Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour of reflection.
In Texas, one of the United Methodist Church's largest and most prominent congregations has asked its members to vote on severing all ties with the denomination. It is a moment that speaks to the deepening fractures within mainline Protestantism, where questions of theology and belonging have grown too heavy to hold together quietly.
Closer to the ground of daily formation, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has welcomed Scott Pace as its seventh president. In his inaugural address, Pace called on future graduates to remain rooted in the world as it actually is, not detached from reality, a phrase worth sitting with in a season when institutions of learning are so often accused of exactly that distance.
And in Rome, delegates from Jesus Youth groups across the globe have gathered to mark forty years of prayer and shared mission. There is something quietly remarkable about a movement that began in the margins of a single country and has grown, across four decades, into a worldwide community still finding its center in contemplation and service.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
