Monday's News & Ideas - 1/4/2021

Religious leaders worldwide, across faiths who died in 2020
Associated Press: Faith leaders who died in 2020, admired worldwide and locally.

Rear Adm. Margaret Grun Kibben named as first woman to serve as House chaplain
Religion News Service: A Presbyterian minister and longtime chaplain will be the first woman to serve as House chaplain.

500 years after Martin Luther’s excommunication: A chance for ecumenical Christianity
DW: The first major schism of the Catholic Church was made official in 1521. The pope excommunicated the initiator of the Reformation, Martin Luther. The monk had referred to the pontiff as the “Antichrist.”

Faith and spirituality in the time of Covid
BBC: Just as the anxieties of 2020 have led many to search for greater meaning in their lives, the pandemic has made it easier for people to explore their spirituality, with the move to online religious worship.

Turnover rate rising for Christian college presidents
Christianity Today: Replacements focus on new recruitment strategies and sustainability.

The Spark

How to remember a plague
2020 was full of efforts to archive photos and artifacts of the pandemic -- an impulse born of a sense of witnessing history, and a desire to speak to the future, CityLab says.

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