Lydia established the beginnings of a church at her home, offering her hospitality and welcome to other new believers. Whereas we might expect leadership to emerge only under certain conditions, the Spirit always empowers new leadership.

In my work on reparations in Evanston, the site of America’s first municipal reparations program, I have seen that telling the truth can be a pathway to healing the divisions that strike at the heart of our communities. The same is true on the global scale.

My ordinary dream is a radical dream for a trans woman. And since Pride is a celebration that makes space for radical dreams, it also creates space for the ordinary ones.

Each Friday in The Christian Citizen, we publish a Religion News Roundup with summaries of religion news stories and links for those who want to read more.

It’s not time to abandon spirituality in public life. It’s time to foster a fresh spirituality in public life. Turning outward points us back to those universal values that ought to ground us. And in doing so, it unlocks a new path forward to creating a truly shared society — one that works for all of us, not just some of us.