Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole and ecumenical faith leaders from across the South gathered Sept. 30 for an event in Knoxville to express their support for immigrant families living in fear of the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations. The event was part of a regional gathering, “Deepening Our Moral Witness,” hosted by the Roman Catholic dioceses of Knoxville and Lexington and convened by the Catholic Immigrant Prophetic Action Project. Faith leaders from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and West Virginia participated on the steps of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. “Increasingly, fear and chaos and brutality appear to be the point in immigration policy,” Cole said, according to a news release. “God has made us all, and we all belong to each other.” Read the full news release here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northern Indiana Standing Committee has released a lengthy statement outlining the reasons the diocese, in November 2025, decided it wasn’t ready for reunification with the Diocese of Indianapolis, saying the decision “came from a renewed understanding of our own identity.” No single factor led to the votes at the diocesan convention last year, the standing committee said on Oct. 1. The Diocese of Indianapolis also voted on a resolution that acknowledged the reunification talks without moving forward with a plan to reunify. Both dioceses said they intended to “continue and expand this Season of Collaboration.” “Several themes emerged” during the discernment process, the Northern Indiana standing committee said. “Many people expressed a desire for a more compelling vision of what a reunited diocese would become. … Though leadership was asked many times for reasons for ‘why reunify,’ no sufficient or convincing answers were given by leadership.” The standing committee did not specify which leaders it was referencing. The standing committee also cited practical concerns, such as preserving ministries that have long been part of the diocese’s identity, as well as uncertainty about how Northern Indiana congregations and members would be represented in a combined diocesan structure. “Despite sincere efforts by leaders in both dioceses, we have not yet built the depth of relationships that many believed would be necessary to support such a significant step,” the standing committee said in its Oct. 1 statement. As the diocese prepares for its next convention on Nov. 7, it also has begun discernment about the role of diocesan bishop. Bishop Douglas Sparks announced in February that he intended to retire in August 2027. “Working with the leadership of our diocese, we will consider whether to elect the next and ninth bishop of Northern Indiana or, because we are serious about continuing to consider the possibility of reunification with our siblings in Indianapolis, to call for the election of a bishop provisional until that decision is made,” Sparks said in his February message. The two dioceses in the state of Indiana had announced in January 2023 that they were launching a process to discern whether to reunify as one statewide diocese. That process coincided with several other examples of dioceses considering new partnership models as churchwide Episcopal leaders called for new approaches to addressing denominational decline. In Wisconsin, the state’s three Episcopal dioceses reunited as one in 2024. Also, that year, the dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan agreed to a juncture and combined as the Diocese of the Great Lakes. And in Pennsylvania, the dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem completed their merger at the beginning of 2026 to become the Diocese of the Susquehanna. Similar conversations about cross-diocesan collaboration had been underway since 2018 in the dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York. Though a merger was never openly considered, the two dioceses in April 2019 began sharing a bishop and combining some administrative and ministry functions. In 2025, the two dioceses decided to part ways rather than maintain their six-year partnership.

[Religion News Service] He was 17 years old when armed men from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Christian extremist group based in Central and East Africa, abducted him from his northern Ugandan home, killed his mother and father and took his sister, whom he has not seen since. The wave of violence that engulfed his family eventually led to violence he perpetrated on others. “We could be sent to attack villages and slaughter people,” said the man, now 40, who asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation from the community to which he recently returned. But, he added: “We are also victims.” Earlier this month, he joined more than 2,000 former LRA captives, combatants and family members in Lira City in northern Uganda for a prayer service of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. Organized by the Anglican Diocese of Lango in partnership with LRA returnees, the gathering brought together people carrying one of the conflict’s most complicated legacies: Many were abducted, some as children, and forced to fight and kill. Some were forced to marry warlords. Years after returning home, some struggle not only with what was done to them, but also with what they were forced to do, and with communities that sometimes regard them as perpetrators rather than victims. Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an annual observance to bring awareness to Indigenous boarding schools and to honor victims, survivors and their families. Episcopal dioceses and institutions are observing the day with educational events, including lectures, panel discussions with survivors and documentary screenings. The day of remembrance isn’t an official churchwide observance, but The Episcopal Church’s Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools is working on a resolution to make it so. Some dioceses, including Maine and Northern Michigan, have been observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation for several years. Several members of the Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools will participate in events. Episcopal Divinity School, the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery and the Diocese of Arizona will co-host a livestreamed presentation and panel discussion on Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern via Zoom. Pearl Chanar, an Athabaskan tribal member and a boarding school survivor from Alaska who serves as the commission’s co-chair, will be one of the panelists. Like many Native Alaskans, Chanar was sent out of state, hundreds of miles away from home, to attend a boarding school. “For me as a boarding school survivor and being on this commission, I’m driven by the fact that something has to be done for these children,” Chanar told Episcopal News Service. Joining Chanar in the panel discussion are Vance Blackfox, a Cherokee theologian who serves as the Indigenous Theological Circle’s ecumenical and tribal relations director and is a member of the boarding schools commission, and the Rev. Allen Buck, a Cherokee elder who serves as director of the United Methodist Church’s Circle of Indigenous Ministries in the Northwest. They will discuss how churches and communities are working towards truth-telling and repair, and how Christians can participate. The Rev. Debbie Royals, former canon for the Diocese of Arizona’s Native American Ministry and a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, will give a presentation before the panel discussion. Click here to register for the presentation and panel discussion. In Old Town, Maine, Episcopalians will participate in the Penobscot Nation’s public Every Child Matters Orange Shirt Day Walk the evening of Sept. 30. A public Remembrance Walk in Sonora, California, will begin in front of St. James’ Episcopal Church the evening of Sept. 30. The walk will end with singing and drumming. During the afternoon and evening of Sept. 30 throughout the Diocese of Arizona, Episcopalians will attend a screening of a documentary on the yearlong Listening & Healing pilgrimage the diocese’s Council for Native American Ministry hosted in 2024. During the pilgrimage, which was split into multiple events, pilgrims listened to survivors, families, researchers and Indigenous leaders share their stories. The pilgrimage ended with a healing ceremony led by Royals. Arizona had the second-highest number of Indigenous boarding schools in the country, behind Oklahoma. None of the identified 47 schools were Episcopal-operated, but the Diocese of Arizona is still conducting its own archival investigation to make sure none were overlooked. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation began in 2013 in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada, as Orange Shirt Day with the tagline “Every Child Matters.” The inspiration came from Phyllis Jack Webstad, a Secwépemc survivor who shared her story of attending the St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in 1973, when she was 6 years old. On the first day of school, Webstad was stripped of her clothes, including the new orange shirt her grandmother bought for her. The school never gave it back to her. “The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing,” Webstad said in her story on the Orange Shirt Society’s website. “All of us little children were crying, and no one cared.” The U.S. Indigenous boarding school system was intended to assimilate the children into white society at the expense of their Native American identities, languages and cultures. Indigenous students endured a wide spectrum of experiences at the boarding schools, dating as far back as 1819. Some were forced to attend the schools, run by the federal government and Christian denominations, while other families voluntarily sent their children to receive what often was the only education available. In some cases, they faced a nightmare of mistreatment, abuse and even death far from home. Other boarding school survivors recall no physical abuse but still experienced trauma from the family separation and deprivation of their culture and identity. The Episcopal Church has so far confirmed its involvement in at least 34 of the more than 500 known boarding schools in the United States. Over the last two years, the Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools, has identified 25 additional schools by researching diocesan records, Miskopwaaganikwa Leora Tadgerson, commission co-chair and a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community, told ENS. The commission formed in 2025 from two working groups that were established in 2022 by General Convention and Executive Council. Tadgerson, who also serves as the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of reparations and justice, anticipates that researching the full extent of The Episcopal Church’s complicity and gathering testaments from survivors will take several more years. “There are still so many dioceses that we have to work with, and so many tribes. This work is just the beginning,” Tadgerson told ENS. Observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a “good starting point” for non-Indigenous people to learn about the boarding schools’ lasting effects, Tadgerson said. “Beyond larger events like Orange Shirt Day, we definitely encourage folks to get involved with the local tribal initiatives,” she said. “Take the time to learn how the Indian boarding school experience was localized. That’s also a good starting point.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service — Salt Lake City, Utah] Even though the 18 dioceses in The Episcopal Church’s Province VIII are geographically spread across more than 7,000 miles, from Navajoland to Alaska, Hawai‘i and Taiwan, they share similar climate-related challenges, including water scarcity and wildfires. Episcopalians who live in the westernmost province have come together to address these issues as a province. To start, dozens of them gathered Sept. 25-27 here at the Episcopal Retreat & Conference Center to learn about the causes and effects of climate change in desert regions, and how to mitigate and prevent them. Some 75 participants from 14 dioceses, including ecumenical partners from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, attended the Creation Care Network Conference. Presentations were organized by element: water, air, fire and land. Topics ranged from saving the Great Salt Lake from drought and overuse to preventing desertification by practicing sustainable farming and grazing practices. The conference aimed not only to educate and inspire, but to encourage collaboration in everyday climate action. “Inspiration without practice gets absorbed with our already full lives,” the Rev. Lisa Graumlich, a climatologist and a deacon serving at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona, said in her keynote speech at the conference. “The covenant community is how we find courage to truly see what is happening, to seize this moment as transformative rather than merely catastrophic. … We were never meant to do this alone.” Using the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River as case studies, the water-related presentations centered on conservation and the potential consequences of inaction, including possible permanent desiccation. The Great Salt Lake, for example, is a key ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere as the largest saline lake in North America and a habitat for 10 million migratory birds and other animals. Due to water overuse, including diverting water from the Great Salt Lake to grow water-intensive crops like alfalfa and hay, the lake has lost 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area since 1850, and since 2020, it is losing around 2 million acre-feet of water through evaporation annually, according to research conducted by Brigham Young University in Provo. Amy Quirk, a climate change consultant and parishioner of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California, shared how the nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper uses a three-part model – investigation, advocacy and litigation – to protect and preserve the San Francisco Bay.  That combination “has yielded more than 300 legal and policy victories, holding polluters and government agencies accountable for the health of our community’s wildland communities,” Quirk said during her presentation. “Perhaps it will be useful to consider in your own creation care work in other parts of The Episcopal Church’s Province VIII.” During the air-related presentation, Daniel Moyer and Bob Wohlsen shared how churches throughout the Diocese of Northern California have drastically improved their energy efficiency and reduced fossil fuel dependency. The diocese is on track to achieve The Episcopal Church’s churchwide 2030 carbon neutrality goal, which was established in 2022 by General Convention Resolution A087. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arcata, for example, achieved a zero-carbon footprint in 2025 through comprehensive solar, water and electric upgrades. The parish’s initiative began in 2018 after it established a creation care “green team.” “I hope that listeners took away from my presentation that there’s not a barrier that can’t be overcome to starting a ‘green team’ and being successful at it,” Moyer, a member of St. Alban’s team, told Episcopal News Service. “There are a lot of grant and funding opportunities and resources to figure out how to do these projects. At the end of the day, there is not too small a project that can make a difference. It could be as simple as making sure we turn off lights when we leave a room or use cloth napkins and non-plastic cutlery during church coffee hour.” Ed Stafford is a marketing professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in Logan who specializes in sustainable entrepreneurship and marketing renewable energy and clean technology. In his presentation, he shared how scientists are addressing preparations for Salt Lake City to host the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Rising global temperatures threaten the long-term viability of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, reducing the number of reliable host cities and building a dependency on creating artificial snow. A January World Economic Forum analysis estimates that 10 countries will be able to host the Winter Olympics and Paralympics by 2040 as snowfall declines worldwide. “I’ve always felt that there’s this moral obligation that in order to be a good Christian we need to protect God’s planet,” Stafford, a parishioner at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Logan, told ENS. “We’re trying to get more people thinking about air pollution and how to respond to it. … BYU canceled a football game a few years ago because of wildfire air pollution. We might not even have snow by the Olympics. Thinking about all these things, my belief is that we need to be proactive now and try to mitigate climate issues before they happen. We’ve only got eight years to prepare.” Speakers from the fire-related panel shared lessons, including preparation and climate resilience planning, from the deadly wildfires that devastated communities across the Diocese of Los Angeles in 2025, destroying one Episcopal church, two rectories and several school buildings. The land-related panelists shared how improper farming and grazing practices cause desertification and how to transition to sustainable practices. They also shared how native plants and grasses can improve soil and save water. Since General Convention passed a resolution in 2024 calling on Episcopal institutions to “build networks around creation care and renewable energy,” 12 have been established across 55 dioceses in the United States, Latin America and Taiwan, and they’re now addressing region-specific environmental concerns and possible solutions. These eco-region networks seek to “link people, projects and properties dedicated to nature-based solutions to slow […]

[Episcopal News Service] Two Episcopal congregations in the Diocese of Long Island began worshipping together this month through a merger that expects to benefit financially from the prospective sale of one of the two church properties for $11.8 million. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a historically Black congregation that was founded in 1902 in New York’s Queens borough, had spent decades discussing what to do about its aging church in the Jamaica neighborhood. “In recent years, the challenges of maintaining the property and sustaining the parish financially have become increasingly difficult,” the Rev. Frederick Walker, the congregation’s priest-in-charge, said last month in a diocesan article. In March 2026, St. Stephen’s vestry voted to merge with St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in the nearby Hollis neighborhood, allowing both congregations to invest their resources in parish life and ministry together. The final service at St. Stephen’s occurred Sept. 6, and the congregations’ first joint worship was held at St. Gabriel’s on Sept. 13. “What excites me is what becomes possible when we no longer have to devote so much energy and so many resources to maintaining aging buildings,” Walker said. “St. Stephen’s and St. Gabriel’s each have gifted, committed people, and together I believe they can build a vibrant ministry, strengthen their relationships in the community and flourish as one parish for years to come.” The diocese has put the former St. Stephen’s property up for sale for $11,750,000. The corner .38-acre lot is located next to a public library branch and is zoned for commercial developments and multifamily housing. The merged congregation intends to preserve spiritually and historically distinctive elements of the former St. Stephen’s, such as stained-glass windows and other furnishings, though the structure could be demolished in a redevelopment.  Proceeds from the sale would become “part of the resources of the merged parish,” according to the diocese. “This is truly a merger, not simply the closing of one congregation,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano said in a diocesan article, published before his successor, Bishop Adam Shoemaker, was consecrated as the new bishop of Long Island. “The people of St. Stephen’s carry with them more than a century of faith, relationships and witness in Jamaica,” Provenzano said. “As they say farewell to a place that generations have called home, we give thanks for all that has been built there and look with hope toward what St. Stephen’s and St. Gabriel’s will build together.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service – Navasota, Texas] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally visited the House of Bishops Sept. 25 here at Camp Allen during its fall meeting. Texas was the first stop on her Sept. 22-28 visit to the United States, her first as archbishop of Canterbury. Anglican provinces, including The Episcopal Church, “face very similar challenges and very similar joys” even though they’re geographically, culturally and linguistically different, Mullally told the bishops.  As archbishop of Canterbury, “I have had the joy of being in Jerusalem and Europe. I’ve had the joy of being in Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya and Burundi, and in all of those places, when you go to church, you see an Anglican church,” she said. “Despite the different cultures, different languages, different social settings, different environments, the churches are recognizable as part of the Anglican Communion. I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the welcome that I have received in all those places, and it has been a reminder to me that we’re family.” The House of Bishops was equally excited for Mullally to be part of its Sept. 23-28 gathering, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told Episcopal News Service. “It’s amazing to have the archbishop of Canterbury with us. She’s shown her genuine leadership and care for the [Anglican] Communion and love for this church,” Rowe said. “It’s exciting to have her represent the unity of the church.” Mullally noted she was addressing the House of Bishops exactly six months after her March 25 installation as the first woman archbishop of Canterbury in the office’s 1,400-year history. As archbishop of Canterbury, Mullally is the most senior bishop in the Church of England and serves as the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes 42 member provinces. “Bishop Sarah has long been known in the Church of England as a wise and steady leader, committed to supporting those who are vulnerable and leading God’s people through difficult times,” Rowe told the bishops as he introduced Mullally. “In these last six months, the rest of us across the Anglican Communion have come to see these qualities for ourselves and give thanks for the gift of serving alongside her.” Before Mullally arrived, several bishops submitted questions for Rowe to ask her during a Q&A discussion. Question topics ranged from evolving as an increasingly postcolonial and polycentric – having more than one center of control – church, to her experience meeting with Pope Leo XIV in April in Vatican City, to supporting Anglicans in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. Mullally described the bishops’ questions as showing that “we have lots of common ground.” “Having those conversations where there may be differences is so important because we not only gain understanding of other people, we gain understanding of ourselves,” Mullally told ENS Sept. 25 at Camp Allen. “They were great questions, and maybe the one that I will hold on to is, ‘What brings me joy?’ because I think that is so important for us to find joy in our lives, and, for me, it’s joyful to be here today with The Episcopal Church. It’s joyful to go out in parishes in the Church of England, and also across the Anglican Communion and see the way that God is working.” Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, who co-represented The Episcopal Church at Mullally’s installation as vice-chair of the House of Bishops, described Mullally’s brief visit as a “real blessing.” “Our part of the [Anglican] Communion is eager to know her and to walk alongside her and continue to pray for her,” Baskerville-Burrows told ENS. “To have even just a few minutes was a real blessing.” Colorado Bishop Kym Lucas, who participated in a small Bible study group with Mullally during the 2022 Lambeth Conference, echoed the sentiment. She described Mullally’s visit as a “testament” to increasing connection in the Anglican Communion. “I think it is a testament to our connection and the desire for increased connection across the Anglican Communion, and I’m excited about it,” said Lucas, who serves as the House of Bishops’ secretary. “It’s something that I’m working on as well from my diocesan perspective – how can we build community across distance? I think [Mullally] being here was just a really helpful step in that. Everyone seemed receptive. I’m excited about her leadership, and I know her as a very faithful person.” After departing Camp Allen in the early evening, Mullally left for Greenwich, Connecticut, where she preached and joined a Q&A forum at Christ Church the morning of Sept. 27. Later that evening, she led the Evensong and benediction at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, New York. On Sept. 28, Mullally went to the United Nations to meet with U.N. leaders. She was also scheduled to participate in a private roundtable discussion at The Episcopal Church’s headquarters in New York with the International Committee of the Red Cross on protecting health care in conflict. “At this time, going into the meeting in the U.N., I’m conscious that right across the world, Anglican churches are involved in health care, often in places of conflict,” Mullally, a former cancer nurse, told ENS. “For me, the question is: ‘What could we be doing in partnership with the other organizations to ensure that health care continues despite conflict in the world?’ We are Christ’s hands and feet in the world, and that is true in places of conflict as well as in places of peace.” While reflecting on these questions and those asked during the meeting, Mullally described Anglican and Episcopal bishops communion-wide as “figures of unity,” key to building understanding and friendship in a socially and politically “polarized world.” Bishops are called to be figures of unity and people of peace, and how they enable churches and create unifying spaces is critical, Mullally told ENS. “[Having] wonderful links across the Anglican Communion builds understanding and friendship, which really helps in a polarized world.” –Shireen […]

[Episcopal News Service] Clergy need housing, but housing is expensive in Philadelphia. One thing the Diocese of Pennsylvania, which spans the five-county metro region, has is available space on which to build. That combination of factors sparked an idea that now has become the diocese’s latest experiment in adaptive reuse of church properties. The diocese recently announced the launch of a new initiative that has identified at least three Episcopal properties for construction of affordable housing units that will be offered for rent to diocesan clergy and for priests who have been called to serve at churches that no longer have rectories. The initiative coincides with the diocese’s ongoing Transformation Initiative. The diocese’s emphasis is on new uses for underutilized church properties, including to ease the financial burden on congregations struggling to maintain aging facilities. The housing sites would be a mix of single-family houses or townhomes centered around a chapel or other worship space. Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez, in an interview with Episcopal News Service, said he envisions a kind of “neighborhood for priests.” Each would live in diocese-owned rental housing resembling a “seminary setting,” Gutiérrez said, with easy commutes to one of the diocese’s 136 congregations. In addition to providing affordable housing, “we also thought this is a good way of building a community of new clergy,” Gutiérrez said. Newly relocated priests often feel isolated and alone in their new city. “They don’t know anyone, and they’re coming from maybe Mississippi or California.” The clergy housing will help break down those social barriers while also offering living spaces for single people, couples and families of all sizes. Gutiérrez declined to provide detailed information about the three prospective sites because discussions are still underway with congregations and zoning authorities, though he specified that one is a diocesan property and the other two would be next to active churches. He added that one site is within the Philadelphia city limits, along with two suburban sites. Similar efforts are already underway through the diocese’s Transformation Initiative. Planners have estimated the diocese has 2.5 million square feet of underutilized space, and the diocese has identified 26 church properties where housing redevelopment projects could be viable — not to replace those congregations, but to make more productive use of their campuses. Under a separate but related branch of the Transformation Initiative, the diocese is working with another test group of congregations to launch a program of diocesan administrative support services. The diocese intends to leverage expertise in a range of tasks, from financial accounting to web design, to relieve local leaders of some of those burdens. The clergy housing initiative, then, represents a third branch of these diocesan efforts toward sustainability, at a time when lack of affordable housing has been identified as a national crisis. In 2023, the diocese’s Board of Trustees authorized $4 million in proceeds from the 2021 sale of the Wapiti diocesan retreat property in Maryland to be used as seed money for the Transformation Initiative, and some of that money will be available to build housing for clergy, Gutiérrez said. Site configurations are still being designed, though Gutiérrez has insisted that a central worship space be incorporated into the plans, so residents can gather for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer or other services. “I want this to feel like not only a home but a spiritual place,” he said. He expects the initial plans will be finalized in the coming months, so that the diocese can break ground on housing construction by late 2027 or early 2028. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal dioceses and congregations are getting a first look at the 2027 health insurance landscape, and it will be expensive. The Episcopal Church Medical Trust, which manages the Denominational Health Plan that insures all full-time clergy and lay employees, has projected an overall cost increase of 12.6% for the year. The rate increases for the vast majority of individual dioceses range from 6% to 14%, potentially adding a substantial financial burden to many Episcopal congregations, including some that already are struggling to make ends meet. For some Diocese of Southwest Florida congregations, which span from the Tampa area to Naples, getting hit with a large health insurance increase on top of several years of property insurance increases “feels like an existential crisis,” Mike Booher, the diocese’s canon of finance and administration, told Episcopal News Service. “We’re working very hard at a losing battle.” The inflationary pressure on insurance costs is not unique to The Episcopal Church. Across the health insurance industry in recent years, costs have been driven higher by an aging population, increasingly expensive treatments and the growing use of high-cost specialty drugs, including GLP-1 prescriptions for weight loss. In response, the Medical Trust, an affiliate of Church Pension Group, will end coverage of GLP-1s except for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Episcopal employees will also see higher deductibles, higher copayments and higher out-of-pocket maximums for 2027 to help minimize the premium increases. At the same time, some dioceses are considering options for short-term and long-term assistance for their congregations. The Diocese of Massachusetts, for example, is offering one-time subsidies to bring Massachusetts congregations’ rate increases in 2027 from 10.5% down to 5.25%. “The spiraling costs of health care and resulting insurance premium increases affect every congregation in our diocese, large and small,” Bishop Julia Whitworth said in a written statement to ENS. “As a diocesan community, we support one another in moments of challenge. It is important to me that our diocese offer financial support to reduce premium costs for our 170 worshipping communities, so that they are not saddled with budget-breaking, unexpected rate increases in 2027.” In the United States, a family of four with an employer-sponsored health plan is spending an average of $37,824 a year on health care in 2026, according to the Milliman Medical Index, after costs jumped by nearly 8% from 2025. CPG’s most recent annual report, released in July 2026, alludes to the industry-wide insurance inflation. “Amid some of the highest market trend levels seen in the last 30 years, employer-sponsored plans continue to face sustained cost pressure, driven by factors largely beyond any single plan’s control, including medical inflation, rising prescription drug prices, increased chronic disease prevalence, and regulatory coverage mandates,” the annual report said. New York Bishop Matthew Heyd has also sounded the alarm about the impact of rising health insurance costs in his diocese, which spans Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx in New York City and several less-populated counties upstate. The Diocese of New York’s insurance rates are going up 14% in 2027. “This is a steep increase. It will be painful for many of our congregations. Health care costs can force congregations to decide whom they can call, and whether they can afford a full-time priest,” Heyd said this month in a message to his diocese. The diocese formed a task force a year ago to consider ways to address the long-term trend toward costlier health care. Any solutions developed by that task force could “take years to phase in,” Heyd said. In the short term, church leaders are gathering now in meetings around the diocese to understand the new health coverage plans and discuss options for handling the 2027 cost increase. The increases also affect the cost of insuring the churchwide staff. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the church’s corporate entity, budgeted $4 million for employee health insurance in 2026, and its 2027 rates are going up by 13%, according to a church spokesperson. The Diocese of Massachusetts, in its message this month about health insurance rates, made clear that it will only be offering “a one-time offset” of up to $280,000 for 2027. Leaders in the Boston-based diocese still will need to work with congregations on a sustainable long-term approach to continued cost increases. “By providing this one-time assistance, our Diocesan Council hopes to create a bit of breathing room for congregations to plan for what will be significant increases in coming years,” Whitworth told ENS. “As part of our diocesan commitment to congregational vitality, we are actively exploring long-term, sustainable solutions for providing benefits to our clergy and lay professionals that mitigate rising costs.” The Episcopal Church’s canons mandate that health care coverage be available to all full-time employees through the Denominational Health Plan, created in 2009 by General Convention. Church Pension Group, through the Medical Trust, administers that insurance, and each year it adopts a range of plans and coverage levels from which dioceses can choose. Rates are specific to each diocese and depend on several factors, including age and other workforce demographics, geographical price differences, General Convention policies and each diocese’s three-year trend in incurred claims. The Denominational Health Plan requires dioceses to offer at least one plan in which premiums will be covered by the diocese or congregation, though employees can choose to pay additional premiums for plans with higher coverage levels. Annual rate increases for the Denominational Health Plan in past years typically have ranged from 4% to 8%, so the sharp increase for 2027 was both unexpected and unprecedented, policy managers say. They added that the Medical Trust is working to better align coverage and costs after being hit with several large individual claims in recent years. CPG has not adjusted its deductibles, copayments and out-of-pocket maximums in six years. Without any chance to redesign those plans in 2027, the churchwide rate increase would have reached 22.5%, according to John Servais, CPG’s senior vice president of […]

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians from the church’s Province VIII will gather Sept. 25-27 at the Episcopal Retreat & Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for its inaugural Creation Care Network Conference to learn about building climate resilience, how to reduce fossil fuel dependency and more. Many of the potential solutions presented will center Indigenous wisdom and leadership, including an overview of what it looks like to live a subsistence lifestyle; how to manage natural resources and their harvest sustainably; an overview of regenerative agriculture; and land, water and animal conservation and stewardship practices.  “We have disconnected from nature, from our creator,” Forrest Cuch, a member of the Ute tribe and senior warden of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Whiterocks, Utah, told ENS. “Indigenous people are reminding people that it’s important to stay connected … to fulfill what Jesus taught us to be, which is to share the power.” Cuch is one of several Indigenous leaders who will speak at the conference. He also will lead the closing ceremony. During the conference, the Rt. Rev. Cathleen Bascom, The Episcopal Church’s eco-region networks coordinator and a former bishop of the Diocese of Kansas, will share information on the church’s eco-region networks, including the granting process. Since General Convention passed a resolution in 2024 calling on Episcopal institutions to “build networks around creation care and renewable energy,” 12 have been established across 55 dioceses in the United States, Latin America and Taiwan, and they’re now addressing region-specific environmental concerns and possible solutions. These eco-region networks seek to “link people, projects and properties dedicated to nature-based solutions to slow climate change.” Under Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, who took office in November 2024, development of the eco-region networks has been one of the church’s primary creation care initiatives. It is now facilitated through a partnership with the Center for Religion & Environment at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Last month, The Episcopal Church relaunched its creation care granting program with an emphasis on local ministries connected to the eco-region networks. The church is now accepting proposals until Oct. 26 for grants of up to $15,000 to fund projects involved with “nature restoration, regenerative agriculture, climate advocacy and environmental justice.” Each new eco-region network that is formed receives $10,000 a year from The Episcopal Church to hold an annual in-person gathering and to support an “eco-fellow” to help organize events and activities, Bascom told ENS. The Center for Religion & Environment’s eco-region networks facilitator, Hampton Randall, works closely with the “eco-fellows.” Part of Bascom’s inspiration for developing the eco-region networks came from serving as a delegate at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s annual Conference of the Parties. “At the U.N. climate summits, nature-based solutions were being talked about,” Bascom said. “This is a larger work of healing God’s creation that we have, that in many ways we’ve damaged more than we probably even realize.” When she was bishop of Kansas, Bascom led the formation of the first eco-region network, the Grasslands Network, which largely spans the Great Plains. It includes the dioceses of Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Navajoland, Nebraska, North Dakota, Northwest Texas, Rio Grande, South Dakota, Texas, Western Kansas, and Wyoming. The network, which held its first gathering in 2025, aims to address grasslands preservation and restoration, biodiversity, regenerative ranching and farming, and water quality, depletion and rehydration. Like the eco-region networks, the Creation Care Network Conference will focus on region-specific climate issues. In the case of Province VIII, its 18 dioceses share similar challenges, including water scarcity and wildfires, even though they’re geographically spread across more than 7,000 miles, from Navajoland to Alaska, Hawai‘i and Taiwan. The Rev. Jazzy Bostock is a Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Episcopal priest who serves as vicar of St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church and Maluhia Lutheran Church in Waianae, Oahu, Hawai‘i. She integrates Kānaka Maoli perspectives with spiritual creation care and environmental justice in her ministry. As an Indigenous presenter at the conference, Bostock said she hopes to help guide participants to approaching regional climate issues from both an academic and a spiritual perspective. “I hope we can help ground the conference more in a spiritual kind of heart space, not just an academic kind of approach to tackling these issues,” she said. “There are a lot of facts to learn, but also pieces of our faith and spirit that are affected when creation is affected negatively. That impacts the way that we live.” As the eco-region networks are developing, the Earth’s surface temperatures continue to rise due to human-induced climate change, exacerbating severe weather events like droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, heavy rain and floods. This year, for example, wildfires have burned more than 8.5 million acres nationwide, especially in the western part of the United States. Last month, intense storms throughout Indiana killed at least seven people, displaced at least 1,000 people and left hundreds of thousands of households without power for up to two weeks. Meanwhile, since beginning his second term in 2025, President Donald Trump’s administration has rolled back multiple environmental protection policies in favor of energy policies that aim to increase oil, gas and coal production, while reducing renewable energy development. “This is not what God intended. This is not living in right relationship with ourselves, with the natural world, with non-human kin. We’re not doing it right,” Bostock said. The Rev. Lisa Graumlich, a climatologist and a deacon serving at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona, will be the conference’s keynote speaker. In her speech, she will question why, she believes, not enough action is being taken to mitigate climate change even though climatology research and data are frequently updated and readily available.  “I’ve spent 50 years as a climate scientist watching the gap between what we know and what we do grow wider, not narrower,” Graumlich, who’s served with Bascom as an Episcopal delegate at U.N. climate conferences, told ENS. “We have the science. We increasingly have the […]

[Episcopal News Service] Natalie Whiting was an active member of her congregation, Calvary Episcopal Church in Flemington, New Jersey, for most of her 79 years. In loving her church, Whiting wasn’t afraid to offer some constructive criticism. The historic building was woefully inadequate to accommodate people with disabilities and older people who had difficulty climbing its stairs. Whiting, in life, pressed for the church to upgrade the facility for accessibility, but church leaders deemed the costs prohibitive. Whiting died in January 2025 from cancer and is now posthumously addressing the church’s accessibility issues. She left her entire estate, estimated at more than half a million dollars, to the congregation with a request that it spend the money on accessibility upgrades. “She had a passion for making our building accessible to all people,” the Rev. Kyle Cuperwich, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “The church had talked about for years doing something about it but never had the resources.” Now Calvary is in the middle of the renovation project that Whiting had long requested. Accessible restrooms are being installed in the parish hall. Related upgrades are underway in the parish hall’s kitchen. The two sets of stairs into the worship space, which have posed a challenge to some parishioners in the past, will soon be complemented by wheelchair lifts. “We had older congregation members who would practically age themselves out of the church because they couldn’t get into the building anymore,” Cuperwich said. Some of them have already expressed excitement at the thought of returning to in-person worship services once the lifts are installed. The project is expected to cost more than $600,000. Additional funding was provided by the Diocese of New Jersey through a $3,000 Commission on Ministry with the Disabled grant and a $250,000 loan from the diocese’s Venture in Mission Fund. “Together, these efforts are helping Calvary prepare not only a more accessible building, but a more accessible and welcoming future for its community,” the diocese said in a Facebook post about the project. Flemington is a borough of about 5,000 people in central New Jersey’s Hunterdon County, a few miles from the Pennsylvania state line. Whiting was born to the east of Flemington, in Somerset, and lived most of her life in Hunterdon County, where she worked as a teacher at North Hunterdon High School. Whiting and her husband, who died in 2013, had no children, though she “cultivated a profound sense of community and fellowship, deeply rooted in her Christian faith,” according to her obituary. “She felt the church was really her home,” said Cuperwich, who has served at Calvary since 2023. The congregation now is honoring her wishes by finally following through with its plans for accessibility upgrades. “She really had the church in mind.” The design phase began last fall, and demolition work in the parish hall occurred in May 2026. The congregation has been posting updates on its website and Facebook page, with photos showing the new restrooms and kitchen taking shape. The wheelchair lifts will be installed soon, and the entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year or early 2027. “It will look really nice when it’s done,” Cuperwich said. In addition to honoring Whiting’s legacy, the congregation sees the renovations as an opportunity to offer a greater welcome to the Flemington community at a time when the borough’s population is growing. “We want to be part of that growth,” Cuperwich said. Current attendance at Sunday worship services counts about 30 to 35 worshippers. “We are a small church, but we are growing slightly, and we want to keep that momentum going.” Making the church more accessible is another step in that direction. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[World Council of Churches] The Council of Bishops of the Zambia Anglican Council issued a pastoral statement on post-election tensions in their south-central African country. “Our concern is Zambia. Our concern is justice. Our concern is peace. Our concern is unity,” the Sept. 21 statement said. “Our concern is the dignity and well-being of every Zambian, regardless of political, ethnic or tribal affiliation.” Last month, incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development won the general elections, though his main competitor, Brian Mundubile, claims that the counting of the votes had been rigged. After the election, government authorities raided a house, resulting in an exchange of gunfire that killed former Zambian minister Mutotwe Kafwaya. Eleven people were also arrested in this raid, including senior opposition figures. They were accused of planning a coup with the help of foreign militia, which they have denied. Retired Botswana Bishop Trevor Mwamba, a Zambian national who now leads Zambia’s United National Independence Party, was among the arrested opposition figures. He remains in custody as of Sept. 18, according to a report from The Telegraph, a British news outlet. “Where prosecution is not warranted, alternative lawful resolutions should be pursued without unnecessary delay,” the statement said. “Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice must not only punish wrongdoing; justice must also protect the innocent from arbitrary treatment.” Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally has called the next Primates’ Meeting, to be held Feb. 28-March 5, 2027, in Johannesburg, South Africa. This will be Mullally’s first Primates’ Meeting as archbishop of Canterbury. The last meeting took place in 2024 in Rome, Italy. The Primates’ Meeting is an “Instrument of Communion” that seeks to foster unity and collaboration between Anglican churches worldwide. The meeting provides space for prayer, fellowship and consultation on shared priorities in church and world affairs. Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Rt. Rev. Adam James Shoemaker was ordained and consecrated the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Long Island on Sept. 19, making him the first Episcopal bishop of Arab and North African descent in The Episcopal Church’s more than two centuries of history. Nearly 2,000 people attended the service in person at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus in Brookville, New York. As bishop of the Garden City-based diocese, Shoemaker now leads more than 120 congregations across Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk counties. This next step in his pastoral ministry is also a return home for Shoemaker, who was raised in Huntington. “Returning home to serve as bishop of the diocese that first formed me in faith is an extraordinary gift,” Shoemaker said in a statement ahead of his livestreamed installation. “My own story has taught me to cherish the differences that make us who we are, and in these first months back on Long Island, I have seen again how our diversity is one of this diocese’s greatest strengths.” Shoemaker, 47, was born as Adam James Haggagi in New York, New York, to Jamie Stanforth, an Egyptologist of Jewish descent, and Hamada Haggagi, an Egyptian Muslim. After his parents divorced shortly before his first birthday, Shoemaker lived with his mother and grandparents on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He was baptized at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles near General Theological Seminary, where he would eventually earn a diploma in Anglican Studies. A few years later, Jamie Stanforth married Thomas Shoemaker, and they moved to Long Island. Adam Haggagi’s last name was then legally changed to Shoemaker. Shoemaker’s life experiences as an Egyptian American growing up in one of the most culturally, linguistically and ethnically diverse regions in The Episcopal Church have shaped his faith journey to focus on racial justice and reconciliation and embracing diversity in the church. “I think my story has humanized so many of the differences that can sometimes divide – sometimes in tragic ways – and given me a heart for all that diversity,” Shoemaker told Episcopal News Service after he was elected bishop in April. “It’s been a lifelong journey for me to come fully into my sense of self. It’s been a journey of prayer and introspection.” In his note to the Diocese of Long Island, which was published in the installation bulletin, Shoemaker thanked his six half-siblings, who all live in Cairo. Shoemaker was elected bishop on April 18 by nearly 300 clergy and lay delegates gathered at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City. He succeeded the Rt. Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano, who had served as bishop of the Diocese of Long Island since 2009. Prior to his election, Shoemaker served congregations in North Carolina, South Carolina and Massachusetts. He had also served as a Young Adult Service Corps volunteer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was chief consecrator at Shoemaker’s installation. Co-consecrators included Provenzano, former Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, Maine Bishop Thomas J. Brown, Virginia Assistant Bishop Gayle E. Harris, Texas Assistant Bishop Héctor F. Monterroso and the Rev. Katrina D. Foster, bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley preached. She and Shoemaker worked together closely when he was rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, one of three historically Black Episcopal churches in Charleston. While at St. Stephen’s, Shoemaker and Woodliff-Stanley also worked closely with the rectors of Charleston’s two other historically Black Episcopal churches to form the Three Churches United. The coalition hosts and participates in events and initiatives as part of the diocese’s commitment to racial justice and reconciliation work. The ordination service’s liturgy featured music and readings in languages reflecting the Diocese of Long Island’s diversity, including Spanish and Mandarin. The liturgy included readings from Isaiah 2:2-4, Ephesians 2:13-22 and Luke 10:1-9. While a student at General Theological Seminary, Shoemaker met his wife, the Rev. Courtney Davis-Shoemaker, priest-in-charge at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. They have three children: Malcolm, Aubrey and Hannah. Shoemaker additionally holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Duke Divinity School, a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School and a bachelor’s degree from Boston University. “I am humbled and grateful to begin this ministry alongside the people of Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, and hopeful for what God will do among us,” Shoemaker said in his statement.

[Episcopal News Service] A. Gary Shilling, who has influenced preaching in The Episcopal Church for nearly 40 years, announced Sept. 21 that he is retiring as head of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation. Shilling, who founded the organization in 1987, will become board chairman emeritus. Executive Director Peter Wild will continue to lead EPF’s day-to-day operations. “Few people in The Episcopal Church have given more to the enterprise of preaching than Gary Shilling,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told Episcopal News Service. “For decades, our whole church has benefitted from his passion for forming strong clergy and lay preachers and his willingness to marshal resources in the service of his vision.” Rowe was a seminarian when he participated in the Preaching Excellence Program, the foundation’s centerpiece program. “The training and mentorship I received there has been central to my formation and my ministry in the last 25 years,” he said, adding, “I will always be grateful to Gary and the Episcopal Preaching Foundation for their generous investment in me and thousands of other seminarians and new preachers.” The Very Rev. Randy Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said in the foundation’s release that Shilling “has made a unique contribution to the careers of generations of preachers and their Sunday listeners,” including himself. The Rev. Stephen Smith, who has been involved with the foundation since 2005 and now chairs its board, said in an interview that “Gary Schilling changed preaching in the church forever and for the better.” Shilling, an economist, was leading his investment advisory firm in Springfield, New Jersey, when he created, and largely funded, the foundation. He said in the release that his initial motivation was simple. “Too many lousy sermons. What gets people into church – and keeps them there – is the sermon,” he said. “Plus, I simply enjoy hearing a good sermon.” Shilling told ENS that for him one test of a good sermon is “whether you can remember on Wednesday what the preacher said on Sunday.” The sermon, he added, is for most congregants their main continuing point of contact with the church. However, while he believed that strong and vibrant preaching would attract congregants and grow The Episcopal Church, that wasn’t Shilling’s only goal. He hoped that strong preachers would also inspire people in their religious life. “A good sermon changes people in a way that improves their understanding of God and Christianity,” he said in the release. Shilling said the Book of Acts is his favorite book in the Bible because it tells the story of how Paul and others spread “this wonderful concept we call Christianity.” Shilling, 89, who attends Christ Church in Short Hills, New Jersey, decided early on that EPF should work with new preachers as they grew into their ministry. The annual Preaching Excellence Program, the foundation’s centerpiece conference known as PEP, offers seminarians and recent graduates an immersion experience in the art and practice of preaching. Seminarians, homiletics professors and rectors gather for a week of lectures, worship, workshops and small groups in which the students preach sermons for discussion and feedback. The foundation underwrites the cost of registration, travel, and accommodations, except for $375, which the student, their seminary, and their diocese pay in equal parts. Approximately 2,000 clergy have participated in the program since its founding in 1988. The Rev. Elis Hiu-Mei Lui attended Preaching in Excellence in May. She was a transitional deacon when she preached her first sermon to a congregation at St. Mary the Virgin near Times Square in New York City in late August and was ordained a priest on Sept. 12. Lui called PEP “the most retreat-like experience I’ve had in all my years of seminary.” The time she spent in personal prayer was a part of that, she said, adding that the conference also gave her and others “space for you to process and pray about what you’re learning and encountering.” PEP allows participants to “get out of our respective bubbles,” Lui said, and connect with people from other seminaries and local formation programs who will be preaching in different settings. “It was very neat to talk to and connect with peers who are being formed at this exact time, but also with the mentors who’ve been doing this for years.” The preaching foundation expanded its mission over the years with preaching intensives for deacons, including conferences for deacons in the Anglican Church of Canada; a lay preacher program (with help from a $400,000 grant from Trinity Wall Street); an association for Episcopal Church lay preachers; preaching conferences for Spanish-speaking clergy; diocesan preaching conferences; preaching weeks between seminaries’ academic year terms; and Sermon Roundtable to train clergy and lay leadership in giving meaningful sermon feedback (funded by more than $1 million from the Lilly Endowment). It offers Word & Witness, a monthly resource newsletter for preachers. The foundation, with the Seminary of the Southwest, developed the Iona Collaborative, which offers a virtual formation experience for those to be ordained outside a residential seminary. EPF’s Episcopal Lay Preaching Network, founded in 2025, will host the first national conference for lay preachers in October. – The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is a freelance writer who formerly was a senior editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.

[Episcopal News Service] For more than 50 years, St. Stephen’s & The Vine Episcopal Church in Ferguson, Missouri, has operated a food pantry to help feed its community. As living expenses and the city’s poverty rate increase, more people in north St. Louis County are turning to the ministry, which runs Tuesday and Saturday mornings, for food assistance. Like many other Episcopal-run food pantries nationwide, St. Stephen’s & the Vine’s food pantry began serving more low-income people than usual last year after the federal government made cuts to its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The cuts affected millions of people. The church was already struggling to keep up with the food pantry’s growing demand when this summer it suffered a “financial crisis” after both of its HVAC systems simultaneously broke down and needed to be replaced. In response, St. Stephen’s & the Vine’s part-time transitional priest, the Rev. Teresa Danieley, set up a GoFundMe page in late July to keep its shelves stocked with fresh and nonperishable food and personal care items. “Before the SNAP cuts, we were probably serving around 50 people on a Tuesday morning and more people on a Saturday morning. Now we’re serving at least 75 people each day we’re open,” Danieley told Episcopal News Service. “People can’t make ends meet because they don’t have adequate wages; they don’t have adequate housing; they don’t have adequate health care. Our food pantry is their stopgap.” Danieley noted that the food pantry is the church’s most expensive outreach ministry to operate. St. Stephen’s & the Vine has raised $20,300 through GoFundMe as of Sept. 18. Based on current food costs and not counting additional emergencies, the money raised so far can at best keep the food pantry open for 40 weeks, or about nine months, according to the ministry’s average operational expense of $500 weekly.  As of 2024, 24.2% of Ferguson residents live below the federal poverty level, higher than the national rate of 10.2%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For decades, the city has faced deep-seated housing instability driven by historic racial segregation and discriminatory public policies. “I’ve been in and out of jobs, and it is minimum wage, so even though you get a paycheck, it’s still usually not enough once you pay rent,” Renne Leon, a Ferguson resident who visits St. Stephen’s & the Vine’s food pantry, told KMOV, St. Louis’ CBS affiliate news station, in an August interview. Missouri’s 2026 minimum wage is $15 per hour, which is more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. More people have also been relying on St. Stephen’s & the Vine’s Clay Café for free community meals twice a month. The volunteer-run community meal ministry is open on the third Tuesday morning of the month for brunch and on the third Sunday of the month for dinner. On average, about 40 people are served brunch and 75 people are served dinner monthly. Like the food pantry, the Clay Café runs on donations, costing an average of $250 monthly for brunch and $400 monthly for dinner. The church has ongoing partnerships with nearby churches and organizations, including Episcopal Church of All Saints and Ascension in Northwoods, which operates its own food pantry. And parishioners from St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Florissant have donated fresh vegetables harvested from the church’s Good News Giving Garden. “It’s mostly seasonal, of course, but we try to offer fresh produce whenever we can to help supplement people’s meals,” Danieley said. Danieley and church staff have been working to build additional partnerships in and out of Ferguson, including a newly formed food pantry coalition in St. Louis. The church also has been communicating with local Eagle Scout troops to potentially work together to build a bigger storage space for shelf-stable food. “We’re thinking about the long-term sustainability of the food pantry,” Danieley said. Sustaining the food pantry and Clay Café is personal for Danieley, who has a professional background in worker justice advocacy. Before she began serving St. Stephen’s & the Vine, Danieley spent eight years working for the nonprofit Missouri Jobs with Justice.  “We have to make this work,” she said. “We need to keep our doors open for the wider community. Otherwise, what’s the point of having a building sit here all week, only to be used for a few hours on Sunday?” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole and eight other Episcopal clergy in the Knoxville-based diocese signed a letter along with more than 100 interfaith leaders representing Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in Knox County calling on officials to discontinue the county’s detention agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE, and to deny further expansion of ICE operations in the region. “We write together because our traditions, however distinct in practice and belief, rest on a shared moral foundation that to love God and to love our neighbor are not two commandments but one, and that a community which neglects the second has not, in truth, kept the first,” the letter says. About 30 of the letter’s signers gathered for a press conference on Sept. 16 in front of Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility in Knoxville to share personal testimonies about the impact the aggressive tactics used by local and federal enforcement agencies have had on immigrants in the community and their families. As mentioned in the letter, the clergy called for an end to immigrant deportations, especially of those who are legally in the United States. The Rev. RJ Powell, priest-in-charge at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Maryville, prioritizes advocating for immigrants’ rights and volunteered to write the letter on the interfaith leaders’ behalf. “From a theological perspective … this is a part of the fabric of who we are as Episcopalians,” Powell told Episcopal News Service after the press conference. “Looking at our baptismal vows, if we’re to ‘respect the dignity of every human being and seek justice and peace,’ there’s no exception to who is included in ‘every human being.’ It includes all people.” View this post on Instagram Knox County’s Sheriff’s Office began questioning inmates about immigration status in 2017.  A detention bed contract with ICE has been in effect since 2018. Since 2025, more than 5,000 people have been detained there on immigration matters, according to data compiled by Meghan Conley, a sociologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Knox County Sheriff Brent Gibson, who was sworn into office on Sept. 1, campaigned on working more closely with ICE. On Sept. 15, his office signed an agreement to expand its involvement with federal immigration enforcement under a task force model that would deputize police officers to question and arrest people on suspected immigration violations. At the state level, the Tennessee General Assembly this year passed several immigration laws “even though immigration law is strictly federal jurisdiction.” The interfaith letter says the laws “answer no genuine crisis of public safety,” but instead “deliberately construct a climate of fear whose logic is not the protection of this community but the racial targeting of a particular population of people within it, discrimination now given the force of law.” “The harm does not fall only on those without documentation. It falls on U.S. citizen children in mixed-status families, on patients who will now avoid seeking medical care, on victims of crime who will not call for help, on families who go without food because they are too afraid to go grocery shopping, all because institutions our own taxes pay for have been turned into instruments of federal surveillance,” the letter says. “When fear becomes the organizing principle of public life, every last one of us bears its cost.” Another concern that clergy have, according to Powell, is that they’ve “repeatedly” been denied access to make pastoral visits to people detained by ICE, though they’re able to visit inmates who are incarcerated for non-immigration-related reasons. “It’s happened to all of us – Episcopal, Catholic, Baptist, everyone,” Powell said. “This is why we need to be partners together to advocate for our immigrants and keep engaging in multifaith and ecumenical work on this issue.” The letter also calls on lawmakers to urge state officials to stop spreading “malicious falsehoods” about immigrants and for landlords, developers, business owners and institutions to refuse to house ICE offices and facilities. As an appeal to local law enforcement, the letter asks officers to “exercise every discretion the law still leaves you” and not arrest law-abiding immigrants. “Where the choice remains yours, choose mercy.” Nationwide, some 65,765 migrants and asylum-seekers are in ICE custody, according to the latest ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse Reports, an independent data-gathering and analysis center founded at Syracuse University in New York. The Episcopal Church offers several resources for Episcopalians engaged in immigration advocacy work, including its Protesting Faithfully toolkit. The resource offers “spiritual grounding and practical resources for faithful presence at protests and public demonstrations.” The church’s Immigration Action Toolkit shares resources from organizations that address migrants’ legal rights. –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal City Mission, a Boston nonprofit affiliated with the Diocese of Massachusetts, distributed $2.75 million in reparations to 25 Massachusetts-based organizations that are dedicated to promoting racial and economic justice and equity, truth-telling, reconciliation and strengthening communities. The announcement was made Sept. 15 at a press conference at St. Cyprian’s, a historically Black Episcopal church in Roxbury. Reparations are “part of our commitment to following Jesus,” Arrington Chambliss, Episcopal City Mission’s executive director, said in a Sept. 15 press release. “There is no reconciliation without repair given the history that necessitates this work. This moment is not an ending but an important step in a much longer journey toward truth, accountability, and repair,” Chambliss said. “We hope these payments will serve not only as a tangible commitment to repairing historic harms but also as an invitation for other similar Christian and faith-rooted institutions to engage in courageous acts of justice.” Since its founding in 1844, Episcopal City Mission has committed to combating poverty and systemic injustices at their root causes. Its reparations initiative stems from years of historical research, community engagement and reflection. The organization formed a committee called Reparations Advisors and Stewards to guide the decision-making process on recipients. Cynthia Perry, a professor at Boston College’s Woods College of Advancing Studies, helped facilitate the initiative as lead project consultant. The recipient organizations, which are all led by Black, Indigenous and other people of color, address different areas of social justice, such as the Massachusetts Bail Fund for keeping low-income individuals from pre-trial incarceration, the Chappaquiddick Tribe of the Wampanoag Indian Nation to support the original Indigenous people of Chappaquiddick Island and Martha’s Vineyard, and Resilient Roses Respite Corp. for youth and young adult programming and mentoring.  Reparations in the United States date as far back as the 17th century, when Quakers propounded that formerly enslaved people were entitled to compensation from their enslavers. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which included a formal apology for the U.S. government unjustly incarcerating Japanese Americans during World War II and $20,000 payments to concentration camp survivors. Discussions of reparations for Black Americans made a widespread modern resurgence in 2014 after Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay “The Case for Reparations” was published in The Atlantic. In 2019, Evanston, Illinois, an affluent suburb of Chicago, passed the first reparations law in U.S. history to compensate Black people for slavery and discrimination. The city has given $25,000 grants for down payments or home repairs to more than 300 recipients since approving the payments in 2021. The concept has also spread to supporting redress for Native Americans, including land restitution and compensation, institutional accountability and monetary compensation. Many Episcopal organizations, churches and dioceses are in varying stages of considering, developing and implementing financial initiatives devoted to reparations, often acknowledging that much of the church’s financial foundation and physical structures were built on enslaved labor and other forms of racial exploitation. Reparations programs are underway in several institutions, including the Diocese of Ohio, the Diocese of Texas, the Diocese of Washington, Virginia Theological Seminary, the Diocese of Massachusetts, the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, the Diocese of Michigan, the Diocese of Chicago, and the Diocese of Long Island. Since 1994, seven resolutions at General Convention have supported reparations for various historic injustices, such as The Episcopal Church’s role in supporting the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Indigenous boarding schools, including C011, “Support Legislation for Reparations for Slavery,” in 2006, and A015, “Create a Task Force on Reparations,” in 2024. –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Most Rev. Renta Nishihara was installed as the 21st primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan) on Sept. 2, succeeding the Most. Rev. David Eisho Uehara. Nishihara was elected on the first ballot and installed during the province’s 71st general synod Aug. 31 – Sept. 2 at the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew in Tokyo. “I am committed to continuing to carry out my duties from the dimensions of personal, collegial and communal engagement,” Nishihara told Anglican Communion News Service. “Together with the laity and clergy of the NSKK, the College of Bishops and the NSKK and all the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion, I hope to devote my utmost efforts to advancing God’s mission as a primate of the NSKK.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] All Saints Church Pasadena in California publicly confronted a painful chapter in its history Sept. 14, with the unveiling of a permanent plaque acknowledging and lamenting the parish’s participation in racial segregation during the Jim Crow era. The ceremony, attended by members of the community and civic leaders, included a prayer and blessing by Los Angeles Bishop Antonio José Gallardo Lucena, remarks by Pasadena Mayor Victor M. Gordo and a communal reading of the plaque inscription led by the Rev. Mark Chase, All Saints’ associate pastor and its director for justice advocacy and organizing. The plaque honors “the African Americans and people of color who were turned away from All Saints Church by its white parishioners during the Jim Crow era in Pasadena.” It also tells the story of eight African-American women who, after being excluded, began gathering in their homes to worship and eventually founded what became St. Barnabas, about a mile away in northwest Pasadena. “We acknowledge and repent of these racist actions, and we ask forgiveness from the descendants of those excluded,” the plaque reads. “Today, as we commit to living out our mission that all are welcome, we recognize our past history so that such racist actions may never be repeated.” The plaque was permanently placed above the cornerstone of the 1923 church building, and the date references the first plaque-unveiling ceremony, which took place a day earlier during the congregation’s liturgical homecoming observance. During the half-hour Monday midday ceremony, Chase, convener of the All Saints committee whose work led to the plaque’s placement, likened the effort to a farmer clearing his field. “Imagine a farmer going out to till the soil, and the soil has rocks and stones and glass and all sorts of things that aren’t conducive to growth within the soil,” he said. “Well, the farmer would be mistaken if they planted anything in soil like that. They would have to remove the stones and remove the rocks and remove the objects and anything within the soil that is not conducive to growth.” “Now,” he told the assembled crowd of approximately 30 people, “With this truth now being told, we have leveled and are continuing to level and clear the soil. So now that this truth has been told, it creates more space for a new truth to unfold.” In an interview in advance of the event, Chase told Episcopal News Service that the work leading up to the plaque has been underway for more than two years as part of the congregation’s Telling the Whole Story project, an effort begun in 2023 to examine aspects of the prominent Pasadena parish’s past that had not been fully acknowledged. The racial-history effort is the third committee to emerge from the broader project. Previous work examined the Indigenous history of the land on which All Saints sits (the land of the Tongva people), and a third committee has been studying the whiteness of the church’s iconography. St. Barnabas parishioner Marco White, who was among the attendees at the plaque unveiling, shared his thoughts with the ENS as the ceremony got under way. “I think it is symbolically important,” White said. “Obviously, it’s taken over a hundred years to get to this point. On the one hand, thank God we are at this point; on the other hand, it’s a plaque, and the most meaningful thing that I am hoping will develop from this is a meaningful relationship with St. Barnabas.” Chase emphasized that the plaque is not the project’s endpoint, noting that the project takes its name from the words of Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows: “‘You have to tell the whole story, so you can write a new story.’” The plaque and ceremony, he said, are “a step along that journey.” That sentiment was echoed by the Rev. Tim Rich, All Saints’ priest-in-charge:  “I want to say this with humility to make sure that we are right-sized in terms of our sense of importance,” he told the ENS right before the ceremony. “But part of why we did a church service on Sunday and now a more communal service on Monday is to inspire other communities and congregations to do this reflection and to think about what their history says about their identity.” For those congregations interested in doing similar work, Chase has some recommendations on where to start. “It is a national church call for us to wrestle with this and repair the racial history of our parishes,” he said. “But first, learn the racial history of your city, learn the racial history of your state, and then you will begin to see more clearly where your particular parish fits within that racial history. “Another piece of tangible advice that I would say is just get a small group of people together, and then follow the energy, the research and the commitment of that small group, and then it will grow from that small contingent. Also, I would highly recommend a seminal text that was a guiding force for us: “Black and Episcopalian: The Struggle for Inclusion,” by the Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart. In his remarks during the ceremony, John Williams, executive director of the Center for Restorative Justice, explained the ramifications of the plaque unveiling to the greater Pasadena community. “Reconciliation without memory is not reconciliation,” he said, “it’s amnesia. And that is why I believe this plaque matters. A plaque cannot repair the past; it cannot restore opportunities that were denied or relationships that were broken. But a plaque can interrupt the forgetting. Today we aren’t simply unveiling a plaque; we’re deciding what kind of city we will remember ourselves to be.” — Adam Tschorn is a Los Angeles, California-based freelance writer and member of All Saints Beverly Hills.