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After voting to cut ties with The United Methodist Church, Highland Park Methodist is asking the court to stop those who wish to remain United Methodist from using the Highland Park name. Meanwhile, the United Methodist congregation is moving locations.

[Episcopal News Service] The Archives of The Episcopal Church is getting ready to move. The church announced this week that its archive in Austin, Texas, will close for four months at the start of 2027 to facilitate the long-envisioned move to a new permanent location in Oakwood, Georgia. For researchers, that means time is short to submit pressing archival requests before the archives temporarily close on Jan. 1. And for church planners, that means a logistical challenge is quickly approaching. The Episcopal Church Archives has been housed in a leased warehouse in Austin since 2021 after previously occupying space at the Seminary of the Southwest for about 60 years. The collection is vast — about 9,400 cubic feet, plus 500 linear feet of library and reference books — all of which will need to be boxed up soon and transported to the new location, about 50 miles from Atlanta. The physical move is planned for three weeks in February. Then, the focus will shift to setting up the materials in the new facility’s 14,000 cubic feet of storage, which is a 40% increase over the previous storage space. “Those with immediate research needs as they draft reports for the 82nd General Convention are encouraged to reach out to the Archives soon,” the church said in a Nov. 11 news release announcing the temporary closure. “Other internal historical research will be prioritized and completed if feasible. External researchers will be directed to other resources or asked to follow up later in 2027.” The church expects to reopen the archive in its new location by May 1. In the meantime, digital archives will continue to be available on demand, including governance records and the Virtual Reading Room. The Archives of The Episcopal Church was established by General Convention in 1835. Its holdings now include letters, diaries, photographs, motion pictures, plans, maps, certificates of ordination, journals of every diocese, various periodicals and magazines, church newspapers, paintings and parish histories. The church’s archival material is generally separated into three categories: materials generated by General Convention and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the church’s corporate entity; personal papers of historically important Episcopal leaders; and various special collections that are focused on specific topics or document types. Some documents date to the 10th century, but the core materials are from the 18th century and later, including the establishment and early years of The Episcopal Church. General Convention first passed a resolution in 2006 initiating a search for a new home for the archives. Early plans involved building a new facility on a property the church purchased in Austin, but in 2018, the church chose instead to sell the undeveloped lot and make a temporary move into leased warehouse space. In June 2025, Executive Council, the church governing body between meetings of General Convention, authorized the purchase and redevelopment of a 3.5-acre property in the Diocese of Atlanta that formerly housed St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, which closed in October 2023. Site preparation work began in June 2026 for the $4.5 million project. The new facility will include offices and a reading room. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

As the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of Young People in the Ecumenical Movement closed its meeting in Accra, Ghana, commissioners vowed to draw together globally to serve the healing of the world. 

The Joint Consultative Group between the World Council of Churches and the Pentecostal World Fellowship met 8-11 November at the Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana in San José, Costa Rica. 

The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee will convene in the Philippines from 18-24 November to focus on expressing ecumenical solidarity with Filipino churches, restructuring of the WCC, strategic plans, and approval of the 2027 budget.

WACC with Artigo 19 Brasil e América do Sul led an in-depth dialogue earlier this week on critical questions of AI accountability and collaboration between faith communities and civil society to ensure AI development integrates human rights.

Students and scholars who took part in Serbia’s nonviolent, student-led movement told World Council of Churches (WCC) staff on 11 November that it was rooted in justice, love and solidarity, values at the heart of the Christian faith.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay extended warm greetings to Sikh communities on Guru Nanak Gurpurab. 

Prof. Rachel Muers is a theologian who serves on the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission, representing Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers). She speaks below about a survey, being circulated by one of the commission’s working groups, on the “Churches and Moral Discernment” volumes. 

When Pacific peoples speak about climate, they speak about land, ocean, and ancestors, says Rev. Charissa Suli, president of the Uniting Church in Australia. On some islands, she says, the water is rising. Suli is at COP31, the 31st UN climate conference, in Antalya, Türkiye, as a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation. She says the churches have a task there that negotiators do not have: to remind the people in the rooms of the human lives behind the data. The WCC spoke with her about faith, the Pacific, and what she wants young people to know.