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KING OF PRUSSIA, PA (ABNS 5/6/25)—The American Baptist Churches USA joins in celebration with the American Baptist Churches of New York State (ABCNYS) as Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot has been called to serve as the region’s next Executive Minister. His call was affirmed by the ABCNYS Board of Mission at a special meeting held on […]

The post Rev. Jerrod Hugenot Called as Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of New York State appeared first on ABCUSA.

U.S. Government Ordered to Comply with Court Orders in Refugee Ban Lawsuit or Face Sanctions  Government Must Process Around 12,000 Refugees Stranded by Trump Administration   (Seattle, WA) – CWS, HIAS, LCSNW, and IRAP welcomed the compliance order issued yesterday in Pacito v. Trump, reaffirming that the government must process and provide resettlement support to refugees who were conditionally approved ... Read More

[Episcopal News Service] There’s no excuse for food waste at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Gridley, California. Anything that’s not eaten right away or composted can be preserved, which has become an entertaining and tasty activity for the team of parishioners who teach free monthly food preservation classes, mostly using produce from the church’s community garden. “We want to be good stewards of what we’ve been given and share it with others. They, too, can be good stewards,” Kathy Mahannah, St. Timothy’s senior warden, told Episcopal News Service. “We grow the food; we eat. We preserve what we don’t eat right away, and we compost what we don’t eat all of and put it back into the garden. It’s a self-contained, full circle of creation care with no added transportation.” Mahannah is a certified master food preserver, as are her wife, Grace Mahannah, and Brianna Swanson, another instructor. The three started St. Timothy’s “Preserving Food with Friends” program in June 2024. In St. Timothy’s parish hall every first Saturday of the month, except December, they and other volunteers teach an element of food preservation – pickling, different types of canning, fermenting, dehydrating and more – using whatever cultivars, or plant varieties, are appropriate for preserving and in season.  “Everything we teach is seasonal. When it’s strawberry season, we’ll teach a strawberry jam class. In June, we’ll have cucumbers, so we’ll make pickles,” Swanson told ENS, adding the classes offer many benefits. “Students can connect with people and with orchards to glean free food, or they can pick up food from the community garden and know how to preserve what they’ve gathered.” Despite its tiny size – averaging about 15 people every Sunday for worship – St. Timothy’s congregation is impacting the community of about 7,000 residents with its food preservation classes. Even though Butte County, California, where Gridley is located, is a significant agricultural area, 14.6% of its residents – higher than the 12.6% statewide average – are experiencing food insecurity, according to the latest data from Feeding America. Food preservation techniques can help alleviate food insecurity by extending the shelf life of food, ensuring year-round access to food and reducing food waste while maintaining nutritional value. The three instructors emphasize food and kitchen hygiene and safety – including knife skills – in all their classes to prevent injury, foodborne illness, spoilage and waste. They explain the science behind why and how much of certain ingredients need to be added to specific recipes, and how to properly process preserved foods. For example, canned tomato products, like salsa, must have a certain amount of bottled lemon or lime juice, or vinegar with sufficient acidity, to kill and prevent the growth of harmful bacteria that cause botulism, which can be fatal. The instructors then lead a hands-on demonstration and answer questions throughout. Students can customize spices and seasonings to taste. “We teach you what to do and why you’re doing it. We teach about pathogens and what can be in your food if you don’t prepare it safely,” Kathy Mahannah said. “We want to make sure that after two hours of learning with us, people will go home with best practices and properly vetted recipes.” All materials are provided, and signup isn’t required. Class sizes average 20 people with some returning students. Children are also welcome to participate, with adult supervision. Students also get to enjoy free samples of whatever they’re learning to make. “When we gave samples of sauerkraut and pickled carrots the last time we taught fermented and pickled vegetables, everyone said, ‘this is the best sauerkraut I’ve ever had, and these are the best carrots I’ve ever had,’” Grace Mahannah said. Kathy and Grace Mahannah also are both master gardeners. Between July 2022 and November 2023, using a grant from the Episcopal Foundation of Northern California, they and other volunteers helped turn St. Timothy’s back lot into a community garden with 20 beds available to rent. Once a week, they host a community composting hub there, and St. Timothy’s recently installed a greenhouse to grow more vegetables year-round. Much of the garden’s produce is used for the food preservation classes. The rest is given away once a month to those in need.  Other financial donations are used to purchase canning jars, lids and bands, canning salt and other materials for the preservation classes. Nearby farmers donate additional materials and produce. One individual donated more than a year’s supply of pectin. “From a spiritual standpoint, I love the modeling of generosity in giving everything you know, and people are generous in return,” Grace Mahannah said. “It’s a generosity that we’re able to practice as Christians and also community – just being a good neighbor, being someone who is concerned about the community and whatever we can contribute to it.” The Mahannahs and Swanson said there’s been growing demand for low-sugar recipes. They began incorporating low-sugar options, including blueberry rhubarb jam with sugar-free pectin, in their classes beginning with the May 3 session, which covered fruit jams. Low-sugar recipes will also be offered during the pie filling class later this year. “We’re always looking for new and exciting recipes to try and teach our students,” Swanson said. She hopes to eventually teach a food preservation class to nearby 4-H clubs and Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts troops, who could use those skills to enter food competitions in the Butte County Fair in Gridley or the California State Fair in Sacramento, which is about 58 miles south of Gridley. Those children would be following in the footsteps of certified winners. Swanson, for one, took first and second place last year at the Butte County Fair with her pickles. The food preservation instructors said their favorite preserved foods are dehydrated mango, jams and escabeche – Mexican pickled vegetables. “It’s all delicious and really fun to make,” Grace Mahannah said. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can […]

During a panel discussion held during Kirchentag in Hannover, Germany, Rev. Dr Kenneth Mtata, World Council of Churches (WCC) programme director for Life, Justice, and Peace, shared  the WCC’s journey and commitment to economic and ecological justice—from its early prophetic foundations to the forthcoming launch of the Ecumenical Decade for Climate Action (2025–2035).

It’s a fact: Refugees around the world have made innumerable contributions to the communities that welcome them. When individuals seeking safety arrive in their new homes, they bring their skills, experience and knowledge with them. Across decades and borders, these contributions have led to many of the daily  But what if history had played out differently? What if, instead of ... Read More

[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. Anthony Ball was commissioned director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Italy, during a midday May 6 Eucharist attended by some 50 ecumenical partners and friends in the center’s Chapel of St. Augustine of Canterbury. “Today, in remarkable and historic circumstances, we welcome enthusiastically and liturgically our new director,” said the Rt. Rev. Michael Burrows, chair of the center’s board of governors and bishop of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe in the Church of Ireland, during his sermon. “We can’t, of course, as happened on the last similar occasion, combine this with an encounter between the occupants of the chairs of Peter and Augustine. That must wait.” It’s the first time since 1691, Burrows noted, that the Roman Catholic Church’s papacy and the Church of England’s office of the archbishop of Canterbury are vacant at the same time. The center’s director also serves as the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See at the Vatican. Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April 21. An Anglican delegation, including Burrows and Ball, attended Francis’ April 26 funeral. The conclave to elect the next pope begins May 7. Former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby stepped down Jan. 6 under pressure over his handling of a sprawling abuse scandal in the Church of England. The Crown Nominations Commission has started the process of choosing a successor. “We heard much at the papal funeral about the importance of building bridges rather than walls… In a very special way, the director of this center builds and reinforces bridges on behalf of all Anglicans between Canterbury and Rome,” Burrows said. “It’s, of course, particularly challenging to build bridges when the actual supports on both sides of the bridge you’re supposed to be building have been temporarily removed,” he said, again alluding to the top vacancies in both churches. Still, he added, it could be “a perfect and strangely providential moment for a new bridge-building director to begin his endeavor.” As Ball begins his directorship, Burrows said, “all things are being made new. And he’s just the person to make the very best and most exciting use of a genuinely, strangely, fairly blank canvas.” The center’s Board of Governors announced Ball’s appointment as director last November. Ball has served formerly as canon steward and archdeacon of Westminster Abbey, bishop of the Diocese of North Africa in the Province of Alexandria and assistant bishop in the Diocese of Egypt after a previous career as a diplomat. As center director, he succeeds Bishop Ian Ernest, who retired in late January. Founded in 1966 after a meeting between Pope Paul VI and Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey, the Anglican Centre serves as the Anglican Communion’s representation in Rome and a space for ecumenical encounters and dialogue. The Anglican Centre has served as home not just for Anglicans, but all Christians, said Roman Catholic Archbishop Flavio Pace, the Vatican’s secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. “This is the house of the Gospel,” he said. “We pray for you … that you can go on building the bridge.” Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe Bishop Mark Edington brought greetings from the Anglican bishops serving throughout Europe and from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe. Then, as a symbol of what unites Anglicans and Episcopalians throughout the communion, he gave Ball a Book of Common Prayer in both English and Italian. “Welcome to your place, my dear brother. We are glad you’re here,” Edington said. Housed in Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in the Eternal City’s historic center, the Anglican Centre hosts weekly Tuesday services – open to visitors, tourists and pilgrims. The center hosts a weekly prayer circle attended by ecumenical partners, and it coordinates joint education, mission and ecumenical projects with the Vatican and other partners. It also offers study courses, access to a larger Christian research library, and introductory access to other local library collections and universities. In brief remarks, Ball thanked those who’d come to the center for the commissioning: “I just wanted to put myself at your service, as I do at our Lord’s service, that we might grow together and seek to do great things together in that pilgrimage … We look forward to the guidance of the Spirit and our mutual discernment of where we’re going to go.” — Lynette Wilson is a reporter and managing editor of Episcopal News Service. She is based in Rome.

Ethan Loewi

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Maryann Batlle

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The groundbreaking sexuality education program will get a significant investment in co-owned curricula and other resources.

Unraveling wicker chairs, dull gardening shears, and broken necklaces are all items that routinely end up in landfills – a reality that folks from three churches in the Denver area set out to change by organizing a Helping Hands Repair…

The post Colorado church Repair Café mends items and a throw-away mindset appeared first on United Church of Christ.

During an ecumenical prayer service for the conclave, organized by the World Council of Churches and the Taize community on 6 May, those gathered reflected on the upcoming conclave, or the assembly of Roman Catholic cardinals who elect a new pope.

Forced to flee Ukraine in 2022, Elvira rebuilt her life in Serbia through creativity, community and determination—turning her sewing skills into a source of purpose, income and empowerment for herself and other refugee women. With support from CWS and partners, her family is now charting a path toward independence and stability. Stitch by Stitch: Reclaiming Purpose Through Creativity Before the ... Read More