As summer draws to a close, we are also nearing the end of an extraordinary milestone – the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Summer.
In communities nationwide, places of worship join in the meaningful observance of Children’s Sabbaths. These observances occur during customary worship, prayer, educational, or community gatherings. Some places of worship collaborate with others, creating joint events. Others connect with numerous faith leaders and worship spaces for expansive, multi-faith community-wide celebrations.
The President and CEO of America’s largest child and youth advocacy organization said the Senate’s decision to vote against a bipartisan tax package, which included an expanded child tax credit, ‘failed our children.’
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced today the designation of Starsky D. Wilson, DMin, MDiv, as the next chair of its Board of Trustees. Rev. Dr. Wilson, who has served as a Trustee since 2020, will become the Foundation’s eighth chair, and the first Black person and faith leader to chair the Board in the Foundation’s 52-year history.
At a moment of so much uncertainty over where our nation is headed and what national unity really means, I return again to the wise words of my late friend Dr. Vincent Harding, the revered historian, theologian, social justice activist, and visionary who never lost sight of the “beloved community” his dear colleague Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed our nation and world could become.
As our nation continues to mourn Rev. Lawson’s own death last month, his words are resonating deeply again right now. Rev. Lawson was honoring “the conscience of Congress” during another perilous political moment, and wanted to tell us what he believed our nation needed to do in order to move forward.
In the midst of this season’s joyful graduation celebrations, one commencement ceremony stood out in a heartbreaking way because of the friends who were missing.