges

India blocks foreign funds for Mother Teresa’s charity

...

by Krutika Pathi

Christians divided on California’s ‘abortion sanctuary’ plans

As California aims to become a sanctuary for out-of-state patients seeking abortions, Kathleen Domingo, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, is calling on Catholics to recognize this as “our moment.”...

by Alejandra Molina

Undertakers, rabbis join global fight promoting COVID shots

A year after the COVID-19 vaccine became available, traditional public health campaigns promoting vaccination are often going unheeded. So an unconventional cadre of people has joined the effort....

by Lindsey Tanner

Vivaldi opera gets premiere in Ferrara nearly 300 years late

The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara made their peace with Antonio Vivaldi on December 30, 2021—nearly 300 years after the city’s archbishop effectively canceled the staging of one of his operas, sending the famed Baroque c...

by Nicole Winfield

People

Desmond Tutu dies at 90

Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize–winning icon, an uncompromising foe of apartheid, and a modern-day activist for racial justice and LGBTQ rights, died December 26, 2021, at 90 (see remembrance, p. 10)....

by Andrew Meldrum

People

Rashad Hussain confirmed as first Muslim US religious freedom ambassador

Rashad Hussain has been confirmed as the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, making him the first Muslim American in the role. Hussain was confirmed by the US Senate by an 85–5 vote....

by Adelle M. Banks

People

Fiji church leader dies after brief illness

Iliesa Naivalu, general secretary of the Methodist Church of Fiji, died on Decem­ber 17, 2021, at the Colonial War Memo­ri­al Hospital in Suva following a brief period of illness....

by Dawn Araujo-Hawkins

Lectionary

February 13, Epiphany 6C (Luke 6:17–26)

Luke’s Beatitudes call us to live in the tension of a cross-shaped life.

by Amy Ziettlow

February 6, Epiphany 5C (Luke 5:1–11)

The disciples focused on what they could control: the state of their nets.

by Amy Ziettlow

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