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Greetings, World of Faith readers.  

This week, we look at how one Maryland pastor is trying to ease anxieties of Haitian church members who've lost their legal immigration status. We introduce you to the last Jew living in a neighborhood in India with a long and unique Jewish history. And we visit Ohio for a look at Mormon history – the state has the denomination's oldest temple, and now has one of the newest.

Roosevelt Toussaint, the senior pastor of the Word of Life Center church, delivers his sermon titled "What to do in a time of crisis?" at a service in Salisbury, Maryland. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)

ANXIOUS HAITIANS

Empty pews and fear of ICE on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after TPS ends for Haitians 

These are harrowing days for the Word of Life Center, a church that has long been a vibrant hub of the Haitian community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Many members of the Haitian community are staying home, fearing arrest and deportation after the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for over a million people, including 350,000 Haitians. It's left many in limbo, facing tough choices between staying in the U.S. or returning to a dangerous Haiti. Read more.  

Why this matters:

• In Salisbury, the Eastern Shore's biggest city, about 10% of the 33,000 residents are Haitian, many of them employed as farmworkers, caregivers and in the poultry plants that are the region’s economic backbone.
  
  
• At the Word of Life Center, a bridal shower and yard-sale barbecue were canceled. So were English-language classes. Roosevelt Toussaint, senior pastor of the nondenominational congregation, said attendance at Sunday’s service dropped by more than half.
   
• The United States initially gave TPS to Haitians following a devastating 2010 earthquake and extended it several times since. The Trump administration pushed to end that status, saying conditions in Haiti improved. Yet almost 1.5 million people have been displaced because of gang violence, and most Haitians need humanitarian aid. 

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• Supreme Court’s ruling to end protections for Haitian, Syrian immigrants could have broader impact 

• Immigration crackdown threatens Haitian caregivers and the seniors who rely on them 

• Haiti starts to register voters in violent capital under gang menace 

INDIA'S JEWS 

After centuries in India, the last Jews in Kochi try to keep their history alive 

Keith Hallegua and Elias Josephai are among the last Jews in Kochi, India, part of a community with roots dating back centuries. They represent the final chapter of a once-thriving Jewish community that lived peacefully with Hindu, Muslim, and Christian neighbors. In the 1950s, many of the Jews in Kochi immigrated to Israel, leaving behind their homes, synagogues and cemeteries. Read more.

Why this matters:

• Hallegua is a Paradesi Jew, the once-dominant group whose fair-skinned, Sephardic ancestors from Spain and Portugal fled the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century.
  
  
• Josephai is a Malabari Jew. The group's darker-skinned ancestors trace their roots back more than 2,000 years, to King Solomon’s time.
  
  
• Both men strive to maintain their forebears' synagogues, though it's a struggle to convene enough worshippers to have a quorum for services. 

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

• Robotic elephants draw crowds and controversy in some of India's Hindu temples 

• 1 city, 2 people — and India’s widening religious divide 

• India’s new citizenship law excludes Muslims. Here’s what to know 

LDS TEMPLES

Ohio already has the oldest Mormon temple. Now it has one of the newest 

The Cleveland region is home to the oldest temple in the Mormon movement — and the newest. The oldest was built in Kirtland, Ohio, in the 1830s and no longer functions as an active temple. On Aug. 16, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  plans to dedicate its newest temple in the nearby suburb of Independence. Read more. 

Why this matters:

• It was in the Kirtland temple that Joseph Smith initiated rituals and proclaimed divine revelations, promising restoration of ancient rites, scriptures and beliefs that varied dramatically from those of other Christian denominations.  
  
  
• The building is considered the first “temple” in the movement Smith founded — a place with a higher spiritual status than the more numerous meetinghouses where regular worship is held. 
  
  
• The new temple in Independence – to be dedicated on Aug. 16  – will be the first functioning LDS temple in northern Ohio in nearly two centuries. The building, and another being dedicated the same day in Brazil, are part of an unprecedented global expansion of temple sites.