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[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.

She’s long had the reputation as the Gospels’ bad girl, but the biblical account of Mary Magdalene is very different. United Methodists think her role as apostle offers lessons for today.

<article class="media media--image display--large"> <div class="image-container"> <div class="field field-media-image"> <img loading="eager" width="430" height="323" alt="Len Hofman visited the CRCNA offices in Grand Rapids in 2021." class="lazyload" data-src="/sites/default/files/styles/default_mobile/public/2025-04/Leonard%20Hofman.JPG?itok=4xt452Nt" /> </div> </div> </article> <br /> The former general secretary of the CRCNA passed away on April 11, 2025.

<article class="media media--image display--large"> <div class="image-container"> <div class="field field-media-image"> <img loading="eager" width="430" height="323" alt="Left to right: Cory Grim (worship leader), Pastor Scott Van Voorst, Jean Dyk (office administrator), and Gord Dyk (lay leader and president of the board)" class="lazyload" data-src="/sites/default/files/styles/default_mobile/public/2025-04/Cornerstone%20Prison%20Church%20staff.jpeg?itok=iNuHTiOO" /> </div> </div> <div class="field field-image-credit">Cornerstone Prison Church</div> </article> <br /> At its annual banquet, Cornerstone Prison Church marked its 20th year with memories from pastors and members through its history.

During a leadership summit held 9-11 April in Nairobi, Kenya, the World Council of Churches (WCC) offered a listening ear, accurate information, and a sense of solidarity for people living with HIV, who are facing a sudden lack of resources.