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Rev. Adam Hamilton has a national following among mainline Protestants, and he’s built his Church of the Resurrection over the past 35 years in the Kansas City area with about 22,000 members.

Amar Peterman’s new book makes the case that how we interact with our neighbors forms who we are as Christians. It contains wisdom for scholars, pastors, and lay Christians working to remain steadfast to the hope they profess.

This week’s Summit for Religious Freedom, organized by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, struck a tone of joyful resistance.

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Church

The letter’s signers say they were prompted to speak out because of the damage the Trump administration’s immigration policies have done to Latino communities.

More than 850 Episcopal Church leaders gathered in Charlotte to talk about the future of the church and what the denomination still has to offer.

'We're going to sing and sing and try to touch the hearts of the ICE agents,' said the Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, senior pastor at Middle Church in New York.

Nation

The state of Colorado said that faith-based schools are welcome to participate, but they must comply with nondiscrimination laws.

The bill is now heading to the Senate, and President Donald Trump announced he would veto it if it reached his desk.

A new Kansas law will allow college students to sue their schools for free-speech violations. In Tennessee, a new law will encourage teachers and professors to include ‘the positive impacts of religion’ in American history courses.

World

The worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the U.S., has no formal head, but the archbishop traditionally has been seen as its spiritual leader.

This issue of A Public Witness highlights important voices of opposition to imperial plotting from a variety of religious groups, ranging from Lutherans to Baptists, Anglicans, Catholics, and others.

Historic Christian churches representing the predominantly Arab Christian community and mostly U.S. evangelicals who support Israel are at odds with each other.

Editorials

Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on Speaker Mike Johnson working to cover up a House Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to serve as U.S. attorney general.

While messengers to last week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention debated how to treat churches with women in pastoral roles, Baptist Women in Ministry showed up to offer a counter witness.

The thinning of the UMC’s conservative ranks makes this week’s conference a perfect time to address the issue.

Word&Way Voices

It seems if we are to have an honest conversation about persecution against Christians, we should first and foremost consider the migrant who is our neighbor, who is made in God’s image, and who needs our collective voice and support right now.

As Christmas nears, may we continue to not run away from seeing the injustices in our communities. But hold that in tension with the joy that we should all be feeling as we anticipate Jesus’s birth.

To launch our week reflecting on Advent in a time of soldiers in the streets, Rev. Jorge Bautista writes about getting shot in the face with a pepper round by a U.S. immigration agent while at a peaceful prayer vigil in Oakland, California.

E-Newsletter

This issue of A Public Witness heads down to Georgia to consider the devil in the details of the race to determine who will be the next Republican nominee for governor.

This issue of A Public Witness considers the danger of letting government outlaw a religion and the warnings about who could be next on the target list after Muslims.

While organizers claim the government-run church services are for everyone, the March event particularly demonstrated that this was a program crafted by and intended for Catholics.

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Recent Episodes

Books

In this eyewitness account, Valentyn Syniy recounts how the Russian invasion of Ukraine upended life for students, teachers, and staff in a seminary community.

Two recent books, each co-authored by two pastors, offer insight to church leaders who feel stuck and congregations struggling to muster hope in a time where maintaining a successful religious community is more difficult than ever.

Through honest storytelling, spiritual reflection, and practical wisdom gained from a pilgrimage journey, Andy and Kara Root offer parents and pastors a refreshing alternative to the exhausting cycle of trying to control outcomes.

Leading Qur'anic scholar Gabriel Said Reynolds presents a revisionary account of how Islam emerged in dialogue with Christian traditions, challenging the dominant narrative that it came out of a predominantly pagan context.