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The World Council of Churches (WCC) annual review 2024 is now available in four languages: English, German, French and Spanish. Entitled “Pursuing Peace Together,” the annual review records many of the WCC’s activities undertaken in 2024 and continuing into 2025.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay strongly condemned the Israeli military attack on Iranian territory as “an unlawful act that violates international law and the sovereignty of a nation-state.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay extended prayers and deep concern on behalf of the global fellowship to all those affected by severe flooding in South Africa. 

James (Jim) Miner has announced his retirement as Yearbook specialist for the Church of the Brethren, as of June 26. In this role, which he began nine years ago in November 2016, he has been responsible for creating the annual Church of the Brethren Yearbook.

United Methodists in the Los Angeles area are advocating for immigrants while trying to de-escalate a tense situation after President Trump’s deployment of troops to quell anti-ICE protests.

[Anglican Communion News Service] “Multicultural. Reaching out to serve. Meeting Human Needs.” These are some of the values prioritized by the Diocese of Texas in its ministry. They are evident in a variety of church and community programs visited by Bishop Anthony Poggo, the secretary general of the Anglican Communion this week. Hosted by Texas Bishop Andy Doyle, the secretary general has been in Houston to spend time with church leaders and church planters and learn more about the ministry of a diocese that spans 70,000 miles, has 175 congregations and serves around 77,000 parishioners. It is an innovative and forward-thinking diocese and has just completed a strategic visioning and planning initiative that looks ahead to 2035 called Faith in the Future. Its purpose is to help church leaders anticipate and prepare for major external forces that will affect their communities over the next decade. The diocese is deeply committed to church planting and growth, and creating missional communities that are responsive to the needs of the communities they serve. Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry will celebrate the second full weekend of Pride Month with Anglicans in Dublin, Ireland, beginning with preaching at the fifth annual livestreamed Pride worship service at Christ Church Cathedral on June 13. Perry, a lesbian, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview that she’s still “in awe” at having been invited to lead Pride Month programming at Christ Church Cathedral. “In 2006, when I was the first out lesbian on a ballot in the Diocese of California, the archbishop of Canterbury spoke out against my candidacy,” said Perry, who’s been bishop of Michigan since 2020. “I came in dead last in that election for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons was the overwhelming sense that the Anglican Communion did not want another LGBT person in the office of the bishop after [former New Hampshire Bishop] Gene Robinson. “If someone had told me nearly 20 years later that I would be flying out to Ireland to preach at their pride service as the bishop of Michigan, I would have been amazed.” LGBTQ+ issues have always been a significant part of Perry’s ministry. In 2007, she co-founded and became a co-convenor of the Chicago Consultation, a network of Anglican theologians, clergy, community leaders and activists who work for full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in The Episcopal Church and in the wider Anglican Communion. The consultation was involved with passing resolutions at General Convention in 2009 and 2012, including the affirmation of opening all orders of ministry to LGBTQ+ people, eliminating canonical discrimination against transgender people and providing The Episcopal Church with a liturgy for blessing same-sex marriages. Today, most of the Chicago Consultation’s work is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2023, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Perry one of 13 commissioners for the state’s LGBTQ+ Commission. Ireland became the world’s first country to legalize same-sex marriage through a popular vote in 2015. However, the Church of Ireland, a member of the Anglican Communion, doesn’t permit same-sex marriage. Christ Church Cathedral has been hosting its annual Pride Service since 2021. It’s organized by Changing Attitude Ireland, a Church of Ireland-based organization that seeks to promote love, understanding and justice for LGBTQ+ people from both within and outside the church. “I am delighted with the raising of the profile of the service this year when, on Friday 13 June we will welcome Bishop Bonnie Perry of the diocese of Michigan to preach at the annual service in the cathedral. Bonnie is a leading voice in promoting LGBTQ+ issues in The Episcopal Church,” the Very Rev. Dermot Dunne, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, told ENS in an email. “I am very happy to represent the community of the cathedral in its support for the LGBTQ+ community and to identify publicly with all the issues facing that community in these troubled times.” This year’s Pride Month is taking place as hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people continue to increase worldwide. Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, 350 known transgender people worldwide were murdered, though the number may be much higher, according to data compiled by the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, an initiative of Transgender Europe, a Berlin, Germany-based nongovernmental organization. Globally, LGBTQ+ people are also at risk of suffering from mental health issues because of discrimination, homophobia or transphobia, social isolation, rejection, negative experiences of coming out or being afraid to come out. Many LGBTQ+ people have also been denied or received unequal health care treatment, according to the Mental Health Foundation, a United Kingdom-based organization committed to addressing mental health issues through education and advocacy programs. After the Pride service concludes, the cathedral will host a reception and celebration honoring Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland, the country’s national organization supporting young LGBTQ+ people. During the reception, Dunne will present a €3,000 check to Belong To. On June 14, Perry will lead a workshop on The Episcopal Church’s decades-long journey toward LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion. She also will discuss community organizing for the Church of Ireland, addressing how to best connect with people of different perspectives when engaging in discussions of same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ+ issues. On June 15, Perry will preach at Christ Church Cathedral’s livestreamed Trinity Sunday worship service. Matthew “Matty” Zaradich, a former parishioner of Perry’s when she was rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois, now lives in Dublin and is planning the cathedral’s Pride service. He told ENS that having Perry preach during the service this year “is an absolute joy.” “Bringing [Perry] to my new home in Dublin for our Pride Service at Christ Church is profoundly meaningful,” Zaradich said in an email. “What I learned from Bonnie then still grounds me now: where there is love, there is holiness; and where there is holiness, there is God. Her preaching will be a gift to our community, and I know it will leave an indelible impact.” Perry said this will be her first time visiting Ireland, and she’s “super excited” to be there with her wife, the Rev. Susan Harlow, a pastor in the United Church of Christ. “Christ Church Cathedral is graciously welcoming to people who are LGBTQ+, and I am happy to be a part of it,” Perry said. “It’s truly an honor.” Watch the livestream of both services here. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

Evangelicals must speak up and speak out for both lives; women and the unborn

[Episcopal News Service] Fort Johnson, an Army installation in Louisiana, is poised for another name change – back to Fort Polk – though the reversal, promised this week by President Donald Trump, won’t officially honor the fort’s original namesake, Episcopal Bishop Leonidas Polk. Instead, Fort Polk will honor Gen. James H. Polk, a Silver Star recipient who served in World War II. During the Biden administration, the Pentagon had renamed nine bases that previously were named for Confederate generals. Fort Polk became Fort Johnson, honoring a Black soldier, William Henry Johnson, who served in World War I. The changes were based on a commission’s recommendations to fulfill legislation passed by Congress mandating the elimination of the Confederate names. On June 10, Trump said his administration intended to return all nine bases to their original Confederate names. The bases, however, now would officially honor different war heroes who happen to have the same names as the Confederates but fought for the United States rather than against it. “We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change,” Trump said in explaining his desire to resurrect the bases’ Confederate names. Polk, the Episcopal bishop, is arguably one of the most controversial figures in the church’s history. Born in 1806 to a family of slaveholders, he has long been lauded for his role leading the church’s 19th century expansion as a missionary bishop and as the first bishop of Louisiana, and he was the driving force behind the 1857 founding of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He later was both honored and vilified for joining the Confederacy as a general in support of the South’s succession to preserve slavery. Sometimes referred to as “the fighting bishop,” Polk was killed in 1864 on a battlefield in Georgia. Long after his death, Polk’s name and tributes to him could be found in Episcopal churches across the United States, though in recent years, many of those displays have been removed as congregations and the larger church have grappled with their complicity in slavery and other racist systems. The decision to restore the name of Fort Polk has generated criticism from those who argue Johnson, the World War II soldier, is more deserving of the honor. State lawmakers from Johnson’s native New York issued a statement objecting to the move. “In yet another attempt to revise our nation’s proud history, the implications of reverting to a name with such proximity to the original inspired by the Confederacy is an insult to Black Americans who have served this nation honorably,” the lawmakers said. “Sgt. Henry Johnson’s legacy deserves full recognition. He embodied the very ideals of courage, sacrifice, and patriotism that our military installations should reflect.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

May 30-31, Anchorage, Alaska