In Friday’s RNS report Matt Vande Bunte writes about JustFaith, a group that works to open people’s eyes to injustice and spur them into action: If she wanted, Mary Crowley could live an insulated life in her Hudsonville home. She could go to church, go to work and do other things embedded in the fabric of suburban West Michigan culture. Three years ago, the schoolteacher’s eyes were opened to the broader world and her place in it. Now, Crowley serves a meal once each month at Hard Times Cafe and devotes a portion of her tithe to area hunger organizations. She also teaches English as a second language to Hispanic immigrants and is learning Spanish to facilitate the process. “It’s looking at justice through Christ’s eyes and what he would do. I keep asking myself that question,” she said. Where would a 50-something Catholic get a conscience like that? From JustFaith, the growing nationwide effort awakening people of faith to social injustice-and helping them do something about it.

Jeff Diamant reports on the choices Newark faces as it gets ready to elect a new bishop: Back in 1998, a half-decade before Gene Robinson of New Hampshire became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and an international figure, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark considered him as a candidate. That year, Robinson made a nominating committee’s short list for bishop of Newark. He lost, finishing third. Now, as Newark’s Bishop John Croneberger prepares to retire, people around the diocese are wondering if any of the candidates for his successor will be gay. Newark is considered among the country’s most liberal Episcopal dioceses, and has many people who clearly would welcome a gay candidate. But the landscape in the Episcopal church changed Wednesday, when a vote at the national Episcopal Church’s triennial convention asked church leaders to “exercise restraint” when considering whether to approve gays for the bishopric.