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Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez and his family have transformed their small farm in Las Varas, Honduras, into a thriving, self-sufficient homestead with the support of the Produce Verde project. Through teamwork, sustainable farming practices and community sharing, they’ve created a life rooted in resilience, health and generosity.  A Day in the Life on the Farm  Every morning, Pedro Pablo Gutiérrez begins ... Read More

[Melbourne Anglican]  Zaki Haidari was only 17 when he fled persecution in Afghanistan. He is now a refugee rights campaigner with Amnesty International Australia, a key contributor to Melbourne’s Palm Sunday March for Refugees. Zaki sought asylum by sea in 2012. He was trying to find a safe country. The Taliban was committing mass murders among the Hazara community to which Zaki belonged. Hazara voices were silenced, and there was no freedom of movement. “The decision wasn’t easy,” he said. “Leaving your country, your family and friends, the place you grew up.” On arriving in Australia, Zaki was denied work rights for three years. There was no funding for him to study or learn English. “It was a bit harsh on me being that age and not having any rights…rights I strongly believe every human being deserves, rights to education…to have freedom to find employment and sustain yourself,” he said. Zaki said refugees were required to sign a contract with the immigration department not to speak publicly about their experiences. He said this silencing was similar to the silencing of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. But Zaki chose to speak out. As a result, he received a scholarship to study English and went on to complete diplomas in information technology and graphic design. On a surprisingly warm Palm Sunday, masses of people gathered to march in support of asylum seekers like Zaki. Led across Princes Bridge by Riff Raff Marching Band, grandparents, students, children, and faith and community organizations made their voices heard, calling on Australia to welcome refugees with justice and kindness. Grandmothers for Refugees member Sue was thinking of the refugees stranded in Papua New Guinea. “They have done nothing wrong except claim refugee status,” she said. Medical Students for Refugees representatives Farah and Julia were marching to call out the poor healthcare available to refugees. “As future healthcare professionals we’re taught not to do any harm, and healthcare is a human right,” Farah said. “As medical students we’re here to rally for the rights of refugees.” Julia said they represented a body of medical students who supported health equity for all refugees and asylum seekers. St. Mary’s North Melbourne parishioner Michael said he believed in justice for refugees. “If you want to make things better…first you pray for it, and then you act on it,” he said. “That’s how prayer works.” The dean of Melbourne, the Very Rev. Andreas Loewe, reflected in his address to the march that St. Paul’s Cathedral’s commitment to welcoming refugees had transformed the community. “Our congregation grew more international, with members from across the globe, displaced people, migrants, those who fled persecution for their faith,” he said. Loewe said the congregation changed and grew from listening to the stories from the refugees, hearing their traditions and supporting one another with their gifts. “As a cathedral we’re significantly enriched,” he said. “This exchange is something we want to see in our nation as well.” Former United Nations assistant secretary-general Gillian Triggs said she was pleased to be a part of the Palm Sunday march, which emphasized welcoming the stranger. She said there was an increased global willingness to deny the legal standards of the Refugee Convention. Triggs said faith groups were vital to the U.N.’s work with displaced people. “They don’t go away when the money runs out,” she said. “They’re always there in the community, and they’re the ones that deliver a lot of the humanitarian responses.”

[Church in Wales] Two ministry areas in Mid Wales are working together to bring the Easter story to their communities. A joint project by the Black Mountains and St. Catwg ministry areas is taking modern art paintings that tell the Easter story, usually seen in art galleries or cathedrals, and placing them in shops, cafés and pubs in towns and villages along the rivers Usk and Wye. The paintings tell the traditional Easter narrative but with a twist – every picture is set in modern London. By taking part in the project, businesses in Crickhowell, Talgarth, Llangors and Hay-on-Wye are enabling the public to see these dramatic Passion pictures in everyday settings. Locations for the 15 pictures, painted by Mark Cazalet, include London Underground tube stations, a scrap yard and the streets outside Wormwood Scrubs prison. The works depicting the trial, humiliation, torture, crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus can be seen until Good Friday in two pubs, two butchers’ shops, cafes, a bookshop, a college office, a petrol station forecourt and an architectural salvage yard. Fr. David Wyatt, priest at Hay-on-Wye, has four paintings in the busy market town, including the opening scene depicting the trial of Jesus. This picture is hanging in one of the town’s barbershops, another painting is in a butcher’s window and one is shown in a local pub. “The placing of the Passion of our Lord into contemporary backdrops, familiar to many, is quite striking and effective. Being offered an opportunity to reflect is an important part of a good Lent,” he said. The project is the initiative of the same team who brought camels to Brecon on Christmas Eve in 2023 in a live public nativity. “We’re hoping that people will see Jesus and the traditional Easter story in a clear and fresh way while out shopping and relaxing in their local towns and villages,” said the Rev. Anna Bessant, who has helped to bring the Easter paintings project to life and looks after churches around Llangors Lake. “The paintings are very immediate and shocking and, because the scenes are set in modern Britain, we hope it will move people to think about the relevance of Easter today and encounter the story of God’s transforming love.” The project also offers a re-telling of the traditional Easter story in a simple way, to allow people who are not familiar with Jesus’s journey an opportunity to discover more about the Christian faith. In Talgarth, the window of the butcher W. J. George’s is displaying one of the paintings until Good Friday. Georgina George, who runs the Deli Pot in Talgarth’s village butcher shop, said, “It’s a privilege to be hosting one of these important pictures. We’re delighted to be telling part of the story here in Talgarth, and people can see some of the other paintings just a few yards away at the Black Mountain College office and in the cafes.” The 15 paintings together are called “West London Stations of The Cross.” The picture called “Women of Jerusalem Weep” shows Jesus travelling to his death surrounded by soldiers among market stalls on Portobello Road in West London. Until Good Friday it is on display at Llangynidr’s Walnut Tree Café. “Our business is mainly run by women, so it’s very apt for us to be hosting this painting,” Claire Preece, who runs the café, said. “It’s a pleasure to be taking part in telling the Easter story in the area, collaborating with local businesses and churches. Walnut Tree Café customers are intrigued by this painting and the meaning behind it. It’s certainly different from lots of the artwork usually found in cafes in the Usk Valley.” The paintings have been loaned to the project by John and Liz Gibbs. Richard Parry from the New Library, Llantwit Major, who is working with the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon ministry areas this year to bring the project to life, organized a similar project last year in pubs and cafes on the south Wales coast. Richard said, “These paintings in Powys are very important. They remind us of the everyday compassion of people on pavements in the face of cruel violence in the world. As we re-visit the Easter Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, we look directly into the heart of the Christian faith. This project deals with our modern predicament today and links it to the Passion, degradation and transformation of the Easter story.” All the paintings remain on display in Powys cafes, pubs and shops until Good Friday, April 18, when the full 15 will be brought together for public viewing as a public offer at the small Celtic church at Llanywern, near Llangors Lake, starting on Saturday, April 19. A full list of the pubs, shops and cafes displaying the paintings can be found here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Sandye Wilson, interim dean of the Cathedral of All Saints in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, died on April 15. An announcement of her death was made by the cathedral on its Facebook page on April 16. Wilson, who was also vice chair of the Church Pension Fund board of trustees, announced on March 19 via Facebook that after two surgeries, she had been diagnosed with stage 3 serous endometrial cancer and would undergo about six months of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. On April 4, she posted that she had completed her first round of chemotherapy. Serous endometrial cancer occurs in about 10% of all cases of endometrial cancer but represents 40% of deaths. “Sandye will be remembered for her unwavering service and commitment to The Episcopal Church. She was a dedicated member of The Church Pension Fund Board of Trustees and held many roles over the past decade, most recently as a Vice Chair of the Board. We will dearly miss her leadership, witness, intelligence, passion, humor, and friendship,” Mary Kate Wold, CEO AND president of The Church Pension Fund, said in a statement. Wilson was elected to the fund’s board at the 78th General Convention in 2015 and was reelected to a second term in 2022. In addition to serving as a vice chair, she served as a member of the Benefits Policy Committee, the Compensation, Diversity, and Workplace Values Committee and the Executive Committee. Wilson’s ministry in The Episcopal Church spanned more than 40 years. Ordained as a priest in 1980, she served congregations in the dioceses of Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Newark and New Jersey. She also served as chief operating officer of Saint Augustine’s University, a private historically Black university in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of two HBCUs still associated with The Episcopal Church. She was a longtime deputy to General Convention, a member of Executive Council and former president of the Union of Black Episcopalians. Tributes to Wilson quickly appeared across social media. Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson on Facebook described Wilson as someone “whose indelible mark on countless lives will long be cherished.” He added, “She has been a guiding light, a faithful friend, a dedicated companion and a catalyst for good trouble to so many in this church and beyond. She now rests with the ancestors and saints in the realms of eternal light.” Notice of her death also was shared by the Union of Black Episcopalians, who called Wilson a “UBE pioneer.” The Rev. Susan Russell, canon for engagement across difference for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, California, posted, “If you Google ‘force of nature,’ Sandye Wilson’s photo would rise to the top.” Russell said that like others she was grieving Wilson’s death “while giving thanks for her bright light and powerful witness to a church she loved too much not to challenge it to be better than it was willing to settle to be.” No announcement has yet been made regarding funeral arrangements.

[Episcopal News Service] The Very Rev. Lisa Hackney-James knows her problem is a good one to have. It’s a printing dilemma: How many bulletins will be enough for Easter this Sunday at St. James Episcopal Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois? Like most Episcopal congregations, attendance at St. James surges on Easter, when the holy day draws many people who don’t worship regularly on other Sundays. The same goes for Christmas, another holy day central to the Christian faith. “The last thing we want to do is have them show up and say we’re out of bulletins,” Hackney-James, St. James’ dean, told Episcopal News Service. For clergy and lay leaders planning Holy Week services, it’s tempting to “pull out all the stops” and impress visitors with grand liturgies and rousing sermons, the Rev. Robert Picken said, but as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Rochester, New York, “the thing I’ve learned is to be consistent all year around.” “I think visitors, in particular on Christmas and Easter, should sort of see what your parish is and get a sense of that,” Picken told ENS. Congregations across The Episcopal Church are busy this week preparing to welcome regular worshippers, friends, relatives and new visitors to their Holy Week services, culminating Sunday on Easter, which falls this year on April 20. And although The Episcopal Church and most other mainline Protestant denominations are experiencing long-term declines in Sunday attendance, the Easter surge is still a reliable phenomenon in Episcopal pews, with churchwide numbers more than doubling that day, according to parochial report data. Average Sunday attendance, one of the most closely tracked and debated metrics in the church’s parochial reports, totaled a combined 386,000 for all Episcopal congregations in 2023, continuing a rebound from the church’s pandemic lows. That same year, according to the latest available data, churchwide Easter attendance totaled 921,000. Christmas services were somewhat higher, with 976,000 worshipers. Easter historically was the only single day tracked by the church’s parochial reports, which all congregations and dioceses are required to file annually. The parochial reports first began collecting data on Christmas attendance in 2022. Easter attendance has declined by about 33% in the past decade, down from nearly 1.4 million in 2014. The Easter decline, however, is slightly less proportionally than the 36% drop in year-round attendance, from a weekly average of 600,000 in 2014 to 366,000 in 2023. And some congregations, like St. James in Chicago, say they are expecting an increase in Easter attendance this year, as more long-time members have resumed in-person worship routines that had been disrupted by the pandemic and new worshipers are seeking spiritual solace and community at a time of social and political upheaval. “This is a year where we I would say we’re back in full force,” Hackney-James, the Chicago dean, said. The cathedral logged average Sunday attendance of 355 in 2024, eclipsing its pre-pandemic levels, she said. Interest in the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. services has continued to grow this year. The cathedral offers an Easter Vigil service Saturday night, and three Easter services on Sunday. Those services topped 1,000 worshipers last year, and the congregation is printing extra bulletins this year in anticipation of up to 1,200 people. “My sense is that more people are coming to church seeking peace and centering,” the dean said. “Folks are feeling unsettled in general, because of our broader context, and are coming seeking a sense of connection to God and one another and a sense of grounding in something that is deeper than the current circumstances.” She specifically cited escalating tensions related to American politics. The Rev. Amanda Gerken-Nelson said she senses a similar yearning for spiritual connections among the newer worshipers attending services in Yarmouth, Maine, where she is rector of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church. In addition to the current political climate, she wonders if renewed interest in church attendance also is related to what has been described as a loneliness epidemic in the United States. “When I get together with the ecumenical clergy, all of us are experiencing growth in some way,” Gerken-Nelson said. Average attendance now ranges from 75 to 85 at St. Bartholomew’s single Sunday service. Last Easter, congregational leaders were surprised when the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection drew about 180 worshippers. “We weren’t prepared for the crowd that came,” Gerken-Nelson said. “Our ushers were setting up folding chairs, to the point that I got nervous that they would be blocking some egresses.” Last Christmas, turnout reached about 250, and for this Easter, the church is planning for up to 200 worshippers. Gerken-Nelson also insisted that those visitors who may only come once or twice a year are just as welcome as those who worship every Sunday. “There is an aspect of our faith that recognizes that it is a practice, that faith is deepened with practice,” she said. “And I think that also, as a church, it does no good to demean the faithful practices of people who may only come on Christmas or Easter.” Picken, the rector in Rochester, said Easter can be an opportunity to share the Gospel’s uplifting message – hope over despair – to people who might not always be in the pews to hear it on other Sundays. “Especially in this time, it’s important to convey the sense of new life, the sense of hope and the sense of joy, in a world where we’re not really seeing that,” he said. Picken also underscored that planning the Easter celebration is a collaborative effort, not just the work of the priest. “A lot of attention gets paid to the ‘busyness’ of clergy,” he said. “I think sometimes that overshadows the hard work of the lay staff and the many volunteer parishioners, especially our altar guild and musicians who put in a lot of time during Holy Week.” In addition to Easter, Episcopal clergy, church staff and volunteers are planning for expanded schedules of Holy Week […]

A training hosted 15 April by the World Council of Churches (WCC) helped church leaders realize that climate litigation isn’t necessarily about winning individual cases—it’s about changing government policies and corporate behavior. 

[Anglican Communion News Service] This Easter, the Anglican Communion is one of 12 Christian World Communions to issue a letter marking a joint celebration of Easter 2025 and the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea. ‘You are witnesses of these things.’ Luke 24:48 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world, Alleluia! Christ is risen! As representatives of 12 Christian World Communions, present in every nation on earth, we are moved and grateful to speak with one voice and one heart about our Lord’s resurrection, which we have witnessed and profess together. Together, from East and West, North and South, in this year of our Lord 2025, we have been given by God the great gift of a shared date of Easter. Devout Christians have prayed for generations that this may be possible. Though we have not yet achieved agreement on the date of Easter in perpetuity, we have no doubt that the Lord calls us to agreement, and unified witness, so that the world may believe (John 17:21). As a further summons, God in his mercy has enabled us this year to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and its Creed. We are humbled and amazed that we can, on this Easter, profess together the fact that: On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. In the light of these gifts, we call upon the Holy Spirit to move our Communions to live and walk together, in obedience to the call of Jesus’ that all his disciples may be one. We hope to hear his ‘words’ anew, just as when he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection and ‘opened their minds to understand the scriptures,’ namely, that the Messiah must suffer and rise, ‘and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations’ (Luke 24:44-47). At this time of great political instability in the world, when so many live with fear, suffering, persecution, famine, and other forms of instability and vulnerability, we would seek together to be ‘witnesses of these things’ of God, accomplished by our Lord and Saviour (24:48). For this purpose, we pray over and over again with eager expectation and hope that we may all be one, ‘clothed with power from on high’ (24:49). May the Lord grant us his Spirit of cooperation and obedience, forgive us our sins, and use us as his instruments of reconciliation and healing in the world. And may God bathe our hearts and minds in the cleansing light of his resurrection from the dead. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! List of Signatories The Very Revd Fr Hrant Tahanian Ecumenical Officer Armenian Apostolic Church, Holy See of Cilicia The Right Revd Anthony Poggo Secretary General Anglican Communion The Revd Elijah Brown General Secretary & CEO Baptist World Alliance Tina Bruner General Secretary and Executive Director Christian Church and Churches of Christ Bishop Maximos of Melitene Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain Ecumenical Patriarchate The Revd Christoph Amstad Schuler Ecumenical Officer International Old Catholic Bishop’s Conference/Old Catholic Church The Revd Anne Burghardt General Secretary Lutheran World Federation The Revd Jørgen Bøytler Unity Board Administrator Moravian Church Worldwide Unity Board The Revd César García General Secretary Mennonite World Conference The Revd David Wells Vice-Chair Pentecostal World Fellowship Commissioner Jane Paone Secretary for International Ecumenical Relations The Salvation Army The Revd Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto General Secretary World Methodist Council

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expresses deep shock over recent attacks in North Darfur, Sudan, particularly the assaults on displacement camps in Zamzam and Abu Shouk, and the town of El Fasher.

Bishop Rubén Saenz sets a vision for the United Methodist mission at its first annual meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic.

[Faith & Leadership] On any given Friday or Saturday, when many churches might be empty, a steady stream of visitors heads to Holy Family Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. Despite the bell tower and steel cross above the entry, guests may not initially realize they are in a house of worship. “Some people still enter and don’t know it’s a church,” said Chap Edmonson, Holy Family’s ministry operations director. That’s because these visitors are looking for art, and they’ve come to the right place as they enter the Lanecia A. Rouse Gallery. Inside, an attendant offers a guest book and materials about the current show. To the left, a bright, airy space is carefully curated with art. Narrow windows illuminate the gallery’s white walls and polished concrete floors. The nave rests just behind the welcome desk — and, as Edmonson explained — sometimes visitors, only after poking their heads through and seeing the waiting pews, ask if they are in a church. “It happens all the time,” he said, smiling. “And it’s really cool.” Edmonson encourages them to tour the building, since the artwork does not end with the gallery. Nine large abstract paintings by Rouse, the gallery’s namesake and the church’s artist-in-residence, grace the sanctuary, back hall and offices. The paintings were commissioned by the vicar, the Rev. Jacob Breeze, before there were walls for hanging them, when the congregation was just being planted and members met in living rooms to shape a vision. The goal was to create “a church for people without a church.” Read the full story here.