Episcopal News Service

[Diocese of West Texas] The Rt. Rev. Angela Maria Cortiñas was ordained and consecrated bishop suffragan of the Diocese of West Texas on March 15 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in McAllen. Cortiñas will work alongside West Texas Bishop David G. Read.  Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was the chief consecrator. Co-consecrators were Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle; former El Camino Real Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, who now serves as managing director of the College of Bishops; Texas Assistant Bishop Héctor Monterroso; Alabama Assistant Bishop Brian N. Prior; and Texas Bishop Suffragan Kathryn M. Ryan. A total of 15 bishops were in attendance for the traditional laying-on of hands. Over 450 in-person attendees participated in the service, with more than 1,300 people joining the livestream concurrently from across the diocese and the country. This was the first consecration of an Episcopal bishop to be held in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. The service incorporated Spanish throughout. In his sermon, Read reflected on living and serving in challenging times: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is what our nation needs. We have this gift of life from God. We know and have experienced how amazing is the gift of grace,” Read said. “We know and have experienced the power of being forgiven, and the power of forgiving others. We know and have experienced the support of blessed, beloved community. We have all that we need, and today, the Holy Spirit gives to Angela all that she will need to do the ministry she has been called to do in this time.”  Cortiñas was elected bishop suffragan for the Diocese of West Texas during a special council at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Corpus Christi Oct. 19, 2024. She is the seventh bishop suffragan to serve West Texas. In her role, she will celebrate the sacraments of the new covenant and confirm, receive and reaffirm individuals within the 87 congregations throughout the diocese. Additionally, she will assist Read in the pastoral care of clergy, clergy families, and retired clergy and their families, and the development and on-boarding of new clergy, curates and seminarians. She will oversee the development of lay ministry, Christian formation and discipleship. “My heart is full of gratitude and love at seeing all the wonderful people who have gathered both near and far to be here for this special day. I am grateful for the God who has called me and the people who have so persuaded me to take on this new ministry. I am particularly grateful for all the people who have formed me as a priest and now as a bishop of God’s church,” Cortiñas said. “I am looking forward to sharing this ministry with Bishop Read and the clergy of the Diocese of West Texas. I have felt the love and the hand of God throughout this entire process and am excited to share God’s redeeming and reconciling love with all of God’s people here in West Texas and beyond.”   Born to Cuban immigrants, Cortiñas is a Florida-native who grew up in Miami in a family of eight children.  She was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of Southeast Florida in 2009 and a priest in 2010. From 2010-12, she was associate priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale and then served as associate rector of St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton from 2012-2017. She served in the Diocese of Texas as rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in College Station from 2017-2021 and as associate rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin from 2021-2024. Cortiñas has a 23-year-old daughter, Victoria Fletcher.

[Episcopal News Service] As part of its ongoing commitment to racial reconciliation and education work, 46 people from the Charleston-based Diocese of South Carolina last week embarked on a racial justice pilgrimage to civil rights landmarks, museums and memorials in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama. Downtown Charleston’s three historically Black parishes – Calvary Episcopal Church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Church, known collectively as the Three Churches United – led the March 6-10 diocesan pilgrimage, which commemorated the 60th anniversary of the three 54-mile Selma to Montgomery marches organized by civil rights activists to demand that voting rights be granted to Black Americans. “These activists knew in the recesses of their hearts and their souls that what they were doing was right, and the way that they were being treated was wrong, especially with the right to vote,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “The powers that be at the time knew that if voting was accessible to Black folk, then the whole mindset of Jim Crow and racism and segregation were imminently going to be threatened.” The first march, which took place on March 7, 1965, is known today as “Bloody Sunday” because Alabama state troopers assaulted more than 600 nonviolent civil rights marchers, led by John Lewis, as they were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Two days later, Martin Luther King Jr. led 2,500 marchers over the bridge and said a brief prayer before turning everyone around because of a court order preventing them from making the full march. Later that night, three white Unitarian Universalist ministers who were in town for the march were attacked by Ku Klux Klan members, who killed the Rev. James Reeb. On March 21, nearly 8,000 people gathered at the historic Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma to march to Montgomery after U.S. district judge Frank Minis Johnson ruled in favor of their right to protest. The final march concluded on March 25 with 25,000 people gathering on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, where King delivered his “How Long, Not Long” speech. The marches led to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. “What many people fail to realize is that the crux of the Civil Rights Movement – with the loss of lives, the marches, the violence, all of it – really existed around the whole aspect of the right to vote,” Bailey said. “When you’re able to vote, you’re able to vote for people who you entrust with governance over you … You are able to vote people into office who can help to enact, as well as legislate, just laws.” The Rev. Laura Rezac, executive director of Camp St. Christopher in Seabrook Island, with support from the Three Churches United and South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, organized the diocesan pilgrimage, which began in Atlanta at the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center of Nonviolent Social Change. From there, the pilgrims – most of whom were parishioners of the Three Churches United – drove together to Montgomery to visit the Legacy Museum – From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration; the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial; and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. “The itinerary and the daily devotions selected for prayer and reflection while on the pilgrimage – everything was chosen with purpose and intention,” Rezac told ENS. “How people choose to act on the experiences they had moving forward in the weeks and months to come will indicate the program’s success. I believe that this group of people will listen to how the Holy Spirit is telling them to use that work in our context here in Charleston.” On March 9, before joining thousands of other people who were also in town to commemorate the Selma to Montgomery marches and Bloody Sunday, the South Carolina pilgrims gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church to listen to Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and founder and executive director of the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, preach. The Equal Justice Initiative provides legal representation to incarcerated people who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, low-income people, and people who may have been denied a fair trial. It also founded the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. “He reminded us that it’s kind of become a theme that grace and mercy seem to have been put on trial recently by many of our politicians and judges, and we the church need to do more to follow our scriptural mandate and act justly in love and mercy and walk humbly with God,” the Rev. Michael Shaffer, interim rector of St. Mark’s, told ENS. “Hearing that before going outside to walk across the [Edmund Pettus] Bridge, I felt like we were living into our calling as disciples of Christ.” While marching across the 1,248-foot bridge, the South Carolina pilgrims unexpectedly ran into the 56 pilgrims from the Detroit-based Diocese of Michigan. Bishop Bonnie Perry was part of the group. Woodliff-Stanley, a descendant of slaveholders who lived in Charleston, told ENS that she thought about the courage of people who didn’t let Bloody Sunday stop them from committing their fight for Black Americans’ right to vote. She also said that the interactive Legacy Museum left a large impression on her, making her reflect on U.S. history. “This country sits on top the displacement of Indigenous people, and on top of that is the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trade, and all the wealth and prosperity that was made started with the watery graves of the enslaved Africans [during the Middle Passage],” Woodliff-Stanley said. “Now, there’s an attempt to erase our story of race in America from school curricula … it makes really clear the work before us now, in both reading and seeing these historic sites in person.” Throughout […]

[Episcopal News Service] The Most Rev. Nestor Dagas Poltic Sr. was installed March 12 as the eighth prime bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John in Quezon City, succeeding retired Prime Bishop Brent Harry Alawas. Poltic, 57, was previously the bishop of the Diocese of the North Central Philippines, based in Baguio City in the Benguet Province. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1992 and to the priesthood in 1993. Poltic was elected prime bishop in May 2024 during the church’s synod at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John. Special guests from Anglican provinces throughout Asia and the Pacific and elsewhere were in attendance, including from Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office. Hawai‘i Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick, and the Rev. Bruce Woodcock, partnership officer for Asia and the Pacific, and the Rev. Charles Robertson, canon and senior advisor to Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, who preached during Poltic’s installation, represented The Episcopal Church.  “Prime Bishop-elect, you and your fellow bishops are called to be shepherds of the flock, as Jesus describes in John’s Gospel. And perhaps even more importantly, you are called to be models to the rest of us of what good shepherds are. Because all of us here today – bishops, priests, deacons and lay people – all of us are both sheep and shepherds,” Robertson said during his sermon. “All of us go forth from here to be shepherds to the many around us who sometimes don’t even know what they so desperately need.” Fitzpatrick read a letter written by Rowe addressed to the new prime bishop during a reception. “Building upon the longstanding and strong relationship with the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, together we can face challenges and embrace our partnership efforts within Anglican Communion,” Rowe wrote in the letter. “By the Grace of God and sustained efforts on this journey, the relationship between our church members will continue to be strengthened well into the future. At the same time, I trust we can discover new and deeper ways for us to partner in God’s mission of healing in a broken world.” The Episcopal Church in the Philippines began as a missionary district of The Episcopal Church in 1901 and later consecrated its first Filipino bishop in 1967. It became an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion in 1990. Today, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines has seven dioceses and approximately 125,000 members. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Diocese of Los Angeles] The March 12 opening of Orchard View Gardens, the 66-unit senior housing complex at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Buena Park, California, marked the culmination of more than a decade of work toward developing affordable housing on the church’s property. The completion of the project is also another major milestone in the diocesan mission to create affordable housing on underutilized church land throughout the diocese.   “The person of faith looks at the world as it is and imagines the realm of God,” said Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor at the event. He thanked all who made the dream of affordable housing at St. Joseph’s a reality. “Whenever church people look at empty property, whenever they take stock of available energy and financial resource and they apply those things to caring for those most in need, including by giving them a place to lay their heads at night, God takes delight,” he said. In addition to Taylor, speakers at the opening included Alexa Washburn, chief development officer at National CORE, an affordable housing nonprofit; Doug Chaffee, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and District 4 supervisor; Joyce Ahn, mayor of Buena Park; the Rev. Cindy Voien, rector of St. Joseph’s; the Rev. Michael Bell, director of housing and business development at Episcopal Communities & Services, also known as ECS; Alyssa Cotter, executive director of the Hope through Housing Foundation; and others from supporting organizations and government bodies. All members of the Buena Park city council were present and honored at the event.   Voien said that St. Joseph’s land has been reserved for holy purposes since 1957, and with opening of Orchard View Gardens, “a holy purpose has been found, a holy dream upheld, and we rejoice that the day of fulfillment has come.” Now that land is the site of 66 affordable apartments available to seniors earning less than 60% of the area’s median income. Twelve of the apartments are reserved as supportive housing for seniors who have experienced homelessness.   “When people become disconnected or displaced or even homeless because housing costs too much, we become a fragmented, damaged community, and we stand in need of reconciliation,” Voien said. “To house people who are getting edged out of the general housing market is to embrace what we have in common and to bless the entire community.”   Orchard View Gardens was the second affordable housing development created through a collaboration between National CORE and the Diocese of Los Angeles. The development also was supported by ECS and the Hope through Housing Foundation, which will provide support and services to residents of the apartments.   In Orange County, one-quarter of the homeless population is aged 55 or older, said Washburn. Tragically, that percentage continues to rise. “But when we align our efforts around a shared goal, one that’s rooted in compassion, dignity and care for our vulnerable neighbors, incredible things happen,” she said. “This community will provide seniors with a stable, affordable home, a place where they can feel safe, secure and supported.”   The development is a step towards the diocesan goal, set by Taylor, to create affordable housing developments on at least 25 percent of the diocese’s 128 church campuses.   “Thanks to the welcoming spirit of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, the visionary work of National CORE and the indispensable support of our partners at Episcopal Communities & Services, a whole new community of our neighbors will have a place to lay their heads for years to come,” Taylor said.   The development was funded through the low-income housing tax credit, the city of Buena Park, Orange County Community Services, Special Needs Housing Program and Orange County Housing Finance Trust.   Voein said that it was only the cooperation of many organizations and entities that made the project possible. It took “a lot of people working in their own capacity and in jobs God called them to work to get this done,” Voien said.   The Rev. Michael Bell, director of housing and business development at ECS, helps congregations in the diocese discern whether affordable housing is the right step forward, and helps them move through the process.   Bell shared the story of his own father, who after a successful career faced potential homelessness late in his life, before discovering an affordable housing development for seniors.   “I have to imagine he, in spirit, is really pleased with what we all, you all, have accomplished here, because it will have an impact on people like him and families like ours that we will never meet,” Bell said.   Bell said that completion of the Buena Park development will give hope to other congregations considering the long and daunting journey to developing affordable housing.   “If we can get through the anxiety of scarcity and get into the potential of a dream and hear from each other how it’s possible, we can do this again in other places,” Bell said.   The development has been in the works for over a decade, and the dream of affordable housing at St. Joseph’s has been around much longer. Exploration of developing through National CORE began in 2016 under former rector the Rev. Mary Trainor, an honorary canon in the Diocese of Los Angeles. The initial idea of an affordable housing project on the land began before Trainor’s time as well, when Ed Little, now retired bishop of Northern Indiana, was rector.   “The people of St. Joseph looked at the real estate and imagined how it might be used for the glory God,” Taylor said. Trainor and Voein, he said, along with hosts of lay leaders, have “tended the vision like a precious seed.”   It has been a long process, with plenty of ups and downs but Voien said it has “never been on the back burner” for St. Joseph’s congregants. Through the long planning, approval and funding stages, the congregation […]

[Episcopal News Service] New York Bishop Matthew Heyd has issued a statement condemning the attempted deportation of a lawful permanent U.S. resident for his involvement last year protesting the war in Gaza while he was a graduate student at Columbia University. Mahmoud Khalil, who is Palestinian, was arrested March 8 by immigration agents and is being held in a federal facility in Louisiana while he fights deportation. The Trump administration has produced no evidence that Khalil engaged in criminal activity, and as a green card holder, his lawful permanent residency can only be revoked for specific causes with approval of an immigration judge. “The Episcopal Diocese of New York rejects the detention and threat of deportation of Mahmoud Khalil,” Heyd said in a statement posted to Facebook. “In accordance with our faith and civic creed, we uphold the belief that difference and dissent should be safe. We reject deportation based on political viewpoint – whether we agree or disagree.” Antiwar protests at Columbia University and other campuses across the United States generated widespread headlines and controversy in spring 2024 as the Israel-Hamas war dragged on, decimating the Palestinian territory of Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians and displacing many of the densely populated territory’s 2 million residents. In the United States, campus authorities faced pressure on both sides; to protect students’ right to peacefully protest while also ensuring the safety of Jewish students when those protests may have crossed a line into antisemitism and threats of violence. Since taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump, saying he is combating antisemitism, has threatened to deport foreign-born campus protesters who opposed Israel’s war on Hamas, which Israel launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli communities. The Trump administration has specifically scrutinized Columbia University’s handling of the protests, and on March 7, the administration announced it would cut $400 million in federal grants and contracts to the university. On March 12, Trump personally courted controversy by using the term “Palestinian” as an apparent slur against one of his political opponents, New York Sen. Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader, who is Jewish. “Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I’m concerned. He’s become a Palestinian,” Trump said in responding to a question about Democrats’ opposition to his tax plan. “He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.” Khalil appears to have been targeted for arrest by the Trump administration because of his involvement in a group known as Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has been accused of glorifying Hamas’ attack on Israel. Before his arrest, Khalil told the Associated Press that much of the focus on him was related to the group’s social media posts, in which he not been involved. Then on March 8, Khalil was in his university-owned apartment when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told the Associated Press. The ICE agents said Khalil’s student visa had been revoked, even though he has a green card, not a student visa. Greer said that when she informed the agents by phone that Khalil was a lawful permanent resident, they responded they would be revoking that status instead. Greer said the agents also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, who is a United States citizen and eight months pregnant. A Homeland Security spokesperson later alleged that Khalil had “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” But when NPR interviewed Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar on March 13, he was unable or unwilling to specify what Khalil had done that was “aligned to Hamas.” Edgar also repeated the apparent falsehood that Khalil was in the United States on a student visa, a status that offers less protections from deportation than a green card. A green card holder is “not a U.S. citizen, but you’re the next level down, meaning that you have the rights to live, work, travel in the United States,” Kelli Stump, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told NPR in a report on Khalil’s case. Khalil, 30, reportedly completed his master’s degree in December from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. For now, he remains in federal detention, and a judge has temporarily halted the government’s attempts to deport him while the case is being reviewed in court. “In the arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, our First Amendment right to freedom of expression faces growing threat,” Heyd said in his statement on the case. “We ask for his immediate release, and his return to New York.” The bishop also affirmed the Diocese of New York as a “sanctuary diocese” in which “we care for our neighbors.” “Today, we stand with our neighbors at Columbia University. We also encourage Columbia to protect its students when they are threatened. Higher education depends upon the ability to speak honestly and freely, without fear of retribution; and on attracting people of diverse and international viewpoints. As Christians, we’re calling on our neighbors to be neighbors.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] A church in the Diocese of New Jersey is seeking authorization to build a 17-bed homeless shelter next to an existing outreach facility on its property, and the plan is facing local resistance. Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River, a coastal town of about 100,000, is seeking approval of the plan from the local Board of Adjustment, which meets next on March 13. Residents have raised concerns about safety and staff training at the shelter, according to the Asbury Park Press. The church is partnering with the Affordable Housing Alliance, a nonprofit group that counsels people experiencing homelessness, including at the church’s outreach center. By expanding services there to include a shelter, it would allow unhoused adults to stay from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., with an overnight staff of two. Guests also would be provided with food, shower facilities and counseling on a range of services, including job placement and permanent housing. The project reportedly would be financed by Ocean County but requires approval for a zoning variance, because homeless shelters are not allowed anywhere in Toms River. Advocates note, however, that the church’s residential zoning already allows for group homes and shelters for domestic violence victims. “One of the purposes of a church is to provide outreach services to the community,” Brian J. Murphy, a professional planner working on the project, said at a hearing in January, according to Asbury Park Press. “The homeless are already familiar with the site. They have been coming there since July 2023.” The proposal comes at a time when county officials are hoping to address a growing housing crisis fueled partly by rising rents and the replacement of coastal motels with higher-end developments. Toms River also recently shut down a homeless encampment, displacing 32 people, some of whom have since found permanent housing. Christ Episcopal Church also is following in the footsteps of other Episcopal congregations that have stepped up their outreach efforts to serve the homeless as a national affordable housing crisis has intensified. In Louisville, Kentucky, Christ Church Cathedral opened a temporary winter shelter this year for women and children experiencing homelessness. Other Episcopal ministries serving the homeless have taken root in San Francisco, California, and Pottstown, Pennsylvania. And in 2024, St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Brookings, Oregon, won a lawsuit allowing it to continue its homeless feeding ministry after the city passed an ordinance seeking to limit such outreach.

Note: The Church in Wales has issued the following statement about Anthony Pierce, the former bishop of Swansea and Brecon, who in February admitted to five counts of indecent assault on a male child under the age of 16. The offenses took place between 1985 and 1990, when Pierce was a parish priest in West Cross, Swansea. On March 12 Pierce was sentenced to four years and one month, half of which he will serve in jail. [Church in Wales] The sentence which has been handed down reflects the shocking nature of these offences and the gross breach of trust which they represent. Anthony Pierce has abused his position, disgraced his church and, worst of all, has inflicted appalling and lasting trauma on his victim. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim in this case, who has shown immense courage in reporting what are deeply painful experiences. We offer him the most heartfelt apology for what he has had to endure. When these offenses were disclosed to the Church in Wales in 2023, we immediately reported the matter to the police, and we worked closely with our statutory partners as the case was investigated and prosecuted. In court today, the victim commended the work of the Provincial Safeguarding Officer assigned to his case. Anthony Pierce will now be referred to the Church in Wales Disciplinary Tribunal, via an accelerated process for post-conviction disciplinary matters. In his pastoral letter to the diocese following the court case, the present bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Rt. Rev. John Lomas, has made it clear that he will be asking the Tribunal to consider deposing Pierce from Holy Orders, the most severe sanction available. When Anthony Pierce appeared in court on Feb. 7  and admitted these offenses, we issued a statement giving details of what had been discovered in an internal inquiry prompted by the 2023 report. That inquiry found that a previous report of abuse against a different victim had been received in 1993 by a small number of senior figures in the church but had not been reported to police until 2010, by which time the victim had died and Anthony Pierce had been appointed to, and had retired from, the position of bishop. As a result of this information, the Church in Wales Safeguarding Committee has commissioned an independent external review of the Church in Wales’s handling of the 1993 allegation, which has already commenced and which will be published upon completion. The review will also consider how safeguarding allegations are handled in the church’s current systems for the appointment of archdeacons and bishops and whether any changes to these processes are necessary. Full terms of reference were published in February. The Church in Wales is determined to demonstrate that it is a safe place, and that anyone coming forward will have their concerns or disclosures taken seriously, treated with compassion, and taken forward according to the highest current standards. If our people and processes have failed victims and survivors of abuse in the past, we intend to take responsibility for that fact and to fully apply the lessons which have been learned. We feel the most profound shame at the dreadful offenses which have resulted in today’s court case, but we hope the swift and decisive way with which the case was handled when it was reported in 2023, and the fact that we have proactively and disclosed the issues relating to the 1993 report will give confidence that we are determined to do everything possible to ensure the church is safe, that abuse is discovered and dealt with and that victims are respected and supported. We encourage anyone with safeguarding concerns to contact a member of our team via the Church in Wales website: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/safeguarding/reporting-safeguarding-concern/ Alternatively, Safe Spaces is a free and independent support service, providing a confidential, personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused through their relationship with either the Church of England, the Catholic Church in England and Wales or the Church in Wales.​ You can contact the Safe Spaces team on the website www.safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk​ or by email at safespaces@firstlight.org.uk. Anyone with concerns or information about this case should contact South Wales Police on 101.

[World Council of Churches] World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Jerry Pillay expressed deep sorrow and grave concern over the recent tragic developments in Syria, where, according to some sources, more than 1,000 civilians, primarily from the Alawite community, have been massacred. “We underscore the joint statement issued by the Heads of Churches in Syria on Dec. 29, 2024, which expressed a vision for a new Syria based on reconciliation, dialogue, partnership, and hope,” Pillay said on March 10. “Their call for a culture of dialogue and national unity remains more urgent than ever in the face of the ongoing violence and suffering.” He reaffirmed that violence only begets more violence and called on all Syrians to break free from this destructive cycle and work toward a future rooted in justice, healing, and peace. “Syria’s tragic history reminds us that repeating past atrocities will only perpetuate suffering and division,” Pillay said. “Instead, we must strive for a reconciled society where the dignity of all is upheld.” Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Lauren Grubaugh Thomas is in the early stages of forming a new worshiping community in Sterling Ranch, Colorado. It would seem to be an ideal location – a rapidly growing suburb of Denver with a high concentration of young families. Grubaugh Thomas says she couldn’t hope to do it alone. The same goes for the Rev. Carl Adair, who is developing a new Episcopal congregation in the diverse neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens, five years after the Diocese of Long Island closed a longtime church there. Like Grubaugh Thomas, Adair’s initial efforts at church planting have been nourished by local and denominational grants, guidance from churchwide staff members and his participation in a grassroots network of enthusiastic church planters. As a churchwide realignment begins to take shape, however, Adair, Grubaugh Thomas and others who spoke to ENS say they are worried about the future of their network and denominational support. “That network has been absolutely crucial in my ongoing formation as a priest, as a disciple, and I can’t imagine myself doing any of the things we’re trying here without the ongoing support of this nationwide cohort,” Adair told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. Recent examples of church-planting starts are plentiful across The Episcopal Church, from a family-friendly dinner church in the Diocese of Georgia to an Episcopal community serving the unhoused in the Diocese of Western Oregon. Innovative Episcopal clergy have launched more than 200 new worshiping communities since 2000 – many of them in the past decade, during which The Episcopal Church has awarded more than $9 million in grants to support that work while developing and expanding its churchwide infrastructure. No figures were immediately available on how many of those new worshiping communities remain active today. This triennium, changes are underway. The priests involved in this work, who already were uncertain about the status of an additional $2.2 million budgeted for church planting and revitalization in 2025-27, told ENS they are eager for clarifying details about Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe’s plan to realign churchwide operations to better serve dioceses. Last month, Rowe laid off 14 churchwide staff members in the first phase of his restructuring plan, including the two church employees who have developed and overseen the network of Episcopal church planters: the Rev. Tom Brackett, manager for church planting and mission development, and the Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, staff officer for church planting. Though church planting is one of the departments being reorganized or phased out, “our commitment to church planting and redevelopment is undiminished,” Rowe said in a Feb. 20 letter to the church outlining the structural realignment. “In the months to come, we will be reorganizing this ministry and the ways it supports and serves our dioceses.” The changes also could impact the churchwide grant program that invests in new congregations. It is facilitated each triennium by an advisory board, which has not yet been appointed for this cycle. Rowe says he and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris are now working on those appointments, which were on hold until the staff realignment. In a March 10 Zoom interview with ENS, Rowe affirmed that he is not abandoning the church’s ongoing investment in church planting. He said the detailed way forward will be worked out through collaborative conversations with dioceses and the priests who have been active in the churchwide network. “Part of the plan for the future is convening people, consulting widely, hearing what the needs are and then pivoting to those,” Rowe said, to “begin to think about how are we going to meet these needs differently.” When asked whether the former structure had not been meeting the church’s needs, Rowe emphasized a new diocese-centered approach “rather than us running some kind of parallel structure” at the churchwide level. “How can we help dioceses realize their local vision for church planting, for redevelopment at the local level?” Rowe said. “I think it will allow for more effective use of resources over the long run. … That’s to be determined, but I think what we want to do is have more integration.” After Rowe released the initial details of his realignment plan, ENS invited general comment on the plan from members of Executive Council, the church’s governing body between General Convention. Many of those who responded acknowledged some anxiety across the church over the staffing changes but pledged their support for Rowe’s focus on assisting Episcopal dioceses and congregations. Other Executive Council members suggested to ENS that Rowe had not yet been sufficiently forthcoming with details, including about church planting. “Who will take on that mission work, or are we abandoning this area entirely?” Joe McDaniel, a lay member from the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, said about church planting in an email to ENS. ENS also sought comment on Rowe’s realignment plan from the Rev. Tim Baer, the rector of a well-known and successful church plant, Grace Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Oklahoma. Baer said he is in favor of efforts to change church structures to support mission and ministry at the diocesan level. At the same time, he said he would welcome more clarity about how church planting will be affected. “I’m eager to hear what that plan is,” Baer said, adding that some churchwide coordination is necessary. Without that support, he said, the capacity for church planting “is near zero in most dioceses.” In his Feb. 20 letter to the church, Rowe said The Episcopal Church can “make an even stronger and more effective witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ” by changing some core staff priorities. Under the new operational structure, church planting becomes part of the expansive portfolio of the Rev. Lester Mackenzie, whom Rowe hired as his chief of mission program, a newly created position. “Church planting cannot be about institutional survival. I believe it must also be about discipleship, deep community and the Spirit’s movement,” Mackenzie said […]

[Church in Wales] Saint Deiniol’s Cathedral in Bangor, Wales, has been awarded “The Freedom of the City of Bangor,” the highest honor the city council can bestow, in recognition of its substantial contributions to the community throughout its long history. The award comes as the city celebrates its 1500th anniversary in 2025. In a unanimous decision during a recent meeting, Bangor City Council voted  to honor the cathedral with the civic award, making it the first organization to receive this recognition in over a decade. Previous recipients include the British Broadcasting Corporation, RAF Valley, and David Lloyd George, who was British prime minster during World War I. The award acknowledges the cathedral’s historical significance and ongoing role in Bangor’s cultural and spiritual life as the city approaches this momentous milestone. Founded by Saint Deiniol in 525 AD, Bangor is recognized as Wales’ oldest city in recorded history.

[Office of the Archbishop of York] Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell began his Lord’s Prayer tour across northern England with a service of choral evensong at York Minster on March 7. The tour will visit cathedrals and churches, exploring the words of the Lord’s Prayer through teaching, reflection and music. At the heart of the archbishop’s tour is a simple but powerful invitation: to pray the Lord’s Prayer by heart and align our lives with God’s will. This call is beautifully echoed in the prayer’s central plea, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Using the metaphor of music, Cottrell’s sermon at the evensong service encouraged people to think of God’s will as the single perfect note that resonates throughout the universe — a note to which our lives can be tuned. Through prayer, we learn to hear this note, bringing harmony to our hearts and aligning with God’s purpose for the world. The service at York Minster also featured a musical performance of a new setting of the Lord’s Prayer, composed by Lucy Walker. Sung by the choir of York Minster, the piece highlighted how the Lord’s Prayer continues to resonate with people today. The tour and newly commissioned music are part of “Faith in the North,” which has been developed to encourage prayer, storytelling and church planting, inspired by the northern Saints such as Hild, Cuthbert, Bede and Paulinus. The goal is to deepen connections with the Christian faith and renew the church’s mission to share God’s love with all. Free resources are available for schools and churches to help explore this.

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal priest and poet the Rev. Spencer Reece last week was awarded the John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award, which comes with a prize of $20,000, is given every two years to recognize a midcareer writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence. It was established by Updike’s widow, Martha. Reece is the vicar of St. Paul’s in Wickford, Rhode Island, where he has served since late 2022. The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to “foster, assist and sustain excellence” in American literature, music and art. It is congressionally chartered, and is headquartered in New York. Reece told Episcopal News Service that when he got the email on March 6 telling him of the award, it came as a shock. “I kind of couldn’t believe it for a day or two,” he said. But, he added, “Being involved in a community of writers means a lot to me.” This isn’t the only award Reece has received for his work. His first book of poems, “The Clerk’s Tale,” written in 2004 when he was 41, received the Bread Loaf Writers Conference Bakeless Poetry Prize. Many of the poems draw on his previous career as an assistant manager for Brooks Brothers. After the book was published, The New Yorker devoted an entire page to its opening poem, which later served as the basis for a 2010 film by actor and director James Franco that debuted at a section of the Cannes Film Festival. He has written two other books of poetry – “The Road to Emmaus” in 2013, which was a longlist nominee for the National Book Award, and “Acts” in 2024. In addition to writing his own poetry, in 2017 he edited an anthology of poems, “Counting Time Like People Count Stars,” written by girls at Our Little Roses, an Episcopal-affiliated orphanage in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where Reece taught poetry for two years. It was the basis for the documentary “Voices Beyond the Wall: 12 Love Poems from the Murder Capital of the World.” In 2021 he published two works – a book of watercolors, “All the Beauty Still Left: A Poet’s Painted Book of Hours,” and a memoir, “The Secret Gospel of Mark.” He has received a variety of other honors, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, grants from the Fulbright Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Council, a Witter Bynner fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, and a Whiting Writers’ Award. Reece was ordained a priest in 2011 and has served in Spain and New York City in addition to his work in Honduras and Rhode Island. When asked about overlap in his roles as priest and poet, he said that while poetry and sermon preparation are done mostly in isolation, sermons are different in that they appear in the public setting of worship. But in both instances, they are about how those words interact with their audience. He also said that in recent years he has found his sermons and the research he does in writing them spilling over more into his poems. Calling poetry his “great passion and great love,” Reece said that after the initial recognition that came his way two decades ago, he had begun to feel that the doors to the literary world had mostly closed to him. Getting word of the John Updike award left him not only surprised but “encouraged about my writing life.” As if to validate that encouragement, he learned on March 10 that The New Yorker had picked up one of his poems – 21 years after his first appearance in the magazine and 10 years after it printed “My Great Grandmother’s Bible,” which also was included in the newly released “A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker.” — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[Episcopal News Service] Beginning today, March 10, six Episcopal leaders will represent Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe at the 69th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women – CSW69 – meeting in New York City. They will join representatives of U.N. member states, U.N. entities and accredited nongovernmental organizations worldwide March 10-21 to advocate for women’s equality and empowerment and to learn how to make those goals a reality. “UNCSW gives us the opportunity to lift up the voices of Episcopalians and Anglicans to advocate for gender justice, women’s rights and the dignity of all people of different sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions,” Rebecca Blachly, The Episcopal Church’s chief of public policy witness, told Episcopal News Service in a written statement. “We learn from fellow advocates from around the world, share our values and priorities with governments and multilateral institutions, and prepare ourselves to continue our advocacy when we return to our own communities,” she said. Blachly is one of the church’s six delegates, alongside Julia Ayala Harris, president of the House of Deputies; the Rev. Margaret Rose, the presiding bishop’s ecumenical and interreligious deputy and former director of The Episcopal Church’s women’s ministries; Lynnaia Main, the church’s representative to the United Nations; Nicole Hosein, director of Episcopal Relief & Development’s gender initiatives; and Troy Collazo, policy adviser with the church’s Office of Government Relations. Because The Episcopal Church has been in a transitional phase since mid-2024 and going through leadership changes – Rowe took office as presiding bishop on Nov. 1 – this year’s delegation to the UNCSW meeting is smaller than usual. 2025 marks 30 years since the U.N. adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action during the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for Equality, Development and Peace in Beijing, China. The declaration is a resolution that promotes gender equality and women’s rights through a set of principles addressing 12 critical areas of concern, including economic empowerment and political participation. CSW69 and Beijing+30 will mostly focus on reviewing the implementation and outcomes of the Beijing Declaration. It will also address current challenges women and girls continue to face, including gender-based violence, wage gaps, economic barriers and lack of access to education and health care. Women and girls of color and LGBTQ+ women are disproportionately affected by these challenges. “The broader the circle, the more we can be effective in answering our own Gospel call to work for justice and respect for all, and the presence of The Episcopal Church at UNCSW allows us to learn from partners who are committed to this same work,” Rose told ENS in a written statement. “This gathering of a worldwide community of civil society and faith-based groups highlights both our progress and the distance we have yet to travel; the Beijing Platform for Action offers a roadmap and an infrastructure for the journey.” In October 2024, his last month as presiding bishop before retiring, Bishop Michael Curry submitted The Episcopal Church’s CSW69 written statement in preparation for the conference this month. The statement outlines the church’s goals for the meeting: Prioritize resources and programs for marginalized women and girls, including LGBTQ+ women, women of color, women with disabilities, migrant women, elderly women and others. Increase access to resources, public services, social protections and infrastructure. Increase access to economic and political power and decision-making. Eliminate all forms of gender-based violence. Address climate change and environmental issues, which disproportionately harm women and girls. “While celebrating progress for and by women and girls in all their diversity in the 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and platform for action, we lament persistent injustices and call for change,” the statement says. One third of women worldwide are known to have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to data compiled by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as U.N. Women. The intentional killing of women and girls, or femicide, is also a global crisis. In 2022, nearly 89,000 known women and girls were murdered, the highest number recorded in 20 years. Femicide targeting transgender women and women of color has particularly been increasing every year. Worldwide, women are paid about 80% of what men are paid, even if they do the same work. The average gender wage gap is not as wide in the United States, where women earn about 83% of men’s earnings on average, but the gap is much bigger for women of color. For every dollar a white man earns, Black women earn 63.7 cents, Indigenous women earn 59 cents and Latinas earn 57 cents. During the 80th General Convention in 2022, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies adopted A062, “Require Diocesan Plan to Narrow Gender Equity Gaps,” which required all dioceses to examine the demographics of parish leadership and gender pay equity while devising plans to reduce gender equity gaps before the 81st General Convention in 2024. Ayala Harris, the fourth woman and first woman of color to serve as president of the House of Deputies, told ENS in an email that advocacy work must prioritize marginalized women, direct resources to grassroots efforts and challenge policies that sustain inequality. She mentioned that the Bible places marginalized women – Hagar, Ruth, Mary Magdalene and the Samaritan woman at the well – “at the heart of the Gospel.”  “Those stories reveal a pattern of justice beginning with those most at risk of being silenced. Too often, gender justice work centers those with the most privilege. That must change,” Ayala Harris said. “Justice that excludes the most vulnerable is not justice at all. As The Episcopal Church continues this work together, we must ensure our advocacy moves beyond words to real structural change.” In 2018, Ayala Harris co-authored D016, “Create a Task Force for Women, Truth, and Reconciliation.” The resolution calls on The Episcopal Church to “engage in truth-telling, confession, and reconciliation regarding gender-based discrimination, harassment and violence against women and girls” […]

[Episcopal News Service] The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice in Durham, North Carolina, has denounced the removal of a biography of Murray from the National Park Service website about the Murray Family Home, a National Historic Landmark. Murray, who was a pioneering attorney who fought against racial and gender discrimination, was the first Black woman to be ordained a priest in The Episcopal Church, in 1977. They died in 1985. A press release from the center said it “condemns the federal government’s efforts to erase Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, and their invaluable contributions to our society, from the digital record.” It added, “The federal government has disabled at least one webpage, and scrubbed language related to Murray’s transgender and queer identities on others, on the National Park Service website,” alongside “other figures and sites recognized by NPS, including the Stonewall National Monument, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and others.” After taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at removing references across federal agencies and departments to issues of diversity and “gender ideology.” By early February, agency websites began to remove mention of transgender or queer people and changed the acronym LGBTQ (for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) to LGB. The center’s statement noted, “Members of the LGBTQIA+ community have always been a part of the rich fabric of our society. Rev. Dr. Murray exists in a lineage of LGBTQIA+ Southerners who have advanced social justice work on a national scale, and whose contributions have gone on to shape history. Erasing this truth at the federal level censures American history and compromises the work of transgender and queer activists who stand in Murray’s wake today.” Angela Thorpe Mason, the center’s executive director, said in the statement, “We will not be deterred from uplifting Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray’s identity, life and legacy as we work toward addressing today’s inequities and injustices. We equally condemn the federal government’s actions and stand firm in ours. The Pauli Murray Center will be a space for us to continue to articulate what we know to be true.” Last September the center celebrated the grand opening of the former Murray home, which serves as the space where the center conducts a variety of programs. Murray, who was born Anna Pauline Murray in Baltimore, Maryland, shortened her name to “Pauli” after college to reflect a less-gendered identity. As described in an ENS story from 2022, Murray went on to study law at Howard University, the only woman enrolled, and graduated first in the class of 1944. Murray was the first African American to earn a doctor of the science of laws degree from Yale University Law School. They were a co-founder of the National Organization for Women and the Congress of Racial Equality. As a lawyer, Murray argued against “Jane Crow,” in recognition of their struggle against both racial segregation and gender discrimination. In 1940, Murray was arrested for disorderly conduct for refusing to move to the back of a bus in Petersburg, Virginia, 15 years before Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama. Murray also organized restaurant and lunch counter sit-ins in Washington, D.C., 20 years before the famous Greensboro, North Carolina, protests. Former NAACP President and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall called Murray’s book, “States’ Laws on Race and Color,” the bible of the civil rights movement. Another future Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, named Murray as coauthor of a brief on the 1971 case Reed v. Reed, in recognition of her pioneering work on gender discrimination. Murray was also one of five pioneering women selected to be featured in the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters program. By action of General Convention in 2018, Murray  was added to the calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts; their feast day is observed on July 1. The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska will host a special Pauli Murray weekend in April, including an April 4 screening of the documentary film “My Name is Pauli Murray” followed by a panel discussion, and the world premiere on April 5 of a new choral work, “Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray,” sung by the River City Mixed Chorus. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[Anglican Journal] The Anglican Church of Canada should consider making major cuts to the size of its governance gatherings and committees, says the report of a commission tasked with reimagining its future. The church is about a quarter the size it was in 1967, but its governance groups remain the same size, the commission’s chair, Archdeacon Monique Stone, told Council of General Synod March 7. The report makes the same point and asks, “How can the size of church governance structures in the Anglican Church of Canada be reduced by 75 per cent?” Stone told CoGS this figure was intended more as a conversation-starter than a fixed target — but maintained that the report envisaged serious transformation. “This is not just tweaks, this is big change,” she said. Archdeacon Alan Perry, general secretary of General Synod, contacted the Journal after the original version of this piece was posted to offer a different perspective on the size of the church’s structures. In some ways, Perry said, they have grown since 1967 — with, for example, the addition of two new Newfoundland dioceses in 1975 — but in general the trend since then has been toward smaller structures as the church has changed with the times. CoGS, for example, has fewer members than its predecessor, the National Executive Council; and some committees are also smaller. “Yes, dioceses (30 rather than 28), provinces (still four), and a General Synod still exist, but they all look different and in general they are all smaller in their structures of governance than they were in 1967,” he said in an email. “The structures have been in constant flux since the beginning. They have evolved, are evolving and will evolve.” The document Stone presented to CoGS recommended General Synod 2025 give the officers of General Synod — including the primate, general secretary, chancellor, prolocutor and deputy prolocutor — the mandate and resources to propose a major revision to the church’s organization which they would present and begin implementing at the following General Synod in 2028. “Current institutional structures are larger than necessary at every level (General Synod, ecclesiastical provinces, and the number of dioceses),” the document, titled Creating Pathways, reads. “This top-heavy structure focuses human and financial resources on maintaining outsized institutions rather than proclaiming the gospel in local communities.” The cuts called for in this section of the document, Stone told the Anglican Journal, are intended to apply to the number of members on committees and to the number of church members at governance gatherings like CoGS and General Synod. They are not, she said, necessarily intended to apply to the relatively small number of church staff. The commission, convened by former primate Archbishop Linda Nicholls in 2023, recommends six processes for the church to begin work on to fulfill the mandate of adapting the church to the needs of a smaller membership and a 21st century social and political landscape. Its report is based on feedback — in the form of 297 responses to an online survey as well as interviews and Zoom meetings with staff at church house and Anglicans across the country — regarding a set of seven conversation-starting “hypotheses” for the future of the Anglican Church of Canada that the commission put forward in 2023. CoGS voted March 7 to commend the six pathways to June’s General Synod gathering for discussion and action. The central question of these recommendations is what form the church’s governance structures would take if they were being designed for the first time to meet the needs of the church today, said Stone. In addition to changes at the General Synod level, that may involve restructuring at the diocesan and provincial levels, which General Synod does not have the authority to mandate directly, she notes. What it can do, however, is play a leadership role in the conversation, encouraging regional governance bodies in the church to cooperate on a unified vision for what the new shape of the church will be. The six pathways along which the document recommends the church proceed are: Organizational structure, dealing with the governance gatherings and committees of the church; Management overview and restructuring, with suggestions for the transparency, accountability and organization of the office of General Synod and its staff; Inclusion and diversity in decision making, responding to calls for greater and more equal accessibility of participation in church governance; Communications, involving discussions on the future of the Anglican Journal as well as the national church’s overall strategy for disseminating information and connecting members across the country; Walking in partnership with the Indigenous church; Ministry in remote northern communities. During the consultation process, the report states, it became apparent many Anglicans were unclear as to the jurisdiction, responsibilities, functions and accountability mechanisms of General Synod (which is the name both of the church’s once-every-three-years gathering and the national church as a legal entity, which has its own office at Church House in Toronto). As a result, it continues, “Deep frustrations exist amongst members of the wider church who are asked to share their own declining financial resources with the office of General Synod without a clear understanding of what takes place there or where accountability lies.” Meanwhile, staff have experienced frustration as mandates from CoGS, General Synod, department heads and individual Anglicans conflict, the document says. To solve these problems, the second pathway proposes a managerial review of the office’s departments and mandates to align their work with the current needs of the church, clarify mandates and clarify the scope of responsibilities to staff, leadership and Anglicans across the country. The third pathway describes the current format and procedures of General Synod meetings as failing to be inclusive to people from a variety of cultural backgrounds, incomes, ages and other social and cultural classes. “It was felt” the legislative debate format of meetings has left many people feeling left out and created barriers to participation, the report says, resulting in a system that “continues to attract […]

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Anglican Communion’s United Nations representative in Geneva, the Rev. Glen Ruffle, spoke to the 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council in late February about the need for politicians in South Sudan to show more commitment to the nation’s peace process. Tensions in South Sudan are rising, and on March 5 the embassies of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany the Netherlands and Norway issued an “Urgent Call for Peace” deploring the violence in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State and increased tensions among national politicians Ruffle spoke from the insights of Anglican churches in South Sudan to call for attention on subnational violence, including widespread violence against women and girls. The mediation work done by churches was highlighted and a plea was made for South Sudanese politicians to work with the South Sudan Council of Churches on dialogue to reduce tensions. Alongside this, he called for renewed commitment by politicians to South Sudan’s revitalized peace process, which will enable security reform and help diffuse tensions among the national elite. This echoes calls made by Pope Francis, former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and the Rt. Rev. Iain Greenshields, former moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, to South Sudanese political leaders during their Pilgrimage of Peace in 2023. Ruffle also emphasized the suffering experienced by many women and girls across South Sudan and the need for more reliable prosecution of violence against them as well as the need for investment in microfinance and literacy opportunities — like those offered by the Mothers’ Union — recognizing women and girls’ equal value with men and boys. Ruffle said, “It is important that we encourage South Sudan’s politicians to be serious in engaging with the peace process, and that we keep highlighting the immense suffering and violence to stop South Sudan slipping from the world’s radar.” Since 2013, South Sudan has experienced cycles of civil war, which are estimated to have taken the lives of over 400,000 people and displaced millions from their homes. In 2018, politicians signed a revitalized peace agreement which set a course for a transitional government, united army and elections. The agreement holds and progress is being made, but significant reforms are years behind schedule and violence outside the capital has continued. Recent clashes inside Juba’s political elite have raised concerns that the agreement may be in greater danger. The Anglican Communion’s U.N. advocacy team has urged people to pray with all South Sudanese Christians that the agreement holds. The full text of Ruffle’s statement is available here.

[Episcopal News Service] An Episcopal church in Michigan was featured on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” for a humorous segment about a very serious issue: gun violence. Desi Lydic, a correspondent on the satirical news show, interviewed the Rev. Chris Yaw, rector of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, about the congregation’s efforts to dispose of relinquished guns in the state. The church has organized eight gun buyback and disposal events across the Detroit area in the past three years, resulting in the destruction of 650 firearms. “There are millions of unwanted guns in the possession of reluctant owners all across the U.S. posing unknown health risks to individuals and communities,” Yaw said in a March 7 news release, “And every weapon we help take out of circulation has the potential to avert a tragedy.” On the show, Lydic interviewed Yaw while seated in a pew of his church. “How does a priest get involved with getting guns off the streets?” she asked. “In America, it’s a lot easier to get a gun than to get rid of a gun,” Yaw said, adding that it takes more than “thoughts and prayers.” Video of the full segment is available here. (Warning; some profane language.) St. David’s gun buybacks started with an event offering $5,000 worth of gift cards in exchange for the firearms. It was so successful that the line of cars was two miles long, Yaw said, and they ran out of gift cards in 20 minutes. When asked what kind of gift cards, Yaw said they were mostly to Target. “Target?!” Lydic responded, with an expression of mock shock. The segment ends with Yaw bringing Lydic to a workshop where the firearms are sawed in half before disposal. St. David’s has partnered with the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, the Southfield Police Department and others in its gun buyback efforts. It is also part of a statewide effort led by faith leaders, including from Michigan’s three Episcopal dioceses, to raise awareness of gun violence and to advocate for policy changes to improve gun safety. In January 2025, they celebrated the passage of the state’s newest gun safety law, requiring police to completely destroy all guns turned in during community buyback events. Gun safety has been a growing issue of concern in Michigan in recent years, especially after deadly mass shootings at Oxford High School in Oxford Township in 2021 and at Michigan State University in East Lansing in 2023. On average, 1,421 Michiganders die annually from gun violence, and the nationwide average is more than 45,000, according to data compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Episcopalians can learn more about the church’s gun safety legislation dating to 1976 here. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] Ten states; 1,560 miles. Eleven parishes and a seminary student; 14 adult volunteers and a baby. Total time: two weeks. That’s what it took for a team of Episcopalians to transport a baptismal font, a processional cross and an altar cross from Fryeburg, Maine, to their new permanent home in McCalla, Alabama. “Every single volunteer was a total stranger to each other before the relay. …Now we’ve really become friends,” Melissa Headrick Bailey, a member of the bishop’s committee for Riverside Episcopal Church, the Diocese of Alabama’s newest church plant, told Episcopal News Service. Bailey is a parishioner of St. Mary’s-on-the Highlands Episcopal Church in Birmingham. Riverside was named after the “river of life,” which is mentioned throughout Scripture, including Revelation 22. In January, Bailey reached out to Episcopalians on Facebook, a public group with close to 86,000 members, asking to purchase sacramental items, furniture and other supplies from churches that no longer needed them. Many people nationwide responded, including the Rev. Sinclair “Skippy” Ender, rector of Christ Episcopal Church in North Conway, New Hampshire. Ender had been storing a baptismal font, a processional cross and an altar cross in his home for a few years, waiting to find the perfect new home for them. “I answered the Facebook post, and they asked how much I wanted for the font, and I said, ‘Oh, I don’t want anything. I just want it used for the glory of God,’” Ender, a resident of Fryeburg, Maine, which is just across the state line, told ENS. Ender, a U.S. Navy veteran, said he obtained the baptismal font and other church supplies from the Episcopal Church of Saints Matthew and Barnabas in Hallowell, Maine, when it closed in 2021. He planned to use the items at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, where he was a command chaplain at the time. However, shortly after obtaining the baptismal font, which dates to 1888, the naval shipyard received a donated ship bell from a decommissioned destroyer and began using it for baptisms instead. In several military branches worldwide, including the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, upside-down ship bells traditionally serve as baptismal fonts. The custom dates back centuries to the British Royal Navy. “The antique font Fr. Skippy gave us is lovely, and it’s also very small and perfect for us,” the Rev. Geoff Evans, pastor of Riverside and the Diocese of Alabama’s canon to the ordinary, told ENS. “Everything has been serendipitous; providential, even.” The altar cross was originally used at St. Katherine’s Episcopal School for Girls in Bettendorf, Iowa, before it became a secular, coeducational college preparatory school decades ago. The cross had been stored in the undercroft of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Davenport since then. The damaged altar cross was about to be thrown away before Ender, who was a priest at the cathedral between 2018 and 2020, climbed into the dumpster to salvage the cross and restore it. Around that time, the Very Rev. John Hall, dean emeritus of Trinity, gave the processional cross and other sacramental items to Ender, which he used while enlisted in the Navy. Ender initially offered to pay to ship the sacramental items to Riverside, but the shipping fee was much higher than he could afford. Bailey reached out to Episcopalians on Facebook again asking if anyone living along the route between Fryeburg and McCalla would be willing to help drive part of the way to the next driver until the items reached their destination. Many people offered to help, and after some careful logistics planning and regular communications, 11 volunteers were selected to be a part of the “font relay.” Facebook users were able to read the relay’s progress by following the hashtag #FontRelay and the Episcopalians on Facebook group. The relay: Feb 3: Ender drove 222 miles from Fryeburg to Springfield, Massachusetts. That same day, Leslie Williams, a parishioner of St. Andrew’s Church, Northford, Connecticut, picked up the sacramental items and drove 83 miles from Springfield to Danbury, Connecticut. Feb 6: Williams drove an additional 35 miles from Danbury to New Haven, Connecticut. That same day, Nancy Pierson and Diane Goodman, parishioners of St. John’s Church Episcopal Church in Larchmont, New York, drove 82 miles from New Haven to Secaucus, New Jersey. Feb 9: Vivian Roston, a parishioner of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York City, drove 239 miles from Secaucus to Hagerstown, Maryland. That same day, Kyle, Lauren and William Munroe, parishioners of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Auburn, Alabama – temporarily residing in Alexandria, Virginia, while Kyle Munroe attends Virginia Theological Seminary – drove 133 miles from Hagerstown to Staunton, Virginia. Feb. 10: Susan Palmer, senior warden of Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton, drove 225 miles from Staunton to Bristol, Tennessee. That same day, Candace Armstrong, music director St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, drove 115 miles from Bristol to Knoxville.  Feb 13: Maryjo Latham, a parishioner of St. James Episcopal Church in Knoxville, drove 111 miles from Knoxville to Chattanooga, Tennessee. That same day, Ola Williams and Cathy Struntz, parishioners of the Church of the Resurrection in Rainbow City, Alabama, drove 110 miles from Chattanooga to Gadsden, Alabama. Feb. 14: Williams and Struntz drive 58 miles from Gadsden to Trussville, Alabama. That same day, Lane Oden, who’s not a member of a church, drove 11 miles from Trussville to Irondale, Alabama. Feb. 15: Oden drove 11 miles from Irondale to Homewood, Alabama. That same day, Bailey drove 16 miles from Homewood to Helena, Alabama, then 15 more miles to McCalla. To document the journey, Ender purchased a notebook for drivers to record their traveling details and reflections. “We are grateful to be on this journey with y’all. It is nice to think about all of these items going to their new home in our home state and diocese of Alabama,” Kyle, Lauren and William Munroe wrote in the notebook. “We hope these items help lead […]

[Episcopal News Service] Saint Augustine’s University, the historically Black college with Episcopal roots in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been dealt another setback in its ongoing fight for survival after its accrediting agency denied the school’s latest appeal. The accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC, is in the process of removing Saint Augustine’s as a member institution for failing to meet accreditation standards related to its finances. Saint Augustine’s appealed a December 2024 decision by SACSCOC, but the agency’s appeals committee recently ruled against Saint Augustine’s, according to a March 6 news release from the school. Saint Augustine’s has at least one more option, a 90-day arbitration process, as it attempts to remain an accredited university. Loss of accreditation could threaten the school’s viability despite university leaders’ insistence that they have secured the funding needed to continue operating. “We have made substantial progress and are confident that our strengthened financial position and governance will ensure a positive outcome,” Board of Trustees Chairman Brian Boulware said in the news release. “SAU is resilient, and we are resolute in our commitment to academic excellence.” The release also emphasizes that the university’s failed appeal does not mean it is closing. Accreditation will remain active during the 90-day arbitration, meaning that all students who graduate in May 2025 will receive degrees from an accredited institution. The university “remains dedicated to providing high-quality education and student support services as it evaluates all available pathways forward,” according to the news release, which adds that the university expects to close later this month on an agreement with unnamed partners for $70 million in “sustainability focused funding at competitive market rates and terms.” Saint Augustine’s and the much smaller Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, are the two remaining historically Black higher education institutions with Episcopal roots. The pair of colleges has received several million dollars from The Episcopal Church in recent years while also accepting the church’s guidance on administrative and fundraising matters. Saint Augustine’s history dates to 1867, when it was established by Episcopalians in the Diocese of North Carolina. Though still rooted in the Episcopal tradition, it now operates as an independent institution. Under federal guidelines, colleges and universities seek accreditation by an approved governmental or nongovernmental agency like SACSCOC to ensure they meet “acceptable levels of quality,” according to the U.S. Department of Education. Accreditation, for example, is a minimum standard typically verified by managers when assessing graduates for potential employment. An academic institution that fails to retain accreditation also could be disqualified from federal grants and student aid programs, potentially jeopardizing the school’s ability to remain open. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Diocese of Los Angeles] Members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pomona, California, launched a ministry to help dress young girls around the world and revitalized community in their own backyard. On a recent Saturday, about a dozen women and men in the church’s Sophia room were busily laying out patterns, cutting, stitching and ironing vibrant animal print and flowered materials to make sleeveless dresses to send to Dress A Girl Around the World. “When we have finished 100 dresses, we send them off to be distributed,” said Jo Ann Newton, St. Paul’s senior warden. Newton inspired the ministry, which began in June 2024. “Dress A Girl” is a campaign of Hope for Women International, a Christian nonprofit women’s empowerment organization. The sleeveless, zipper-less, buttonless dresses, made to specification, bear the organization’s labels which, Newton hopes, could help prevent young girls from becoming victims of human trafficking. “Young girls in need have always been near and dear to my heart. Many people in this country don’t realize there are children without clothes,” she said, affirming the organization’s mission to raising awareness of human trafficking while distributing the dresses. Newton shared her vision with Sandra Martinez-Moore, chair of the church’s chapter of the Daughters of the King, an international order of women of Episcopal and other denominations who dedicate themselves to a life of prayer and service. Martinez-Moore embraced the ministry, and it has continued to expand. The women – and a few men – gather on the first Saturday of each month to sew, using donated materials and machines. They also work at home, according to Martinez-Moore. She said she was there with her mother, Anna Toledo, who makes about 14 dresses each week. “The wonderful thing is, the men in the church were excited by what we were doing, so they formed a men’s ministry,” Newton said. “They wanted to work alongside us in some way and in December, we had a joint project.” By Christmas, members were making stockings for the children attending a preschool renting space on their campus. The men’s ministry purchased small toys to put in the stockings “and we had a party for the children,” Newton said. “We’d never had a relationship with the preschool before. Now, the men’s ministry is activated, and they are planning other things for this year.” Extra stockings were taken to a nearby shelter; now the church is planning an Easter outreach to the shelter as well. Enthusiasm has continued to build. Another plan in the works is to create a quilted reversible bag and other fundraisers to celebrate St. Paul’s 150th anniversary in 2026. “We are planning a year’s worth of activities,” said Patricia Hernandez, who attends the monthly gatherings. “People come and do what they can.” Dress A Girl has “brought new life” to the parish which, like some 40 other churches in the Diocese of Los Angeles, has been without permanent clergy. St. Paul’s had both lay and supply clergy leadership, but until recently had seemed to be floundering, according to Hernandez. Now, there is hope, and there are plans for the future. “We are still going to be here,” Hernandez said. “I joined the church because of this ministry,” said Diana Bermudez, a teacher and new vestry member, who brought along a friend March 1 to help with the sewing. “I like to make a difference, and this has already made one. Coming to the sewing ministry was, for me, a calling.” Bill Laws, St. Paul’s administrator, said he needed a lot of “hand-holding” while learning to make bias tape to finish the neckline and armholes of the dress he was working on. The dresses are an A-line pattern with front, back, side panels and no fastenings, and made of cotton, with pockets. Sizes range from toddlers up to 12 or 14, according to Louise Barbee. “Once buttons or zippers are lost or broken, the garment isn’t usable anymore” so the dresses slip on easily over the head, she said. Bolts of donated material fill a nearby closet where the machines and other accessories are stored between gatherings. Bright-colored dresses are on hangers, and laughter fills the room as the members gather. The ministry has also attracted people from the local community, said Martinez-Moore, adding, “We want to see Dress A Girl in every church in the diocese.”