Volunteers help evacuate people from a flooded neighborhood near Buffalo Bayou in Houston.
Michael Stravato/Polaris/Newscom
The most culturally diverse city in the nation has responded to the floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey by serving and sacrificing for others, writes a Houston church leader.
The Revs. Zac Koons (center) and David Peters lead veterans in prayer at an Episcopal Veterans Fellowship healing service. Photos by Brian Diggs
Drawing on ancient religious practices and the latest research on “moral injury,” the Episcopal Veterans Fellowship is building a community of healing and reconciliation for military veterans.
Participants in the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope walk through the N.C. city. The pilgrimage teaches about the pain, pride and suffering of the city's people. Photos courtesy of DurhamCares.
Going on a “pilgrimage of pain and hope” in your own city is a spiritual discipline with the power to transform your relationship with a place and its people, writes a pilgrimage participant and leader.
Bigstock / Vectortatu
Despite deep and irresolvable differences, Americans must find a way to live together, a Washington University law professor says in this interview. He calls for a ‘confident pluralism,’ bolstered in part by tolerance, humility and patience.
Participants in the FaithAction ID program get their photos taken for the identification card, which is available to anyone in the community, but is especially helpful for people who may not have access to government-issued identification. Photos courtesy of FaithAction International.
A faith-based organization in North Carolina issues its own identification card as a way to promote understanding, trust and cooperation.
The late Jocelyn Patterson, a member of Anathoth Community Garden & Farm. Photo courtesy of Anathoth Community Garden & Farm
The lonely death of a member of his community prompts the director of a community garden to reconsider the project’s mission.
Composite illustration / Nongkran_ch
Underneath and behind and inside everything is a deeper wisdom and reality, the heartbeat that keeps the whole world alive: We belong to God; we belong to each other. Let it pulse through you. Let it bring you back to life, says a Minnesota pastor in this sermon.
The Rev. Starsky Wilson, center, wearing stole, links arms with scholar and activist Cornel West as they participate in a direct action at the Thomas Eagleton Federal Court Building in downtown St. Louis on Aug. 10, 2015. Photo by Wiley Price/The St. Louis American
Part of the difficult witness for the privileged within the church is to renounce a bit of that privilege and work on behalf of the marginalized, says the co-chair of the Ferguson Commission.
Emile Nsengiyumva is a member of Westbury UMC, where he organized an African youth choir. Nsengiyumva has an entreprenerial spirit; he wants to create a comprehensive organization for African high schoolers in Houston. Photos by Mark Mulligan
Moise Mukanya, Nusura Mtendamema and Emile Nsengiyumva all experienced horrific violence in their home countries and in refugee camps before resettling in Houston. There they found a new home at Westbury UMC, where their presence has enriched the life of the congregation.
Bigstock/karelnoppe
If the recent violence in Baltimore is all you know of Sandtown, then you do not know Sandtown. There, God is present, active and alive, says the former pastor of New Song Community Church.