News

In this issue of A Public Witness, we review the significance of Christian Nationalism in what occurred on Jan. 6, and then we offer a word of warning about what is missed when this piece of the puzzle is left out.

After fleeing violence in their Guatemalan town, but with their way to relatives in California blocked by continuing U.S. asylum restrictions, a family of 15 joined an Advent candlelight ceremony organized by their shelter just south of the border.

Tucked away in the hills north of Beirut below a Maronite monastery, Lebanon’s only remaining Christian-majority Palestinian camp gives few outward clues to its identity.

Agape Boarding School’s longtime director won a court order Wednesday keeping his name off Missouri’s central registry for child abuse and neglect. The state has been trying to shut the school down over mounting allegations from former students that staff physically, psychologically, and sexually abused them.

Churches have joined in Germany’s efforts to save on heating costs this winter, forcing their congregations into ever more layers of clothing. But at the same time, they are providing warm spaces for the homeless and for people who are struggling to pay their bills.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews "Unruly Saint: Dorothy Day's Radical Vision and its Challenge for Our Times" by D.L. Mayfield. This book recognizes a degree of saintliness about Day's life but fears she might get domesticated by a church that might use her memory in ways that do not reflect who she was.

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.

The fifth meeting of Phase III of the international dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance and the Catholic Church took place Dec. 12-16, 2022, in Rome, Italy, hosted by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

Yale Divinity School is launching a new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, an advocacy-focused body to be led by pastor Rev. William Barber II. Barber has emerged as a prominent activist over the past decade, launching several major protest movements that have attracted attention from liberal leaders.

Christmas is normally peak season for tourism in Bethlehem, located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank just a few miles southeast of Jerusalem. In pre-pandemic times, thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world came to celebrate.