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Mark Hopkins shares that across The Midlands people are looking to the church to answer some of life's big questions and how it is creating great opportunities for salvation

More than 100 people received health care, medicine, food and other supplies during a day of outreach in the Northern Nigeria Conference.

Archbishop and Acting Primate Anne Germond (Anglican Church of Canada) and National Bishop Susan Johnson (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada) reflect on the new world order put in place by Christ's resurrection.

The post Joint Easter message from the Acting Primate and National Bishop appeared first on The Anglican Church of Canada.

On Sunday, July 13, the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson will take the stage at the 35th General Synod of the United Church of Christ in Kansas City, Missouri, not to address the state of the denomination in her role…

The post Thompson to bring a ‘prophetic and pastoral’ message to Synod: ‘We are not all the same, but still one body’ appeared first on United Church of Christ.

[Church in Wales] The Welsh government has responded formally to concerns that have been raised by the archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev. Andrew John, to highlight the issue of river quality in Wales. In November, the archbishop convened a national summit, Restoring Welsh Riverss, hosted by the Church in Wales to draw attention to the issue. It brought together more than 90 people from across the United Kingdom, including scientists, farmers, environmentalists and water industry representatives, to discuss the challenges facing watercourses in Wales and to look at ways of improving water quality. The first minister, Eluned Morgan, also attended and addressed the gathering, setting out some of the actions Welsh government is taking to tackle the issues. Now, Welsh government’s deputy first minister and cabinet secretary for climate change and rural affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, has written to the archbishop explaining the measures that are being taken to tackle the problems. The measures include: Reducing intensive agriculture runoff. Strengthening enforcement of environmental regulations. Implementing nature-based solutions. Adopting a catchment management approach. Establishing a national environmental data-sharing platform. Read the full letter from Irranca-Davies here. The Church in Wales is grateful to receive such a helpful response to this pressing issue and looks forward to working with the Welsh government, with statutory agencies, charitable partners and other stakeholders in helping restore the rivers of Wales to full health.  

[Diocese of Kansas] The Rt. Rev. Cathleen Chittenden Bascom, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, has announced that she will step down on January 31, 2026, and has called for the election of her successor in the spring of 2026 with a consecration service in October 2026. She made the announcement in an email to the diocese on April 4. “I believe I am called to focus even more fully on creation care. Currently, the opportunity has surfaced to work in a consultant role with Presiding Bishop [Sean] Rowe, his staff, and bishops and green leaders across The Episcopal Church to build out Eco-Region Networks in the U.S. and Province IX,” she said in the announcement. The creation of these networks was authorized by General Convention in 2024. She also wants to continue work on the networks’ pilot project, Grassland Networks, that will have its initial gathering April 25-26 in Topeka, Kansas. Bascom, who is 63, said the timeline for the election and consecration of the 11th bishop of Kansas is still under discussion, with the initial dates proposed by the presiding bishop’s office. Bascom was elected in October 2018 and became the first woman to head the diocese, which includes the eastern portion of Kansas. It also was the first time that a bishop heading a diocese in The Episcopal Church was elected from a slate of candidates who all were women. She has been bishop since her consecration on March 2, 2019. The text of her announcement can be found here.

[Anglican Church of Canada] The Ven. Alan Perry, general secretary of the General Synod, has announced that the following four bishops have been nominated by the Order of Bishops for the office of primate of The Anglican Church of Canada: The Most Rev. Christopher Harper, national Indigenous Anglican archbishop. The Most Rev. Greg Kerr-Wilson, archbishop of Calgary. The Rt. Rev. David Lehmann, bishop of Caledonia. The Rt. Rev. Riscylla Walsh-Sha, suffragan bishop of Toronto. Biographical information and photos of the nominees will be released on April 11, 2025. The election will be conducted on June 26, 2025, during the meeting of the General Synod. Perry added, “The election of a new primate is a profound moment of spiritual discernment in the life of our beloved church. I invite your prayers for the orders of bishops, clergy and laity as they prepare for and engage in this discernment process. Please pray for those who will be nominated, their families and dioceses, and for the person who will be elected — whom God has already chosen to be our next primate. And please do pray for Archbishop Anne Germond, our acting primate, as she steers us through the next few months.”

A new Iliff School of Theology course aims to “change the narrative around death” by giving pastors and others the foundation they need to support the dying and their families.

[Episcopal News Service] Grace Africa Christian Connection in St. Louis, Missouri, is only two and a half years old, but already it has an average Sunday attendance of about 40, with another 80 people involved in community life. Its mission is to serve African and Afro Caribbean immigrants living in the United States, and today people from at least 15 countries call it their church home. GACC, as it is known, is a church plant of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri that came about through a chance meeting in early March 2020 of then-Bishop-elect Deon K. Johnson and seminary student Mtipe Koggani. That morning Johnson attended Emmanuel Episcopal Church near his home and struck up a conversation with Koggani, a lifelong Anglican from Tanzania who had come to the U.S. to study at Eden Theological Seminary, just across the street from the church. He asked Koggani if he knew of other Africans living in the area, and Koggani said he could name at least 50 people. Sensing a mission opportunity, Johnson told Episcopal News Service, “I said, ‘Let’s get you into the ordination process and ordain you.’” Koggani, who had been an active lay pastor at his home church and had planned to return to Tanzania after he graduated, told ENS the reason he was going to seminary was to serve the church. Johnson’s offer, he said, “was an opportunity to serve my African brothers and sisters.” So he said “yes.” Even though COVID-19 restrictions were announced the next week, plans for Koggani’s ministry progressed. He graduated from Eden, served a year in the Episcopal Service Corps at the DuBois Center in Illinois, and then graduated in 2022 with a diploma in Anglican Studies from Virginia Theological Seminary. Johnson noted that while Koggani was in Virginia, he created a group chat for Africans back in St. Louis so he could stay connected to them. He also worked with a team of eight people who spent that year listening to what people wanted in a new church community. “We didn’t want to go with the colonial method of us going to them and saying, ‘We are bringing you this,’” Koggani said. “We wanted to have mutual ministry.” Once he was back in the St. Louis, Koggani found space at Grace United Methodist Church where GACC could worship on Sunday afternoons. And they started offering free piano, drums and guitar lessons to kids in the community as a way to potentially get them involved in the church. “They now are the ones who are part of our band during worship,” he said. “They started when they were 10, 11 years old, and they’re 13 or 14 now.” They are so good that other churches have invited them to play, he said. And they are so dedicated that they never miss church “unless they are out of town or very, very sick.” Family members who have seen how happy the kids in the band are now attend church. Grace Methodist also has given them space to set up a recording studio, where the band can record practice sessions and where Koggani hopes to create videos, podcasts and other multimedia evangelism opportunities that can be shared on social media platforms. “It also is a way of supporting African immigrants in the area who have talents in music, in video production and things like that, but who cannot afford studio sessions somewhere else,” he said. GACC doesn’t charge for using the space, asking only for a donation. Worship services follow the Book of Common Prayer, relying on Rite 3 of the Holy Eucharist, since it allows for the flexibility to incorporate elements of African style worship. “It’s different and similar to a typical Episcopal service,” Koggani said. He and others in the church also have a ministry to international students coming to St. Louis, often reaching out to them even before they leave their home country. For Lynne Mumbe, now finishing her master’s degree in marketing at Webster University, that included finding her a place to live after she arrived from her home in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2023. She was days away from leaving and still had nowhere to stay, so she searched social media to find anyone in St. Louis who might help. “I was connected with Reverend Mtipe,” she told ENS, who offered to provide short-term housing for her. He also stayed in touch while she was traveling, and a church member picked her up at the airport and took her shopping for essentials. She ended up renting the place where the church had hosted her initially. Now, she and others helped by GACC feel called to do the same, she said. “We decided to transfer that [help] to other people, being that now we are members.” Like Mumbe, the Rev. Kenneth Chimwaga first learned of the church when he still was in Tanzania – he and Koggani both come from the capital city, Dodoma – before heading to St. Louis to study at Eden Seminary. Once in Missouri, he reached out to Koggani and has been attending GACC ever since. A priest in the Anglican Church in Tanzania in his first year at the seminary, Chimwaga told ENS he enjoys making connections with people from across Africa. He also really likes the style of worship there, especially the singing and dancing and the use of piano, guitars and other instruments. “We feel like we are at home,” he said. Johnson noted that when people attend GACC, they don’t just worship and then go home. “They come to build community,” he said. “There’s always food, there’s always fellowship – they usually have to kick people out and say, ‘go home.’” Chimwaga praised those responsible for helping to create GACC. “Father Mtipe is doing a very, very good job,” he said. “And Bishop Deon, who allowed this ministry to be established – congratulations to them both.” When asked if he planned to stay in […]

The World Council of Churches (WCC) morning prayer focused on World Health Day, observed on 7 April under the theme “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures.”