Archive
Sonic Fields of Protection in Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 Pandemic
In a piece for the Asia Research Institute, CRCC’s Nalika Gajaweera and fellow anthropologist Neena Mahadev examine how for Sinhala Buddhists, pirit recitations serve to channel Dharmic energies and intentions during the COVID-19 …
It’s Black History Month, But Do Black Families Feel Like Celebrating?
This interview was originally published in USC News. As a program manager for the USC’s Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement, the Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard combines her experience as a pastor and …
Sarah Byrne-Martelli: A Hospital Chaplain Finds Joyful Sorrow For COVID-19 Patients Facing Death
This radio documentary was produced by KALW’s The Spiritual Edge, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. To hear this and other profiles, subscribe to The Spiritual Edge podcast in your …
Heline Babiene Eweni: In Cameroon, A 24-Year-Old Youth Pastor Is Helping Hundreds Displaced By Conflict
This article was originally published by Religion Unplugged, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. KUMBA, Cameroon — At precisely 10 p.m. every day, she locks herself in the silence of …
Mindfulness in a time of Dis-ease: Breathing through Cancer, COVID & Climate Change
This article was originally published in Mindfully Speaking, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. My mind was racing. I couldn’t sleep despite the fatigue of the first trimester …
Sister Mary Catherine Redmond: Connection, Compassion and Care in a Bronx COVID-19 Ward
This article was originally published in Global Sisters Report, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. NEW YORK — In the first three months of the pandemic, Sr. Mary Catherine Redmond …
Rev. Anand Mathew: A Catholic Priest Takes on Interfaith Fight Against COVID-19 in India
This article was originally published in Religion News Service, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. VARANASI, India — Wearing a lilac tunic with a coarse cotton towel around his neck, …
Rachel Sumekh: The Young Jewish Woman Of Color Leading America’s Effort To End Hunger On College Campuses
This article was originally published in Religion Unplugged, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. I first met Rachel Sumekh in August 2019 on the ground floor of a glimmering high …
Critical Conversations: Public Transportation in a Pandemic
The USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement presents Phillip A. Washington, CEO of Metro, in conversation with the Murray Center’s Najuma Smith-Pollard and Frank Jackson, Jr. Find out how Washington has …
COVID-19 Proves To Be a Test of Faith for Believers, Churches and Communities
This USC News article was built off of a source alert “Spirituality in a Pandemic: A Test of Faith for Believers and Organizations.” The source alert has additional perspective from Najuma Smith-Pollard …
IBT: Loskota on Millennial Anxiety Amid the Pandemic
The ongoing pandemic has caused young people to lose hope. A survey of 2,000 youths, for example, found that 40 percent of 16- to 25-year-olds now feel that their goals for the …
Marie Stella Kouak: The Togolese Nun Caring for AIDS Patients Amid COVID-19
This article was originally published in The Guardian, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. Dapaong is a buzzing, multi-religious city, 13 miles south of Togo’s border with Burkina Faso and …
COVID-19: The Essential Problem with State-Faith Relations
This article was originally published in The Hill. A Los Angeles-area church is the latest to make national headlines by defying public health orders and gathering in-person as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. Grace …
Will Our Sense of Solidarity Fall Victim to the Pandemic?
I recently argued in a piece for Religion News Service that the pandemic is leading religious institutions and our moral perceptions through a process of creative destruction, one in which an increasing …
Faith, hope and creative destruction: religious responses to COVID-19
This article was originally published in Religion News Service, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. (RNS) — In France, a hip female rabbi has improbably developed a large interfaith …
RNS: France’s ‘hip’ female rabbi draws Muslims, Christians and Jews in a time of crisis
This article was originally published in Religion News Service, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. (RNS) — On Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m., tens of thousands of people throughout France …
RNS: In Togo, a Catholic nun fights COVID-19 for the sake of her AIDS patients
This article was originally published in Religion News Service, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. (RNS) — “Here, people won’t die from COVID-19 but mostly from its consequences,” said Sister …
RNS: India’s pioneering transgender activist defends gains in pandemic
This article was originally published in Religion News Service, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. KOLKATA, India (RNS) — Well past midnight one day in late June, Ranjita Sinha, a …
How Technology is Changing the Method and Message of Churches in the Pandemic Era
“I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith,” …
How Congregations Can Care for Their Financial Health During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted not only our physical health, but also our financial health. Stay-at-home orders, which have reduced the number of people infected by the illness, have affected organizations of …