(RNS) — They preached and protested, wrote and sang, or stood on one side or the other of hot-button issues of their day.

As the year comes to a close, we remember faith leaders and other individuals of influence who called for people to use their spiritual values to fight abuse, help the hungry and treat all with respect.

We also bid farewell to some celebrities and influencers whose time on stage sometimes represented public faith or whose lives were strengthened by their personal faith.

Tina Turner credited the principles of Nichiren Buddhism she practiced for five decades for sustaining her move to a solo career and shaping her thoughts in ways that helped her achieve a comeback, starting with her 1984 album “Private Dancer.”

Sinéad O’Connor will be remembered for ripping a photograph of Pope John Paul II in two in a 1990s “Saturday Night Live” episode to protest the way the Catholic Church handled sexual abuse, but she also made a personal journey from Catholicism through Rastafarianism to Islam, changing her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat in 2018.

Then some covered stories of faith. We mourn the loss of a number of journalists who contributed to the religion beat, including Richard Gustav Niebuhr, a professor and journalist at publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times; Jerry Filteau, who covered the Catholic Church for more than 40 years for Catholic News Service and National Catholic Reporter; Julia Lieblich, who wrote for the Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press; Helen T. Gray, who wrote for The Kansas City Star; Edward Briggs, a former Religion News Association president who covered religion for the Richmond Times-Dispatch for more than two decades, and María Emilia Martin, founder of Latino USA radio show who helped local journalists cover culture and religion.

RELATED: Remembering faith leaders who died in 2022: preachers, writers and interpreters of faith

Here are some major figures in the world of religion who died in 2023:

Cardinal George Pell

The influential Catholic conservative and Vatican financial reformer died Jan. 10 at the age of 81.

Pell was praised by Pope Francis as a “genius” for his restoration of once-corrupt Vatican finances.

Cardinal George Pell at the Vatican, June 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Late in life, in 2017, he was the first cardinal to be convicted of sexual abuse. However, after being imprisoned for more than a year, his conviction was overturned on appeal, with an Australian court citing lack of evidence.

The native of Australia was appointed archbishop of Melbourne in 1996 and of Sydney five years later.

He was confronted in 2002 with accusations that he had sexually abused a minor, but the allegations were dismissed.

In 2016, he testified via video from Rome to an Australian royal commission investigating sexual abuse in society. He said that the Catholic Church had made “enormous mistakes” in handling abuse and said he once ignored a child’s warning of molestation at a Catholic school.

“The church in many places, certainly in Australia, has mucked things up, has made — let people down,” he said at the time. “I’m not here to defend the indefensible.”

Bishop Frank Griswold

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church during major debates over women and LGBTQ clergy died March 5 at age 85.

Griswold was the leader of the mainline denomination from 1997 to 2006.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III in 2019. (Video screen grab)

He left his role as bishop of the Diocese of Chicago to be immediately confronted with threats of departure from dioceses that did not want to recognize women’s ordination as priests.

In 2003, he presided over the consecration of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop, amid tight security. Robinson told Religion News Service he later learned that Griswold, like himself, wore a bulletproof vest under his robes.

“We’re learning to live the mystery of communion at a deeper level,” Griswold said in the service, after hearing objections to it.

Griswold worked to bring the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America into full communion, which was agreed upon in the year 2000 and permits sharing in common mission projects and exchange of clergy. It was the first agreement of its kind signed by Episcopalians with another Christian denomination.

Rachel Pollack

The tarot expert who was known for her book and comic book writing died April 7 at the age of 77.

Rachel Pollack. (Photo by Joyce Tudrin, courtesy of Llewellyn Press)

Her first book on tarot, a New Age divination practice involving sets of cards, was “Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self-Awareness.” First published in 1980, the bestselling book was in its 40th printing at the time of her death.

In a 2022 interview in The Comics Journal, Pollack recounted how 1971 was “an amazing year,” when she was introduced to tarot, had her first book published, departed for Europe and came out as a lesbian and a trans person.

“Some people love the cards because they can give us glimpses of the future,” she wrote in an essay for the Tarosophy Tarot Association. “Still others love Tarot as a spiritual science. To me, these too are stories, for all time, and all science, are sets of interlocking stories.”

Pollack, an award-winning science fiction writer, created Kate “Coagula” Godwin, the first transgender superhero, for the monthly comic “Doom Patrol,” for Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics. 

Charles Stanley

The former Southern Baptist Convention president, Atlanta preacher and religious broadcaster died April 18 at the age of 90.

The year after he became the senior pastor of First Baptist Atlanta in 1971, Stanley started his broadcast ministry with “The Chapel Hour,” a 30-minute program on two of the city’s television stations. Renamed “In Touch With Dr. Stanley,” it became a nationwide broadcast on the Christian Broadcasting Network in 1978.

Charles Stanley died April 18, 2023, at age 90. Photo courtesy of In Touch Ministries

He served two consecutive one-year terms as leader of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, presiding over its two largest meetings and assisting in the advance of the so-called conservative resurgence, when conservative leaders took control of the denomination from moderates.

Stanley, who was known as a spokesman for conservative family values, at one time told his congregation he would resign if he divorced. But later he determined he’d continue as his church’s leader after he and his wife, Anna, divorced after 44 years of marriage.

“The love you have shown me and the love I have for you have encouraged me to remain faithful to God’s call on my life,” Stanley told his congregants.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

The author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” died April 28 at the age of 88.

The 1981 book was the Conservative rabbi’s effort to make sense of the diagnosis of his 3-year-old son with a premature aging condition that led to the boy’s death about a decade later, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

Rabbi Harold Kushner. (Courtesy photo)

“Can I, in good faith, continue to teach people that the world is good, and that a kind and loving God is responsible for what happens in it?” writes Kushner, who was the leader of a Massachusetts temple.

His views that God is unable to control all of life’s tragedies drew criticism from some Orthodox Jews and praise from others inside and outside Judaism.

After a tornado swept through Jackson, Tennessee, in 2008, Kushner told Religion News Service he didn’t view it as an act of God.

“I find God not in the tornado,” he said, “but in the many responses to the tornado, whether it’s the courage to go on or the resilience to put your life back together or the impulse to help victims.”

Tim Keller

The author and influential Presbyterian Church in America minister died on May 19 at the age of 72.

Keller founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York, in 1989. The congregation began in rented space at another church, grew to more than 5,000, and became the catalyst for other churches to be planted in and beyond New York.

Timothy Keller. (Photo by Andrew Chan)

“The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,” his 2008 book, was listed as a New York Times bestseller and named Book of the Year by World magazine.

Keller was known for a nonconfrontational yet conservative style through which he sought to offer an “intellectually credible” view of the gospel. The suit-wearing evangelical preacher told Religion News Service he was determined to act like a Christian even if his views differed from the broader culture.

“This was never the neutral territory,” said Keller, who stepped down as pastor of Redeemer in 2017. “We always had opposition.”

He continued writing books, including “Forgive,” published in 2022, and worked full time for Redeemer City to City, a nonprofit that trains church planters and future pastors.

Agnes Abuom

Agnes Abuom in 2014. (Photo by Fredrick Nzwili)

The first African and the first woman to serve as moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches died May 31 at the age of 73.

The longtime ecumenist and peacemaker was a lay canon in the Anglican Church of Kenya. She was moderator of the WCC’s Central Committee from 2013 to 2022.

Abuom had a key role in efforts toward peace in Sudan and Southern Sudan after the latter country became independent in 2011. Earlier in her career, she founded TAABCO Research and Development Consultants to advise development organizations on poverty alleviation.

At the 11th Assembly of the WCC in 2022, as she neared the end of her term, Abuom responded to journalists inquiring about the sometimes tense meeting during which Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox delegations did not formally meet.

“For people to come to the table, it takes a lot of footwork in the background,” she said. “That needs to continue to happen in order that there will be trust, the willingness to come to the table and dialogue.”

Pat Robertson

The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and onetime Republican presidential candidate died June 8 at the age of 93.

He retired as the host of CBN’s long-running “The 700 Club” program in 2021 on the 60th anniversary of its first broadcast. The show, on which he welcomed five presidents, became one of many vehicles by which he built a politically influential corps of Christian conservatives.

The Rev. Pat Robertson poses a question to a Republican presidential candidate during a forum at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., Oct. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Robertson led numerous conservative Christian organizations, including the American Center for Law and Justice, which defends the religious liberty of plaintiffs; Regent University, an evangelical school based in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and the Christian Coalition, which became known for its “Christian score cards” placed on windshields of cars in church parking lots.

He viewed natural disasters as a form of God’s judgment on groups he opposed, such as feminists and gays, and was denounced by Black Lives Matter movement co-founder Patrisse Cullors when he linked its demonstrators to many of the stances he spent much of his life criticizing.

“Of course, Black lives matter,” Robertson explained, calling the movement itself “a stalking horse for a very, very radical anti-family, anti-God agenda.”

“We don’t want to go along with a lesbian, anti-family, anti-capitalist, Marxist revolution,” Robertson said. “We don’t want that for America.”

Bishop Melvin Talbert

The United Methodist leader known for his work on racial justice, LGBTQ advocacy and ecumenical cooperation died Aug. 3 at the age of 89.

He officiated in 2013 at the union of two men in Birmingham, Alabama, despite the urgings of other Methodist leaders not to go through with the ceremony. His decision marked the first time a bishop had taken such action that broke the church’s official laws.

Retired United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert. (Photo by John C. Goodwin/UMNS)

Talbert had declared that the denomination’s traditionalist stance on homosexuality “is wrong and evil. … It no longer calls for our obedience.” He also said of the debate: “This matter will not be resolved until those discriminatory passages are removed from the Book of Discipline.”

In 2015, charges were dropped when he reached a settlement with those who had filed complaints that alleged he had “violated the sacred trust of his office.”

His role in a sit-in in Atlanta in 1960 resulted in him sharing a jail cell with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., after which he described himself as “a disciple of King,” stated the Council of Bishops website.

Sarah Young

The author of bestselling “Jesus Calling” died Aug. 31 at the age of 77.

Author Sarah Young. (Courtesy photo)

Young’s devotional book was published in 2004 and became so popular it led to additional products such as journals, podcasts and children’s books. By July 2023, the Jesus Calling brand had sold 45 million copies, according to Thomas Nelson, Young’s publisher.

All this occurred without her contributing to publicity for the book, written as if Jesus were speaking to the reader. It was listed second in a bestseller compilation of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association in the month of her death.

“Because of my isolated location and my chronic health issues, I’ve never been on a book tour,” said Young via email to Religion News Service in 2021. “Though my name may be well known, my face is not.”

The former missionary told RNS that readers told her that her books helped them have courage to face their difficulties. Young said, in turn, she considered it “a sacred responsibility and a delightful privilege” to pray “at length” daily for those who had read her books.

Wallace B. Smith

The pioneer of women’s ordination in what became known as the Community of Christ died Sept. 22 at the age of 94.

Wallace B. Smith in brief remarks on YouTube when he was president emeritus of Community of Christ, April 2, 2017. (Video screen grab)

He was president of the formerly named Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1978 to 1996, a time of dramatic changes in the movement. Differing from the stance of his predecessor and father W. Wallace Smith, he opened the priesthood to women despite divided views among members.

“We’re not going to solve this by a survey,” said the younger Smith, who believed God revealed the change in position that was canonized as scripture in 1984.

The man known as “Wally B” also believed divine revelation led him to spearhead the building of the public temple of the RLDS church in Independence, Missouri.

Before his retirement, Smith, the great-grandson of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, chose a successor, W. Grant McMurray, giving the movement its first leader who was not a member of the Smith family.

Art Simon

The founder and first president of the Christian advocacy group Bread for the World died Nov. 14 at the age of 93.

He started the anti-hunger group in the mid-1970s with the aim of reducing poverty, improving nutrition and decreasing hunger for people across the globe.

Art Simon on June 10, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Lacey Johnson for Bread for the World)

Simon’s first steps in anti-hunger advocacy occurred in the 1960s and ‘70s when he responded to the pressing needs of poverty and hunger in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York’s Trinity Lutheran Church.

Simon, an ecumenical minister affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, focused on the importance of grassroots activism and his organization is known for its “Offering of Letters” campaigns that encourage congregations and community groups to send letters and emails to lawmakers to pass hunger-reducing legislation.

“Voters who speak up, not big money interests, can be the movers and shakers who get Congress to act,” he wrote in his 2019 book “Silence Can Kill: Speaking Up to End Hunger and Make Our Economy Work for Everyone.”

Daisaku Ikeda

The longtime president of the Japanese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International died on Nov. 15 at age 95.

Daisaku Ikeda. (Courtesy photo)

The Tokyo native developed a long-standing hatred of war after witnessing the horrors of World War II and losing his oldest brother in action in Myanmar, his organization said. 

Mentored by Soka Gakkai leader and pacificist Josei Toda, he worked to spread Nichiren Buddhism, which aimed to foster respect for the equality and dignity of all.

After his 1960 inauguration at age 32 as the third Soka Gakkai president, Ikeda went on to meet with prominent leaders, including then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, in dozens of cross-cultural dialogues. In 1975, Ikeda founded Soka Gakkai International, which connected independent Sokai Gakkai organizations across the globe.

He often focused on the positive rather than suffering, The Associated Press reported.

“By helping other people become happy, we too become happy,” he often said, saying infinite happiness could be achieved by “being true to yourself.”

Bishop Carlton Pearson

The preacher, singer and author who became known for “The Gospel of Inclusion” died Nov. 19 at the age of 70.

Pearson, a onetime member and ordained minister of the Church of God in Christ, a predominantly Black denomination, described himself as a “fourth-generation fundamentalist.” But while serving as pastor of a Tulsa megachurch he made a theological shift that led to the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops declaring him a heretic.

Bishop Carlton D. Pearson. (Video screen grab)

“The blasphemy I stand accused of is the simple message of the Gospel of Inclusion: the whole world is saved, but they just don’t know it,” he wrote in the introduction to his 2006 book, “The Gospel of Inclusion: Reaching Beyond Religious Fundamentalism to the True Love of God and Self.”

“Saved not only from hell and eternal damnation, but saved from itself — saved from its erroneous perceptions of God and good.”

Views about Pearson, who once hosted Azusa conferences on the campus of Oral Roberts University and later became a bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, were so divided that several services were held to honor his memory in the days after his death.

RELATED: Observers, detractors and preachers of religion who died in 2021