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Films from France and The Netherlands were the prize winners at "Belief on Screen,” the SIGNIS/WACC Europe 21st European Television Festival of Religious Programmes held in Copenhagen from 23-25 September. The festival showcased 18 contributions from different European countries at the Danish Film Institute.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost Invitation to Responsibility  The parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1–14) is surprisingly relevant to our world today when reduced to its core themes: invitation, response, inclusion, and accountability. The king invites many guests, but the invitations are ignored and rejected. Today we live in a time of almost unlimited access […]

People of diverse backgrounds joined together on the illuminated terraces leading to the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel for a fifth occasion of “Terraces by Night.”

Watchword for the Week — O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things. Isaiah 25:1 Praise be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Praise be to the One who knits us together as a community of faith. Open […]

[World Council of Churches] A new publication from the World Council of Churches Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation brings together the voices and theological reflections of young ecumenists from around the world who attended the 2025 WCC Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI). It brings fresh inputs to the pressing question for the churches today: Where now for visible unity? “GETI 2025: Voices and Visions of Transformative Unity,” edited by Ani Ghazaryan Drissi and the Rev. Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa, was published Oct. 8 during the Ecumenical Education and Formation Commission’s biannual meeting. “The fruits of ecumenical dialogue must take root in the lives of our churches,” Ghazaryan said. “The GETI 2025 message brought this bold challenge to the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order and the wider ecumenical movement: let the unity we confess become the life we share.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Calvary Episcopal Church in Charleston, the oldest historically Black parish in the Diocese of South Carolina, on Oct. 10 will unveil and dedicate an icon altarpiece signifying the church’s ongoing work of racial reconciliation, restorative justice and inclusion in a city that once was central to the transatlantic slave trade. The large icon, designed and created by British Jamaican artist Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, will permanently hang with two of the church’s original stained-glass windows indenting into the top center. Looking up, Jesus stands with his arms raised as stripes of different colors fan out like a sunrise from the middle of his body. “Jesus is making sure that all are welcome, which is symbolized by the various colors, and it shows the availability of everybody to be in communion with hospitality and welcoming,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “And in the theology of the church, everything leads to the altar. So, by this icon being an altarpiece, it … represents the fact that we sacramentally meet Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist at the altar, and then we’re also sent forth by the altar to be a blessing.” More than 160 people are expected to attend the worship service dedicating the icon. The service will include readings from Revelation 7:2-4 and 9-14, 1 John 3:1-3 and Matthew 5:1-12a. South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley will preside. “To me, this icon signifies both the resurrection of our Lord and the resurrection, the rising of a people who follow Jesus amid such hardship and are not turned around,” Woodliff-Stanley told ENS. “Instead, they are pushing forward and they are moving outward.” Discussions on creating the icon for Calvary began in 2023, when Evelyn gave a presentation on iconography at South Carolina’s diocesan convention. Grace Wingfield, a Calvary parishioner, left the presentation inspired to start a project for her parish. Wingfield served as project coordinator throughout the multi-year process. Reflecting Calvary’s congregation, the icon’s development process symbolically incorporated elements of oral history, which is a crucial pillar of preserving Black history. Parishioners were invited to participate in painting the icon, making it a community project instead of the artist’s sole work. View this post on Instagram It was “a lot of thorough work,” according to Bailey. “As a community working with the parish, the diocese and the local artistic community, we decided to do some research – oral histories and deep dives into the parish’s historical records. From there, we were able to supply the narrative, and the whole idea of this icon came to fruition,” Bailey said. “The end result is expressing the Christian narrative of salvation.” The Calvary icon is the second of Evelyn’s planned series of icons housed in key geographic places in the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted from the early 16th to the late 19th centuries. The first icon was installed in 2011 at St. Stephen’s Church in Bristol, England. The other icons are planned to be installed in Ghana and Barbados. Calvary was chosen as the second site because Charleston, founded as a “slave society,” was the largest slave-trading and auction city in the United States, and it had the highest number of enslaved people in the country. Gadsen’s Wharf was the largest single point of entry for enslaved Africans. Calvary was founded in 1847 as a church for many of those enslaved people, as well as for freed people. “This [icon] image is of moving out into the world with this force of love and resilience and courage and joy and not naively moving out in the face of really unjust systems to nevertheless bring the love of the resurrected Christ into the world,” Woodliff-Stanley said. “That’s a very personal message for the people of Calvary because they … have raised up generations in strength. You can really see it today. Calvary is thriving now, and it has a great future.” Woodliff-Stanley and Bailey work closely with the rectors of Charleston’s two other historically Black Episcopal churches, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. As a coalition called the Three Churches United, Calvary, St. Mark’s and St. Stephen’s have hosted and participated in several events as part of the diocese’s commitment to racial reconciliation and justice work through its Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Part of those efforts include regularly hosting “learning day” events to teach the history of the Diocese of South Carolina. “Sharing with our local community, the whole church and the world our story helps ensure that the stories of The Episcopal Church and Calvary are not erased,” Bailey said. “So much has happened here, and we look forward to seeing what God will do in the near and far future.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

United Methodist Men has ended its affiliate relationship with the National Association of Conference Presidents, a fellowship that supports conference men’s ministries. Still, both groups hold out hope for reconciliation.

Grassy Narrows community members and supporters walked from Grange Park to Queen’s Park in Toronto to raise awareness of their ongoing fight for justice over water poisoned by mercury from the Dryden… continue readingcontinue reading

The World Council of Churches is commending the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law. 

World Council of Churches (WCC) commission leaders in Chiang Mai, where those gathered are exploring how are churches called to witness together today, took time to reflect on what it means to re-articulate ecumenical social ethics today, and their hopes for the impact of the conference.