I often think of Jesus being among the outcasts of his day when I encounter Algren’s work, except this time it’s not in first-century Palestine but rather in the streets and alleys of the city I love dearly.

Let us never cease to remember our history and let us keep walking with peace and love. May we learn or re-learn to be relational and not transactional as we encounter others along our paths.

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.

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.