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Up to 20 churches will be selected for the UMC Solar and Battery Pilot Program. Select participating churches will be invited to apply for an UMCOR grant up to $100,000 to support their projects.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) 2026 Ecumenical Formation Seminar will be held 7-11 September, offering staff in specialized ministries the opportunity to get to know the ecumenical movement and its organizational expressions. 

[Episcopal News Service] Every year in late August and early September, thousands of monarch butterflies gather at Stonington Peninsula, a sub-peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and wait for favorable weather and wind patterns before they begin their nearly 2,000-mile migration to central Mexico, where they will settle for the winter. Most of these lightweight insects – up to 90% – won’t survive the nearly two-month journey because of harsh weather conditions, predators, light pollution, pesticides and a lack of food available on their route, but their survival is necessary for North America’s ecosystem. As the monarch butterflies fly south, roughly 50 to 100 miles daily, they will feed on wildflowers and crops, transferring pollen and helping plants, including food crops, reproduce in the process. Episcopalians in the Marquette-based Diocese of Northern Michigan, which serves the state’s Upper Peninsula, and fellow Yoopers understand and appreciate the monarch butterflies’ importance. That’s why about 100 people gather every year at Peninsula Point Lighthouse for the annual “blessing of the monarch butterflies” event hosted by UP Wild Church, a ministry of the Diocese of Northern Michigan and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Northern Great Lakes Synod. Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray, who will bless the butterflies on Sept. 2, described the act as “definitely relational” and “an act of reverence.” “To bless [the butterflies] is to participate in something sacred for me, and to be blessed by them is to receive a grace that honestly cannot be spoken, only felt,” Ray told Episcopal News Service in an email. “Blessing is a way of saying that we see the goodness God sees. … Blessing makes me aware of the relationship we have with God’s creatures and all of life.” Established in 2019 in Marquette, UP Wild Church now has eight branches that hold nondenominational nature prayer services and community engagement events, such as tree planting, and wilderness walks in the Upper Peninsula’s abundant natural settings – pine forests, inland lakes and the freshwater shores of Lake Superior. Church members also address through education and advocacy the environmental crises that threaten those places. UP Wild started the “blessing of the monarch butterflies” in 2021 as both a spiritual tradition and an opportunity to teach adults and children about the butterflies’ life cycle, migration process, their crucial role as a major pollinator species, causes of their population decline and ways to prevent them from becoming endangered. Blessing migratory creatures, including monarch butterflies, “is an ancient practice of pilgrimage – a journey to a hold place which leads us into personal transformation – that our souls ache for,” Lanni Lantto, UP Wild Church’s co-founder, told ENS in an email. After members of UP Wild Church introduce themselves and the church’s ministry, the blessing event will commence. It will include group singing, an acknowledgment that the Upper Peninsula was first inhabited by the Anishinaabe people, a lecture on the butterflies, drumming and meditative breathing. Participants will also gather anything natural they can find nearby, such as leaves, rocks and sticks, that Carol Schlitz, a member of UP Wild Church, will combine to form a butterfly mandala structure. “It’s a grounding activity to put everyone in the right frame of mind before the blessing officially begins,” Schlitz told ENS. “For me, as a nature photographer, I see God in everything.” There’s no guarantee the butterflies will still be near Peninsula Point Lighthouse by the time the blessing event starts because they base the start of their migration on weather conditions, wind speed and wind direction. If they are still around, a volunteer from Monarch Watch, an education, conservation and research program based at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, will explain the importance of tagging the butterflies to track their migration patterns and survival rates. Participants will then be invited to catch the butterflies in large nets, identify their sex and place the tags on their wings before releasing them. Sue Jamison, a member of UP Wild Church and a retired first grade teacher, has been a Monarch Project volunteer for 25 years. When she was a teacher, her class spent the first month of the new school year learning about monarch butterflies. She would bring monarch caterpillars into the classroom so that her students could witness them feed, grow, form chrysalides and hatch into butterflies 10 to 14 days later. After they hatched, Jamison taught her students how to identify the butterflies by sex (males have two black spots – scent glands – in the center of each lower hind wing) and chart how many females and males they had. “My students loved the monarch project; I’m sure it’s a project they’ll never forget,” Jamison told ENS. “By learning about the monarchs’ importance and learning about their journey south and witnessing their natural beauty, I hope more people can appreciate everything they bless us with. The least we can do is bless them, learn about them and do our part to help ensure their survival as a species.” From egg to flying adult, non-overwintering monarch butterflies – the generations that don’t migrate south – typically live four to five weeks. In her short lifetime, a female butterfly can lay between 300 and 500 eggs. However, fewer than 10% of eggs and caterpillars survive to become adults because of predators, parasites, extreme weather conditions and habitat and food loss. Milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars eat and the only plant that adults use to lay their eggs. “We’re always encouraging people to grow pesticide-free milkweed and let the plants grow. If you see milkweed, don’t cut it,” Schlitz said. “They’re resilient plants that will grow just about anywhere, and monarchs need them for survival.” The migrating generation, however, can live for six to nine months if they survive their journey. Some will fly as far as 3,000 miles, depending on their starting point. The survivors will arrive in Mexico by the end of October or early November, coinciding with Día de los […]

[Religion News Service] A region in Sudan that was once a safe haven for refugees and where nearly half the population is Christian has become another scene of deadly violence as the country’s army and paramilitary battle in a fourth year of war. The peak of the violence in the Nuba Mountains, a region in ​the South-Central state of South Kordofan where those of different faiths have long lived side by side, has killed Christian clergy and their followers, prompting Christian humanitarian groups and watchdogs to ​speak out. The region has absorbed close to 1 million people – mainly Christian refugees – since the early stages of the war, which began in 2023. The war between the country’s military and Rapid Support Forces has killed an estimated 59,000 people, though aid groups believe the number could be much higher. Last week, a rebel struck two villages there, killing at least 27 people – including four children – and injuring many others. The latest incident in the escalating violence came after the killing of a Protestant pastor in late July and a Catholic priest in mid-June. The Rev. Abel Idris Jongool, an Anglican priest in the Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan in Debe, died of his injuries after a July 24 attack on his community near Korkel Theological College, the Anglican seminary serving both dioceses in the Nuba Mountains. On June 19, the Rev. Youhanna Al-Amin, a Catholic priest, was shot and killed by militants in Kauda. “It’s difficult for the people after the killing of the religious leaders – many of them are disturbed that their religious leaders are being targeted,” Bolis Jacob Medan, a Sudanese Christian youth leader and an activist in the area, told Religion News Service in an Aug. 27 interview. “The leaders lived among the people, offering services beyond just spiritual needs. The local people feel they have lost pastors who were standing for them.” Approximately 45% of those in the Nuba Mountains identify as Christians. Across Sudan, an estimated 93% of the population is Muslim and 5% is Christian. With the largest Christian population in the war-torn country, the Nuba Mountains region is significant for Christian organizations and charities that partner with local churches to deliver humanitarian, educational and health assistance. The majority of the inhabitants in the rugged and mountainous region are Black Africans who have endured genocidal campaigns from successive Khartoum governments. In 1992, the Sudanese government declared jihad against the people and went on ​to carry out a brutal military campaign that killed an estimated 100,000 people in one year, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Sudanese governments that followed have targeted the people of the Nuba Mountains, but as the current war intensified, the region became a sanctuary for civilians fleeing attacks in combat zones and other towns. Rebels who are part of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the north have established a partial government area, providing some security. That rebel faction, however, has aligned with RSF and is in conflict with the Otoro tribe, one of the ethnic communities in the area. And as the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary RSF are turning the surrounding areas into battlefronts, violence is expanding around key towns in the Nuba Mountains, including Kauda and Heiban. Christians from the Nuba Mountains – who have been subjected to persecution in northern states over accusations they were Western spies and part of rebel movements – have largely known peaceful co-existence, said Kiri Kankhwende, press and public affairs team leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights group. However, as a result of the war, things have started to change. Kankhwende said the majority of the ethnic groups fighting in Heiban now are themselves Christian. As such, her organization has contacted many leaders in the region who have been calling for peace and trying to intervene positively, she said. “These are the areas where we have reported attacks on religious leaders, and these incidents are unusual for the region, which has known high levels of peaceful co-existence between faiths,” Kankhwende said. “We are aware of an initiative led by religious leaders to calm the situation,” she added. “There have also been initiatives targeting the youth to attempt to bring peace back into the region.” Catholic Bishop Christian Carlassare of Bentiu, in neighboring South Sudan, said a main problem is widespread insecurity produced by the proliferation of weapons in the hands of everyone. “… On the ground there are myriad … factions, armed groups, mercenaries … because fighting has become a business,” he said. Francis Kuria Kagema, the secretary general of the African Council of Religious Leaders – Religions for Peace, told RNS the devastating war that has displaced millions of civilians depressed the religious communities. “It is very saddening to hear of attacks in the Nuba Mountains,” he said in an Aug. 26 interview. “We condemn whichever forces are responsible. We are very concerned that there seems to have been a targeting of mainly Christians.” Kagema, a leader in interreligious dialogue and advocacy, warned that the Sudanese conflict is not a religious one and that attacking one religious group would inflame religious passions and further escalate the situation. “We urge the parties involved to be sensitive to this, because once the religious passions are inflamed, it would become more difficult to deal with the fundamental issues in the conflict,” he said. Relief and advocacy organization officials warn the intensifying fighting is blocking supply pipelines, cutting off aid from a region already suffering severe food shortages and the risk of famine. “As an advocacy organization, we are amplifying the calls being made by religious leaders on the ground who are calling for a de-escalation of tensions and peaceful coexistence,” Kankhwende said.

July 21-26, Kindu, Congo

On August 12, 10 people were handed removal orders after being identified at a protest in Calgary, the first time Canada’s federal immigration enforcement has targeted people at a protest. The United… continue readingcontinue reading

United Methodist churches in Georgia are jumping on the solar power train, helped by a tax break from the Biden administration and a nonprofit that’s showing they can care for the environment while also reducing their electric bill.

Rani Joshi reflects on the hidden challenges of singleness and offers four tips for how churches can better support single people

World Renew is responding to the devastating flooding and landslides that have affected communities across northern and central Nepal, leaving widespread destruction and significant humanitarian needs. Through its network partners, World Renew is working to share Christ’s hope with communities struggling with loss, displacement, and damaged infrastructure. Search-and-rescue efforts continue across affected districts, with thousands of emergency personnel and volunteers mobilized to support evacuations and life-saving assistance. Despite these efforts, access to many communities remains difficult due to washed-out roads, damaged bridges, and ongoing landslide risks. As of September 1, authorities have reported that 939 people died in the Aug. 26 flash flood in Nepal, 4,247 remain missing, and more than 11,000 people have been rescued. Thousands of families have...

For half a century, Project Ploughshares has served as an independent research institute and advocacy organization in Canada dedicated to peace, disarmament, and nonviolence. Founded in 1976 by Ernie Regehr under the Mennonite Central Committee, the organization arose from a startling observation: nations were diverting vast resources toward militarization at the direct expense of human and environmental needs. Fifty years later, that core concern remains as urgent as ever. Mark Vander Vennen, an appointed representative of the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) on the management committee of Project Ploughshares, explained why this ecumenical witness continues to be vital. “Here is a faith-based Christian witness in the public square advocating for peace, and never has this voice been more...