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[Episcopal News Service] “Audrey’s Children,” a feature-length biopic about Dr. Audrey Evans, a pioneering British American pediatric oncologist and a devout Episcopalian who co-founded the first Ronald McDonald House with members of the Philadelphia Eagles and McDonald’s, will have a limited theatrical release beginning March 28. Natalie Dormer – best known for her roles in “Game of Thrones” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2” – stars as Evans, the first female chief of oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first doctors to treat pediatric cancers with chemotherapy. Directed by Ami Canaan Mann, “Audrey’s Children” highlights Evans’ myriad accomplishments in the 1970s while battling sexism and medical conventions of the time. Julia Fisher Farbman, a close friend of Evans, wrote the script and produced the film. “There are so many things that happen in the movie that I remember Audrey telling us that happened. …Natalie [Dormer] did such a great job showcasing the persistence and also the pain in Audrey’s life, too,” David Kasievich, president and head of school at St. James School, a tuition-free Episcopal school for children grades 4 through 8 in Philadelphia, told Episcopal News Service. Not long after she retired in 2009 from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Evans co-founded St. James School, which opened its doors two years later. “Being a woman – being in a very male-dominated role – Audrey hit so many roadblocks and legal issues,” said Kasievich, who watched an early screening of the movie. “You’re going to see some things in this movie, and you’re going to say, ‘Whoa.’ This woman defied all the resistance.” Born in York, England, in 1925, Evans was the only female student at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Scotland and the only woman in her residency program at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the early 1950s. In 1953, she earned a Fulbright Fellowship and moved to Massachusetts to train at Boston Children’s Hospital for two years. Evans completed her medical training at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1955. She briefly moved back to England to practice pediatrics but returned to the United States after learning that the field was closed to women in her home country. After working in pediatric oncology in Boston and Chicago, Illinois, Evans was recruited to create a pediatric oncology unit at CHOP, where she spent the rest of her medical career. In 1971, she developed the Evans Staging System for neuroblastoma – a cancer that starts in neuroblast cells and mostly affects infants and young children – to help determine disease progression and treatment efficacy. The system helped cut the mortality rate in half, and today, the survival rate is 90-95%. “To be the one who cares is one of the most rewarding experiences in a person’s life,” Evans once said. While serving as chief of oncology, Evans noticed that many out-of-town families of children receiving treatment at CHOP had no place, or no affordable place to stay in the city. In the early 1970s, she met Jim Murray, then-general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, when the NFL team raised and donated $100,000 to the hospital for children with cancer in honor of a leukemia patient, Kim Hill – the daughter of Fred Hill, a tight end and wide receiver. At the time, another Eagles player, quarterback Roman Gabriel, was advertising seasonal Shamrock Shakes for McDonald’s. (Kim Hill later died of brain cancer in 2011.) After Evans proposed free housing for families of children treated at CHOP, Murray reached out to Ed Rensi, McDonald’s regional manager, for a donation toward purchasing a house. Rensi said yes and that he would donate proceeds from Shamrock Shake sales toward the house if it would be named the Ronald McDonald House, after the fast-food chain’s clown mascot. Gabriel was inspired to later open the first Ronald McDonald House in North Carolina, his home state. Dormer told the hosts of “The View” television program in a March 27 interview that she “could not fathom that [Evans] wasn’t a household name.” “[Audrey’s Children] is just the most amazing tale of the most incredible woman – pioneering, determined woman,” said Dormer, who met Evans before filming commenced. Evans died two weeks into filming in 2022 at age 97. “[Evans] was one of those great Americans who dedicated her life to giving hope and comfort to families. She didn’t just sit back; she saw the pain – the need – and she stepped into it,” Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez told ENS in a phone interview. “She was extraordinary in every way that it’s hard even to encapsulate the profound impact she made on the world. “To know Audrey Evans – her study and her advancements in medicine, especially pediatric oncology – it’s indescribable. She was a faithful Episcopalian who cared so much and who did so much. Audrey lived a life of love as a true Christian servant, living in and caring for the community.” The first Ronald McDonald House – founded by Evans, Murray, Fred Hill, Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose and McDonald’s – opened in 1974 in Philadelphia. The independent nonprofit, Ronald McDonald House Charities is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where the McDonald’s Corporation is based. Today, it operates more than 387 houses in 62 countries, all located minutes away from special care hospitals. It provides at least 2.7 million overnight stays annually. In 2023, families saved $736 million in lodging and meal expenses. The charity also provides free home-cooked meals and holistic services to families, an additional service that Evans encouraged. Ronald McDonald House Charities also operates more than 271 “family rooms” inside hospitals in 28 countries, which allow families to rest while staying beside their sick children. The family rooms provide free snacks and toys, as well as a private place to shower and take a nap. Additionally, Ronald McDonald House Charities operates 41 “care mobiles” […]

United Methodist leaders in Nigeria and Liberia are caught in legal battles with the new Global Methodist Church over the ownership of United Methodist properties.

The Rev. Elaine A. Heath overcame a difficult childhood to make a successful career as a church leader and educator. Her latest incarnation is as the abbess of a new kind of Christian community.

Spring Forest in Hillsborough, North Carolina, is part monastery, part collective farm and part any number of other things.

[Episcopal News Service] At Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the 11 a.m. Eastern service on March 16 was a special observance of the fifth anniversary of the church’s shutdown during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It included readings that dealt with illness and loss, prayers for healthcare workers and those who died, and music that often is used at funerals, including “O God our Help in Ages Past.” The Rev. Jonathon Jensen, the church’s rector, told Episcopal News Service that he started wondering last fall why his congregation, or any congregation in The Episcopal Church, had yet to liturgically mark something that had impacted so many people for so long. So, he and Alan Lewis, the church’s director of music, started making plans to do it. They chose March 16 because five years earlier it was on Sunday, March 15, 2020, that in-person worship was suspended at Calvary, and it remained that way for about 14 months, Jensen said. The remembrance formed the first part of the service and began with the clergy and choir all wearing masks. “I hadn’t worn a mask in a couple of years,” he said. “I had forgotten how hot it was, how itchy, how hard it is to breathe.” The choir sat apart from each other as they had in the days of social distancing, and paper signs reminding people to stand 6 feet apart lined the center aisle. Jensen said that people told him those elements were “more powerful than they had imagined, and they had forgotten what it was like.” After the offertory, masks came off and the choir returned to their usual place near the altar. The service included elements that Jensen said were intentionally tactile and sensory, as a contrast to the COVID-era practice of staying away from others. That included the offer to anoint people with oil, and while that is available every week, about 20% of the congregations took part that day. “That never happens on a Sunday,” he said. In his sermon, Jensen described how he learned to preach to a pole in an empty nave during early online worship, “hoping somebody on the other end was watching.” He mentioned the losses people suffered, from missed graduations and kids learning behind screens to postponed weddings and funerals held online – including his own father’s funeral. Another impact is reflected, he said, in a recent Pew survey that showed that 72% of Americans said the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together. One thing he believes the church can do is to help people heal. He hoped this service and its offering of “a ritual, a liturgical acknowledgement of the death, literally and metaphorically, that we experienced,” was a start, he said. Other remembrances in Georgia, Church of England St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, used a different medium to mark the anniversary – a 4-by-5-foot icon featuring a variety of COVID-era images, including washing hands, worshipping online and getting a vaccine. The Rev. Patricia Templeton, St. Dunstan’s rector, commissioned the icon in memory of her husband, Joe Monti, who died from Covid in 2023. Monti taught moral theology and Christian ethics at the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, for 27 years before he retired in 2009. The icon was created by Kelly Latimore, a noted icon writer known for his icon of Matthew Shepard displayed at Washington National Cathedral. The murder of Shepard, a gay college student, in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming, sparked a national outcry against homophobia and violence against LGBTQ+ people. Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright blessed the icon on March 16. During that service, parishioners were invited to put a bit of gold leaf on their thumbs and press it to the icon to add to the halos of people portrayed in it. Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell officiated at an online service on March 25 that marked five years since the Church of England began hosting a virtual, national worship service it calls Church at Home. The Church of England has offered a weekly online service from a variety of churches nationwide since March 22, 2020, when former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby officiated at the first one. In 2024, the services drew over 21 million views. The virtual anniversary service included some notable recorded elements from the past five years, including the Rev. Richard Allen leading the confession from a lifeboat in Cornwall’s Trelawny Benefice, and hymns from St. Martin’s Voices, one of the United Kingdom’s most notable choral ensembles, singing in a stable, where a donkey famously interrupted filming with its chorus of braying. The service also included a reflection from the Rev. Gill Behenna, national Deaf ministry advisor for the Church of England and one of its regular sign language interpreters. Cottrell said that these services “have connected us as a Christian community and as an online community.” About 30% of Church of England congregations continue to offer a regular Church at Home service. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, was welcomed in Lae, the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea, March 21 by the Rt. Rev. Nathan Ingen, bishop of Aipo Rongo and acting primate of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea. Poggo’s visit March 21-24 formed part of his recent tour of the Oceania region. Papua New Guinea includes five dioceses: Aipo Rongo, Dogura, New Guinea Islands, Popondota and Port Moresby. While the majority of the population identify as Christians, only 3.2% identify as Anglican, according to the 2000 census data. Poggo undertook visits around Oceania primarily to encourage the Anglican Communion and related agencies and to learn more about the Anglican church in the regions. Reflecting on his visit, Poggo said, “I have greatly enjoyed and appreciated my time in Papua New Guinea. It has been particularly valuable for me to visit churches, meet with the leadership network here and to learn more about the community-based philanthropic initiatives that are happening here regarding education and health. I thank God for the vibrant spirituality I have witnessed in the people I have met in Papua New Guinea and pray that my visit has inspired them as it has me.” After arriving at Nadzab Tomodachi Airport, Poggo was welcomed with gifts and celebration by church representatives and the Tufi Maising singing group before visiting Dennis Kabekabe Conference Center. During his time in Lae, Poggo and the four bishops of Papua New Guinea planted tree seedlings to commemorate their meeting. Across the Anglican Communion, trees are often planted as a symbol of the importance of caring for the environment, nurturing future generations and celebrating the strong connections between branches of a global Anglican Communion, rooted in Christ. Planting trees is also something that the Anglican Communion Office has been encouraging through the Communion Forest initiative, which aims to significantly increase the number of Anglican tree-growing and ecosystem conservation, protection and restoration activities around the world and to deepen care for creation within the life of the church and its members. Poggo also visited the Anglican Health Office, a body of the Anglican Health Service, and saw the good works they are doing to improve the physical, psychological, social and spiritual health and wellbeing of everyone in the communities they serve. The Anglican Health Service includes 119 facilities in Papua New Guinea, which the government helps to fund and the church builds. Most of these clinics are in rural areas where medical assistance is otherwise difficult to access and acuity levels range from rural hospitals through health centers and aid posts to village clinics. Providing for those over 15 years of age, the Adult Literacy Program in Papua New Guinea is a pilot program funded by the Anglican Mission Board of Australia, which educates adult students in English, math, social inclusion and religious education with the goal of enabling students to read and write within nine months. This program is vital for those who have not already attended school for reasons such as getting married at an early age but still wish to pursue education. Within this pilot program, there are currently three schools in Port Moresby and three in Popendetta, and the students only have to pay for their school materials — travel is covered by the program. Poggo was particularly pleased to see the project and spend time with those involved. “One of the things that I admired while I am here is the adult literacy initiatives carried out by the church,” he said. “This is an encouragement to me, personally, as someone from South Sudan, where literacy levels are very low. The program aimed at helping people learn to read and write is so important to me.” On March 23, Poggo attended a morning service of confirmation at All Souls Anglican Church in Lae. Bishops or clergy from the five dioceses of Papua New Guinea assisted with the service and welcomed the new confirmation candidates. The service included a welcome address by the acting primate and bishop of Aipo Rongo, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Ingen; a sermon by Poggo; communion and confirmation of several of the parish’s young people, who also led the prayers. Ingen said in his address, “We are truly honored to have you among us as we gather for this sacred occasion of worship, celebration and the confirmation of our candidates. Bishop Poggo, your presence here today is a great blessing to our parish, our diocese and the entire Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea. As secretary general of the Anglican Communion, you carry the important responsibility of fostering unity and strengthening the mission of the church worldwide. We are grateful for your leadership and your commitment to the growth of the Anglican family across all nations.”

[World Council of Churches] The Second Africa-Europe Ecumenical Forum on Migration took place March 17-21 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, organized by the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe.  The forum built on the outcomes of the first forum held in Hamburg, Germany, in March 2023. A communiqué released by the forum reads, in part, “We affirm that migration is an integral part of humanity, yet it remains an area fraught with injustices. We remain steadfast in opposing the criminalization and weaponization of migration and resisting migration management policies that disregard human dignity and safety.” The forum discouraged exploitative migration practices that hinder many from experiencing the love and goodness of God. “We noted the growing frustration among a significant proportion of young Africans who are seeking every possible avenue to migrate in pursuit of employment and better living conditions,” the communiqué said. Read the communiqué here. Read the entire article here.