Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] The American flag still has a place at Calvary Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Missouri, but under new guidance from the bishop, that place is no longer near the church’s altar. Calvary is located near the Mississippi River in the northeastern Missouri community of Louisiana, population 3,200. Last month, during a Sunday service, the small congregation ceremoniously moved its American flag from the front next to the altar to the back of the nave, where it now is posted beside a columbarium, partly in honor of veterans who are interred there. “People felt like it was the right thing to do and the right time to do it, and it was done with no disrespect,” the Rev. Deb Goldfeder, deacon-in-charge at Calvary, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson had issued his guidance on flag display days earlier in a message to his St. Louis-based diocese on March 19. In it he lamented the pernicious rise in the United States of Christian nationalism, a politicized distortion of Christianity that was most prominently on display in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Donald Trump supporters. The House of Bishop’s Theology Committee released a report in October on “The Crisis of Christian Nationalism,” urging all Episcopalians to do their part in countering such movements. Johnson referenced that report in announcing his guidance to Diocese of Missouri congregations to remove American flags from their altars. “Rooted in a conflation of faith and national identity, this ideological movement distorts the Gospel of Jesus, misusing Christianity to justify division, exclusion, inequality, racism and supremacy,” Johnson said. “This ideology further demands that laws, culture and public policies be based on a distorted interpretation of the Gospel that elevates power and control over love. These ideologies are in direct contradiction with our faith.” Johnson acknowledged that the flag can be “a symbol of national unity which honors the hard-fought freedoms won by brave women and men who willingly sacrificed for its purpose and the cause of peace.” At the same time, to conflate the flag with the cross – the Christian symbol of hope in Jesus’ resurrection – “intentionally blurs the division between our faith in a loving, liberating and life-giving God and national pride.” His guidance directs clergy and congregations “to contextualize the flag by properly placing it outside the altar area and next to rolls of honor, books of remembrance, or service memorials to those who served.” The House of Bishops’ report on Christian nationalism does not specifically advise moving American flags from altars, though it offers a range of other suggestions for responding to the crisis. “This challenge is not new or particular to this day and age,” the report says. “In the early church, gentiles had to renounce their allegiance and their participation in the Roman army when they became Christians. Each generation must explore and renew its understanding of life in Christ in its moment in history.” The full 128-page report, in English and Spanish, is available for purchase from Church Publishing. Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry had asked the House of Bishops Theology Committee to study the issue in 2022, and Curry wrote a foreword for the published report. Christian nationalism “threatens our country’s soul,” Curry said in the foreword. “It is because we love God and it is because we love our country that we want to respond in ways that are healthy, holy, and true.” The report is one of the latest examples of The Episcopal Church’s ongoing response to the increasing threat of Christian nationalism. The church’s Executive Council, meeting in January 2021, less than three weeks after the Jan. 6 riot, passed a resolution committing the church to “deradicalization” efforts. The measure asked the church’s Office of Government Relations and Office for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relations “to develop a plan for The Episcopal Church’s holistic response to Christian nationalism and violent white supremacy.” Curry, participating in a webinar on the topic later that month, called Christian nationalism “absolutely a threat to a pluralistic, democratic society, and something that needs to be wrestled with in order to move forward and not repeat the events of Jan. 6.” He and other leaders have continued to speak out on the issue in the ensuing years. The 81st General Convention adopted a resolution in June 2024 urging Episcopalians to educate and equip themselves for action in response to “the urgent, troubling, and deeply rooted issue of religious nationalism, the intersection of religious extremism and nationalist ideologies, both domestically and globally.” And last month, at the latest meeting of the House of Bishops, Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright spoke forcefully against Christian nationalism as “demonic.” “Christian nationalism is not an imperfect or evolving rendering of Jesus’ life and teachings, neither should it be characterized as simply a difference of theological or political interpretation or emphasis. Christian nationalism is a deceitful rendering of Jesus’ teaching for the purpose of manipulation and the increase of mammon,” Wright said, according to his notes provided to ENS. “This is not a fringe movement as the data shows. This is a deeply embedded, well-funded, strategic, compellingly argued appeal.” Johnson’s emphasis on flag placement in his Diocese of Missouri congregations raises what may be a sensitive issue at congregations across The Episcopal Church where American flags can sometimes be found posted on altars, either separately or alongside Episcopal Church flags. Spokane Bishop Gretchen Rehberg, in a personal reflection included in the “Crisis of Christian Nationalism” report, offered her own perspectives on this question. “A simple example of our perhaps inadvertent complicity in Christian nationalism is having a U.S. flag in our churches,” Rehberg said. “I have been clear that I do not believe that flags belong in churches, but I have not forbidden them. The diocese will also need to be willing to accept increased losses in our membership when those who are […]

[Episcopal News Service] On Palm Sunday, April 13, All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois, will lead a procession through the Ravenswood neighborhood after its 11 a.m. Central worship service to bring attention to migrants who’ve been arrested and are being illegally detained in El Salvador and Louisiana. Many have disappeared from the U.S. detainee tracking system. The Rev. Courtney Reid, associate rector of All Saints, told Episcopal News Service that the post-worship procession is in line with the message of Palm Sunday, when the Galileans greeted Jesus as he entered Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna,” a word originating from Hebrew meaning “save us.” “Regardless if there are reasons that someone should be deported for a crime they’ve committed, treating people as if they aren’t human is absolutely antithetical to the Gospel, and yet that is what our government is doing, and our political leaders aren’t standing against it,” Reid said. Last month – under the Alien Enemies Act, a law not invoked since World War II – the United States sent 238 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, under a “renewable” one-year agreement with the Salvadoran government. The Trump administration alleges the detained migrants have ties to the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua. However, many of the migrants’ families and lawyers insist they have no gang ties. Documents show that about 90% of the incarcerated migrants had no U.S. criminal record. Moving the migrants to a prison in another country without due process has also sparked outcry from relatives, lawyers and immigration advocates. The prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, has been criticized for alleged human rights abuses since it opened in 2023. CECOT allegedly denies inmates communication with family and lawyers, and inmates are permitted just 30 minutes a day to leave their cell, according to Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The inmates also supposedly sleep on metal beds in overcrowded, windowless cells. “It’s such a breach of humanity; the level of dehumanization is obscene and immoral,” Reid said. Many immigrants who are legally in the United States with visas or green cards have also been arrested and have been deported or face deportation, including Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful permanent U.S. resident. Both are being detained in Louisiana. “When the image of God – a human being – is being violated, Christians must say something about that if we truly believe in the dignity of every human being,” the Rev. Suzanne Wille, rector of All Saints, told ENS. “Christians cannot be silent about what’s going on in our world.” During the post-worship procession, parishioners will carry signs protesting the migrants’ imprisonment. Some banners will include photos of Öztürk and Khalil, as well as Neri Jose Alvarado Borges and Andry Hernandez Romero. Alvarado Borges was sent to CECOT because the U.S. government alleges that his many tattoos are proof that he’s affiliated with Tren de Aragua. Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist, was sent to CECOT while his asylum case was pending, also for his tattoos allegedly representing Tren de Aragua affiliation. The other banners will include photos of anonymous women who, according to The New York Times, are at risk of dying from the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze, and photos of anonymous CECOT prisoners being pushed down and frog-marched in their cells. “None of these people can reach their lawyers or loved ones,” Wille said. “It’s like our government is trying to make them disappear and wipe them from our consciousness.” On April 5, Reid and a group of parishioners gathered at Daley Plaza with more than 30,000 other people for Chicago’s “Hands Off” protest. “Hands Off” is an ongoing series of demonstrations held so far in every U.S. state and some European cities to protest the Trump administration’s policies and billionaire Elon Musk’s involvement in significantly downsizing the federal government. Coming off the same “energy” from “Hands Off,” Reid said, the plan for the Palm Sunday processional is to publicly walk outside of residential spaces to ensure that as many people as possible read the signs protesting migrant imprisonment. Jacob Farmer, a parishioner at All Saints who participated in “Hands Off,” told ENS he plans to participate in the Palm Sunday procession with the same goals for justice in mind. “I believe that it’s important as community members and as Christians to show up and demonstrate that we care about what’s going on, and that we do not agree with the current administration’s actions,” he said in a text message. Wille said the mistreatment of migrants reminds her of when she was in seminary 20 years ago, when the dean asked, “Where were the Christians?” when it was brought to widespread public attention in 2004 that the U.S. Army and CIA were torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq during the Iraq War. “That question has haunted me for 20 years,” Wille said. “Where were the Christians speaking out against Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay then, and where are the Christians today now that we’re sending migrants to Guantánamo Bay as well as El Salvador and Louisiana? There’s power in speaking up.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[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.”

[Sydney Anglicans] “The magnitude of this crisis is overwhelming,” said the Most Rev. Stephen Than, archbishop of the Church of the Province of Myanmar, describing the aftermath of a powerful earthquake that struck six regions across Myanmar in late March. The 7.7-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter near Mandalay, was also felt in Thailand. It was the strongest quake to hit Myanmar in more than 100 years. “Many lives have been lost, and countless buildings have collapsed. The crisis has led to a severe shortage of rescue workers, essential supplies and medical personnel,” Than wrote in an appeal to Australian Anglicans. “Two dioceses of the Church of the Province of Myanmar – the Diocese of Mandalay and the Diocese of Taungoo – have suffered extensive damage.” With the death toll exceeding 4,500, Than explained that the Church of the Province of Myanmar has mobilized a Disaster Management Committee, which is struggling to meet the overwhelming demand for relief and rehabilitation. “Additionally, our churches have become places of refuge for non-Christian earthquake victims seeking shelter and humanitarian assistance,” the archbishop said. Sydney Archbishop Kanishka Raffel has commended an appeal launched by the Anglican Relief and Development Fund Australia. According to the Fund, the most urgent needs are food, water, and temporary shelter. “The Mandalay Mothers Union is initially organizing 1,000 lunch boxes per day for those affected by the earthquake. Both the Mandalay and Taungoo dioceses are mobilizing volunteers to distribute food, water, medicine, temporary shelter, mosquito nets and torches (flashlights) in the first instance,” the Fund said.

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Peter Doddema is used to having some flood water in his basement. Living just 100 feet from the Kentucky River in Frankfort, Kentucky’s state capital, the rector of the city’s Ascension Episcopal Church told Episcopal News Service that occasionally having water in the home’s lower garage level is not a big problem. The area’s special drywall is water-repellent, he said, “so you hose it all down, bleach it out and you carry on.” When he heard on Saturday, April 5 that the river was rising after 8 inches of rain, Doddema and a friend who was staying with him and his wife Nicole moved items from the basement to the main floor. “Usually, it floods to about 2 feet, so anything that was below that, we moved upstairs,” he said. But the water kept coming in, as the predication of how high the water might go kept changing. That night, the three people and two dogs in the house watched from the second story as the water kept rising into the first floor living area. By 3 a.m. on April 6, when a neighbor’s 500-gallon propane tank broke loose and started spewing gas into the floodwater entering the house, he knew they had to leave. Launching his canoe out the front door, Doddema ferried clothes and other needed items – and the dogs – to higher ground a few blocks away. “I was worried that the dogs weren’t going to handle the boat ride well, but they did,” he said. “I’ve got a little Boston terrier and a big American bully. I pulled the terrier into the canoe, and then the bully hopped in, and everybody sat still.” After that, a neighbor with a motorboat took the three people to where their dogs were, and another friend picked them all up. They stayed in a short-term rental for two nights before moving to a hotel. Long-term, a friend has offered to park his large camper on the home’s lawn, so they can stay there while assessing the damage and making plans for repairs. Doddema estimates about 16 feet of water was in the home when they fled. He didn’t have to worry about Sunday morning worship, as the city had asked downtown churches like Ascension to cancel services. The area is just a few blocks from the river, he said, and officials wanted to keep traffic to a minimum. The church remained untouched, thanks to a flood wall that surrounds downtown – although Doddema said floodwaters were within 2 feet of the top of the wall. He has since learned that the home of parishioners also had flood water into its first floor. The area where they live, he said, doesn’t usually flood. Richelle Thompson, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Lexington, told ENS that Bishop Mark Van Koevering has reached out to churches in the diocese to assess their situation. “Thankfully, we haven’t heard of any significant damage with this most recent flooding,” she said. She added that the bishop is aware that for many of the communities hit by recent heavy rains, “this is the third or more time for flooding and clean-up. The fatigue is a real concern, and we’re working to offer support for these communities and individuals.” In mid-February the state saw large-scale flooding that killed 21 people. A flood in southeastern Kentucky in August 2022 resulted in 45 deaths. That area also saw significant flooding in February 2021. The most recent rain also has created heavy flooding along the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky, with the mayor predicting it will be one of the city’s worst floods when the river crests near 4 feet on April 9. According to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Kentucky is especially prone to flooding because coal strip mining created thinner soil that can’t absorb rain and snow, especially as storms become larger because of climate change. South-central Indiana, just across the river from Louisville, also saw flooding over the weekend of April 5-6. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[Episcopal Church in Alabama] The Episcopal Church in Alabama, in partnership with The Scottsboro Boys Museum, held an inaugural racial healing pilgrimage April 5 in Scottsboro, Alabama, to honor and remember the infamous Scottsboro Boys trial. Observed just one day shy of the 94th anniversary of the April 6, 1931, trial, the pilgrimage honored the nine African American teenagers known as the Scottsboro Boys, who were falsely accused of raping two white women aboard a train. Over 55 Episcopalians from across the state gathered at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Scottsboro, where the Rev. Polly H. Robb – the rector and visionary behind this inaugural pilgrimage – led participants through a full itinerary. The day began with Morning Prayer, followed by a procession to three historically significant sites, each tied to the Scottsboro Boys case. At each stop, pilgrims engaged in scripture readings – including selections from the Psalms – and offered prayers and collects from the Book of Common Prayer, creating a sacred rhythm of reflection, healing, and remembrance. The pilgrimage’s first stop was the old jail’s original site, where the boys spent the night of March 25, 1931. “This ground has a sacred connection to the story. Although these African Americans spent only a night on March 25, 1931, they are forever known as the Scottsboro Boys,” said Tom Reidy, executive director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum. He added, “This is a site of an incident that I think we need to keep talking about. This is because if we forget our past, if we forget about these difficult times, we forget our heroes.” Addressing pilgrims at the Scottsboro Boys Memorial Mural, artist Don Howard, who the Scottsboro City Council commissioned for the mural, offered his reflections. “I thought that there was something peculiar, because it galvanized the community of Black people when it happened and the world as the biggest story [on racial injustice] at that time,” Howard said. “For a city to embrace the past so they can look forward to the future – especially for a relatively small town in the state of Alabama – I felt it was tremendous, and for them to actively seek out an artist who was a person of color was even a bigger thing.” The third stop of the pilgrimage was the Jackson County Courthouse, where Presiding Circuit Judge John H. Graham shared a message of hope and accountability. “I don’t have much philosophy to share with you or any cure to the problems of the world we face and seem to have always faced other, than to say those of us in the court system, I fully believe, try every day to do better than we did yesterday, to do better tomorrow than we did today – to obey, to follow, to observe the rule of law, and the belief and decree that we have as [U.S.] Americans that we will pursue life, liberty, and happiness,” he said. Reflecting on those who intervened to prevent the boys’ lynching, he said, “I think there is a lesson to be learned, and I’ll just tell you for myself – I don’t speak on behalf of anyone – I speak for myself: It’s not going to happen again on my watch if I can possibly stop it.” The day concluded with a brief homily at the Scottsboro Boys Museum, housed in the historic Joyce Chapel, from Alabama Bishop Assisting Brian Prior. Drawing a powerful theological connection, Prior paralleled the day’s journey with the Good Friday pilgrimage many Episcopalians observe during Holy Week. “One of the pilgrimages I look forward to is Good Friday – it is a sacred time where people walk the walk of Jesus,” he said. “This suggests to you a walk like the one we just had, a walk that made it clear about the injustices that happened to Jesus. The walk that we just experienced makes it clear the injustice that happened to the Scottsboro Boys.” He encouraged pilgrims to continue sharing the story. “The injustice at the time of Jesus that we only know about because there are those – and ancestors and a great cloud of witnesses – who had told the story over and over again, who would not let the story go away. Friends, your witness today continues to do that for the Scottsboro Boys. I am grateful for those who share this day, grateful for those who have told the stories so we can continue to live in that place and those stories will not go away, and the stories will continue to grow.” Prior also called the group to remember that pilgrimage is not an end but a beginning. “Even if you walk alone,” he said, “no pilgrimage is ever truly solitary. We do this work in the community. We do it to respect the dignity of every human being. We do it to move closer to where God is calling us – to a world where love, grace, and justice are not aspirations, but reality.” Many participants expressed excitement about how moving and educational the experience had been. For Kana Goldsmith, executive director of Sawyerville – a ministry deeply rooted in racial reconciliation – the day held personal significance. “My work at Sawyerville deals with working with children in the same age group as the Scottsboro Boys, and that makes this very emotional for me,” she said. “Today’s learnings drive me even more to ensure that everyone who comes through Sawyerville knows their rights as U.S. citizens and has the opportunity to succeed. I also believe it’s right for white Southerners to uplift and strengthen every Black man and woman in their community.” This pilgrimage forms part of the Diocese of Alabama’s growing commitment to racial healing and pilgrimage ministry, led by Breanna Carter. It joins a constellation of sacred spaces across the state that hold a deep connection to the Civil Rights movement. Chief among them is the annual Jonathan Daniels and the […]

[Episcopal News Service] The Anglican Communion may be poised for a reset, at least concerning the archbishop of Canterbury’s leadership role. Two proposals, which will be taken up next year by the Anglican Consultative Council, or ACC, would adjust how the worldwide communion’s 42 autonomous, interdependent provinces relate to each other.  The proposals, if adopted, would de-emphasize the Church of England and the archbishop of Canterbury as a “focus of unity” while elevating more geographically diverse leaders for the global network of Anglican and Episcopal churches. These proposals were developed partly in response to longstanding theological divisions between some of the provinces, and it remains to be seen whether the proposed changes could mend what some conservative bishops have described as their “impaired” communion with provinces like The Episcopal Church that are more progressive on issues of LGBTQ+ inclusion. The underlying goal is to maintain Anglican unity while allowing member provinces to stay true to their theological beliefs when they differ, said Bishop Graham Tomlin, who chairs the Anglican body that drafted the proposals. “It is important to still remain committed to one another,” Tomlin, a Church of England bishop, told Episcopal News Service in a Zoom interview. He said his commission’s proposals “take serious the depths of our divisions but also take serious the call to unity that we find within the Gospel.” Tomlin’s group, the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, or IASCUFO, issued a 44-page report in December 2024 detailing its Nairobi-Cairo Proposals, named for the cities where they were drafted. The first proposal offers an updated statement of what binds the 42 provinces to each other: “shared inheritance, mutual service, common counsel in conference, and historic connection with the See of Canterbury.” That final principle’s wording differs slightly from the Anglican Communion’s existing definition, which since 1930 has required member churches to be “in communion with the See of Canterbury,” commonly understood as the Church of England. The second proposal seeks to broaden and diversify the leadership of three Anglican Communion bodies known as the “Instruments of Communion” – the ACC, the Primates’ Meeting and the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. The archbishop of Canterbury is considered a fourth Instrument of Communion. Under these changes, the archbishop of Canterbury would no longer serve as the ACC president; the presidency instead would rotate among leaders from the Anglican Communion’s five regions. The archbishop of Canterbury also traditionally has convened the Primates’ Meeting and Lambeth Conference; those bodies would be newly convened by the Primates’ Standing Committee. Such changes “would add a welcome and overdue diversification to the face of the Instruments of Communion,” the IASCUFO report said. “The leadership of the Communion should look like the Communion.” The report added that Anglican leadership should reflect “the identity and ideals of the Anglican Communion in a post-colonial era.” The Rev. Ranjit Mathews, one of three Episcopal Church representatives to the ACC, told ENS that he sees the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals as a positive step forward in inter-Anglican relations, particularly the acknowledgement that the face of the Anglican Communion is becoming more global than it was a century ago. An increasing number of Anglicans now live in what is known as the Global South – Africa, Asia, South America. “I think the proposals are catching up to the reality of what the communion looks like,” said Mathews, who serves as canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. At the same time, many of those Global South provinces are pushing for structural changes to the Anglican Communion because their conservative leaders do not agree with the theology, doctrine and practices of more progressive provinces on human sexuality and other issues. Although most Global South provinces have pressed their objections in person at the ACC, Primates’ Meeting and Lambeth Conference, a few provinces’ bishops have refused for years to participate in any such gatherings attended by leaders of The Episcopal Church and other provinces that have consecrated gay and lesbian bishops and blessed or married same-sex couples. In February 2023, theologically conservative Anglicans amplified their calls for structural changes after the Church of England’s General Synod endorsed a plan to offer same-sex blessings in England’s churches. Days later, the ACC convened its latest meeting in Accra, Ghana. Then-Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, in his opening remarks, responded to the growing tensions by called for greater egalitarianism in how the Anglican Communion’s 42 provinces relate to each other. The Instruments of Communion “have never had either doctrinal or ethical authority, but they have moral force,” Welby said, and he asserted that they continue to offer “the way forward in mutual help where country comes after obedience to God.” Later in the meeting, ACC members from 38 provinces, including The Episcopal Church, adopted a resolution on “good differentiation” that endorsed efforts “to explore theological questions regarding structure and decision-making to help address our differences in the Anglican Communion.” After the ACC concluded its meeting, conservative archbishops issued a letter rejecting the continuation of the archbishop of Canterbury’s historic leadership role in the worldwide communion as the “first among equals.” In opposing the Church of England’s decision on same-sex blessings, they said they would “expeditiously meet, consult and work with other orthodox primates in the Anglican Church across the nations to re-set the Communion on its biblical foundation.” Welby has since resigned over his handling of an unrelated scandal. The challenge of maintaining Anglican Communion unity is likely to remain a top priority when his successor is chosen, a process that is now underway. In the meantime, IASCUFO is preparing its Nairobi-Cairo Proposals for presentation to the ACC at its next meeting, to be hosted by the Church of Ireland in June and July 2026. The commission did not specifically intend its proposals to address the concerns of the Global South bishops, Tomlin said, though the changes may allow all provinces to find ways to stay connected despite their differences. “What we […]

[World Council of Churches] On the 80th anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for his opposition to Hitler, the moderator of the World Council of Churches has paid tribute to the deep faith of the German theologian, saying his life and witness continue to inspire the ecumenical movement. “The South African resistance against apartheid, for example, was decisively influenced by him. Latin American liberation theology has also repeatedly appealed to him,” said WCC moderator Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. He was speaking on April 7 at an event at the former concentration camp of Flossenbürg in Bavaria where Bonhoeffer and other opponents of Hitler were hanged in the early hours of April 9, 1945. “Central elements of Bonhoeffer’s theology are of significant importance for ecumenical public theology today,” said Bedford-Strohm, mentioning the environmental crisis, bringing an end to violence in Ukraine, and overcoming nationalism and xenophobia.  Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church’s largest congregation by membership and attendance has named a new rector. St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, announced in a message to its members that it has selected as its next leader the Very Rev. Dane Boston, dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia, South Carolina. Boston is scheduled to begin as St. Martin’s fifth rector on Aug. 1. “Dane is passionately committed to the rich tradition of Anglican theology, prayer and worship,” the church said in its March 28 announcement. “A lifelong singer, Dane has a deep appreciation for the power of the Anglican choral tradition as an integral part of our worship services.” Boston will fill the rector position last held by the Rev. Russell Levenson, who retired in May 2024 after leading St. Martin’s since 2007. During his tenure, Levenson helped grow parish membership to more than 10,000, and the church reported average Sunday attendance of nearly 1,300 in 2023, according to the latest available data. St. Martin’s, founded in 1952, is a parish in the Diocese of Texas. It also is known as the family church of late President George H.W. Bush. Boston had served as dean of the 4,000-member cathedral in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina since January 2021. He previously served for four years as rector of Christ Church in Cooperstown, New York. He has degrees from Washington and Lee University, Yale Divinity School and Berkeley Divinity School. He and his wife, Debby, have four children. “I cannot express how mightily Debby and I have wrestled with this utterly unexpected call,” Boston said in a message to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral announcing he was stepping down as dean. “St. Martin’s is an extraordinary place, and I am deeply humbled, profoundly honored, and incredibly excited at the opportunity to serve its people as their next rector.”

[Church of England] Parish revitalizations, work with children, young people and families and training for mission in rural areas are among a range of programs to spread the Christian faith backed by the latest round of grants awarded by the Church of England. The dioceses of Carlisle, Chelmsford, Rochester, Sheffield, St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, and Winchester are to receive awards for programs to support parishes and serve communities, ranging from funding for new congregations in churches to funding for clergy and lay workers in urban and rural areas. The awards, made by the Church of England’s Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, invest in low-income communities and seek to promote diversity in congregations and church leadership. The Diocese of Chelmsford is to receive £6.45 million – or $8.3 million – for its “Believing in Barking” program in east London (Barking is a town in east London), including support for children and youth workers, mission on estates, and ministry in minority languages in parishes across the traditions of the Church of England. Chelmsford Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani, said, “’Believing in Barking’ reflects our commitment to participative change, enabling and empowering local parishes, deaneries and worshipping communities to discern how they are to be God’s people in their own very different contexts and as part of one diocesan family.” The Diocese of Sheffield has been awarded £14.3 million – or nearly $18.3 million – over the next three years for plans to build on the successes of its centenary project with children, young people and families. These include making Sheffield Cathedral a center of mission through funding for music “missioners,” a digital evangelist, and support for a new religious community focused on mission and evangelization and new congregations. The funding will build on parish revitalization and mission work in Rotherham and Goole, following successful work at St. John’s Goole and Rotherham Minster. There will also be a plan for mission in Doncaster, with Doncaster Minster and St. James Church in the city acting as centers of mission. The plans include work with children, young people and families and support for clergy costs, music, lay ministry, a young leaders’ community and investment in clergy well-being and buildings. In the Diocese of Carlisle, a £6.8 million – or nearly $8.7 million – grant will fund a range of work including new worshipping communities with churches in Barrow in Furness, Carlisle and the rural Derwent Deanery. There will be investment to help train over 200 new leaders and a focus on supporting young Christians to grow in faith. A three-year pilot will also support parish growth and leadership development in rural mission communities. The Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich has received £2.7 million – $3.4 million – to build and expand on successful mission in Ipswich and rural areas of the diocese. The funding will support new congregations in rural areas, mission to people on newly built estates, and outreach through music. The Diocese of Rochester has been awarded funding of £11 million – $14 million – over the next five years for work to revitalize parishes and work with children and young people in Medway, north and west Kent, and the London boroughs of Bromley and Bexley. The grant will help fund leadership development and well-being programs to support clergy and lay people. The funds will also back an apprentice scheme for children, young people and family work. The diocese will seek to build on the successes of work already backed by Strategic Development Funding, such as at St. John’s Church, Chatham; St. Augustine’s, Slade Green; and Christ Church, Erith. Carl Hughes, chair of the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, said, “I am really delighted that we have been able to fund such a range of awards across the country, from cities to ambitious programs of mission in some of the most rural areas of England. “The awards reflect the commitment of the board to investment in parishes and their leaders, and the work of parishes in developing new services and congregations to serve those they are not currently reaching, particularly in the most income deprived contexts. “Many of these awards build on previous investments in parishes.” St. Clement’s Church in Boscombe in the Diocese of Winchester, in an area of high deprivation and cultural diversity, has been awarded £412,333 – $526,000 – for mission to children, young people and families. The award will fund an administrative post and a children and family worker for schools outreach, with the hope of a youth worker in due course. It also includes funding for improvements to the church hall and church building, subject to the approval of awards from other grant funders. The award is the third parish revitalization to be funded by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board in the Diocese of Winchester.

[Episcopal News Service] Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, fifth-grade students at Grace Episcopal Day School in Kensington, Maryland, communicated with U.S. Army Reserve soldiers through an educational and interpersonal pen pal program. “There are these little moments where the students and the soldiers just connect so beautifully over some sort of shared interest or shared experience that’s really very special,” the Rev. Anna Broadbent, an Episcopal chaplain in the U.S. Army Reserve, told Episcopal News Service. “It feels really good to hold a letter that someone else has written just for you.” Broadbent also served as the chaplain for Grace Episcopal Day School before she deployed to Kuwait in July 2024. The school, just north of the nation’s capital in the Diocese of Washington, enrolls students in preschool through fifth grade. Around the time the new school year commenced, Broadbent connected with fifth-grade teacher Rachel Martinez and began collaborating on the pen pal program. After matching each student with a soldier volunteer based on personalities and shared interests, the eight students in Martinez’s class wrote their first letters in September.  Martinez told ENS that most students’ only experience with formal letter writing was through a pen pal program with students at another private school the year before, so they practiced letter formatting and editing drafts. At first, they asked why they couldn’t just email the soldiers. Martinez explained that writing, sending and receiving letters would be a good way to practice patience and anticipation.  “They wanted that instant gratification, and they were a little bit concerned about the length of time it would take. But I said, ‘You guys will soon get how cool it is to wait for a letter, then finally get it in the mail,’” Martinez said. “I think this project not only helped their letter-writing skills, but also appreciate the value of actual snail mail and how meaningful and exciting that can be.” Every time a package of letters was sent, the students would follow the tracking number together in class and see the parcel “ping pong back and forth” between cities. Broadbent said it would take two or three weeks for mail to arrive in Kuwait, but longer for mail to arrive in the United States because of additional processing in Bahrain. The pen pal program was also a geography lesson for the students, who learned about Kuwait and its hyper-arid desert climate. That’s why, they learned from putting together a Christmas care package for the soldiers, they can’t send chocolate in the mail. The soldiers were, however, able to send the students special patches featuring the U.S. flag and “GEDS” for Grace Episcopal Day School. The patches represent a bridge between the soldiers and students. For transparency and safety reasons, none of the letters were individually sealed in envelopes. Instead, Martinez and Broadbent read every letter before sending them in bulk parcels to ensure that none of the conversations were inappropriate, as the students are minors and the soldiers are in their early 20s-30s. However, Broadbent said she and Martinez didn’t need to censor any letters. Martinez also had been communicating with the students’ parents throughout the year. “For these kids and soldiers, it’s really fun for them to hear from each other, but we needed to make sure that this program was safe first,” Broadbent said. Martinez said the students were initially “weirded out” by the idea of communicating with people who are at least 10 years older than they are, but they quickly realized they shared many of the same hobbies and interests. For example, one student and soldier pair plays the same video games, and another pair shares the same interest in learning different languages. Another pair shares the same sarcastic sense of humor, and another enjoys reading the same book genres. “It’s been pleasantly surprising for everyone to see how easy it is for the pen pals to relate to each other,” Martinez said. In the first round of letters, students asked about the kind of everyday work the soldiers were doing in Kuwait. They were surprised to learn that soldiers do much more than fight in wars. Many of them, like Army Spc. Jamir Matthews, work to make equipment like radios, computers and satellites function properly. “It’s something that I was surprised to learn when I first joined the military in 2019, the kinds of jobs that are available. It’s eye-opening to see what possibilities there are and how these jobs can transfer from the military to the civilian world,” Matthews, who’s with the Army reserve unit in Baltimore, Maryland, told ENS. Matthews was pen pals with a student who stutters, a condition Matthews had when he was a child. He offered to mentor his pen pal and be a source of inspiration for him. “Oh my gosh, my kid is very kind. … He’s more of a shy kid, but he has a wonderful imagination. He’s so bright, and you can tell by his letters that he wants to do big things in the future, and I’m all for it. I see a little bit of him in me every single time I get another letter,” Matthews said. “This job can get stressful at times, being away from family and the things that I usually do when I’m home for so long. Connecting with someone through these letters has given me moments to step away from being a soldier and just being a human being.” Matthews said he and his fellow soldiers who were part of the pen pal program would sometimes sit and talk about their pen pals, and he was always excited to share what his pen pal had written to him. “It’s been an incredible experience, and I definitely would recommend it to a lot of other people because these letters – even though they come every three weeks or so – give me more hope for when I go back home and more motivation […]

[Episcopal News Service] England’s Choir of King’s College Cambridge is completing its mini U.S. tour this week with two concerts at 7 p.m. Eastern on April 8 and 9 at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. Tickets are still available for both concerts. “I think that the Anglican choral tradition represents the best of choral history because it is so vast, and we include within Anglicanism everything from all Christian faiths,” Stuart Forster, Bethesda-by-the-Sea’s associate for music and liturgy, organist and choirmaster, told Episcopal News Service. “The choristers of King’s College Cambridge in particular perform this tradition exceptionally well. … I doubt if I could name a church musician who would go to England and not make a pilgrimage to Cambridge to hear them perform.” The Choir of King’s College Cambridge’s primary duty since its founding in 1441 by King Henry VI of England is to provide daily singing for worship services in the King’s College Chapel at the University of Cambridge. The traditionally all-male choir is best known today for the annual BBC broadcast of its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols performance, which is listened to by an estimated 370 million people.  The choir launched its mini U.S. tour on April 4 at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tennessee, followed by a second concert on April 6 at Washington National Cathedral. Forster said getting the Choir of King’s College Cambridge to perform at Bethesda-by-the-Sea was a “career goal” of his, along with, he hopes one day, the Choir of Westminster Abbey. “I’m very, very happy it’s finally happening,” he said. The Choir of King’s College Cambridge’s two-day stop in Palm Beach also will serve as an educational opportunity for the community. From 10 a.m. to noon Eastern April 9, the choir’s director of music, Daniel Hyde, will work with the Bethesda Choir – Bethesda-by-the-Sea’s vocal ensemble – during an open rehearsal. Choirs of schools from the Palm Beach area also have been invited to participate. “This is an opportunity for people to watch a master at work, and I would love to share this with as many young people as possible who may not ever get the chance to experience something like this in person,” Forster said. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Melbourne Anglican] The Rev. Glenn Loughrey, an Aboriginal priest who for the past year has served as the Diocese of Melbourne’s archdeacon for reconciliation, First Nations recognition and treaty, has been appointed Aboriginal co-chair for Reconciliation Victoria, a body promoting reconciliation across the state of Victoria. Loughrey said he hopes his leadership role in the statewide body would help build stronger relationships and provide resources in regions and parishes toward treaty. Reconciliation Victoria board secretary Keith Gove said Loughrey brings strong alignment and lived experience with the organization’s values of bravery, deep listening and standing strongly against racism. “His work as the Anglican archdeacon for reconciliation, First Nations recognition and treaty, as well as artist, speaker and writer, provides an inspiring background to help RV lead reconciliation across Victoria,” Gove said. The key issues are church properties on unceded lands and how Aboriginal people have been treated, often sanctioned by the church. “They’re not things we’re going to resolve in a short period, and they’re not things to be fearful of,” Loughrey said. “Our scripture is full of evidence that there is enough for everyone and the grace of God is sufficient for everyone,” he said. “[We need to] talk to each other and listen to each other without fear.” With the Anglican provincial council and attorney Michael Shand, Loughrey has been building a formal structure to operate alongside the church as an Aboriginal ministry body, enabling self-funding and self-management. He has worked closely with bishops in the Melbourne diocese to develop good relationships with Wurundjeri people. This work included a pilot program to have a regular traditional owners and diocese consultative group. He said this group aimed to ensure the church was talking to elders and traditional owners and engaging at a level that supported what they needed to do. “It takes time to do that,” he said. “We’ve come a long way.” Loughrey said treaty negotiations between the First Peoples’ Assembly and the state government were underway. He said the negotiations would provide an overarching framework for local-level discussions with traditional owners. He said third-party organizations like the church would be invited into the treaty process at the local level to help resolve issues such as truth-telling and land rights. There will be treaty information sessions with the First Peoples’ Assembly for bishops, leaders, clergy and parishioners. “We’re working on ensuring they get to know how the process is working and where we might fit as a church in that process,” Loughrey said. Loughrey worked with the Rev. Shannon Smith on the Bendigo diocese’s Reconciliation Action Plan and the Rev. Kathy Dalton and Canon Phyllis Andy in Gippsland. He has raised support among parishes along the southern coast for Yoorrook Commissioner Travis Lovett, who will walk from Warrnambool to Melbourne in May. The Walk for Truth from Portland to Parliament will begin where Victoria was first colonized 190 years ago and end at the steps of Parliament House. Loughrey said there will be theological seminars in May and August where anyone could come and learn about the intersectios between Aboriginal and traditional theology.

[Church in Wales] The Welsh government has responded formally to concerns that have been raised by the archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev. Andrew John, to highlight the issue of river quality in Wales. In November, the archbishop convened a national summit, Restoring Welsh Riverss, hosted by the Church in Wales to draw attention to the issue. It brought together more than 90 people from across the United Kingdom, including scientists, farmers, environmentalists and water industry representatives, to discuss the challenges facing watercourses in Wales and to look at ways of improving water quality. The first minister, Eluned Morgan, also attended and addressed the gathering, setting out some of the actions Welsh government is taking to tackle the issues. Now, Welsh government’s deputy first minister and cabinet secretary for climate change and rural affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies, has written to the archbishop explaining the measures that are being taken to tackle the problems. The measures include: Reducing intensive agriculture runoff. Strengthening enforcement of environmental regulations. Implementing nature-based solutions. Adopting a catchment management approach. Establishing a national environmental data-sharing platform. Read the full letter from Irranca-Davies here. The Church in Wales is grateful to receive such a helpful response to this pressing issue and looks forward to working with the Welsh government, with statutory agencies, charitable partners and other stakeholders in helping restore the rivers of Wales to full health.  

[Diocese of Kansas] The Rt. Rev. Cathleen Chittenden Bascom, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, has announced that she will step down on January 31, 2026, and has called for the election of her successor in the spring of 2026 with a consecration service in October 2026. She made the announcement in an email to the diocese on April 4. “I believe I am called to focus even more fully on creation care. Currently, the opportunity has surfaced to work in a consultant role with Presiding Bishop [Sean] Rowe, his staff, and bishops and green leaders across The Episcopal Church to build out Eco-Region Networks in the U.S. and Province IX,” she said in the announcement. The creation of these networks was authorized by General Convention in 2024. She also wants to continue work on the networks’ pilot project, Grassland Networks, that will have its initial gathering April 25-26 in Topeka, Kansas. Bascom, who is 63, said the timeline for the election and consecration of the 11th bishop of Kansas is still under discussion, with the initial dates proposed by the presiding bishop’s office. Bascom was elected in October 2018 and became the first woman to head the diocese, which includes the eastern portion of Kansas. It also was the first time that a bishop heading a diocese in The Episcopal Church was elected from a slate of candidates who all were women. She has been bishop since her consecration on March 2, 2019. The text of her announcement can be found here.

[Anglican Church of Canada] The Ven. Alan Perry, general secretary of the General Synod, has announced that the following four bishops have been nominated by the Order of Bishops for the office of primate of The Anglican Church of Canada: The Most Rev. Christopher Harper, national Indigenous Anglican archbishop. The Most Rev. Greg Kerr-Wilson, archbishop of Calgary. The Rt. Rev. David Lehmann, bishop of Caledonia. The Rt. Rev. Riscylla Walsh-Sha, suffragan bishop of Toronto. Biographical information and photos of the nominees will be released on April 11, 2025. The election will be conducted on June 26, 2025, during the meeting of the General Synod. Perry added, “The election of a new primate is a profound moment of spiritual discernment in the life of our beloved church. I invite your prayers for the orders of bishops, clergy and laity as they prepare for and engage in this discernment process. Please pray for those who will be nominated, their families and dioceses, and for the person who will be elected — whom God has already chosen to be our next primate. And please do pray for Archbishop Anne Germond, our acting primate, as she steers us through the next few months.”

[Episcopal News Service] Grace Africa Christian Connection in St. Louis, Missouri, is only two and a half years old, but already it has an average Sunday attendance of about 40, with another 80 people involved in community life. Its mission is to serve African and Afro Caribbean immigrants living in the United States, and today people from at least 15 countries call it their church home. GACC, as it is known, is a church plant of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri that came about through a chance meeting in early March 2020 of then-Bishop-elect Deon K. Johnson and seminary student Mtipe Koggani. That morning Johnson attended Emmanuel Episcopal Church near his home and struck up a conversation with Koggani, a lifelong Anglican from Tanzania who had come to the U.S. to study at Eden Theological Seminary, just across the street from the church. He asked Koggani if he knew of other Africans living in the area, and Koggani said he could name at least 50 people. Sensing a mission opportunity, Johnson told Episcopal News Service, “I said, ‘Let’s get you into the ordination process and ordain you.’” Koggani, who had been an active lay pastor at his home church and had planned to return to Tanzania after he graduated, told ENS the reason he was going to seminary was to serve the church. Johnson’s offer, he said, “was an opportunity to serve my African brothers and sisters.” So he said “yes.” Even though COVID-19 restrictions were announced the next week, plans for Koggani’s ministry progressed. He graduated from Eden, served a year in the Episcopal Service Corps at the DuBois Center in Illinois, and then graduated in 2022 with a diploma in Anglican Studies from Virginia Theological Seminary. Johnson noted that while Koggani was in Virginia, he created a group chat for Africans back in St. Louis so he could stay connected to them. He also worked with a team of eight people who spent that year listening to what people wanted in a new church community. “We didn’t want to go with the colonial method of us going to them and saying, ‘We are bringing you this,’” Koggani said. “We wanted to have mutual ministry.” Once he was back in the St. Louis, Koggani found space at Grace United Methodist Church where GACC could worship on Sunday afternoons. And they started offering free piano, drums and guitar lessons to kids in the community as a way to potentially get them involved in the church. “They now are the ones who are part of our band during worship,” he said. “They started when they were 10, 11 years old, and they’re 13 or 14 now.” They are so good that other churches have invited them to play, he said. And they are so dedicated that they never miss church “unless they are out of town or very, very sick.” Family members who have seen how happy the kids in the band are now attend church. Grace Methodist also has given them space to set up a recording studio, where the band can record practice sessions and where Koggani hopes to create videos, podcasts and other multimedia evangelism opportunities that can be shared on social media platforms. “It also is a way of supporting African immigrants in the area who have talents in music, in video production and things like that, but who cannot afford studio sessions somewhere else,” he said. GACC doesn’t charge for using the space, asking only for a donation. Worship services follow the Book of Common Prayer, relying on Rite 3 of the Holy Eucharist, since it allows for the flexibility to incorporate elements of African style worship. “It’s different and similar to a typical Episcopal service,” Koggani said. He and others in the church also have a ministry to international students coming to St. Louis, often reaching out to them even before they leave their home country. For Lynne Mumbe, now finishing her master’s degree in marketing at Webster University, that included finding her a place to live after she arrived from her home in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2023. She was days away from leaving and still had nowhere to stay, so she searched social media to find anyone in St. Louis who might help. “I was connected with Reverend Mtipe,” she told ENS, who offered to provide short-term housing for her. He also stayed in touch while she was traveling, and a church member picked her up at the airport and took her shopping for essentials. She ended up renting the place where the church had hosted her initially. Now, she and others helped by GACC feel called to do the same, she said. “We decided to transfer that [help] to other people, being that now we are members.” Like Mumbe, the Rev. Kenneth Chimwaga first learned of the church when he still was in Tanzania – he and Koggani both come from the capital city, Dodoma – before heading to St. Louis to study at Eden Seminary. Once in Missouri, he reached out to Koggani and has been attending GACC ever since. A priest in the Anglican Church in Tanzania in his first year at the seminary, Chimwaga told ENS he enjoys making connections with people from across Africa. He also really likes the style of worship there, especially the singing and dancing and the use of piano, guitars and other instruments. “We feel like we are at home,” he said. Johnson noted that when people attend GACC, they don’t just worship and then go home. “They come to build community,” he said. “There’s always food, there’s always fellowship – they usually have to kick people out and say, ‘go home.’” Chimwaga praised those responsible for helping to create GACC. “Father Mtipe is doing a very, very good job,” he said. “And Bishop Deon, who allowed this ministry to be established – congratulations to them both.” When asked if he planned to stay in […]

[Episcopal News Service] During the 45th anniversary week of St. Óscar Romero’s March 24 martyrdom, Cristosal hosted an ecumenical group on a four-day pilgrimage in El Salvador to commemorate his life and teachings. “San Romero is a martyr and a saint, but he is more than that. I feel like there are certain faiths or churches that want to put him on an altar far away from the people, but San Romero is among the people. He had a preferential treatment for the poor and he struggled for the people of El Salvador,” Fátima Placas, Cristosal’s former education director who now works in a crisis consulting role, told Episcopal News Service. Placas, who is Salvadoran, was the pilgrimage’s primary coordinator. Cristosal is an Episcopal-affiliated independent nonprofit committed to defending human rights and promoting democratic rule of law in Central America. Its executive director, Noah Bullock, is also an Episcopal Church missionary. Romero, the former archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador, is widely recognized today as a champion of liberation theology. He was a vocal critic of social injustice and the violence between the Salvadoran government’s armed forces and leftist guerrillas that led to a 12-year civil war beginning in 1979. Romero brought global awareness to the killings, human rights abuses and disappearances of civilians in the early days of the war. “Romero was very comfortable being around people who are poor or displaced or victims of violence, and that’s part of what Cristosal tries to be, too. Romero was about inviting the church to become involved with people who are suffering from human rights in a way that isn’t patronizing,” the Rev. Geoffrey Curtiss, a retired priest in the Diocese of Newark and a Cristosal board member, told ENS. Romero’s outspokenness led to his assassination on March 24, 1980, when an unknown gunman shot him in the heart while he was celebrating Mass at the Hospital of the Divine Providence in San Salvador. Six days later, during Romero’s funeral at the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador, more gunmen shot at the more than 250,000 mourners, causing a stampede and at least 31 fatalities. Fourteen Americans traveled to El Salvador for the March 21-24 pilgrimage. They visited faith-based communities, attended worship services, processions, and vigils, and talked with Salvadorans who had firsthand memories of Romero. On the first day, the pilgrims visited the Hospital of the Divine Providence, followed by the Museum of the Word and Image in San Salvador, a museum dedicated to collecting and preserving memories of El Salvador’s civil war. The pilgrims also visited a museum dedicated to Romero’s life, located inside Central American University, San Salvador, a Jesuit-operated private school. While there, they spoke with Sonia Suyapa Pérez Escapini, a theologian and director of the university’s theology department, and members of the Association for Promoting Human Rights of El Mozote. The pilgrims spent the second day, March 22, visiting an organization that supports the development of communities in the El Bálsamo mountain range in Santa Tecla, La Libertad. While they were there, a community of families who were displaced during the civil war hosted a special family-friendly commemoration of the 45th anniversary of Romero’s martyrdom. On day three, the pilgrims traveled to the northern part of El Salvador to visit the Episcopal-Anglican church in Carrizal, a growing congregation that celebrates and preserves its Indigenous ancestral culture and Nàhuatl language. They spent the afternoon engaged in conversation with members of a nearby Catholic parish who use music to promote faith and the fight for dignity and justice. The Anglican Episcopal Diocese of El Salvador is part of the Province of Central America and is led by Bishop Juan David Alvarado, who also serves as primate.  March 24, Romero’s feast day, was a day of prayer, reflection and devotion. It included a morning Eucharist and walking the Stations of the Cross through San Salvador’s historic center. The procession toward the Catholic Cathedral of San Salvador culminated in an ecumenical Mass led by Alvarado and visiting Romero’s tomb. On the way, procession organizers delivered an anti-mining petition to the Supreme Court of Justice. The pilgrimage then met with human rights advocates who work with Cristosal and learned more about the organization’s year-round work. The pilgrimage concluded later that day. “We’re most grateful for the people who have opened up their own spaces to share with us their reflections and how the legacy of San Romero drives them, and why he’s still a beacon of truth and justice and human dignity,” Tarrah Palm, Cristosal’s interim director of development, told ENS. Founded in 2000 as a partnership between El Salvador and the United States, Cristosal, from its base in San Salvador, assists internally displaced people and provides legal and accompaniment services to individuals and families whose human rights have been violated by the state. It also has operations in Guatemala and Honduras. Cristosal operated a humanitarian assistance program until February, when U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on more than $60 billion in foreign aid to evaluate it against U.S. foreign policy goals. The foreign aid freeze forced Cristosal to cut most of its staff and terminate its humanitarian assistance program, which provided protection and reintegration services to 1,600 internally displaced people.  Following the Trump administration’s cuts, Bullock, the executive director, told ENS the organization would continue its humanitarian assistance work through philanthropic support and individual donations. “The program was so valuable to so many vulnerable people who still need help,” said Placas, whose position as Cristosal’s education director was eliminated amid the staff cuts. Placas, Curtiss and Palm all said Romero’s teachings and emphasis on advocating for the poor and oppressed remain relevant today amid global humanitarian crises. “His preaching is something that we can absolutely relate to right now, with the wars internationally, and with the disappearance of people in El Salvador, and with the people who have been incarcerated in El Salvador without due process, […]

[Episcopal News Service] Lawyers for The Episcopal Church and 26 other faith-based plaintiffs argued April 4 in federal court that Trump administration immigration policies pose an “imminent threat” to their religious practices by creating an atmosphere of fear among the immigrant communities they serve. The interfaith group of denominations and religious organizations in early February sued the Department of Homeland Security, objecting to policy changes under President Donald Trump that ended past protections against immigration enforcement actions at houses of worship and other “sensitive locations,” such as schools and hospitals. The nonpartisan Georgetown University Law Center is arguing the case in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. At the April 4 hearing, lawyers asked the federal judge for an injunction against the government to block enforcement actions at houses of worship. Episcopal News Service and other observers were granted remote access to audio of the hearing by phone. “These are sacred spaces. Having armed agents come into their spaces and desecrate their worship area is a profound injury,” Kelsi Corkran, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said. She noted that some plaintiffs have responded by asserting privacy rights in congregational spaces that previously had been open to the public, to bolster protections against “unreasonable searches and seizures” as provided by the Fourth Amendment. Congregations would prefer not to turn their public spaces private, “compromising their religious duty of openness and hospitality,” Corkran said. The lawsuit, filed Feb. 11 by the Christian and Jewish organizations, accuses the Trump administration of violating First Amendment protections of both freedom of religion and freedom of association, because of the burden created by the “looming threat of immigration enforcement action at their places of worship and during their religious ceremonies.” The lawsuit notes that many congregations serving immigrant communities have already seen decreases in worship attendance and participation in social service ministries. At issue are changes to Department of Homeland Security policies since Trump took office on Jan. 20. The next day, the department ended Biden administration policies that had identified certain sensitive areas as protected from immigration enforcement actions. “This is a narrow and specific challenge to the reversal of a long-standing policy, a decision to authorize site inspections and disruptive raids at sacred spaces,” said Kate Talmor, another lawyer for the plaintiffs. Department of Homeland Security has long recognized that protecting sensitive locations from enforcement actions “is necessary to protect religious exercise,” she said. Kristina Wolfe, the attorney for Homeland Security, countered that the plaintiffs had not met the “high bar” in proving that their congregations have been unduly targeted or that their religious activity had been disrupted. The lawsuit cites only one example of immigration agents attempting an arrest at a church – at a Pentecostal service in Atlanta, Georgia. “They have not demonstrated that their places of worship are special law enforcement priorities, that they have been singled or targeted for enforcement,” Wolfe said, adding that “the government does have a compelling interest in ensuring and enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.” At the conclusion of the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, Judge Dabney Friedrich thanked both sides and said she expected to issue an opinion “in the next week or two.” The plaintiffs’ 80-page complaint includes short summaries of ways they say the government’s policies have burdened the faith organizations’ practice of their religions. The Episcopal Church’s summary includes the following examples, which do not give specific locations or congregation names: Local officials parked outside one Episcopal church during past enforcement efforts and attempted to arrest undocumented congregants leaving the church. At another congregation, federal agents already have appeared outside its food pantry, photographing those in line. In one Episcopal diocese, some congregants were reluctant to join an informational Zoom call with an immigration attorney. Some congregations have stationed members at their doors to watch for immigration officials. The Episcopal Church is one of 12 denominations that have signed onto the lawsuit, which also includes the Disciples of Christ, Mennonite, Methodist, Presbyterian and AME Zion churches. Other plaintiffs include regional denominational bodies and other religious associations. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.