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The Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban, stop work orders and prolonged delays in reimbursement for resettlement agencies have had a devastating impact on tens of thousands of refugee families and communities across the country and around the world. Welcome to the latest edition of State of Play from Church World Service. This resource provides regular updates from the CWS Policy ...

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The post Daily State of Play: Trump’s Indefinite Refugee Ban and Funding Halt appeared first on CWS.

Miya Lasher

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Skye Larson gives sermons and speeches to raise money for homeless shelters and organizations.

In a pastoral letter sent to churches and people of Indonesia affected by forest fires, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay expressed deep concern, solidarity, and prayers as vast regions of Indonesia have endured months of forest and land fires.

As wildfires burn across Indonesia—including in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Papua, the disaster is damaging ecosystems, and causing widespread suffering as it threatens human life and the natural world.

Following Parliament’s apology for historic forced adoptions, Karen reflects on her own positive experience of adoption

A forum held by the Bahá’ís of Uzbekistan explores how residents, communities, and institutions can foster strong bonds of harmony in their neighborhoods.

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Olympia, with congregations on the Pacific Coast side of the state of Washington, announced Oct. 28 that it will transition management of its $100 million investment fund to The Episcopal Church’s endowment, becoming one of the largest diocesan trusts under churchwide management. “For decades, our fund has been managed by volunteers overseen by the board’s Investments Committee,” the Diocese of Olympia’s board of directors said in a letter to shareholders. “While this has served us well in the past, the complexity of modern markets requires institutional expertise.” The change means the diocese’s assets will become one of the many custodial trusts managed within the churchwide endowment by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, The Episcopal Church’s New York-based corporate entity. Episcopal Church Chief Financial Officer Christopher Lacovara provided additional context in response to an inquiry from Episcopal News Service. “We manage trust funds for more than a dozen dioceses and more than 150 congregations, plus trust funds for a variety of Episcopal charities and organizations,” Lacovara said. “The total program is $350 million, in addition to the [Episcopal Church] endowment of $500 million.” The Diocese of Olympia, in its online news release, listed several benefits of this new management plan. The diocese’s trust will be invested in assets that are aligned with The Episcopal Church’s “no buy” list and other corporate social responsibility initiatives. The Episcopal Church does not charge management fees, and it can better diversify the trust’s investments and ensure returns even in times of market volatility, the diocese said. And the investment returns historically have been better. The DFMS Trust has generated an average annual return of 8.3% since 1993, the diocese said, while the diocese’s own benchmark showed an annual return of 7.8%. “As faithful followers of Jesus in Western Washington, this change will help congregations better support mission-critical ministries throughout our diocese,” Olympia Bishop Phil LaBelle said in the release. “We are thrilled to partner with DFMS in this way.”

[Episcopal News Service] Every morning of the six-day 82nd General Convention in July 2027 will be set aside for worship, Bible studies, and small-group discussions with bishops and deputies at the same tables. The legislative agenda will encourage deeper discernment on key issues, including through a new structure with distinct committees focused on artificial intelligence, racial justice and the Holy Land. And the Virtual Binder is gone. Instead, bishops and deputies can research and follow legislation by using General Convention’s newly designed software, dubbed the Governance and Legislative System, or GLS. “Its design makes resolutions easier to find and follow, clarifies the status of legislation and amendments and helps participants understand the business before them,” The Episcopal Church’s presiding officers said Oct. 28 in a letter outlining those and other expectations for next year’s churchwide gathering in Phoenix, Arizona. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris, in their joint letter to the church, unveiled their vision for the 82nd General Convention with the theme of “Rising in Hope.” “As your presiding officers for General Convention, we are united in a vision for this work as a community of discernment,” Rowe and Ayala Harris said. “We want to create the conditions for the church to gather, pray, listen, build relationships and effectively carry out the responsibilities entrusted to us. We want you to arrive prepared to contribute and return home with a sense of purpose, connection, and hope for the work ahead.” General Convention is the church’s bicameral governing body, which divides its authority between the House of Bishops and House of Deputies. Every three years, hundreds of bishops and deputies gather in a different host city for a week of fellowship, formation, networking, socializing and the church’s core legislative work, including passage of the churchwide triennial budget plan. “We are so excited to welcome The Episcopal Church to the vibrant culture and life of Arizona,” Arizona Bishop Jennifer Reddall said in a written statement to Episcopal News Service as her diocese prepares to host the July 3-8 gathering. It will convene at the Phoenix Convention Center. The way the church gathers as General Convention has evolved substantially in recent years, particularly since the pandemic-delayed 80th General Convention held in 2022 in Baltimore, Maryland. It was shortened to four days while implementing a range of health precautions. The 81st General Convention in 2024 marked a return to a more traditional gathering in Louisville, Kentucky, though business was conducted over six days, still shorter than the convention’s historical length of eight days or more. The gathering next year in Phoenix will again be six days. Committees are now forming for online meetings that have become the norm in advance of the in-person meeting. Detailed plans are still taking shape after church leaders spent the past two years receiving feedback from General Convention attendees and considering ways of further reimagining the church’s governing structures and the gathering’s function. “How we gather, how we care for one another and how we make decisions all express what we believe about the church,” Rowe and Ayala Harris said. “In a culture that often rewards division and treats disagreements as contests to be won, we have an opportunity to practice something different. Our deliberations can make room for conviction, curiosity and the possibility that listening to one another will deepen our understanding.” In 2024, General Convention passed a resolution calling on the church to assess recent changes to the legislative process, the technology that supports legislative deliberations and the convention’s length, and then propose amendments to the bishops’ and deputies’ Rules of Order that would improve the convention’s work. Rowe and Ayala Harris appointed a committee to carry out those assessments, known as the General Convention Reinvention Steering Committee. It was chaired by Minnesota Bishop Craig Loya and the Rev. Scott Gunn, executive director of Forward Movement. One of the committee’s central recommendations was to find ways to foster deeper discernment at General Convention on a smaller number of key issues, Loya told ENS in an interview this month, and to “ground ourselves in Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit.” That grounding will happen in the mornings in Phoenix, Loya said. “We’re imagining that every morning of this coming General Convention will be spent in prayer and Bible studies with bishop and deputies.” The Reinvention Steering Committee presented its recommendations to the Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements, which is now leading churchwide preparations for the 82nd General Convention in collaboration with the presiding officers. As legislative process evolves, budget gets an overhaul Ayala Harris told ENS that the new vision for General Convention is also based on a fall 2024 survey of past attendees. Respondents said they enjoyed the sense of community, inclusive worship services and the democratic process by which the church made some historic decisions in Louisville. On the other hand, they cited challenges navigating the convention’s technology while struggling with time management in the face of what they said was an inefficient legislative process. Some procedural changes were adopted by House of Deputies through its Rules of Order in 2024. Before convening, deputies had spent several months reviewing and debating a series of proposed rules changes, and some of the more controversial proposals were rejected in Louisville. This year, the House of Deputies is not considering a comparable set of potential rules changes for the upcoming convention. With the current rules in place helping to streamline the process, “it really is just relying on legislative committee leadership and the culture of the house to be able to keep itself focused,” Ayala Harris said. At the same time, the Joint Budget Committee this year has been developing a draft churchwide 2028-30 budget plan aligned with the strategic vision outlined by Rowe last week in a presentation to Executive Council, which is the church’s governing body between meetings of General Convention. The council voted in favor […]

[Anglican Taonga] Hawai‘i Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick named nine church leaders as honorary canons of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Honolulu, O‘ahu, during an Oct. 18 installation service marking the Feast of St. Luke. Most of the honorary canons are from the Diocese of Hawai‘i, but two are from the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia; Jenny Te Paa-Daniel and Fe‘iloakitau Kaho Tevi. Polynesia Archbishop Sione Ulu‘ilakepa attended the service to support Fitzpatrick at one of his final services at the cathedral before retiring at the end of November. During the service, Fitzpatrick described Te Paa-Daniel and Kaho Tevi as special friends and as “kumu,” which means “teacher” in Hawaiian. He thanked them for introducing him to many people and for welcoming him in Oceania and Asia. “They’ve offered me a seat at the table that has been a gift,” Fitzpatrick said. Read the full article here.

Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere these days: in the news, in our internet search results, in many workplaces (to some degree), in our conversations, and much more. For people connected to the internet, it has become virtually inescapable. What should its place in our lives be? How is AI shaping us while we use it? What does it add or take away from our lives? Is it a helpful tool or a threat? These are some of the many questions asked and discussed at the Wisdom in the Age of AI conference held at Calvin University Oct. 8-10, 2026. Over 650 people from over a dozen countries around the world gathered on the campus for three days to...