“I would sit to pray, but it felt as though the line had gone dead. I did not feel a sense of God’s nearness. I didn’t feel much of anything at all,” writes Warren in her new book, “What Grows in Weary Lands,” released May 12 from Penguin Random House. “And I’d begin to think, is anyone there?”
Bob Smietana
Researchers from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research said the median congregation grew from 65 in 2020 to about 70 today. That is not enough to erase earlier declines, but it is noteworthy.