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[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe will preside at a livestreamed Evensong on Nov. 11 for Veterans Day in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, after meeting this week with U.S. Marines and sailors stationed in Japan. Rowe is joined on the trip by the Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, bishop suffragan of Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, who will preach at the Evensong at Cathedral of St. Andrew in Honolulu. The service starts at 5:30 p.m. in Hawai‘i (10:30 p.m. Eastern). Armed Forces and Federal Ministries recruits and supports chaplains discerning a call to serve in military and federal ministries. The Episcopal Church notes that the military chaplaincies represent the church’s largest young adult ministry, with military members ages 18 to 26 making up about half of the armed forces. Rowe, who was in Taiwan on Nov. 7 for the consecration of Rt. Rev. Keith Chen-Cheng Lee, traveled from there to Okinawa, where he met with military personnel at Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, as well as members of All Souls Anglican Episcopal Church. The stop in Japan offered a meaningful connection between church leaders and U.S. military members serving overseas, Ritonia said in a written statement to Episcopal News Service. “In a place quite far from home, to know that the church was praying and cared about them was a tangible sign they were loved and valued,” Ritonia said. “The commanding officer, an Episcopal high school graduate, shared how much he appreciated the visit and prayers and emphasized the vital role of chaplains towards morale and mission readiness.” The Episcopal Church’s military chaplaincies date to the early years of the republic, when the Rev. John Hurt became the first chaplain of the U.S. Army on March 4, 1791. (He previously served with the Continental Army beginning in 1776.) Research by the Rev. Maurice Dyer II, the church’s current Armed Forces and Federal Ministries canon, highlights other firsts in church chaplaincy history. For example, the Rev. Alexander McFarland was the first Episcopal chaplain in the Navy starting in 1802. The Rev. Adam Empie was appointed the first chaplain of West Point in 1813, and the Rev. George Jones joined the Naval Academy’s founding faculty in 1845 and became its first chaplain following the academy’s reorganization in 1850. And in 1991, the Rev. Susan Carney became the Naval Academy’s first woman chaplain. She was the first woman chaplain to serve aboard a Navy warship and to go to war in 1993, during the Persian Gulf War. This year, the church’s Veterans Day Evensong is also part of an effort to raise awareness of a growing churchwide network of veterans and Episcopalians interested in supporting veterans. Armed Forces and Federal Ministries invites Episcopalians to complete a brief survey to help the office strengthen its work with veterans and people considering calls to chaplaincy. The 81st General Convention passed a resolution in 2024 to “acknowledge and recognize the burgeoning Episcopal Veterans Network.” It encouraged dioceses and congregations “to become familiar with the Episcopal Veterans Network and its resources, and to encourage other veterans’ ministries to join the network in order to better serve the veterans in their communities,” and it suggested that congregations highlight the church’s work on behalf of veterans during services on Veterans Day or the closest Sunday to Veterans Day.

Across the 2026 midterm elections, members of the United Church of Christ showed up in faithful witness and action. From the webinars and toolkits that prepared congregations to the poll workers inside polling places and the chaplains outside them, UCC…

The post Showing up for Democracy: UCC members serve as chaplains, poll workers for midterm elections  appeared first on United Church of Christ.

With Advent 2026 nearing, a collection of new United Church of Christ devotional and worship materials are drawing together the prophetic visions of the Advent scriptures with the hopes and yearnings of today. Below, find resources — some available in…

The post Advent 2026 resources offer ways to ‘reclaim the radical and revolutionary reality of the Incarnation’ appeared first on United Church of Christ.

For 80 years, Church World Service has worked toward a world in which all people have food, voice and a safe place to call home. As a faith-based, humanitarian organization, CWS represents approximately 17 million people of faith across 16 Covenant Members and denominations. CWS’ mission to welcome newcomers, alongside our legal and policy expertise and extensive programmatic services, informs ...

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The post Refugee and Immigrant Priorities for the 120th Congress appeared first on CWS.

Sitting on the Rev. Jessica Derise’s bookshelf is a copy of Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience.” In the 1849 essay, published in part to protest the Mexican-American war, Thoreau calls for readers to “let your life be a counter friction…

The post After the arrest and arraignment: A Vermont pastor’s conviction that civil disobedience is a sacred call appeared first on United Church of Christ.

The World Council of Churches' Commission on Young People in the Ecumenical Movement, during its meeting in Ghana, elected a new vice moderator, Mawuli Assimadi, from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Togo. 

St. John United Church of Christ in Manchester, Missouri dedicated three new headstones honoring early church members who were also Civil War veterans on October 4 this year. Judy Lindquist, church historian on the cemetery board, said that 12 Civil…

The post Missouri UCC Church Honors Civil War Veterans in Special Dedication Ceremony appeared first on United Church of Christ.

A group of pastors from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Württemberg, Germany visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Ecumenical Institute at Bossey.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is taking part in COP31, the 31st UN climate conference, in Antalya, Türkiye. It works there alongside the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of churches and agencies engaged in development, humanitarian assistance, and advocacy. Takeshi Komino of Church World Service, a member of the ACT Alliance delegation, says that churches bring to the negotiations knowledge of how to turn climate money into climate resilience in communities. The WCC spoke with him about disasters, the work of churches, and why local voices belong in international climate talks.

Natallia Vasilevich has joined the Conference of European Churches (CEC) as programme officer for research on peace politics and ethics in Europe. She will serve for one year from November 2026, strengthening CEC’s work for a just peace in Ukraine. She is a member of the World Council of Churches' Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation.