After a holiday hiatus, the FAV(e) Photo slideshow is back.
Each week, the five Faith and Values sites compile their top photos to give you a glance at what is happening in communities around the country. Here's a look at the last few weeks of January. In this week's mix, we've got a Buddhist nun ordination in Washington, a Buddhist temple opening in North Carolina, a response to the Newtown school shooting in Connecticut, and great speakers in the Midwest.
For more, go to our partner sites ColumbiaFAVs.com, WilmingtonFAVS.com, ToledoFAVS.com and HartfordFAVS.com.
You can also check out our national partner, Religion News Service.

Tracy Simmons is an award winning journalist specializing in religion reporting, digital entrepreneurship and social journalism. In her 15 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti.
Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas and Connecticut. Currently she serves as the executive director of SpokaneFAVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Wash. She is also a Scholarly Assistant Professor at Washington State University.