Thursday’s News & Ideas - 2/19/2026
- Photos of Ash Wednesday
- Refugee communities
- Talking to youth about activism
- Difficulty in NY diocese
- History of ecumenism
- Michael Heizer
Photo gallery: Christians mark Ash Wednesday, beginning the Lenten Season
The Associated Press: Christians around the world mark Ash Wednesday as the solemn beginning of Lent, a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and reflection leading to Good Friday and Easter.
Refugees disappeared. Churches prayed and lawyered up.*
Christianity Today: Christians who fled violence in Myanmar were largely Trump supporters. Then ICE started arresting their fellow churchgoers.
How should Muslims talk to their youth about the risks of activism?
Religion News Service: In households where religious practice is linked with standing against injustice, how do parents guide children engaged in various forms of activism?
From declining finances to clergy polarization: Inside Hicks’ inherited NYC challenges
National Catholic Reporter: Decades after the eruption of the nation’s clergy sexual abuse scandal, the country’s most prominent Catholic archdiocese remains locked in an effort to compensate victims while sustaining a pastoral system strained by rising costs, shrinking trust and internal clergy polarization.
When ecumenism foments hate*
The Christian Century: Udi Greenberg’s history of the ecumenical movement locates the errors — such as colonialism — that underlaid the project from the start.
The Spark
Michael Heizer measures his art in miles and tons
It took the artist half a century of toil in the most remote parts of Nevada to build what may be the most extreme contemporary monument* ever made, The New York Times says.
*access is limited for nonsubscribers
