Church

This issue of A Public Witness explores three examples of impactful denominational resolutions to show why it matters when Christians decide to speak with one voice. The model resolutions include two statements decrying the historic mistreatment of Indigenous peoples and a resolution about the war in Ukraine.

Middle Collegiate, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, is one of four Collegiate Churches of New York that sprung from a Reformed Church congregation in New Amsterdam founded in 1628, and they are considered the oldest continuous Protestant congregations in the Americas.

Nearly four years ago, the United Methodist Church approved an exit plan for churches wishing to break away from the global denomination over differing beliefs about sexuality, setting in motion what many believed would be a modern-day schism. Since then, a new analysis has found, it’s fallen well short of that.

This issue of A Public Witness takes you to church — twice — to listen to the evangelistic appeals of Mike Pence and Joe Biden on MLK's birthday at two significant Baptist congregations. Then the two messages are considered together to offer insights into the religious divide in American politics.

For years, Southern Baptist Convention leaders refused to listen to abuse survivors, ignoring their concerns and labeling them as enemies of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. One of the first steps toward changing was setting up a confidential hotline.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every congregation in the United States shut down, at least for a while. For some Americans, that was the push they needed to never come back to church.

Just as the sun was rising over the U.S. Capitol building on Friday morning, several prominent Christian leaders gathered across the street for a prayer vigil. This event marked the second anniversary of the insurrection that followed the electoral defeat of then-President Donald Trump.

This issue of A Public Witness will introduce you to the controversial career of Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò before looking at his role in a post-election crusade. Then it will consider the danger of the new call to fast and pray for the Jan. 6 defendants.

Historian and former denominational executive Lee Spitzer spent years researching for his new book Sympathy, Solidarity, and Silence: Three European Baptist Responses to the Holocaust. The book tells inspiring and disappointing stories of how Baptists in England, France, and Germany reacted to Hitler, the Holocaust, and the war’s refugees.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we want to share some of what we’ve learned from our Unsettling Advent series this year. We hope these insights will be meaningful in these last few days before we celebrate the birth of Jesus.