Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] The Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, Florida, memorialized the 49 people who were shot and killed nearly 10 years ago – June 12, 2016 – at Pulse, a nearby gay nightclub, today with a public livestreamed Votive Requiem Mass. The congregation prayed for healing, peace and hope as the victims’ names were read aloud. The Rev. Dan Smith, the Diocese of Central Florida’s canon to the ordinary, preached. He called for the need to respect the dignity of every human being and to practically and prayerfully seek peace and justice. “[The LGBTQ+ and Latino communities] 10 years ago, and unfortunately still today, experience discrimination, hatred, fear and violence,” Smith said in his sermon. “I think of those four words: discrimination, hatred, fear, violence. They are antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the vows that each and every one of us take at our baptism.” The Rev. Garrett Puccetti, resident priest of the cathedral and the service’s planner and celebrant, told Episcopal News Service ahead of the service that the cathedral wanted to honor the victims, survivors, loved ones, first responders and everyone else affected by the shooting because “the Christian response to violence and hatred is love.” “Because Christ first loved us and because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, we, as the cathedral, decided that we needed to continue the same ministry we offered right after the Pulse shooting happened,” Puccetti said. The service also included readings from Isaiah 25:6-9, Psalm 130, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 and John 11:21-27. On the morning of the shooting, the Rev. Nancy Oliver, then a deacon at the cathedral, woke up shortly after 5 a.m. to prepare for a full day of Sunday worship services. While getting ready, she turned on the TV. That’s when she learned about the shooting and that Orlando police had just fatally shot the killer. At 7 a.m., Oliver arrived at the cathedral with no intent to stay for worship. Instead, she spent the next 15 hours distributing bottled water and food, leading impromptu prayer circles and listening to people vent outside Orlando Regional Medical Center and at a nearby hotel where hundreds of people waited to hear from their loved ones. “It was a terrible time for everyone. It was very intense,” she told ENS. “While I was leading one of the prayer circles and everyone bowed heads together, I looked down, and I saw rivulets of blood all over this young girl’s boots from when she was inside Pulse. It was unreal. I’ll never get that image out of my mind.” Smith was rector of Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Sanford, a north Orlando suburb, in 2016. Like Oliver, Smith learned about the shooting at Pulse that morning on television. He scrapped the sermon he had prepared and instead addressed the congregation with some handwritten notes. “I got up in the pulpit and just preached what was on my mind. It’s horrifying to think that the second-largest mass shooting in the history of the United States happened right here in the city that we love so much,” Smith told ENS. “The congregation and I dove headlong into the grief and the shock and the horror of this hate crime against the gay and Latino communities – two communities who are already pushed to the edge and discriminated against as is.” The Pulse nightclub shooting, which also left 58 people injured, was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history until one year later, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd gathered on the Las Vegas Strip in 2017. Most of the nightclub victims were Latino because Pulse was hosting “Latin Night” when the shooting occurred. The funeral of one of the victims, Christopher Andrew Leinonen, was held at the cathedral. Members of Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-LGBTQ+ congregation, attempted to picket Leinonen’s funeral, but 200 counterprotesters formed a human chain to block their view of the cathedral. “It was emotional seeing so many people go out of their way to shield funeral-goers from seeing that hate group,” said Oliver, who now serves at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in nearby Cocoa Beach. Greater Orlando is one of Florida’s more socially progressive metropolitan areas, but Central Florida is historically one of the most theologically conservative dioceses in The Episcopal Church. But, according to Smith, news of the Pulse shooting “affected everyone in the diocese.” “Central Florida is still one of the most conservative dioceses, but, to me, that makes it even more incumbent for us to pay attention to the anniversary of this act of violence,” he said. The June 10 service concluded with the cathedral’s bells tolling 49 times – one ring for each victim. During his sermon, Smith told the congregation to reflect on how they will respond to future hatred and violence. “The real question that I want you to ponder this day is, where will you be?” Smith said. “Where will you be when hatred is spewed? Where will you be when someone is pushed to the edge of our society or pushed out completely? Where will you be when violence raises its ugly head, as it undoubtedly will? Will we live into and up to the promise we make at our baptism, to share the hope of the gospel, to respect the dignity of all people and to seek, always, justice and peace?” -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. Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto, primate of the Anglican Episcopal Church in Brazil and bishop of the Amazon, has been appointed chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network. The network connects Anglicans worldwide who work on creation care, climate justice and environmental action. Bassotto has focused much of her primacy on addressing environmental issues. She has been an active supporter of the Anglican Communion’s global “Lungs of the Earth” campaign to protect the planet’s ecosystem. Later this month, Bassotto will attend the Anglican Consultative Council as both a member and chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network. During the conference, the environmental and the Anglican Communion Peace and Justice Network will issue a joint resolution addressing environmental justice and reconciliation work. Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church is preparing to file a federal lawsuit against Ocean City, Maryland, to stop the resort town from shutting down its overnight shelter for unhoused people. On both June 8 and 9, the church received citations from the town saying it must pay a fine of $1,000 per day or close the shelter on its property. On both occasions, Ocean City’s director of planning and community development, George M. Bendler, hand-delivered the citations while accompanied by a witness. The Rev. Jill Williams, St. Paul’s by-the-Sea’s rector, told ENS in a June 9 interview that she has no plans to close the shelter or pay the fines. “Today, when [Bendler and his witness] issued the citation, I read them the Gospel – Matthew 25: ‘When I was hungry, you fed me. …Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.’ The church is very clear where we stand with our ministry to the homeless,” Williams said. St. Paul’s by-the-Sea, which is in the Diocese of Easton, announced its plans to file a lawsuit against the town in a June 8 press release. In May, the town sent a letter demanding that the church close its shelter by June 8. It claimed the shelter’s bunk beds are “consistent with barracks-style living quarters,” which are not permitted within its zoning district. Williams previously told ENS that the bunk beds purchased for the sleeping space were specifically made for overnight shelters. On May 12, St. Paul’s by-the-Sea’s lawyer, Robin R. Cockey, replied to the town’s letter explaining why the church won’t close the shelter or pay any fines. He noted that St. Paul’s by-the-Sea is federally protected under the U.S. Constitution’s free exercise clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. These protections “afford the church ample protection against overzealous zoning impositions such as those threatened by Mr. Bendler.” St. Paul’s by-the-Sea’s legal clashes with town officials started last fall when the church began allowing unhoused people to sleep in church-provided tents on its property. The small encampment was made in response to Ocean City and the surrounding Worcester County adopting ordinances in May 2025, making it illegal – punishable by jail time – for people to sleep in public spaces. Earlier this year, the church faced a deadline to remove the tents by April 1, or face fines of up to $5,000 per day. After raising money to hire staff and cover other expenses required to operate as a shelter, St. Paul’s by-the-Sea beat the town’s deadline when it opened “The Shelter by-the-Sea” on March 31. The ministry operates nightly from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Now, about 27 people sleep at the shelter every night. “Every evening our doors open to people who need safety, dignity and hope,” Williams said in the press release. “We believe that serving our neighbors in this way is part of our calling as a church, and we remain committed to that work.” Williams noted to ENS last month that St. Paul’s by-the-Sea is located near the tourist area of Ocean City, which is located on a barrier island off the Atlantic coast. The town’s peak tourism season started Memorial Day in late May and will run through Labor Day in early September. The ministry, which is mostly funded by donations and the congregation, also offers dinner and breakfast, and helps overnight guests access other resources, such as substance abuse programs and affordable housing assistance. Williams told ENS last month that if Ocean City fined St. Paul’s by-the-Sea and the church responded with a federal lawsuit, she’s “100% confident” the parish would win. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Warren Thomas Swenson is a happily married gay Episcopal priest with an “ordinary” routine. As a former associate priest serving small mission churches in southeast Tennessee, he has preached, presided over the Eucharist, made pastoral visits to homebound and hospitalized parishioners, and led Bible study and Sunday school sessions. Understanding Swenson’s “ordinary” life and career was just what Canadian actor, writer and executive producer Dan Levy needed to create the co-protagonist of his latest sitcom, “Big Mistakes,” for Netflix. In the crime comedy show, which is now streaming, Levy portrays Nicky Dardano, an openly gay pastor of an unspecified Protestant denomination who gets blackmailed into the world of organized crime after his sister steals a diamond tennis necklace. Swenson consulted with writers to create a convincing religious character and settings for the show’s eight-episode first season. “The show is, of course, unconventional and bizarre because it’s a comedy, but Dan and the writers wanted to be as faithful as they can and bring authenticity to depicting a religious life,” Swenson, a doctoral student at the University of Chester’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies in England and an incoming homiletics professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, told Episcopal News Service. “It was fun to see what they did or didn’t use of my commentary, like the aesthetics of the church and the parsonage, or the language the parishioners and Nicky use with each other.” Before he was offered the consultant position, Swenson already was a fan of Levy, who’s best known for co-creating and starring in the critically acclaimed sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” with his father, Eugene Levy. Dan Levy, who is openly gay, portrayed David Rose, one of the first openly pansexual characters depicted on TV. “Like ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Big Mistakes’ is hysterical and entertaining because it’s character-driven. It’s about people and relationships and families,” Swenson said. “In both shows, there’s an attentiveness and a sincerity with which Dan approaches these topics. His work is so relatable.” In a May 28 interview on ABC’s late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Levy, who grew up in a mixed Jewish and Protestant home, said he wanted a religious consultant for “Big Mistakes” because, to him, depicting religion on screen is “not a funny thing.” “People’s relationships to God, their faith, is something that needs to be respected,” Levy said. “I wanted to authenticate my character’s relationship to his faith in a way that allowed everything around it to be funny. So, it was important, I think, that we had somebody who was able to go through the scripts and say, ‘You would say this. You wouldn’t say this. You would have a relationship to this thing. You wouldn’t participate in this.’” Swenson’s working relationship with Netflix and the “Big Mistakes” production team began in February 2025 after one of Levy’s assistants asked a mutual friend if he knew of a gay clergyperson who’d be open to consulting for the show. Over the course of six months, Swenson, Levy, and the show’s writers gathered regularly via Zoom to review the teleplay of each episode. Swenson provided feedback on how scenes inside the parsonage should be depicted, for example. Minor spoilers follow. In one of the first scenes, a parishioner with no personal or professional boundaries frequently enters the parsonage – Nicky’s house on church property – without knocking first, to ask questions that, according to Nicky, “could have been an email.” “As a clergyperson, you have to really be intentional with setting professional boundaries from the beginning of your new position in a church,” Swenson said. “The work-life balance in vocational ministry is really different from other careers because your work doesn’t regard the clock for pastoral care, like when you have to meet people in their most vulnerable or sorrowful moments. Still, those professional boundaries must always be in place.” Swenson also advised on how, as a clergyperson, Nicky would react to certain situations stemming from working for the mob that would conflict with his faith. In one scene, for example, Nicky is forced to abuse his status as a pastor to convince a rancher to sell “the church” two bulls. The rancher, a devout Christian, insistently donates the bulls instead, quoting James 4:17: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” Like in many other scenes throughout the show, Nicky is visibly uncomfortable and later expresses his internal conflict and frustrations to his sister. Sometimes, the situations Nicky faces are life-threatening, and his responses are one “big mistake” after another. While the correct responses seem obvious to viewers, Swenson said he doesn’t know how he’d respond to the same dangerous hypothetical scenarios. “On one hand, I’m a sinner, so I can’t rule out the possibility of making the same ‘big mistakes’ as Nicky. A part of me wants to say I’d never compromise my sincerely held beliefs or my ethics, but it takes an extraordinary human being – a literal saint – not to compromise their ethics when their life is on the line,” Swenson said. Swenson didn’t write any of the show’s lines, but he said he appreciates the “nuanced” commentary and “genuine insight” on LGBTQ+ issues throughout “Big Mistakes.” Even though Nicky’s congregation accepts that he is gay, he’s not allowed to be in a same-sex relationship. This is an added source of conflict and stress for Nicky, while his secret boyfriend, Tareq, pressures him to “come out of the closet” so they can date publicly. In one scene, Tareq asks Nicky, “Why is it that religion has such a problem with two people who are in love with each other?” Nicky replies, “Because God is perfect, but the people who interpret him are not.” “That’s exactly the kind of perfect window into the soul of a gay clergyperson – someone of immense faith whose identity is at odds […]

[Episcopal News Service] Mexico, Canada and the United States will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup June 11-19. The quadrennial soccer championship is expected to attract millions of spectators across 104 matches played throughout North America. All three host countries are increasing security in an effort to prevent crime during the 48-team tournament, including human trafficking, theft, prostitution, disappearances and violence. Anglican leaders, including Archbishop of Mexico Alba Sally Sue Hernández García, expressed concerns over World Cup security during the United Society Partners in the Gospel’s “For Christ is our Peace” conference June 2-4 in Hoddesdon, England.  “The situation is very difficult, with challenges including the presence of drug cartels, forced disappearances, violence against girls and women, the exclusion of Indigenous communities and armed attacks to seize territory from communities that have been displaced from their lands, among others,” Hernández García said during a conference session, where she was a guest speaker.  For instance, Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which will host the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, sits on land the Mexican government expropriated from the Santa Úrsula Coapa, an Indigenous community, in 1962. In the area surrounding the stadium, many people live in poverty, and the community frequently experiences water shortages. The stadium’s owner, multimedia conglomerate Televisa, exacerbated the water shortage in 2018 when it privatized a community well for the stadium’s use as its infrastructure was expanded to add new shopping and leisure centers ahead of the World Cup. Even though the cartels, which are active in the other two Mexican host cities, Monterrey and Guadalajara, are supposedly scaling back their activities during the World Cup, the government isn’t relying on potential truces. The country is deploying nearly 100,000 security personnel to tourist zones, airports and transit hubs across the three host cities, according to news reports. Mexico will host 13 matches. “As we get caught up in football fever at the World Cup in North America this summer, we must remember the lives being impacted by the situation in Mexico,” Rev. Duncan Dormor, the USPG’s general secretary, said. “It is almost always the poor who suffer the most, and it is within these communities that the Anglican Church of Mexico is standing up, speaking out, and taking action to address issues of deep injustice, conflict, and violence.” Tournament planners in Canada, which will also host 13 matches, are using federal, provincial and local resources in host cities Toronto and Vancouver to focus on extensive crowd management, airspace defense and infrastructure protection. Security plans are the most extensive in the United States, which will host 78 matches across 11 cities, including the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Unauthorized drones, illegal border crossings and bomb threats are among the country’s biggest concerns in advance of the World Cup. The United States has tightened entry restrictions, including travel bans and visa restrictions on some of the 48 countries sending teams, leaving many ticket holders unable to watch their teams play in person and scrambling to resell their tickets, according to news reports.  The USPG, an Anglican agency, partners with churches worldwide “in God’s mission to rethink mission, energize the church and champion justice.” During the annual conference, delegates and guest speakers from the Anglican Communion reflect theologically and practically on the relationship between justice, peace and conflict through keynote addresses, workshops, panel discussions, Bible study and worship. Jude Lal Fernando, director of the Trinity Centre for Post-Conflict Justice in Dublin, Ireland, lamented that World Cup security concerns are being prioritized over the basic needs of communities, like food security. “When space for peace and dialogue decreases, the space for violence and oppression increases, especially for women and children,” Fernando said. Hernández García echoed a similar sentiment. “While the World Cup will generate passion and some economic activity, there will be no profound changes or answers to the true needs of the Mexican people,” she said.

[Lambeth Palace] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally hosted a debate on June 5 in the House of Lords, urging peers to take note of artificial intelligence’s impact on human relationships and wider society. Hailing AI as a “remarkable product of human creativity” that has led to “extraordinary discoveries and breakthroughs,” Mullally also stressed the importance of protecting human relationships, connections, creativity, democracy and Earth. Calling on AI companies to adopt a “pro-human” approach, Mullally argued for implementing a theological, philosophical and spiritual framework to inform how people create, control and use AI. The goal, she said, would be to use AI to serve humanity, rather than diminish it. Read Mullally’s entire speech here.

[Religion News Service] Within a red binder, each of its typewritten pages encased in a plastic sleeve, sits an early draft of the famous letter written by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as he was held in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. Ten pages that once were considered for the 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” were discovered in March by a graduate student concluding an internship by examining papers donated to the African American Episcopal Historical Collection, a joint venture of the Virginia Theological Seminary and the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. The draft was found in the papers of Bishop John M. Burgess, the first African American to serve as an Episcopal diocesan bishop, and his wife, Esther. The papers, donated by the daughters of the couple that was active in the Civil Rights Movement, are housed at the seminary near Washington, D.C. “I screamed, but I also wept,” said Riley Temple, the collection’s growth specialist, of seeing the letter, with its yellowed pages, for the first time. He views it as a part of the “big year” of 1963 that featured a list of changes and challenges, including the desegregation of the University of Alabama, the March on Washington and the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. “The civil rights revolution had been going on for quite some time when this letter was written, but intellectually and academically, I see the 1963 letter as being a beginning of a scholarship that informed the Civil Rights Movement,” said Temple, who joined other archives staffers in an interview at the seminary’s Bishop Payne Library. King’s letter was sent to white clergy — he referred to them as “my Christian and Jewish brothers” — who had questioned the urgency and the need for the Birmingham campaign of sit-ins and boycotts he had led as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was jailed for organizing a nonviolent demonstration on Good Friday in the Alabama city that year. After checking with experts of the Civil Rights Movement and historical documents, staffers of the seminary’s archives determined that the document described as an 11-page typeset — though its last page is missing — was one of several versions of what became one of King’s most well-known writings. In it he declared: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Those words are included in the recently discovered version as well as the final published version. A staffer at Swann Auction Galleries in New York estimated that the document discovered is worth $15,000 to $25,000. The auction house’s sale of another 11-page typeset sold in what that employee described as “a fluke” for $185,000 in 2021. A 13-page version sold for $40,000 in 2017. But the one housed at VTS is not for sale, said seminary archivist Denton Waits, and archive staffers plan to seek advice from conservationists about the best ways to preserve the draft letter and make its contents available for the public to view. The single-spaced document found in Virginia was part of a multistep process that began with King writing thoughts in newspaper margins. His notes would eventually be written into a full letter of more than 6,000 words published in a pamphlet of the American Friends Service Committee, a group founded by the Quakers, and included in King’s book “Why We Can’t Wait.” Archives assistant Kayla Floyd compared the document from the Burgesses’ papers with other drafts, such as a digital version on the University of Alabama’s website, and the final version of the letter to see variations in wording, quotations and punctuation. “I think the majority of the message is the same, line by line is the same,” she said. “However, there are certain sections where things are kind of pieced differently.” For example, a reference to English preacher and author John Bunyan in the final version — “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience”— is not in the draft version that was among the papers belonging to the Burgesses. It was added in a paragraph where King embraces being described as an extremist and says, before and after the Bunyan reference, that reformers Martin Luther and Abraham Lincoln could share that descriptor. In the final version, the letter says, “as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.” In the version now located at the seminary, it refers to the theologian by saying, “as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals.” Floyd, who said she was particularly grateful to tell her grandfather, who is in his 90s, about the found draft, pointed to another language change in the section where King discusses laws that are just or unjust. “Where it talks about, ‘It gives the segregated a false sense of inferiority’ — that’s the quote in ours — in the University of Alabama version, it’s quoted as ‘It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, and the segregated a false sense of inferiority,’” she said. With the discovery of the letter itself and its differences from other versions, archives staffers have received requests for it to be shared with students taking ethics and biblical studies at the seminary. “They have said that they would like to have it brought in as examples of text criticism for their classes,” Waits said. As archive staff members have reviewed different drafts, they have also noticed that the University of Alabama draft was addressed to seven clergy, while the one held by the Burgesses includes eight addressees. Two leaders to whom the letter was addressed in those two drafts were Episcopal bishops who had graduated from VTS. Waits is conducting historical research, and Floyd is doing contextual analysis for a joint article comparing different drafts of King’s letter. How the […]

[Episcopal News Service] A 17-year-old Episcopalian from Mississippi, who is completing a year of study abroad in Italy, has led an effort at his adopted church in Genoa to preserve the memory of 18 American airmen and 93 Genoese who died 82 years ago in a U.S. bombing mission. Jack DuPont of Waveland, a small city on the Gulf of Mexico, has been living with host families in Genoa since last September and attending a local school there, an experience sponsored by Rotary International. While immersing himself in Italian culture — he arrived not knowing the language but has picked up enough to communicate — DuPont also began attending worship services at Church of the Holy Ghost, an English-speaking congregation that is part of the Church of England. The church has a range of ministries supporting immigrants and students like DuPont. “I’ve had an amazing experience,” DuPont, who returns to Mississippi at the end of this month, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “The amount of opportunities that have come from this experience is just unbelievable.” One of those opportunities was the service of remembrance hosted by the Church of the Holy Ghost on June 3. The focal point of the service was a Book of Remembrance that DuPont helped assemble, featuring letters and tributes to those who died in an ill-fated U.S. mission over Genoa on June 4, 1944. DuPont arranged for several Episcopal leaders, as well as elected officials, to contribute written reflections to the book, which also includes photos of many of the people who died and information about their lives. “We prayed for peace,” DuPont said of the memorial service. “We prayed for those soldiers who did make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We prayed for the Italian victims and all the victims of the bombings over Genoa during the Second World War.” Genoa, as an Italian port city and industrial hub, was a frequent target for Allied bombing during World War II. The raid on June 4, 1944, one of dozens, may have been impaired by bad weather, according to DuPont’s research. If rail lines and factories were the mission’s target, many civilians in Genoa were the unintended casualties, and German forces were able to shoot down two of the American planes, killing 18. The following year, Genoa was liberated from the Germans, not by the Allied forces but by a homegrown resistance movement. The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, The Episcopal Church’s bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, was among those who contributed to the Book of Remembrance. “We honor their memory best not only through remembrance, but through our renewed commitment to reconciliation, compassion, and justice in a divided world,” Ritonia wrote. “May God grant us the courage to seek peace where there is conflict and to uphold the dignity of every human life.” DuPont said he was inspired to develop this project by the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the United States. The purpose of the Genoa memorial service and the Book of Remembrance, however, was not to glorify one nation’s war dead, but to acknowledge the human cost of war and pray for a better future. “The main message was that of peace, which is something that in our world today we cannot remind each other enough of,” he said. – 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] All dioceses in The Episcopal Church regularly rely on the 1979 Book of Common Prayer to structure their worship services. The bishop of the Diocese of Dallas wants his diocese’s congregations to refrain from using any other liturgical text, at least on Sundays. Last month, Bishop Robert Price issued new guidance for Sunday liturgies in his diocese, based in Texas’ third-largest city. Effective Trinity Sunday, May 31. Price’s guidance specifically insisted on the use of “liturgies contained in the memorialized 1979 Book of Common Prayer,” and he advised congregations not to incorporate several other commonly used supplemental liturgical resources, including the church’s “expansive language” versions of Holy Eucharist Rite II and the collection of liturgies known as Enriching Our Worship. Those supplemental liturgies have been authorized for use throughout The Episcopal Church without the need to get permission from a bishop, a fact that Price acknowledged when he released revised guidance on June 2. “I am unable to prohibit the use of these prayers on Sunday mornings,” Price wrote in his latest letter to the diocese. “Nevertheless, the underlying reason for the original prohibition remains unchanged: the desire that our diocese pray together as one body using the memorialized 1979 Book of Common Prayer, thereby deepening our union in Christ.” Out of that “pastoral concern,” Price said he is asking clergy “to refrain from the use of the expansive-language versions of the Book of Common Prayer as an act of gracious restraint, sacrificial love, and fellowship with their sisters and brothers in Christ.” It isn’t clear how many of the more than 60 congregations in the Diocese of Dallas have regularly used expansive-language liturgies, though the bishop’s changing guidance has required at least one congregation to adjust. Church of the Transfiguration has used those supplemental liturgies for the past eight years. The supplemental liturgies “were intended to lessen the dependence on masculine pronouns for God, which can diminish our spiritual imaginations, and also introduce some changes to the Nicene Creed to foster ecumenical relationships,” the Rev. Casey Shobe, Transfiguration’s rector, said in a May 28 message to the congregation about Price’s initial prohibition. “As we begin this next chapter, we will abide by the bishop’s direction.” When Episcopal News Service reached Shobe by phone on June 3, he said he and other church leaders were still digesting the latest guidance from Price before deciding which liturgies to use in Transfiguration’s Sunday services. “We are certainly grateful for the acknowledgment of General Convention’s authority in the matter and grateful for the bishop’s leadership and humility in this,” Shobe told ENS. “We will take seriously his request … while also thinking very carefully about how much the expansive-language rites have meant for the parish in these last eight years.” Price has not said whether he specifically objects to the church’s yearslong development and authorization of expansive-language liturgies. In a written response to ENS’s questions, he did not comment on those liturgies. Rather, he indicated that asking all congregations to use the 1979 Book of Common Prayer on Sundays is a way to promote unity in a diverse diocese. “While a symbolic gesture, I believe that symbols matter,” Price told ENS. “We have a theological diversity in the Diocese of Dallas that no longer exists in many dioceses, and I am asking everyone to sacrifice their preferences in order to build mutual charity. To be honest, I am somewhat bemused that asking Episcopalians to use the 1979 BCP on Sunday mornings is perceived as being in any way radical or oppressive.” If not radical or oppressive, Price’s guidance appears to be unusual. The Rev. Ruth Meyers, a prominent scholar of the church’s liturgical history, told ENS that some bishops had forbidden the use of such supplemental liturgies while those liturgies were still being developed, but since they were fully authorized by General Convention in 2018  she was unaware of a bishop openly discouraging their use. Meyers, a longtime General Convention deputy and a retired Church Divinity School of the Pacific liturgics professor, also questioned whether a call for “unity” justified exclusive use of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. “The unity would be at the churchwide level, not at the diocese level,” Meyers said, since it is up to General Convention to determine what liturgies are authorized for use in the church’s dioceses and congregations. Price, in his statement to ENS, said the inspiration for the new guidance dates to the time before he was elected bishop when he was meeting with local leaders. “Building greater trust and collegiality amongst the clergy and parishes of the diocese was identified as a key priority of the new bishop, and I have sought to facilitate that healing and deeper unity in ways great and small since my consecration,” he said. “As a part of that effort, I have put forward pastoral guidance that seeks to bring all of us together.” The bishop’s new guidance follows decades of debate within The Episcopal Church and across the Anglican Communion about the role that “common prayer” plays in Anglican unity. Meyers underscored that the consensus over time has shifted away from a unified text in favor of a set of shared principles, approaches and structures in Anglican and Episcopal liturgies. The Book of Common Prayer was first published in 1549 for use in the Church of England, and in subsequent centuries, it became the primary liturgical text for Anglicans worldwide in the provinces of what is now known as the Anglican Communion. In 1958, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops acknowledged that independent liturgical revisions in those autonomous provinces, including The Episcopal Church, had made it harder to agree on one single text. In response, the Lambeth Conference called attention “to those features in the Books of Common Prayer which are essential to the safeguarding of our unity: i.e., the use of the Canonical Scriptures and the Creeds, Holy Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and the […]

[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches Young People in the Ecumenical Movement will host its second online gathering on June 10 via Zoom. Young ecumenists worldwide are invited to meet, share experiences and strengthen relationships across regions. Building on the momentum of the first virtual gathering held in 2025, the 90-minute event will provide opportunities for informal conversation and mutual learning through regional breakout groups. Participants will also receive an introduction to the YPEM Global Collective and its ongoing efforts to connect and empower young people within the ecumenical movement. Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is kicking off its “Vote Faithfully” voter engagement efforts for the 2026 midterm elections with a series of online events to educate Episcopalians on nonpartisan ways they and their congregations can support civic participation in their communities. The half-hour networking calls on Zoom, organized by the church’s Public Policy and Witness team, are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Eastern on June 4, July 2, Aug. 6, Sept. 3, Oct. 1 and Nov. 5. Registration is available here. The first call, on June 4, will feature Chief Legal Officer Kent Anker and a discussion of IRS rules for nonpartisan advocacy by religious organizations. Other calls will offer guidance on a range of topics, including voter registration efforts and election awareness campaigns, in which Episcopal congregations can serve as trusted sources for reliable information, said Allison Duvall, senior manager of church relations and engagement. Duvall, in an interview with Episcopal News Service, noted that the upcoming 250th birthday of the United States — marking the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 — also has relevance for The Episcopal Church, which was founded in the same era when Anglicans in the newly independent states broke away from the Church of England. “One of the most important ways we can show a healthy patriotism is by helping our neighbors exercise their democratic right to vote,” Duvall said. The church’s online networking series is just one of the ways that Episcopal leaders are encouraging greater involvement in the democratic process. For several years, the Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations has compiled, updated and expanded a selection of voter engagement resources that can be tailored to local efforts across the country. “We recognize election engagement as an act of Christian stewardship and a tangible way to love our neighbors,” the Office of Government Relations says on its election engagement webpage. “Our mandate to care for God’s world and people compels us, morally and spiritually, to vote – and to help ensure voting access for others.” The guidance includes ways to register to vote, find polling places, request an absentee ballot and volunteer as a poll worker. Congregations also have a variety of options for getting involved, including assisting in voter registration efforts, offering childcare on Election Day, organizing rides to the polls, educating voters about new state election procedures and combatting disinformation about elections. “A lot of the resources we’ve pulled together we’ve done in partnership with other faith organizations,” such as Interfaith America, Alan Yarborough, director of government relations, told ENS. By “leveraging the church as a trusted voice,” Episcopalians can share basic information in their communities with greater confidence. “Accuracy in information is just so critical,” Yarborough said. The Office of Government Relations, through its Episcopal Public Policy Network, also has been vocal in rallying Episcopalians to the cause of greater voter access, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court further weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in an April 2026 ruling that all but removed protections against racial gerrymandering of congressional districts. “To bolster democracy in the United States, we in The Episcopal Church call for an expansion of voter registration, protection of voter eligibility and making the voting processes more accessible,” the EPPN said in an action alert after the Supreme Court ruling. “We oppose efforts that undermine democratic processes, including legislation like the SAVE America Act, which would limit access to the polls by implementing overly restrictive voter ID requirements, thus disenfranchising millions of eligible voters.” The action alert and the church’s election engagement resources include a summary of the history of The Episcopal Church’s positions on voting rights, as adopted by General Convention and Executive Council. “To some extent, this is work that’s been going on for generations,” Yarborough said, adding that The Episcopal Church is not alone. “There are many examples of faith organizations that do this well.” – 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 Fiji Council of Churches expressed deep pastoral concern about increasing reports of missing children between the ages of 13 and 16 in the South Pacific archipelago. “As churches, we mourn with families living with fear, uncertainty, and heartbreak during these difficult moments,” it said in a statement. “Our children are precious gifts from God, entrusted into our care, protection, and love.” The churches underscored the urgent need to strengthen homes, communities, and support systems so that young people may feel safe, heard, valued and guided. Read the full article.

[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and a broad coalition of Christian and Dharmic partners are co-organizing an international conference aimed at strengthening fraternity, dialogue and collaboration among religious communities in Europe. The conference, titled “Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs in Europe: Building Fraternity through Dialogue and Collaboration,” will take place June 23-24 at St. Thomas Aquinas University in Rome. Religious leaders, scholars, peace activists, academics, students and others from across Europe will participate. Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal leaders in Massachusetts are rallying alongside gun safety advocates to preserve a sweeping state gun control law against a campaign seeking to repeal it by voter referendum. The Massachusetts Legislature voted overwhelmingly in 2024 to adopt the law, which further strengthened the state’s already substantial protections against gun violence. It implemented new prohibitions on guns in public places, imposed stricter licensing requirements related to mental health history, enhanced “red flag” measures for specific threats, expanded the definition of illegal “assault-style firearms” and outlawed “ghost guns,” those made privately to avoid tracking. Since then, pro-gun advocates have objected, and they forced a referendum onto the ballot in Massachusetts’ general election this November. Unless a majority of voters say “yes” to the law, it will be repealed. The Boston-based Diocese of Massachusetts, which includes congregations in the eastern half of the state, has gone on record opposing the law’s repeal. Its Diocesan Council endorsed the “yes” campaign in a vote on April 16, and Bishop Julia Whitworth has personally gotten behind the efforts to maintain the law. “Episcopalians regularly promise, through our Baptismal Covenant, to strive for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being. This compels us to take action to prevent gun violence, in the name of our faith,” Whitworth said in a written statement to Episcopal News Service. The diocese had supported efforts to pass the law in 2024, alongside the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. Episcopalians in Massachusetts are invited to learn more in a “call to action” meeting on Zoom at 5 p.m. Eastern June 2. Whitworth, in her statement, noted The Episcopal Church’s long history of supporting gun safety efforts. Most recently, the 81st General Convention in 2024 passed several resolutions regarding gun control policies, gun storage and military-style assault weapons, and it called on Congress to recognize gun violence as a national health crisis. Such advocacy “has resulted in common sense legislation to reduce and prevent gun violence in our commonwealth,” Whitworth said. “Owing to a powerful gun lobby, these laws are now at risk. With the support of Diocesan Council, I am calling on Episcopalians in Eastern Massachusetts to vote their faith this November and to offer visible Christian witness to peace, non-violence, and love of neighbor through the ‘Yes for a Safe Massachusetts’ advocacy.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring Uganda are experiencing an outbreak of the deadly Bundibugyo Ebola virus strain. The World Health Organization has recorded 10 confirmed and 223 suspected Ebola deaths, as well as more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected cases. In response to the outbreak, which was declared a global health emergency last month, Anglican churches, networks and charities worldwide are working to assist humanitarian response. A major focus is handling misinformation and overcoming practical barriers to care. They also are offering pastoral support, public health guidance and hope to those affected. Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] It was a single sentence, adopted 50 years ago by General Convention meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today, LGBTQ+ Episcopalians credit that sentence with opening the door to five decades of progress toward full inclusion in The Episcopal Church. This is the text of Resolution A069 in full: “Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Convention that homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church.” Now, as The Episcopal Church approaches the 50th anniversary in September of the passage of that resolution, church leaders are planning a three-day conference on the past, present and future of LGBTQ+ involvement in the life of the church. The conference is scheduled for Sept. 3-5, and it will be held where it all began, back in Minneapolis. The event, “Full & Equal: 50 years in Pursuit of a Promise,” will be structured as a gathering for worship, workshops and storytelling. Planning has been led by the church’s Task Force on LGBTQ+ Inclusion, chaired by the Rev. Susan Russell, a Diocese of Los Angeles priest and prominent LGBTQ+ church leader. Other scheduled participants include the Rev. Michael Hopkins, the Rev. Miquel Escobar and the Rev. Cameron Partridge. The event will also include a multimedia presentation on 50 years of struggle and success, produced by Diocese of Texas lay leader Katie Sherrod. It may be hard for today’s church to recall how revolutionary those words once were. At that time, in a denomination and a society still mostly unaccepting of LGBTQ+ individuals, the unequivocal acknowledgement that gay people were “children of God” and deserving of “full and equal” welcome was a ground-breaking step forward. “I think we look back at that 1976 resolution as really the beachhead of the struggle,” Russell told Episcopal News Service in a recent interview. “Up until then, it was not even possible to talk about inclusion. It was not even possible to imagine where we are today.” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe is expected to join one of the panel discussions this September and will be the celebrant at a concluding Holy Eucharist at St. Mark’s Cathedral. The preacher will be the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, who became the church’s first openly gay bishop when he was consecrated by the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003. Accommodations are still being finalized, and the church will be opening registration soon. The 65th General Convention met in Minneapolis from Sept. 11-23, 1976. It already was primed to be a momentous convention, with both the authorization of women’s ordination and the first approval of a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer on the agenda. The additional consideration of resolutions that would nudge the church toward LGBTQ+ inclusion followed a growing gay rights movement in the United States. Some gay Episcopalians also had mobilized to promote change within the church through what was then the newly formed advocacy group Integrity USA. Members of Integrity, including its founder, Louie Crew Clay, had advised the Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs, which drafted several resolutions for General Convention in 1976 related to the church’s stance on homosexuality. “Our awareness and concern in these areas arises from within our own experience as a Christian community in ministry and dialogue with one another,” the commission said in its report. “We are conscious of the personal suffering experienced by many homosexual persons and the various unnecessary ways in which society contributes to that suffering.” When the House of Deputies took up Resolution A069 on Sept. 13, 1976, some deputies proposed amendments seeking to dilute or alter the resolution’s significance. One suggested saying that “all” people are children of God, rather than singling out gay people. Another proposal would have added language saying that gay people were deserving of “forgiveness.” Both amendments were defeated. The deputies then adopted the resolution in the language originally proposed, and it was forwarded to the House of Bishops to concur. The bishops took it up on Sept. 22, 1976. The official journal of the 65th General Convention records only that the measure passed, with no reference to debate by the bishops. Russell, who led Integrity from 2003-2009, said the organization sometimes was accused of “incrementalism” by people who wanted the church to change more rapidly, but the steady approach of “set audacious goals and celebrate incremental victories” got results. After 50 years, Russell and other leaders note that many of the battles for full inclusion in the church have been won. In particular, the church now celebrates both the ordination of gay clergy and the marriages of same-sex couples. (Integrity USA officially dissolved in 2022.) With this fall’s conference in Minneapolis, “we’re excited to be going back to where the initial resolution was adopted,” Russell said, while also acknowledging “some of the damage that has been done to LGBTQ people.” Participants also hope to discuss how churches can remain committed to future justice work. Rowe underscored some of the same themes in a statement to ENS about the anniversary of the 1976 resolution. “As we celebrate that milestone, we also acknowledge that the journey to achieve full inclusion for all of God’s children is not yet over,” Rowe said. “As Pride Month begins, I am praying especially for our LGBTQ+ siblings, who are too often in harm’s way and targeted for their identity and gender expression. Their struggles reveal to us the kingdom of God, and we are committed to standing in solidarity with all those suffering from the evil of hatred and discrimination.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Religion News Service] On Ash Wednesday this year, about a dozen people attended a noon service at Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1723. Two days later, a handful of worshippers took part in a Shabbat service at Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, dedicated in 1763.  Congregations participating in sacred rituals — it is something both houses of worship have been doing longer than the United States has existed. Such places of worship are rare. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research estimates that of the 370,000 religious congregations in the U.S. today, only about 1% existed at the country’s founding. When the country declared independence in 1776,  there were 3,228 houses of worship across the Colonies. The United States was already religiously diverse. Congregationalists led the pack with about 670 congregations, or just over 20% of the total. Presbyterians weren’t far behind (18%), followed by Baptists and Episcopalians (each about 15%), and Quakers at nearly 10%. Methodists had a following at 2%, Catholics were just under 2%, and there were a handful of synagogues and more than a dozen Mennonite congregations, according to sociologists Rodney Stark and Roger Finke. Most of them dissolved due to internal conflicts, financial strains, aging membership and/or the impact of war. Many of the places that survived, like Old North Church and Touro, did so by continuing to gather, whether in ornate or simple buildings, or when pews were full or had just a few worshippers. “I think that’s how faith, church and faith, is perpetuated — it’s not, in a way, by big, splashy events,” said the Rev. Matthew P. Cadwell, vicar of Old North Church. “It’s by people who really want to take the time to reflect on what it means to be human and what it means to be a person of God in a complicated world.” Quite a few other houses of worship that pre-date the United States are still active today. Below, Religion News Service offers portraits of four. Old North Church, Boston, Massachusetts Founded: 1723 Affiliation: The Episcopal Church Famous for: Lanterns in steeple marked start of Revolutionary War  BOSTON — Cadwell welcomed just about a dozen people to this year’s noon Ash Wednesday service. Knowing there could be some tourists in the pews, Cadwell, the church’s leader since 2020, was careful to offer guidance after the first hymn for those unfamiliar with the standing, sitting and kneeling practices of The Episcopal Church. “There are kneelers in the pews — they’re exceptionally uncomfortable, and so you will feel penitent, for sure, if you use them,” he said. “I’ll be kneeling in the front on behalf of all of us, if that works, but kneeling yourselves, if you like, or stand — whichever, works for you.” Old North started as something of an outlier — a Church of England congregation in a city dominated by Puritan-rooted Congregationalists. Today it offers a spiritual space to Boston-area residents and tourists from around the world, including people from the country that once opposed colonists in the Revolutionary War. “We’re honoring our neighbors,” Cadwell said. Jenifer Miller, a native of Rochester, England, joined Old North Church a couple of years ago. Stepping into the box pews that date to 1723, Miller said she thinks of those who worshipped in the same place centuries ago. “You imagine all the people that have sat there before and all that, and we all have the worries, we all have the wants, we all have the loves and the sadness all through life,” she said. “So I enjoyed the thought that this is not new. It’s been around for a long time.” The church’s revolutionary history is undoubtedly a draw for tourists as well as locals. It was from Old North’s steeple that two lanterns were hung in 1775, signaling that British forces were advancing by sea — the moment Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized as “one if by land, two if by sea.”  Cadwell, who has a Ph.D. in Anglican history and theology, said the church’s understanding of that night has evolved: It’s now believed that sexton Robert Newman was joined by Capt. John Pulling Jr., a vestry member and friend of Paul Revere, to climb the stairs and ladders and hang the lights from what was then the tallest structure in the city. After the service, Carol Ball, a vestry member in charge of ensuring Old North’s brass chandeliers are kept shining, said the church embraces all visitors, whether they come for a tour or choose to become members. “It’s usually 50-50, I’d say, between congregation and tourists,” she said. “It’s a very nice mix.” First Baptist Church in America, Providence, Rhode Island Founded: 1638 Famous for: Nation’s oldest Baptist congregation Denomination: American Baptist Churches USA PROVIDENCE — “Whether you’re sober or you wish you were, whether you’re straight or gay or cis or trans, or whether you are a citizen of this nation or not, in this place, you are a citizen in the realm of God.” That is how the Rev. Jamie Washam begins the Communion service at First Baptist Church in America. Her words, she explains, are intentional: “We all have the same beeline to the divine.” The sentiment is baked into the DNA of the church. Roger Williams, a Puritan pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, was excommunicated for his views on church-state separation and then gathered a group of worshippers to start a new church in Providence. At a time when Massachusetts had a state religion, the Congregational Church, Williams concluded that “the only proper form of baptism was believer’s baptism, and so he baptized his congregation, about 20 people all together,” said J. Stanley Lemons, author of “First: The First Baptist Church in America.” (Due to Williams’ influence, Rhode Island never decreed a state religion.) Williams left the Rhode Island church after a few months (though he continued to preach). But it endured, surviving internal divisions and opening its “meetinghouse” doors regularly, including for historic gatherings. […]

[Episcopal News Service] A concert opera honoring Bishop John Henry Hobart will make its world debut May 31 at Trinity Church in New York.  The church’s Trinity Choir and Downtown Voices choral ensembles will perform the piece with its new music chamber ensemble, NOVUS. Melissa Attebury, Trinity’s music director, will conduct the 50-minute work, which features two soloists depicting Hobart and a narrator, and organ and piano. Trinity commissioned David Hurd, music director at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Manhattan, to compose the choral work, “Great Awakenings: John Henry Hobart and America,” in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. A concert opera is a full-length opera production presented on a stage without theatrical sets, costumes or acting. “Everybody knows about [Founding Father] Alexander Hamilton, who’s buried at Trinity Churchyard, from history books and, of course, the Broadway musical … but very few people know that buried nearby is Hobart, another historical figure,” Hurd, a cradle Episcopalian who previously served as an organist and sexton at Trinity, told Episcopal News Service. Hobart, whose Episcopal feast day is celebrated on Sept. 12, was Trinity’s seventh rector (1816 – 1830) and a co-founder of the General Theological Seminary. He served as the third diocesan bishop of New York, when the diocese covered the entire state, from 1816 until his death in 1830 at 54. He is buried beneath the chancel inside Trinity. Hobart also was instrumental in founding the college that now bears his name, Hobart College, in Geneva, New York. Additionally, he’s the namesake of Hobart, a town in Delaware County, New York. He founded parishes throughout New York state during his episcopate – including St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harlem, the first Black Episcopal church in New York City – and is remembered in the church’s Lesser Feasts and Fasts as “one of the leaders who revived The Episcopal Church, following the first two decades of its independent life after the American Revolution.” The church had fewer than 10,000 members by the end of the war because it was still a part of the Church of England, which was loyal to King George III. “Hobart tried to bring all types of people into The Episcopal Church,” Long Island Assisting Bishop William Franklin, former bishop of Western New York, told ENS in an email. “We know that he was a wonderful preacher … and he made people leave church feeling joyful and happy.” Franklin is also a church historian who taught at the General Theological Seminary at the same time as Hurd. He pitched the idea of a musical work on Hobart’s life and legacy ahead of the United States’s 250th anniversary to Trinity in 2024. Hurd, a renowned composer and organist, colleague and friend, was the natural commissioning choice. The libretto, which was written by Christopher Dylan Herbert, a former Trinity Choir member, includes quotes from Hobart’s sermons, Scripture and hymns. It divides “Great Awakenings” into four separate but interconnected movements: Hobart’s vision and flaws; his hopes to create a more democratic church; preaching the Gospel in Hobart’s own words; and Hobart’s heritage. Although “Great Awakenings” is meant to honor and highlight Hobart’s accomplishments and radical views for his time, Franklin and Hurd both stressed the importance of acknowledging his shortcomings early in the piece. For example, Hobart commissioned an Oneida translation of the Book of Common Prayer. He also engaged in missionary work with the Oneida Native Americans and helped them relocate to Wisconsin after they were forced to leave New York. However, he never advocated for preventing or stopping their relocation. He also ordained the Rev. Peter Williams Jr., the second Black Episcopal priest, but he never publicly denounced slavery, even though he was personally against it. These contrasting ideas are highlighted in the first movement in a sung dialogue, with the mezzo soprano narrator listing some of Hobart’s accomplishments and the chorus responding by listing his shortcomings. The tenor soloist depicting Hobart doesn’t sing until the second movement. “Slavery was normal in Hobart’s time. It wasn’t good; it wasn’t righteous, and we know now what a horrible thing this common practice was, but only the most courageous people were speaking out against it at the time,” Hurd said. “His work needs to be regarded in its own context as having been in the right direction.” In the third movement, the choir quotes Psalm 137. During the fourth moment, Attebury will invite the audience to join the chorus in singing part of a hymn that was sung at Hobart’s funeral. Throughout the piece, a clarinet solo will accompany the tenor as he sings Hobart’s lines. While listening to “Great Awakenings,” Hurd said he hopes the audience and performers will be “present in the moment” while they reflect on Hobart’s legacy. In his own reflection, Hurd said he thinks Hobart would feel “embarrassed that all this fuss is being made over him.” “Somehow, I don’t imagine Hobart as being a self-absorbed person who would be comfortable with a lot of praise,” Hurd said. “I think he’d tell us to read the Gospel and answer our callings. He wore all the vestments, but at the bottom level, I think he was more interested in getting out and fulfilling God’s mission than basking in glory.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of South Carolina is using seed money from The Episcopal Church to launch its first capital campaign since resolving a property lawsuit with a breakaway group in 2022. The new fundraising is seen both as a way to invest in the Charleston-based diocese’s own priorities, like congregational revitalization and racial reconciliation, and as a pilot program for supporting other dioceses’ capital campaigns. “There’s a lot of energy right now in the diocese around finally being in resurrection,” South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley said in an interview with Episcopal News Service. Woodliff-Stanley was consecrated as the diocese’s bishop in October 2021. Six months later, a state Supreme Court issued a split decision in the legal battle between the diocese and the breakaway group now affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America. The ruling ordered the return of some church properties to the Episcopal diocese while allowing ACNA to keep other properties that formerly had been occupied by Episcopal congregations. Since then, the Episcopal diocese has developed a strategic plan with three parts: re-establish Episcopal congregations at the properties that were returned, plant and grow new congregations in communities where properties were not returned and support historically African American congregations that have long been disenfranchised because of the diocese’s past complicity with racist systems dating back to the transatlantic slave trade. While the diocese was considering ways to fund its strategic vision, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe took office in November 2024 and began promoting greater churchwide support for dioceses and congregations. At a House of Bishops meeting, Rowe mentioned to Woodliff-Stanley he was interested in reviving a late 1970s and 1980s fundraising model. Started by then-Presiding Bishop John Allin, it was called Venture in Mission and entailed churchwide staff coordinating more closely with diocesan leaders to meet local ministry needs. Woodliff-Stanley volunteered South Carolina as a kind of pilot program, and the Rev. Charles Robertson, senior adviser to the presiding bishop, was assigned to help. Under the new program, The Episcopal Church has provided the seed money for the Diocese of South Carolina to hire a consulting firm to work with the diocese in developing its capital campaign, from discerning a realistic goal, conducting a feasibility study and then rolling out the campaign in deliberate stages. A church spokesperson declined to specify the amount of the seed money but confirmed that the church’s up-front investment covers the consulting firm’s fee, which is likely to vary by local needs as dioceses engage with this new program. Right now, South Carolina is making direct appeals to potential large-gift donors based on a $3.3 million campaign goal. The public phase, when all members of the diocese will be asked to contribute, is scheduled to run from Aug. 29 through the end of the year. If the campaign is successful, the diocese has agreed to return 15% of its proceeds back to The Episcopal Church, which then will use the money to invest in other dioceses’ capital campaigns following the same approach. “We are helping support this on the front end, and then they, in turn, are agreeing to do a pay-it-forward model,” Robertson told ENS. “We’re able to help dioceses who have a clear vision of where they want to go but don’t have those up-front resources” to launch an effective capital campaign. Robertson added that he is working with other dioceses interested in receiving churchwide fundraising support, including one that likely will be ready to announce its participation in the coming months. For the South Carolina campaign, the diocese started with several months of engagement with church members, who were overwhelmingly supportive of the idea, Woodliff-Stanley said. That encouragement partly reflected South Carolina’s focus on recovering from the years-long effects of schism. The diocese once counted as many as 78 worshipping communities across the southeastern half of the state, including along the Atlantic Coast. Parochial report data show that the diocese’s baptized membership topped 29,000 in 2011, the year before the diocese was upended by theological and doctrinal disputes, especially related to full LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church. In November 2012, led by their bishop, a majority of attendees at a special diocesan convention voted to effectively leave The Episcopal Church. After they departed, Episcopal membership in the diocese dropped below 6,400. The remaining diocese counted 22 continuing parishes and missions. Over the following decade, Episcopalians in South Carolina found ways to worship and serve their communities amid a series of legal victories and setbacks in the church property lawsuit. Then, in April 2022, the state Supreme Court ordered ACNA to return 14 church properties to the Episcopal diocese, as well as St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center on Seabrook Island. ACNA was allowed to keep 15 other properties. That ruling was later revised to allow ACNA to keep several additional properties. As the Diocese of South Carolina began planning for the future of the returned properties and supporting Episcopalians still experiencing loss in other communities, “we recognized that we had an opportunity to set that story inside a larger narrative of disenfranchisement,” Woodliff-Stanley told ENS. Some of the challenges now faced by predominantly white congregations, she said, were quite familiar to the diocese’s historically Black congregations, which still struggle financially from longtime disparities in diocesan resource allocation. After identifying the need to address those racial disparities as part of its strategic vision, the diocese sought projects that aligned with that goal and its other top priorities when developing its capital campaign. The diocese settled on four projects to fund, one of which will pay for facilities improvements for Three Churches United, a coalition of three historically Black churches in Charleston. Two of those churches require significant repairs and upgrades. Calvary Episcopal Church is expected to receive $500,000, and the campaign has budgeted $400,000 for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The third church in the coalition, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, has fewer facilities needs but would receive $100,000 for […]

[Episcopal News Service] In late February, Davide Adamo Bundy, 59 – born in Italy and reared in Arkansas – landed at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Airport carrying his belongings in a red mesh “tater” sack and with $67 in the pocket of his government-issued sweatpants. His journey to Italy began when he was released from an Oklahoma jail after charges against him in an assault case were dropped, he was handed over to ICE and an immigration judge ordered him deported to Italy, where he had not lived since infancy. With two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers he bypassed security and boarded a domestic flight in Dallas, Texas, and then transferred at Washington Dulles International Airport for the flight to Rome. He sat between the two officers. Three in-flight movies and nine and a half sleepless hours later, he arrived in Italy. It was not the first time Bundy had faced a deportation order. A decade earlier, a judge had ordered him deported, but this time the order was executed. He arrived in Rome on Feb. 24, 2026. He exchanged his U.S. dollars for €42 at the airport currency exchange at a 15% markup and bought a €14 ticket on the Leonardo Express to Rome’s main train station. Exhausted, he bought a slice of pizza, a soda and a bottle of vodka and sat down outside the train station. As he sat there, a man approached him and asked him if he was OK. Bundy hadn’t had alcohol in a long time and was not OK. The man offered him €100 and, with the help of the man’s partner, guided him to a Catholic-run shelter for refugees and migrants. Still, he said, he spent his first 36 nights in Rome sleeping on a piece of cardboard, a protective layer against the cold concrete, before a bed opened up. He also found his way to the Episcopal-run Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, where he is now studying Italian and receiving additional legal and social support. The JNRC has operated from St. Paul’s Within the Walls Episcopal Church since the 1980s. It takes a holistic approach to serving refugees and migrants, providing food and clothing, teaching them about their legal rights, preparing them for and helping them find jobs, and helping them integrate into society. Bundy’s arrival marked the first time, to the staff’s knowledge, that the refugee center has encountered a person born to an American serviceman and an Italian woman. His is a case study, Sharon Nagliero, the JNRC’s HR and program manager, told ENS, and “interesting from a legal perspective … not only for the fact that it’s incredible; I mean, for someone who lived in and who comes from the U.S. … and finds himself in Italy in the position of asking for international protection.” Bundy is waiting on the formalization of his international protection request, which is not guaranteed, and in the meantime, with help from lawyers and others who provided services to refugees and migrants, he is trying to locate birth records necessary to apply for Italian citizenship. He’s also trying to get the documents ICE officers presented to Italian immigration officers when he cleared the border control checkpoint at the airport. In Italy, international protection is a legal process by which non-European Union citizens – refugees and others fleeing serious harm or who fear persecution – apply for asylum or other protections. “Right now, he’s in administrative limbo,” Nagliero said. “And he needs to learn Italian so that he can work, and also to understand and protect himself, and it’s not easy.” Bundy was born on Jan. 5, 1967, to an unwed couple, an Italian woman and an American serviceman stationed at an Army garrison in Vicenza during the Vietnam War. His biological father abandoned his mother. The out-of-marriage pregnancy embarrassed her family, and she was sent to a convent to give birth. After Bundy was born, his mother found work cleaning rooms in a hotel frequented by American soldiers on leave. His parents met while she was working and he was staying at the hotel. “Dad met my mama, and he had feelings for her and said she was the finest woman he had ever seen,” Bundy said, with a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes. The man who raised him married his mother and adopted him. In 1968, when Davide was 18 months old, the Bundy family moved to Osceola, Arkansas, a delta town along the Mississippi River. At one point, he had a residency permit, or Green Card, but it eventually expired. At 18, he joined the U.S. Navy, but with an on-base drinking age of 18 and pitchers of beer selling for $2.50, he was stopped twice for driving while intoxicated and received an other-than-honorable discharge. Then, in 1994, he was arrested with a half-pound of marijuana and convicted of a felony. And, as he tells it, he missed two citizenship naturalization ceremonies; the first when he was young and out of town working, and the second in 2021, when he didn’t understand the naturalization paperwork and thought he was renewing his residency permit. “What it amounts to is one misunderstanding after another,” Bundy told Episcopal News Service. The U.S. military has maintained a strong presence in Europe since the end of World War II, with children born to local mothers and American servicemen both during and after the war. Some of these children were brought to the U.S., but not all of them became citizens, and some of them have been deported to their birth countries with no memory of having lived there or any remaining family ties. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. immigration policy became not just an economic but a national security concern. In the decades that have followed, each presidential administration has carried out large-scale deportations. Bundy may be the first non-naturalized American-reared deportee from the United States to receive […]