Episcopal News Service

[National Council of Churches] The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) Governing Board convened for the 2026 Christian Unity Gathering, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 12-16 to discuss pressing concerns facing churches, communities and public life in the United States and around the world. Following these deliberations, the Governing Board approved four statements affirming the NCC’s commitment to Christian unity, human dignity, religious liberty and civic responsibility. Reflecting the central theme of this year’s Christian Unity Gathering, the Governing Board emphasized the importance of protecting the constitutional right of all Americans to freely practice their faith. The NCC, of which The Episcopal Church is a member, rejects efforts to privilege one religion over others and calls on Christians to model humility, respect and civic responsibility in public life, affirming that authentic religious freedom must be safeguarded for everyone, not only for one’s own faith community. These principles are expressed in “An Ecumenical Christian Statement on Safeguarding Religious Freedom.” The Governing Board reaffirmed the NCC’s longstanding opposition to the death penalty, and condemned proposals to publicly broadcast executions as a spectacle that diminishes the human dignity inherent in the Imago Dei and undermines the values of justice, mercy and respect for human life. These concerns are outlined in the statement, “A Call to Choose Mercy Over Spectacle: Opposing the Livestreamed Execution at Fort Hood.”  In response to ongoing suffering and economic hardship in Cuba, the Governing Board expressed concern for the well-being of the Cuban people and encouraged NCC member communions to deepen humanitarian assistance, strengthen church partnerships, engage in advocacy efforts and remain steadfast in prayerful solidarity with Cuban churches and communities. This call is detailed in “Humanitarian Situation in Cuba: A Call to Ecumenical Solidarity, Compassion, and Action.” The Governing Board also addressed the importance of protecting democratic participation and ensuring the integrity of the electoral process. Condemning political violence, voter intimidation, election mis- and disinformation and efforts to suppress or overturn lawful votes, “NCC Calls on People of Faith to Vote and Protect the Voting Rights of Others” urges people of faith to uphold truth, support free and fair elections and defend the right of every eligible person to vote and have their vote counted. It further encourages congregations to engage in prayer, civic education, voter assistance and nonpartisan efforts to promote peaceful participation in the democratic process. In addition to addressing matters of public witness and advocacy, the Christian Unity Gathering convened faith leaders, advocates, technology experts and academicians for a breakfast roundtable to discuss faith and artificial intelligence. The session explored how NCC member denominations can responsibly engage their communities on the moral and theological implications of emerging technologies. Plans are underway for a more in-depth gathering early in 2027 to decide on ways to collaborate and provide guidance and guardrails on emerging technologies’ impacts. Founded in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is the leading ecumenical body in the U.S., bringing together 37 member denominations and about 30 million people in 100,000 congregations. The Christian Unity Gathering is NCC’s signature annual event in which denominational and other faith leaders come together to collaborate, discuss and engage the issues of the day to find ways to meaningfully and faithfully respond to the challenges facing our communities.

[Episcopal News Service] According to the most recent Parochial Report published this week by The Episcopal Church, a full half of congregations had an average Sunday attendance of 50 or fewer in 2025. Yet those smaller congregations account for just 15% of worshipers; the remaining 85% attend churches with an average Sunday attendance of 51 or more. That kind of lopsided distribution, and the funding disparity that comes with it, makes it challenging for those smaller parishes and missions to recruit priests to serve their communities. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in St. Joseph, Michigan, which averages about 30 congregants on any given Sunday, is a case in point. After searching for a rector for two years, the parish in June 2024 announced the Rev. Erik Broeren was their choice — as did St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church 2.4 miles away in Benton Harbor. Broeren now alternates between the two: On the Sundays he’s there, he presides over the Eucharist, and on the Sundays he’s not, licensed lay preacher and longtime congregant Freya Gilbert oversees Morning Prayer, including a sermon. “In rural settings or small towns like we’re in, you’re going to see more priests who are called to multiple parishes at the same time,” Broeren told the Episcopal News Service. “We have to empower our laity to live into their ministry as worship leaders, as preachers, as educators. To me, there’s no other way forward.” Broeren isn’t the only one who sees lay leaders as the way forward. According to a survey of deputies and alternate deputies at the 79th and 80th General Conventions, published in 2022, lack of lay training ranked as the second-most-cited obstacle — behind funding — when asked about the barriers to ministry facing their congregations and dioceses. Since these lay leaders, like Gilbert, come from the communities they live and work in — and these are overwhelmingly non-stipendiary roles — the challenge is more logistical than liturgical: How do dioceses get them the training they need and their congregations deserve? The answer, for both future lay leaders as well as ordained priests, has increasingly been access to nonresidential programs. One such program, which focuses specifically on serving the needs of dioceses with rural congregations, is the Iona Collaborative. Taking its name from the island off the coast of Scotland where, in 563, St. Columba established a monastery to help spread Christianity east into modern-day continental Europe, the Iona Collaborative launched in 2012 and became part of the Austin, Texas-based Seminary of the Southwest in 2017. At first, the Iona Initiative, as it was originally known, offered curricula and other resources to diocesan schools of formation to train aspiring priests (a three-year program) and deacons (a two-year program) locally, rather than requiring them to relocate for a traditional residential seminary education. Over the last six years, however, training local lay leaders has become an increasingly important focus. “When I came on board in 2020, we did not train lay leaders at all,” Iona’s Executive Director Nandra Perry told ENS. “And the dioceses we work with started coming to us and saying, ‘We would really like to use this curriculum to train lay preachers.’ And we looked at what we had and said, ‘We think we can help you build that!’” “Now, it’s Iona’s growing edge,” she added. “And more and more Iona schools are offering lay formation of some kind.” In fact, she said, the vast majority of the dioceses they work with — currently 32 across the U.S. and the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa — offer some type of lay certification program. For the one-year lay certificate programs, Iona provides the curriculum — reading materials and lectures — and a combination of Zoom-based and in-person weekend meetings, with the latter held in local partner dioceses lessening the burden of travel and days off work. Iona works closely with the deans of the diocesan schools of formation to provide tailor-made programs to serve the needs of each partner diocese, Perry said. While some of the modifications have to with things like what the courses cover and how often they meet in person, others have a more broad-reaching impact like providing an effective Spanish-language curricula. Perry explained that originally Iona simply translated or subtitled all of its materials into Spanish, but after working with the West Coast Collaborative Episcopal School for Ministry, which serves the dioceses of Northern California, El Camino Real and San Diego, “we learned that’s just a Band-Aid because Spanish-language preachers are coming from — and preaching in —a different cultural context,” she said. “What counts as effective preaching is quite different.” As a result, she said, readings and other aspects of the program within that school of formation were adjusted to reflect this reality. Instead of “bridging a gap,” Perry considers the lay certification program an investment in the future of those smaller congregations, one that gives aspiring lay leaders the tools and confidence they need to succeed without sending them far afield. Gilbert, of St. Paul’s in St. Joseph, is one of those lay leaders. In 2023, she enrolled in a lay preaching program offered through her diocese’s Academy for Vocational Leadership in partnership with Iona. She said that throughout the 10-month course, she attended three of the weekend sessions via Zoom and the rest at the St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt, Michigan, a three-hour drive from her home. And even though she had been preaching for years, she said the coursework made her better at it. “To use an illustration from music,” she said, “it doesn’t matter how gifted you are musically, your teacher is still going to make you practice scales. Before the course I absolutely produced acceptable homilies. But [preaching class instructor the Rev. Tracie Little] basically made us practice scales by teaching us different methodologies and models and listening to each other identify and read different parts of the sermons.” Because her classes also included […]

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is in the middle of a three-year celebration of the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination, and this weekend, the Diocese of California will host a panel discussion featuring the church’s first female presiding bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori. The event, “Celebrating Audacity,” is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Pacific Oct. 18, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Jefferts Schori, who served as the church’s denominational leader from 2006 to 2015, will be joined on the panel by the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, priest-in-charge of St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco, and the Rev. Liz Tichenor, rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Pleasant Hill. The panel discussion and an Evensong will be livestreamed on the cathedral’s website and on YouTube. “The commemorations help us learn and preserve valuable history about the many ordained women across the church who brought creativity and persistence to their ministries, sometimes at great cost in doing so,” the Rev. Paula Nesbitt, a co-chair of the “Celebrating Audacity” planning committee, said in a written statement to Episcopal News Service. “Inevitably, they have widened the path for others to pursue their own ordained or lay vocations.” The first women to be ordained as priests in The Episcopal Church became known as the Philadelphia Eleven, after their 1974 ordinations at Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Four more women were ordained in 1975 at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., before General Convention voted the following year formally to allow women to serve as priests in the church. Tributes to the Philadelphia Eleven and broader celebrations of women’s ordination on the 50th anniversary began in 2024. The church that year also designated three years of celebration, as outlined in a resolution passed by the 81st General Convention. “This General Convention encourages and supports churchwide events and programs commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood and the 50th anniversary of the first time a woman priest presided at the Eucharist,” the resolution said. “In doing so, the church celebrates both the historical and contemporary significance of increased gender diversity in the three ordained Orders, more closely reflecting that of the church overall.” In the Diocese of California, its convention passed a resolution in October 2024 establishing a timeline for diocesan commemorations related to women’s ordination and calling for the formation of a bishop’s advisory committee to lead the planning of those commemorations. “A commemorative triennium of the ordination of women to all orders of ministry provides a means to communicate and celebrate these significant events as well as to acknowledge the history of mutually supportive efforts by people of all genders, ordained and lay, to create a more just and demographically representative structure of ministry in the church,” the Diocese of California said in its resolutions supporting documentation. The diocese specified that its milestone commemorations are intended to convey the full scope of the women’s ordination movement, which it dated from 1944 to 2006, when Jefferts Schori was elected to the church’s highest-ranking ordained role 20 years ago. “Bishop Jefferts Schori will help us celebrate the audacity of pathbreaking women in The Episcopal Church, continuing the process of widening the gates of ministry for all,” the diocese said in announcing the panel discussion. Afterward, Jefferts Schori will preach at the 4 p.m. Evensong, and all ordained women in the diocese have been invited to process. The event is intended not only to mark the barriers broken down by Jefferts Schori, but also the way her election paved the way for others to step up, including LGBTQ+ Episcopalians. “I remember where I was in June 2006 when I learned of Bishop Katharine’s election –reading the news at my dining room table, absolutely electrified,” said the Rev. Cameron Partridge, a co-chair of the “Celebrating Audacity” planning committee and a transgender priest who is active in the group TransEpiscopal. Jefferts Schori’s “steadfast, courageous leadership has broken trail for women and for people of all genders in the Episcopal Church. I very much look forward to celebrating her ministry here this Sunday.”

[Diocese of Los Angeles] By the time “Clear the Road to Freedom” walkers reached Los Angeles Oct. 6, they had focused national media attention on inhumane ICE detention center conditions, raised $65,000 for bonds for detainees, built extensive grassroots support and, although exhausted, sunburned and blistered from their 96-mile trek in extreme heat, were dancing in the streets, said the Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards Acton, an organizer and diocesan Sacred Resistance co-chair. “It was like we had endless energy. It was beautiful,” and only the beginning, Edwards Acton told The Episcopal News Oct. 7. “We’re going to keep showing up, keep insisting that something be done, that centers be closed down, that the immigration system be fixed and that people be held accountable, and to make sure that these places are humane.” The interfaith walk, itself, was the message. Organized by the diocesan Sacred Resistance, CLUE, or Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, and Nefesh L.A., a Jewish spiritual community, the pilgrimage drew widespread attention from such Spanish- and English-language media outlets as Univision, the Rachel Maddow Show, MS Now, L.A. Local, USA Today Network/Visalia Times-Delta and many others, he said. Walkers also drew a groundswell of local and individual support, Rabbi Susan Goldberg, Nefesh founder and a pilgrimage organizer, told The Episcopal News on Oct. 3, when the group reached Upland, about halfway to their destination. “People are showing up and saying, ‘I saw this on TikTok and on social media, and I decided to come walk for the day, and they are having transformative experiences. “That’s the beautiful part about pilgrimage,” she added. “We have woven together a beautiful sense of group and shared purpose,” and are learning about each other. Nefesh had hosted a shabbat meal at an evening stop in Fontana, she said. “We have time to reflect together, the opportunity to hear testimonies of those who’ve been held in Adelanto,” where at least five people have died amid allegations of detainees being served dirty water and worm-infested food, and refused medical attention. There are many opportunities to join the supporters, said the Rev. Rob Muthiah, a Mennonite pastor and CLUE’s Director of Leadership Development. “Most people in detention don’t have criminal records, but even if they did, they still bear the image of God. They still have legal rights. The administration is ignoring those rights. The level of cruelty there, for me, as a Christian, seeing people who identify as Christians perpetrating this – God, forgive us. “We want everybody to think about what’s your moral core, and then, what can you do,” he added. “Some will show up to protest; others will push for legislation; others do letter drives. We need it all, and it doesn’t have to look like walking 96 miles. We can do it together.” The 96-mile distance is meaningful and calculated, said the Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez, CLUE’s Executive Director and a United Methodist Church pastor. “It’s a long walk for us but an even longer trek for families trying to visit loved ones. The objective is to break people down.” The walkers also aimed to raise money for CLUE’s bond fund, which, according to The Progressive Magazine, as of May 2026, had raised and paid more than $1.5 million in detainee bonds. The detention center intentionally was located in a remote space, Edwards Acton said. “This camp is built 96-1/2 miles away from downtown L.A. in the high desert, in the heat, away from the eyes and ears of Angelenos and 96-1/2 miles away from family members who want to visit loved ones, 96-1/2 miles away from the legal representation which everybody deserves. “Adelanto is a long way from a lot of things by design, not by accident, and it speaks to the cruelty, the intentionality of this federal government and our immigration policies—and you see this all across the country,” he said. “We hoped that each step we took brought a little bit closer to people in L.A. and across the country and the world, the stories and messages of those suffering and going through this.” E.B. Stapp’s eyes welled up as she recalled the signs bearing images of detainees who died at Adelanto and the account shared by “a man who was there for six weeks and was bonded out by CLUE. He said his children were so traumatized by his detention that now they don’t sleep. They keep getting up in the night to make sure he hasn’t been taken away from them again.” Participating the first and last day of the walk, she aimed to express solidarity so detainees would know they are not forgotten. “It was an incredibly moving experience, rather than being angry about the worst of humanity, to just be around the best of humanity,” said Stapp, a member of St. Mark’s Church in Upland, which served as an Oct. 3 rest and snack stop for the walkers. Gutierrez said the Upland welcome was emblematic of support received along the way from many churches and others. “People were clapping and cheering us as we arrived. There was a beautiful spread of snacks and cold drinks, charging stations for phones, signs welcoming us.” The Very Rev. Keith Yamamoto, St. Mark’s rector, said the congregation felt “honored to host the pilgrims. For me, their witness is a reminder of the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and our baptismal vow to uphold the dignity of all people.” Edwards Acton agreed, noting that as the walkers had passed the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, “we were joined by young people from Nikkei Progressives,” a volunteer Japanese American grassroots organization opposing systemic injustice. Similarly, Japanese Americans and supporters began a four-day, 48-mile pilgrimage Oct. 7 from Seattle, Washington, to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma to protest the administration’s policy of mass deportations, he said. The Adelanto walkers were aged 9 months to a 91-year-old retired priest. They were Black, White, Latino, Asian; they represented organized labor, activist organizations and faith communities; some were random individuals. Some joined in for a time, along “scary turns” on the Cajon Pass, over the rough terrain of the San Gabriel mountain range, to moving single file on dirt roads, Edwards Acton said. Churches and individuals […]

[Episcopal News Service — Washington, D.C.] In Episcopal worship services, acolytes are the lay volunteers who assist with the Gospel procession, tend to duties on the altar and help set the table for the Eucharist. They are responsible for routine tasks that rarely draw attention away from the clergy leading the services, yet those worship services often wouldn’t go as smoothly if not for the acolytes. Washington National Cathedral acknowledges the acolytes’ importance and has celebrated their roles since 1979 by hosting the annual Acolyte Festival. Some 700 acolytes from 68 Episcopal churches in 15 U.S.-based dioceses and an Anglican congregation in Caruaru, Pernambuco, Brazil, attended this year’s festival on Oct. 10. The acolytes’ estimated ages ranged from as young as 4 years old to as old as 80. The cathedral celebrates acolytes because “they’re supporting what’s happening for people to come and to receive the sacrament, and to enter into that closer relationship with God in Christ,” the Rev. Rosemarie Logan Duncan, canon precentor of Washington National Cathedral and a former acolyte, told Episcopal News Service. The Acolyte Festival’s centerpiece was the opening worship service and procession, when all the acolytes, servers, clergy and vergers processed from the cathedral’s Great West Doors down the center aisle wearing their vestments and holding traditional procession items, including the book of the Gospels, processional crosses, thuribles, candles, liturgical banners, kites and streamers. “I really liked how everybody carried themselves at the procession,” Isabel Oria, a 17-year-old crucifer at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, told ENS. “It was really cool to observe all the other acolytes, especially the ones for [Washington National Cathedral], because their footsteps were so synchronized.” During the worship service, Duncan presented the acolytes to the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, as they recommitted themselves to their ministry. The service included readings from Jeremiah 1:4-9, Colossians 3:12-17 and Matthew 9:35-38. West Virginia Bishop Matthew Cowden preached. During his sermon, Cowden acknowledged that many acolytes, especially the children, may “feel a little too small” in the space they were sharing. However, referencing Jeremiah 1:4-9, the biblical account of the young prophet Jeremiah’s call and commission by God, Cowden said, “feeling small before God is not a new experience.” “You might say … ‘I’m only the backup acolyte. I’m just driving the van on this mission. I’m just here to carry the banner,’” Cowden said. “God has a mission and a ministry for your service and love in the world, and participating as an acolyte is one of the ways we tune our ears, our heart and our stomach to hear the call of God. Wherever you go, wherever you are called to carry the light into the world, do it in the name of Jesus, who speaks for you and has compassion for you.” Many of the acolytes attend the festival every year, not just for the festivities, but also the educational workshops and networking opportunities. “We’ll take inspiration from what we see with other churches and bring them back to our church,” Austin Ochoa, a 15-year-old crucifer at All Saints’, told ENS. “I’m also excited to see how thurifers work because I’m not very good at handling the thurible yet.” A thurifer is an acolyte or altar server who carries and swings the thurible – a metal incense burner suspended by chains. Duncan taught the hands-on thurible workshop. Other workshops included a lecture on the history of acolytes and hands-on demonstrations on how to make liturgical kites and streamers. “I love teaching the acolytes how to make the liturgical kites every year because I think they’re significant. I think they’re definitely a sign of the Holy Spirit,” the Rev. Sue Von Rautenkranz, archdeacon emerita of the Diocese of Washington, told ENS. “They’re symbolic, but liturgical kites are also fun, and I think church needs to be fun sometimes.” The Acolyte Festival is also a rare opportunity for many acolytes to visit Washington National Cathedral – officially the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul – which is the seat of the presiding bishop and the bishop of Washington, as well as the second-tallest church building in the United States and six-largest cathedral in the world. Because of this, family-friendly activities were offered for participants to experience the cathedral up close, including tours, stained-glass window puzzle and coloring activities, an organ demonstration and mini recital, as well as a presentation on the cathedral’s historic “treasures,” such as different chalices. Acolytes could also test their masonry skills by carving blocks of Indiana limestone like many stone masons and master carvers did throughout the cathedral’s 83-year construction period. The acolytes also added bricks to contribute to the cathedral’s ongoing Lego model project, which is a 1:40 scale community-built replica that will be 13 feet long and 8 feet tall and made with more than 500,000 Lego bricks when complete. The cathedral launched the project in 2019 as a fundraising initiative for ongoing preservation, maintenance and repair work. “Experiencing the cathedral in Washington, D.C., is a really big experience among acolytes of our church. We have to drive six hours up from Tennessee to get here, which is a big investment for us,” Willis Bidgood, a 16-year-old acolyte at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Johnson City, told ENS. “This journey creates a really close bond for the acolytes because we get to share this incredible experience together.” For Hollerith, seeing so many congregations of various sizes from different dioceses gather “like a family” is a major highlight of the festival, describing the day “like a homecoming.” He additionally told ENS that, based on his experience as a teenage acolyte at Christ Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, serving as an acolyte can inspire and “open the doors” to pursue other callings of leadership in the church. “One of the great gifts of being an acolyte is all that you’re exposed to, and I got exposed to really […]

[Anglican Taonga] The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has empowered its Climate Commission to develop a churchwide climate resilience strategy over the next two years. Elisiva Sunia moved the motion on climate resilience, speaking from her experience reducing disaster risks for communities. Sunia said that while climate change affects every part of the church, its impacts are experienced differently in each community. “A churchwide strategy will give us a shared direction, while still allowing dioceses and Hui Amorangi to respond to their own local realities,” she said. Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] Throughout the Anglican Communion, churches, communities and individuals are advocating to restore and protect the “lungs of the Earth.” Creation care is a core pillar of the Anglican tradition, reflected in the Fifth Mark of Mission, which urges Anglican to “safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the Earth.” The Episcopal Church of South Sudan is implementing this vital charge in the form of intentional tree planting, water source care and waste management in churches and beyond. Kenyi Emmanuel Dube, a team leader for the Episcopal Church of South Sudan Environmental Network (ECSSEN), shared with Anglican News the changes that are being implemented in parishes and regionally. “Through ECSSEN, we mobilize Christians to become better stewards of God’s creation and actively promote the Green Anglican Movement in South Sudan,” Dube said. “This year, in collaboration with the Catholic Church, we jointly launched the Season of Creation, during which we engaged in prayer and practical actions such as cleaning water sources, as part of our commitment to caring for creation.” Read the full article here.

[Anglican Journal] Every year for the last decade, the Rev. Catherine Askew has attended the Ottawa ceremony commemorating Canada’s National Indigenous Veterans Day, which recognizes the contributions of Indigenous military veterans – particularly in the two world wars and the Korean War. It takes place annually on Nov. 8, three days before Remembrance Day, known as Veterans Day in the United States. Askew, a military chaplain, co-chair of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples and member of Moose Factory Cree Nation, supports Aboriginal Veterans Autochtones, the Canada-wide association that organizes the ceremony at the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument. She says the Anglican Church of Canada should observe National Indigenous Veterans Day as part of its commitment to reconciliation with Indigenous people. “It’s so incredibly important to remember that when Indigenous people weren’t even considered persons under the law, when their children were being taken away to residential schools, when they were still restricted by a pass control system on the reserves and could only leave with an Indian agent’s permission, they were still volunteering to fight in World War I and World War II at a higher rate than any other people in Canada,” Askew said. Read the full article here.

[Religion News Service] Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other faith leaders are condemning plans by the Pentagon to livestream the execution of the man who shot and killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. The outcry follows the announcement that the Pentagon will livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army officer who also wounded 32 people during the 2009 shooting. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously stated that the execution, which will be conducted by a firing squad, will be “public.” “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Hegseth said Oct. 8. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops railed against the news in a statement Oct. 9, calling the military’s proposal a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.” “Our God is the God of life,” Coakley’s statement read. “In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered. The word of God exhorts us: ‘Do not repay anyone evil for evil’ (Romans 12:17). The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.” Coakley added: “I pray for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel that we as a nation may always choose life even in the most trying times and circumstances.” If the Pentagon goes through with plans to livestream the killing of Hasan, the U.S. will join Iran and Saudi Arabia as one of very few countries that still conduct public executions. The last government-sanctioned execution in the U.S. took place in 1936 in Kentucky, when a Black man was hanged in front of a crowd of 20,000 people. The practice was banned in the state less than two years later. According to The New York Times, Hasan is also slated to be the first soldier put to death by firing squad since World War II and the first killed by the military justice system since 1961. A White House spokesperson directed questions about the execution to the Department of Defense. A DOD official declined to respond directly to the USCCB’s statement, only confirming the execution will be livestreamed and that details are forthcoming. Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network — a group that advocates against the death penalty — also spoke out against the public execution plans. “We undermine our own humanity when we treat another person’s death as something to watch, celebrate or use for entertainment,” Murphy said in a statement. Rowe voiced similar disapproval. “The Episcopal Church has long formally opposed the death penalty, and more recently we have called for an immediate moratorium on its use,” Rowe said in a statement. “The idea of livestreaming a firing squad execution is reprehensible in the extreme and will cause moral injury to everyone involved. We need to ask ourselves who we have become as a nation when senior officials decide to make a spectacle of state-sponsored violence.” While Catholics have long been generally opposed to the death penalty, Pope Francis changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to clarify that the church views the death penalty as “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” adding that Catholics will work “with determination for its abolition worldwide.” Similarly, Pope Leo XIV celebrated efforts to abolish the death penalty in parts of the U.S. before becoming pope, and he told reporters last year that “someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life.” Other faith leaders have also been outspoken critics of the death penalty, such as Shane Claiborne, one of the founders of the group Red Letter Christians. In an interview with Religion News Service, Claiborne compared the public execution plans to “lynchings and hangings and all the other ways that we’ve made a spectacle of death in our own history.” He also lamented that the plans are are being implemented by figures such as Hegseth, who has spoken often of his Christian faith and attends a church led by Pastor Doug Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist. “I don’t think there’s any way that you can follow Christ — the Prince of Peace, the one who blessed the merciful and interrupted an execution by saying ‘let the one who is without sin cast the first stone’ — and then champion executions,” said Claiborne, an evangelical Christian. Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, senior vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism and head of the denomination’s Religious Action Center, said in a statement that he prays for “comfort for the loved ones of all 13 service members horrifically murdered at Fort Hood in 2009” but condemned the decision to hold a public execution. “Jewish tradition, led by sages such as Rabbis Tarfon and Akiba, has found the death penalty repugnant and the Reform Jewish Movement has called it a ‘stain on society,’” Pesner’s statement read. “The Defense Department’s reprehensible decision to livestream his execution only compounds this tragedy.” Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, told RNS that while he affirms the “need for justice” regarding Hasan’s crime, “at the same time, a livestreamed execution by firing squad risks turning one of the state’s most solemn responsibilities into a public spectacle, promoting a culture of death, rather than a culture that upholds the dignity of every human being.” Vice President JD Vance, himself an adult convert to Catholicism, also appeared to suggest discomfort with the move. “Whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people,” Vance said, according to News Nation. “Now that said, I mean, look, […]

[World Council of Churches] A new publication from the World Council of Churches Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation brings together the voices and theological reflections of young ecumenists from around the world who attended the 2025 WCC Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI). It brings fresh inputs to the pressing question for the churches today: Where now for visible unity? “GETI 2025: Voices and Visions of Transformative Unity,” edited by Ani Ghazaryan Drissi and the Rev. Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa, was published Oct. 8 during the Ecumenical Education and Formation Commission’s biannual meeting. “The fruits of ecumenical dialogue must take root in the lives of our churches,” Ghazaryan said. “The GETI 2025 message brought this bold challenge to the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order and the wider ecumenical movement: let the unity we confess become the life we share.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Calvary Episcopal Church in Charleston, the oldest historically Black parish in the Diocese of South Carolina, on Oct. 10 will unveil and dedicate an icon altarpiece signifying the church’s ongoing work of racial reconciliation, restorative justice and inclusion in a city that once was central to the transatlantic slave trade. The large icon, designed and created by British Jamaican artist Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, will permanently hang with two of the church’s original stained-glass windows indenting into the top center. Looking up, Jesus stands with his arms raised as stripes of different colors fan out like a sunrise from the middle of his body. “Jesus is making sure that all are welcome, which is symbolized by the various colors, and it shows the availability of everybody to be in communion with hospitality and welcoming,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “And in the theology of the church, everything leads to the altar. So, by this icon being an altarpiece, it … represents the fact that we sacramentally meet Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist at the altar, and then we’re also sent forth by the altar to be a blessing.” More than 160 people are expected to attend the worship service dedicating the icon. The service will include readings from Revelation 7:2-4 and 9-14, 1 John 3:1-3 and Matthew 5:1-12a. South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley will preside. “To me, this icon signifies both the resurrection of our Lord and the resurrection, the rising of a people who follow Jesus amid such hardship and are not turned around,” Woodliff-Stanley told ENS. “Instead, they are pushing forward and they are moving outward.” Discussions on creating the icon for Calvary began in 2023, when Evelyn gave a presentation on iconography at South Carolina’s diocesan convention. Grace Wingfield, a Calvary parishioner, left the presentation inspired to start a project for her parish. Wingfield served as project coordinator throughout the multi-year process. Reflecting Calvary’s congregation, the icon’s development process symbolically incorporated elements of oral history, which is a crucial pillar of preserving Black history. Parishioners were invited to participate in painting the icon, making it a community project instead of the artist’s sole work. View this post on Instagram It was “a lot of thorough work,” according to Bailey. “As a community working with the parish, the diocese and the local artistic community, we decided to do some research – oral histories and deep dives into the parish’s historical records. From there, we were able to supply the narrative, and the whole idea of this icon came to fruition,” Bailey said. “The end result is expressing the Christian narrative of salvation.” The Calvary icon is the second of Evelyn’s planned series of icons housed in key geographic places in the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted from the early 16th to the late 19th centuries. The first icon was installed in 2011 at St. Stephen’s Church in Bristol, England. The other icons are planned to be installed in Ghana and Barbados. Calvary was chosen as the second site because Charleston, founded as a “slave society,” was the largest slave-trading and auction city in the United States, and it had the highest number of enslaved people in the country. Gadsen’s Wharf was the largest single point of entry for enslaved Africans. Calvary was founded in 1847 as a church for many of those enslaved people, as well as for freed people. “This [icon] image is of moving out into the world with this force of love and resilience and courage and joy and not naively moving out in the face of really unjust systems to nevertheless bring the love of the resurrected Christ into the world,” Woodliff-Stanley said. “That’s a very personal message for the people of Calvary because they … have raised up generations in strength. You can really see it today. Calvary is thriving now, and it has a great future.” Woodliff-Stanley and Bailey work closely with the rectors of Charleston’s two other historically Black Episcopal churches, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. As a coalition called the Three Churches United, Calvary, St. Mark’s and St. Stephen’s have hosted and participated in several events as part of the diocese’s commitment to racial reconciliation and justice work through its Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Part of those efforts include regularly hosting “learning day” events to teach the history of the Diocese of South Carolina. “Sharing with our local community, the whole church and the world our story helps ensure that the stories of The Episcopal Church and Calvary are not erased,” Bailey said. “So much has happened here, and we look forward to seeing what God will do in the near and far future.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Anglican Journal] Worship at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, a historic Anglo-Catholic parish in downtown Toronto, Ontario, invariably provokes one of a few strong reactions from newcomers, according to the parish’s rector, the Rev. Nathan Humphrey. Some people, Humphrey told Anglican Journal, ask him, “Wow, where has this been all my life?” Others who come from Protestant or evangelical backgrounds can have a strong knee-jerk reaction against worship that seems to them “too Catholic,” even “weird” or “idolatrous.” “I don’t think anybody ever comes to the service at St. Thomas’s and has the attitude of ‘meh,’” Humphrey said. “A good Anglo-Catholic parish worth its salt won’t ever result in a ‘meh’ reaction from somebody who comes through the doors, because there’s always a particular identity that it’s conveying.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally issued the following statement on Oct. 7, the third anniversary of the 2023 attacks. Three years on from the horrific Hamas-led terror attacks of 7 October 2023 in Israel, I pray for all who continue to grieve those who were killed, for those who survived, and for all who still carry the trauma of that terrible day. I pray especially for Jewish people here in Britain and around the world, for whom this anniversary brings grief, trauma and renewed anxiety, and I reaffirm my solidarity with all who have been affected by antisemitism and hatred. Earlier this year I visited the Nova Exhibition in London, and I was profoundly impacted by meeting relatives of people who died or were taken hostage, and hearing the testimonies of those who survived and the life story of each precious person who was killed that day. In the name of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace, let us pray too for all the peoples of the region. May every person – Israeli and Palestinian; Jewish, Muslim and Christian – enjoy the peace, freedom, justice, security and dignity that belong to them as equally beloved children of God. The immense suffering and loss in the Middle East have also been acutely felt by many in this country who are connected to Israel and Palestine by faith, family or heritage. Let us pray for a renewal of trust, solidarity and understanding between Britain’s faith communities, the rejection of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, and a fresh commitment to loving our neighbours as ourselves.

[Episcopal News Service] A central component of the liturgy for baptisms in The Episcopal Church is the Book of Common Prayer’s Baptismal Covenant, in which congregations make five theological promises to act in Christian ways “with God’s help.” Some congregations are adding a sixth promise to the Baptismal Covenant, acknowledging their responsibility to care for God’s earthly creation. “The church is moving more and more toward allowing experimentation in many areas, including this one,” Terry DeLisio, a lay leader in the Diocese of Chicago, told Episcopal News Service. She is helping to coordinate the northern Illinois diocese’s implementation of an expanded Baptismal Covenant in congregations that wish to try it. This experimentation is not unique to Chicago. The Episcopal Church’s General Convention for more than a decade has considered incorporation of the language of creation care into the Baptismal Covenant. In 2024, bishops and deputies passed a resolution directing church leaders “to develop additional language for the Baptismal Covenant that expresses our baptismal responsibility to care for creation,” and it invited congregations to experiment, with the bishop’s permission. Dioceses from California to Connecticut have taken up that mission, and the Diocese of Chicago announced recently that Bishop Paula Clark has granted all of the diocese’s congregations permission to begin adding a sixth baptismal promise starting next month on All Saints’ Day. Congregations were offered two texts to choose from and were asked to report back to DeLisio or the bishop’s office after testing the new language. The following are the additional questions offered as options for use in the Diocese of Chicago: “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?” “Will you cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect [or protect and restore] the beauty and integrity of all creation?” DeLisio, a retired Bexley Seabury dean and liturgy professor, said the diocese’s approach to this liturgical experimentation is partly modeled after the Diocese of Vermont, where congregations likewise were empowered to try out the additional language without needing further approval from the bishop. Vermont congregations also can develop their own alternative language and submit it for diocesan approval. Under the Baptismal Covenant’s existing language, the five promises are affirmed by the congregation in response to the celebrant’s prompts. The first two commit members to following Christian teachings and practices, resisting evil and staying faithful to God. The third calls for proclaiming the Christian faith in the world, and the final two promises relate to Christian interactions with other people. The addition of a sixth promise aligns with The Episcopal Church’s broader ongoing emphasis on creation care as one of its top priorities, as regularly affirmed by General Convention. The text of Chicago’s first option for an additional promise is based on the Anglican Communion’s Marks of Mission, a theological framework shared by Episcopalians and Anglicans around the world. The Fifth Mark of Mission says: “Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Chicago’s second option draws on language first proposed by Connecticut Episcopalians in 2015 at the 78th General Convention and introduced again three years later at the 79th meeting. Neither of those conventions gave clear permission to experiment with such liturgical additions the way the 81st General Convention now has. “The challenge has always been that the Baptismal Covenant is so central to the whole structure and theology of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer that people don’t want to mess with it willy-nilly,” DeLisio said. “At the same time, the church has come to the recognition that ministry and mission is not all about social justice. It includes justice for creation as well, and creation care.” Although congregations in the Diocese of Chicago do not need to seek further permission, their feedback on the use of the new baptismal promises could help the church decide whether to approve official revisions to the liturgy, DeLisio said. The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music was given the task of researching this topic and reporting back to General Convention. The commission will submit its report soon and could propose an additional creation-themed baptismal promise for churchwide trial use. Its proposals will be considered by bishops and deputies when the 82nd General Convention convenes in July 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Mothers’ Union concluded a four-day event in Durban, South Africa, to mark its 150th anniversary. The Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 gathering’s theme was “Celebrating Worldwide Fellowship: One Worldwide Family in Christ.” The event united delegates from across the world to honor the legacy of its service to women, family and community life and look forward to the next chapter. “This anniversary is not simply a celebration of longevity; it is a testimony to God’s continuing presence,” Kathleen Snow, president of Mothers’ Union, said in her keynote address on Oct. 3. “We have heard much about listening and walking alongside each other and in our communities, and that is what has made a difference to our communities.” Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] In recent weeks, St. Mary-the-Virgin Anglican Church in Warwick, Bermuda, has been marking its 400th anniversary with special services and commemorative events. These celebrations culminated on Oct. 4 with a rededication service, which gathered distinguished guests, clergy and parishioners. The Rev. Carl Williams, priest-in-charge of St. Mary-the-Virgin, led the rededication service. West Indies Archbishop Philip Wright, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Belize, preached. In a letter that was read aloud at the service, Joshua Puls, assistant private secretary to King Charles III, relayed the king’s “warmest congratulations” to St. Mary-the-Virgin, which was founded in 1626. As the reigning British monarch, Charles serves as supreme governor of the Church of England. “His Majesty greatly admires this remarkable milestone, marking four centuries of faith, service and community in Bermuda,” the letter says. “The church’s enduring presence is a tribute to the generations of clergy and parishioners whose dedication and commitment have sustained its ministry and strengthened its place at the heart of the community.” Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Anglican Communion Schools’ Network held its inaugural symposium Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in London, England. The symposium brought together Anglican school, education and church leaders from across the communion for learning, discussion, worship and fellowship. Together, they explored the theme “Anglican Schools as Places of Mission and Ministry.” Following the meeting, the network has released a communiqué. Click here to read the communiqué.

[Religion News Service] A pair of advocacy groups have released a new political advertisement featuring Washington Bishop Mariann Budde urging people to vote and referencing her headline-grabbing sermon from last year in which she asked President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on immigrant children. The new ad, posted on YouTube on Oct. 5 and slated to run in at least four states ahead of the midterm elections, opens with a clip of Budde standing in the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral in January 2025, as she delivered the much-discussed sermon to the president the day after his inauguration. It draws from a section of the sermon where Budde addressed Trump directly, asking the president to “have mercy” on those “whose children fear that their parents will be taken away,” alongside footage of masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The ad then switches to Budde, who recently announced her intention to resign as the bishop of Washington, speaking directly to the camera. “We have all borne witness to the events of the last two years,” Budde says. “So today, I am asking you, again, to have mercy. Just as importantly, I am asking for your courage to love your neighbor, to respect the dignity of every human being, and now, to vote.” The new ad appears aimed at capitalizing on dwindling support for Trump’s immigration agenda, especially among white mainliners — many of whom celebrated Budde when she challenged Trump in the cathedral’s pews last year. Budde’s sermon sparked a sharp rebuke from Trump and his allies at the time, with the president referring to her in a social media post as a “so-called bishop.” Budde’s get-out-the-vote ad is part of a “Choose Love, not ICE” campaign launched last year by two liberal-leaning groups — Interfaith Alliance, a religious advocacy organization, and Protect Democracy, a secular group. A spokesperson for the groups told Religion News Service the new spot featuring Budde will run in four media markets: Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Raleigh, North Carolina. The media markets overlap with multiple hotly contested congressional races, including at least two in Iowa that feature clergy as Democratic candidates: the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor and state senator vying for the state’s third congressional district, and the Rev. Lindsay James, a Presbyterian pastor and state representative campaigning for the state’s second congressional district. Representatives for the Republican and Democratic national committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new ad. Despite making mass deportation a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, a March survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for Trump’s handling of immigration dropped across every major religious group polled. That shift was especially pronounced among white non-evangelical Protestants, the religious subset that includes Budde and the denomination she serves. Their support for Trump’s immigration policies dropped 20 points since March 2025, dipping from 64% to 46%. Statistics pointing to increased opposition to Trump’s mass deportation efforts among white mainliners follow more than a year of faith-based advocacy against his policies, much of which was led by mainline clergy such as Budde. Clergy from virtually all major mainline Protestant traditions — such as The Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ, among others — have garnered national media attention for taking part in dramatic protests with other religious leaders against the administration’s ongoing deportation efforts. Seven faith leaders were arrested last November at a protest outside an ICE facility in Illinois; nearly 100 were arrested at a single protest outside the Minneapolis airport in January; and seven were arrested in Vermont last month while demonstrating near the offices of an ICE targeting center. Some mainline clergy protesting ICE have been shot with pepper balls and pepper rounds fired by Department of Homeland Security agents, and several mainline denominations — including The Episcopal Church — have joined a growing list of lawsuits challenging various aspects of the president’s immigration agenda. At the same time, some evangelical clergy have spoken about their support of the ICE raids. The “Choose Love, not ICE” campaign has featured images from some of the anti-ICE protests in its three previous ads, including one that celebrated the religious pushback to ICE. The series seeks to highlight the intensity of tactics used by DHS agents, which have long been a source of controversy: The first ad in the series, released last December, edited together clips of DHS agents and police officers violently detaining immigrants and protesters — including clergy — as a lone child sings the Christian hymn “O Holy Night.”

[Episcopal News Service] For many years, the duplex space in the Project Canterbury building at Christ Church Episcopal in downtown Chattanooga, Diocese of East Tennessee, was vacant and unlivable. After meeting with members of the secular nonprofit Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, last year, Christ Church Episcopal’s congregation decided to transform the empty space into free apartments for teenagers who age out of the foster care system and need a place to stay while they adjust to adulthood. For the Rev. Will Levanway, priest-in-charge of Christ Church Episcopal, the monthslong project felt like the “building up of a kingdom of God.” “Here’s a way of really concretely caring for people, making sure they have a place to sleep, food to eat and support,” Levanway told Episcopal News Service. “If we’re going to uplift people in the image of God, it has to include their physical, material life.” Renovations started in January and finished in September. The duplex was split into four fully furnished apartments, each with their own appliances. They share a laundry facility. The tenants aren’t required to pay for rent or utilities. The space now looks “shockingly different” from before, according to Kevin Hyde, CEO of Partnership for Families, Children and Adults. The only salvaged elements were the original brickwork and tiles, which were repaired and restored. “People pay big money to have that type of [exposed brick] aesthetic in their homes these days,” Hyde told ENS. “We wanted to make the apartments livable, clean and modern feeling.” Christ Church Episcopal’s 60+ member congregation also was involved in the development project. Parishioners collected and furnished the apartments with household supplies, like towels, bedsheets, laundry detergent and brooms. “These are everyday important things that we take for granted in our homes. They may not sound like much, but these gestures are very helpful in helping these teens achieve safety and stability, and feel hope for their futures,” Hyde said. “Often when teens age out of foster care and come to [Partnership for Families, Children and Adults], they come to us with not even a suitcase – literally just a garbage bag with all their worldly possession in it and the clothes on their backs.” Children and youth can enter foster care for different reasons, including abuse, neglect or abandonment by their parents or legal guardians. The experience is traumatizing because children and youth are being removed from their homes, and siblings are oftentimes separated from each other, according to the National Institute of Health. Teenagers age out of foster care when they legally reach adulthood at 18, though some states extend support up to age 21. In Tennessee, foster care services and support can be extended until age 23 through the state’s Extension of Foster Care Program. Every year nationwide, more than 15,000 young adults, including more than 850 in Tennessee, age out of the foster care system, according to data compiled in 2024 by the federally mandated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. Without support, they risk facing homelessness, substance abuse, incarceration and unplanned pregnancy, according to the 2025 Impact Case with data compiled by the Innovation Labs at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. To help reduce these systemic risks, Partnership for Families, Children and Adults’ Bright Futures program additionally operates a rape crisis center, a domestic violence shelter, life skills and career training and other services run by hired social workers. Locally, young adults who enroll in these programs and services and have stable housing, according to Hyde, experience lower risk rates of substance abuse, incarceration and unplanned pregnancy. “We’re working alongside people who I don’t really know what their religious views are, but I know that they want people housed and fed and cared for, and that’s what really matters,” Levanway said. So far, one person has moved into Christ Church Episcopal’s apartment since the Sept. 29 ribbon-cutting and blessing ceremony, and additional tenants are expected in the coming weeks. Hyde thanked Christ Church Episcopal’s congregation.  “The congregation’s generosity of providing the actual space and more is just an incredible gift and support to us [at Partnership for Families, Children and Adults] in the work that we do,” Hyde said. “More importantly, it’s really going to make a difference for the immediate needs of our clients – kids who didn’t have the advantages many of us had growing up but deserve to have hope for their futures.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].