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Churches called to be bold and flexible in immigration ministries. Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on immigration is pushing faith-based groups to be more bold, flexible, and creative in their ministries to immigrants, a panel of experts said during a webinar hosted by the American Baptist Home Mission Societies. (Baptist News Global)

Dismantling DEI is about making America white again, Lewis warns. Donald Trump’s prohibition of government diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives has nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with subduing marginalized communities, pastor, activist, and author Jacqui Lewis said during a recent episode of “The State of Belief” podcast. (Baptist News Global)

Latino Christian National Network plans next steps to help immigrants after lawsuit. Less than a week after joining a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s reversal of a policy limiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at houses of worship, leaders of the Latino Christian National Network gathered from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18 outside Washington, D.C., in suburban Maryland to plan their next steps. (RNS)

33 Christian Reformed ministers take oath to a rival denomination as church split deepens. Thirty-three ministers of the Christian Reformed Church in North America are ordained in the Reformed Church in America, Feb. 18, 2025, during a ceremony at The Community Church in Ada, Mich. The pastors are all leaving the Christian Reformed Church because of its new strictures on LGBTQ participation. (RNS)

Faith-based groups challenge Trump orders in two court cases. More than two dozen religious groups pushed back on President Donald Trump’s actions and executive orders, filing two lawsuits a day apart challenging the president’s attempt to effectively freeze the federal refugee resettlement program and defending a rule that prevents immigration law enforcement agencies from raiding houses of worship and other sensitive locations. (The Christian Century)

In Trump’s cuts to aid and refugees, a clash over Christian values. Over only a few weeks, President Trump has frozen foreign aid, tried to place thousands of USAID workers on administrative leave and pushed ahead with his mass deportation plans. Elon Musk bragged he was “feeding USAID into the wood chipper” and claimed without evidence that it was a “criminal organization.” The sudden upheaval has left faith-based humanitarian groups with gaping funding deficits, hastily shuttered programs, and unfolding layoffs. (The New York Times; paywalled)      

Germans head to the polls as Evangelicals pray for stability. Elections in Germany are typically pretty quiet, according to Assemblies of God pastor Timothy Carentz. Germans are wary of extremism, concerned about propriety, and committed to a principle of political privacy or “electoral secrecy,” which is enshrined in the German constitution. But this year, following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition in November, things have been more heated. (Christianity Today)

Why are so many Catholic dioceses filing for bankruptcy? Across the U.S., 40 dioceses and religious orders have declared bankruptcy. The first was the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, in 2004. The most recent was the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, in late September 2024. The cases vary, but they have one thing in common: The day the diocese filed its petition for bankruptcy is a new benchmark — no one is allowed to file claims against the church for abuses that happened before that date, even if a given state retroactively extends the statute of limitations. (Sojourners)

WCC stands in solidarity with the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem. The World Council of Churches (WCC) stands in solidarity with the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem in the face of an unjust foreclosure order issued by the Municipality of Jerusalem, said Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, WCC general secretary. (World Council of Churches)

Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs, Vatican says. Vatican says Francis’s respiratory infection also involves asthmatic bronchitis but that he remains “in good spirits.” (Al Jazeera)