Church

A group of United Methodist bishops in Africa announced Thursday that it will no longer work with the Africa Initiative or the Wesleyan Covenant Association, accusing the groups of spreading misinformation. The bishops claim the Africa Initiative, which was formed in 2008 to give African clergy and laity a stronger voice in the global denomination, has “lost its original goal of helping The United Methodist Church in Africa.”

An arson investigation is under way after fire destroyed Victory Baptist Church, a historic church in South Los Angeles early Sunday, authorities said. The Los Angeles Times said Victory Baptist has played a major role in the spiritual and political history of South LA.

Elizabeth II of England, Britain’s longest-serving monarch and official head of the Church of England, died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at age 96. She came to the throne in 1952 and her two titles of Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England owe their existence to Reformation history.

As the COVID-19 pandemic stretched from that first spring into summer, researcher Eileen Campbell-Reed said, she realized its impact on ministry wasn’t going to be short-lived.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we take you to church to hear from Democratic gubernatorial nominees Charlie Crist in Florida, J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, and Stacey Abrams in Georgia. And then we consider the problems emerging from this campaign tactic. 

In this issue of A Public Witness, we introduce you to the man behind the microphone of the Todd Starnes Show before listening to his sermon Sunday. Then we offer a warning about risking the Church’s witness by elevating partisan voices like Starnes in pulpits.

The National Association of Evangelicals unveiled a sweeping report Monday on climate change, laying out what its authors call the “biblical basis” for environmental activism to help spur fellow evangelicals to address the planetary environmental crisis. But the authors admit persuading evangelicals is no small task, considering the religious group has historically been one of the demographics most resistant to action on the issue.

In his first presidential address as president of the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, Bishop Thomas Bickerton called on conservative groups encouraging churches to leave the denomination to stop the negative rhetoric. He accused the Global Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Covenant Association of winning new churches to their movement with fear.

Siddiqui lives in Atlanta and attends St. John’s Lutheran Church, but he grew up in New Jersey and was raised Muslim — like a “Christmas and Easter Muslim,” he joked. By the time he graduated college, he considered himself an atheist. Siddiqui said he doesn’t always get all the ELCA’s “in” jokes about hot dishes and Garrison Keillor but he hopes he’ll bring a different perspective that will be good to have at the table.

More than four decades after sexual abuse claims against a Catholic priest first made national headlines, spurring accusations, lawsuits, a series of newspaper investigations and billions in settlements, the DOJ is investigating a religious group’s handling of sexual crimes by clergy and church staff. This time, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is under investigation.