Three questions worth asking this week.

[1] Can a church hold its highest leader accountable if no one is allowed to watch the trial?

The trial date has moved from July to October and back to September, but today, the highest-ranking cleric in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), Archbishop Steve Wood, is scheduled to go on trial in Charleston, South Carolina. He faces three charges: violation of ordination vows, abuse of church power and sexual immorality. The roughly 130,000-member denomination was founded in 2009 after conservative Anglicans broke with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Wood will be tried by ACNA’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop. At his request, the court granted a motion to hold the trial in camera, closing the proceedings to the public. The trial is scheduled to run through Saturday, with additional dates September 21–26 if needed.

[2] Why do Americans associate Islam with violence more now than they did six months after 9/11?

In a new report, Pew Research Center finds that 51 percent of Americans say Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. In March 2002, six months after 9/11, just 25 percent said the same.

[3] Shofar on Saturday or Sunday?

Jews around the world will welcome the year 5787 when Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown Friday. The two-day holiday begins the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe, a period of introspection that culminates with Yom Kippur ten days later. Rosh Hashanah is traditionally marked by the sounding of the shofar, a ram’s horn that calls worshippers to repentance. This year, the first day falls on Shabbat, when Jewish law traditionally prohibits the sounding of the shofar. Orthodox and Conservative synagogues generally wait until Sunday, while many Reform congregations allow it on Shabbat. In New York, Metropolitan Synagogue has scheduled shofar blowing for Saturday, while Orthodox Chabad congregations wait until Sunday. On Sunday at 5 p.m., public “Shofar in the Park” events will be held at Central Park at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue and at the East River Park Amphitheater on the Lower East Side. The latter is followed by Tashlich, a Rosh Hashanah ritual traditionally performed beside water, and explicitly welcomes everyone. Shanah tovah means, simply, “a good year.”