Latest News

Diverse social actors in Brazil transcend institutional viewpoints, nurturing hope through dialogue and the reimagining of the foundations of justice and social progress.

Diverse social actors in Brazil transcend institutional viewpoints, nurturing hope through dialogue and the reimagining of the foundations of justice and social progress.

United Methodists from Burundi and Rwanda united for the installation of the area’s first bishop and establishment of the East Africa Central Conference.

The world is in chaos. It appears that there has been a retreat from long-standing commitments to peace, human rights, global humanitarian assistance, and sustainability. While the chaos seems intractable, […]

The post Amid the World’s Chaos, Let Us Not Forget about Armenia first appeared on National Council of Churches.

Across the U.S., legacy Black churches look for new ways to remain vital and reach communities, while United Methodist annual conferences work to provide the resources they need.

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of San Diego in southern California and several nonprofit and ecumenical partners have opened a shelter for migrant women and children in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the U.S.-Mexico border. The first residents are expected to move in on April 15, and staff and volunteers from both sides of the border are ready to serve them. The diocese partnered with Via International, the Vida Joven Foundation, the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Anglican Diocese of Western Mexico to establish Comunidad de Luz – Spanish for “Community of Light.” Licensed by the Mexican government, the shelter will house up to 150 women and children fleeing violence, poverty, and political and economic instability. “God understands the plight of the migrants and the refugees and those who are fleeing from danger and those who need to find a way to start a new life. God is most deeply concerned about the poorest and most vulnerable of our society, and that is where our church needs to be,” San Diego Bishop Susan Brown Snook told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “We need to be following Jesus, who said that whatever you do to the least of my siblings, you are doing to me. …We are ministering to Jesus himself and, metaphorically, to Jesus’s mother, Mary.” In addition to basic necessities like food, clothing and hygiene products, Comunidad de Luz will provide job training, mental health services, nutrition and health education, language classes, child care, academic resources, transportation and spiritual care. Social workers will also be available on site. The Rev. Tony Hernandez, a priest in the Anglican Church of Mexico, will offer regular prayer services and pastoral care at the shelter. Comunidad de Luz also has outdoor space that includes a play area; it will eventually include a vegetable garden that will be a part of the nutrition and children’s education programs. No time limit has been established for residents to stay at Comunidad de Luz, but Snook said she and others involved with the shelter estimate they would stay for up to a year. In that time, the women will “hopefully” have completed job training and have established a network as they search for housing and employment in Tijuana. Child residents will be enrolled in a nearby public school, with the shelter covering the cost of uniforms and school supplies, Snook said.  Robert Vivar, the Diocese of San Diego’s immigration missioner, told ENS the shelter aims to create self-sustainable programs for the residents so that they can live “a quality life” after leaving. “We want to create a space where vulnerable migrant women and children have an opportunity to live a dignified life,” he said. The goal is “to help prepare them so that at a certain point, they can reintegrate back into their community.” Work on Comunidad de Luz began in 2023, shortly after Vivar started working for the diocese. Vivar preached about migration challenges at Christ Episcopal Church in Coronado, the church home of Tony Ralphs. His wife, a Mexican citizen, owns the fenced 13-acre property in Tijuana where the shelter now sits. The Ralphses were already operating a six-story orphanage, retreat center and chapel on the compound but had another two-story building that wasn’t being used. After hearing Vivar preach, Tony Ralphs offered to license the empty building for a new migrant shelter. The building received significant upgrades and additions, including an apartment for its resident coordinator, bathrooms, showers, a larger water heater and more. The first floor includes a large commercial kitchen, a dining room, a laundry room and a meeting space for group therapy and other needs. The second floor has three large dormitory-style rooms with bunk beds provided by the Mexican government. An apartment and office space for the shelter’s resident coordinator, Monse Melendez, were also added to the building. Comunidad de Luz is licensed to serve only women and children because of its shared property with the orphanage, according to Snook. Elisa Sabatini is director of Via International, a San Diego-based nonprofit that promotes sustainable, asset-based community development across Latin America, the United States and Sri Lanka. She told ENS that the shelter will “probably cost” $100,000 a year to remain fully operational. “We have the resources for the operational aspects like bedding, lodging and meals, but I think the more ambitious part of the shelter will be the training of staff and volunteers, the education programs, and the health and psychological services,” Sabatini said. “We’ll need to keep raising money to be sure that we’re solid with everything we’re trying to offer.” Via International will run adult programming within Comunidad de Luz, including career development and trauma-informed psychological care. The nonprofit will also organize mission service trips to the shelter through its Via GO Travel program. Aida Renee Amador Aleman, a migrant coordinator for Via International since 2017, will serve as director of Comunidad de Luz. Snook said a $300,000 startup grant from a private foundation helped to kickstart the shelter. She said she thinks that money will last about a year and a half, but “we’re recognizing that we can’t just sit back and say we’ve got this money and we’re going to be fine.” Fundraising for future sustainment has already begun; almost $25,000 was raised during the Christmas 2024 season. “So much is required to start a program like this, from the legal side to the financial and fundraising side, to pulling together the partners who are passionate about this work,” Snook said. Snook and Sabatini are board members of the shelter along with Janet Marseilles, a board member of the Vida Joven Foundation. The San Marcos, California-based nonprofit provides funding and services to orphaned and migrant children in the Mexican state of Baja California. Vida Joven has committed financial support to Comunidad de Luz’s programs for children. Clergy, Tijuana officials, community activists and others who’ve been addressing the humanitarian crisis […]

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe has joined other interfaith denominational leaders in signing a “friend of the court” brief opposing government funding of religious charter schools in a case that will be heard this month by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case centers on a Roman Catholic school in Oklahoma that was approved by a state board in 2023 to become what was said to be the nation’s first religious charter school. Opponents, however, have argued that the Constitution prohibits such schools from receiving public funds because it would effectively endorse a specific religion. The school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, promotes itself as providing “an authentically Catholic education, forming students to be engaged, productive and conscientious members of their community.” After it was approved as a state-funded charter school, however, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, sued to block the funding. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the school, which is now appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court will hear the case on April 30. Rowe was joined in filing the Supreme Court brief opposing the charter school funding by a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups. The brief argues that using funds to support a religious school runs counter to historical norms in the United States and violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from enacting laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” “If St. Isidore is functionally a public school, as the Oklahoma Supreme Court held, then it is flatly unconstitutional for the state to fund its religious mission,” the interfaith leaders say in their brief. “The Episcopal Church has consistently supported religious freedom for all in a variety of contexts,” the brief says in summarizing Rowe’s reason for signing. “In 1994, the church urged state legislatures considering ‘moment of silence’ statues for public schools to ‘assure constitutional balance’ in their treatment of the issue by ‘carefully considering the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause as well as its Establishment Clause.’” Due to timing constraints, House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris was unable to join the brief before it was filed, according to a church spokesperson, though she issued a statement in support of the action. “As a church, we have a responsibility to speak with moral clarity in the face of the rising tide of Christian nationalism and its dangerous ties to white supremacy,” Ayala Harris said. “Public funding of religious charter schools is not a neutral act – it erodes both public education and the constitutional safeguards that protect true religious liberty.” Ayala Harris also spoke as a resident of Oklahoma and alluded to the role Christian nationalism played in inspiring the Oklahoma City bombing 30 years ago. “I am deeply aware of what’s at stake when government entangles itself with sectarian interests,” she said. “It threatens our democracy, our schools, and our shared future.”

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) debuted its new resource on legal tools for climate justice, the focus was on hope for children—a hope strongly backed by knowledge on how churches can hold financial actors accountable for their role in perpetuating the climate crisis.

Prof. Dr Amélé Ekué is academic dean of the Geneva office of Globethics. She took time to reflect on how the collaboration  between the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Globethics works to create innovative learning environments that are values-driven toward more peaceful communities. She also reflects on the Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI) 2025, which will take place 12-29 October during the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, near Alexandria, Egypt, under the theme “Where now for visible unity?”