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MARCHA sets priorities at annual meeting, including reviewing bylaws, strengthening ties with Latin America, advocating for immigrant communities and developing the Elías Galván Endowment Fund.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay extended warm greetings and good wishes to Jewish communities around the world as they celebrate Rosh Hashanah, welcome the year 5787, and prepare to observe Yom Kippur.

The 2026 World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Formation Seminar brought 15 participants together from 7 to 11 September for a week of reflection, relationship-building, and exploration of possibilities for collective action.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay offered special greetings and prayers from the whole ecumenical community for the 111th General Assembly of Presbyterian Church of Korea.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay sent greetings to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Rt. Rev. Manasseh Gahima was elected primate of the Anglican Church of Rwanda and bishop of the Diocese of Gasabo on Sept. 11. Gahima, whose installation is scheduled for Oct. 25, will succeed the Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, who has led the Anglican Church of Rwanda since 2018. Gahima has served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Gahini since 2019. Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally presented her first Lambeth Awards on Sept. 11 at Lambeth Palace Chapel to 27 people for their contributions to the Anglican Communion, the Church of England or wider society. The Lambeth Awards span five categories: the Cross of St. Augustine for Services to the Anglican Communion, the Canterbury Cross for Services to the Church of England, the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation, the Langton Award for Community Service and the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook, historiographer of The Episcopal Church, received the Lanfranc Award for contributions to theological education and church history. Read the full article here.

[Church of England] An increasing number of Church of England parishes, some of them in the most rural areas of the country, are moving away from oil and gas and improving their energy efficiency as they brace for rising energy bills this winter. A match funding pilot scheme from the Church of England’s Net Zero Carbon Program, called Give to Go Green, helps churches pay for work such as under-pew heating, LED lighting, insulation, electrical upgrades and small solar panel and battery storage schemes. It will be expanded to all 42 Church of England dioceses. Read the full article here.

The late pastor and missionary was at the helm of choosing where the pan-African university would be built, and his network proved invaluable.

[Episcopal News Service] Every weekday at 8 a.m., over a hundred Episcopalians in the Diocese of New York log on to Zoom for Morning Prayer. From those on bus commutes to those sitting in living rooms, Bishop Matthew Heyd said, this daily service has brought the diocese together. “It’s a wonderful collection of the diversity of the diocese every day,” Heyd told Episcopal News Service. The Diocese of New York covers 10 counties, including three New York City boroughs – Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island – and the city’s suburbs and upstate cities and towns. Within its 190 worshipping communities, there exists a variety of liturgical styles and languages spoken. Morning Prayer is a chance to uplift each corner of the diocese and make connections where they might otherwise be unlikely, Heyd said. “I’ve met people,” the Rev. Cindy McCloskey, a deacon on Staten Island, told ENS. “Sometimes it’s just through that box,” she said. “We’ve never met formally, but sometimes I get a chat box, words from someone, and I’ll go someplace and they’ll say, ‘I know you from Morning Prayer!’ and it opens up conversations. Oh, my goodness, it’s amazing.” McCloskey was a postulant for the diaconate in 2023 when Morning Prayer began, and Heyd invited postulants for ordination to officiate. During the week of her ordination, she credited the daily services with preparing her spiritually, especially the Gospel readings and reflections on “new wineskins.” Three years later, McCloskey now helps run the slides and invites participants to read. In addition to the officiant, multiple people read per day, and over 100 people have preached from all over the diocese and The Episcopal Church. For the particularly isolated parts of the diocese, like the churches on Staten Island or rural areas, McCloskey said this is a way to feel integrated with other Episcopalians. Ashley Shepherd has attended nearly every day since it began – even from vacation. A parishioner at the Church of the Epiphany on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Shepherd said this Morning Prayer differs from other daily office services because of the regular sermons and the sheer number of prayer requests. “I write my prayer really quickly, and I read the others, and I pray with them,” Shepherd said. “Sometimes the support that we get from [each other] can carry us.” When the call goes silent for intercessory prayer, the chat box floods with long lists of names, places and concerns. Heyd said Morning Prayer has been a place to process current events as they unfold, and there are frequent prayers about ICE activity in New York City and for peace in Gaza. “We’re living in a tough time,” Shepherd said. As an activist, she told ENS, she has witnessed frustration and despair at community gatherings like anti-ICE rallies. “Maybe I would not be as engaged [in Morning Prayer] if times were not this horrible. I don’t know.” Morning Prayer also has been a source of grounding and routine for Judy Douglas, director of programs for Episcopal Charities and a postulant for the diaconate. She officiates once a month and attends multiple times a week, usually with her camera off as she gets ready for the workday. In addition to making new connections online, Douglas described one morning in particular when she invited a friend at just the right time. “I had been walking in Rye with a dear friend who had recently lost her husband,” Douglas said. “The time was coming for morning prayer, we were still walking, and I thought to myself, ‘oh, my gosh, should I just invite her to come to Morning Prayer?’” Douglas said she hesitated because her friend was Jewish, but they logged on together. Archdeacon Denise LaVetty began her reflection that day with a Yiddish term that Douglas said she didn’t know but moved her friend to tears. “Not only did it mean a lot to me to invite her in even though she was Jewish, that particular one she signed into was what she needed to hear at that time,” she said. Heyd wrote in a newsletter to the diocese that Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, the original author of the Book of Common Prayer, would not have predicted that Anglicans would pray the daily office online, in multiple places at once. But in other ways, Heyd said, virtual Morning Prayer that celebrates the different charisms across the diocese follows in the Anglican tradition. “The diversity in the expression of the Gospel; actually in that way, Cranmer would have anticipated,” Heyd said. “The Gospel in our own language was a wonderful part of the English Reformation, and that reformation continues.” Praying individually is something Douglas enjoys, but she said the community that has been built from gathering day in and day out is “unbelievable.” “Where two or more are gathered, God is in the midst,” Douglas said. “When we see each other out and about, we recognize the person that we see on Zoom. And it brings us even closer together.” -Logan Crews is a freelance journalist and hospital chaplain resident in the Diocese of Missouri.