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(Bishop Michael Johnson speaking at the 2024 Eastern District Synod) The watchword for the week:  God, turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your custom toward those who love your name. Psalm 119:132 Gracious God, we adore your saving name. We give thanks that grace is at the center of your way. […]

As an ecumenical solidarity visit to Zimbabwe drew to a close, a delegation led by World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay reiterated the importance of human rights, Christian unity, and the work and witness of churches. 

Materials for the North America-Turtle Island Regional Ecumenical Theological Institute are ready for the gathering, which will convene in Detroit and Toronto 3-16 August under the theme “Where Now for Visible Justice?”

[Religion News Service] A group of religious leaders gathered July 22 at the Texas State Capitol to condemn recent immigration enforcement-related deaths in Texas, Maine and Florida and to demand that federal immigration agents end what one pastor called a “terror campaign” against migrants. “We grieve every death, every act of violence and every enforcement practice that unnecessarily endangers human life or diminishes the God-given dignity of our immigrant neighbors,” said Bishop Sue Briner of the Southwestern Texas Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “When fear begins to shape the daily lives of our neighbors, it is time for the church to show up.” The news conference inside the capitol brought together about two dozen leaders from the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, the South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ, the National Council of Jewish Women and other faith-related groups. Texas Impact, an interfaith grassroots advocacy network, organized the event in response to the July 7 fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Houston. The religious leaders condemned deportations, detention centers and enforcement-related deaths involving ICE amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Federal agents who determine that their actions have been immoral should “resign and find other work,” said the Rev. Jim Harrington of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Austin, where he works with immigrants, and who is also a lawyer who founded the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Following orders is never a justification in the Christian tradition — nor in international law — to perpetuate evil,” Harrington said. Read the full story here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] Indigenous Anglicans from four provinces of the Anglican Communion, including The Episcopal Church, have issued a joint statement of support for the Episcopal Church in Navajoland, after the missionary diocese’s postponement of the election of its first bishop diocesan. The postponement was announced on 11 June. The statement is signed by the Most Rev. Don Tamihere, archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia; the Most Rev. Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto, archbishop and primate of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil and bishop of Amazonia; the Most Rev. Chris Harper, national Indigenous Anglican archbishop and presiding elder of Sacred Circle in the Anglican Church of Canada; and the Rt. Rev. Daniel Gutiérrez, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. The signatories write that they have followed Navajoland’s journey towards self-determination with “prayer, aroha and thanksgiving” and that they walk with their Diné family “not as distant observers, but as relatives” bound “by faith, by kinship and by a shared history of colonization.” They share “the surprise and disappointment expressed by many at the postponement, for a second time, of the election of Navajoland’s first bishop diocesan. We know this must have been a deeply sacrificial and difficult decision.” Read the full story here. More on the Navajoland leadership transition can be found here.

[Episcopal News Service] Dancing is mentioned dozens of times in the Bible, often as a means of worship and praising God. That’s especially the case for the Rev. Julie Hoplamazian, a former ballet instructor who now serves as associate rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in New York, New York. Her passion for ballet and serving God inspired her to establish Faith on Pointe, a virtual beginner-friendly class that teaches topics on faith and spirituality using ballet techniques. “As Christians, our theology really undergirds the importance of our bodies as epistemological instruments, especially knowing that God is a creator, and we are creative beings and creative movement is part of our divine imprint,” Hoplamazian, who began studying ballet when she was 3 years old, told Episcopal News Service. “Unborn babies kick in the womb, and toddlers instinctively jump up and down or wave their arms when they get excited. Basically, we are meant to move. It’s how we were created by God.” Before she founded Faith on Pointe in 2020, shortly after COVID-19 lockdowns began, Hoplamazian taught community ballet classes in person at St. Michael’s. She’d also preached a sermon series called “Raising the Barre: Faith Lessons from the Ballet Studio.” Outside of Faith on Pointe, Hoplamazian runs workshops on faith and ballet, including recently at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in New York. Drop-in Faith on Pointe classes are held Tuesday evenings and Friday afternoons via Zoom and are open to people of all faith backgrounds. Ballet slippers, leotards, tights and tutus aren’t required. The class is primarily barre work – using a chair or table at home as a stationary handrail for exercises – and some center work with no handrail support. The Zoom opens 10 minutes early for check-in and socializing. Hoplamazian also occasionally runs a more in-depth six-week, 90-minute course called “The Prayerful Plié: Spiritual Direction through Ballet.” The program is open to everybody and “every body.” Hoplamazian adapts ballet techniques for anyone who needs physical accommodations. Today, students drop in once or twice a week from throughout the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Each month focuses on a different theme, such as grace and peace. Hoplamazian offers reflections, reads Scripture and plays music pertaining to the month’s theme. On days Hoplamazian isn’t able to teach, the Rev. Jocelynn Hughes, a supply Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Northern California, will substitute. Hughes taught classes when she was an apprentice at the Sacramento Ballet, before she went to seminary. When she’s not subbing for Hoplamazian, Hughes joins as a student for both sessions. “I think one of the upsides to the way we’re doing this class is people can go at their own pace, so everyone has a chance to come at it in a different, spiritual way,” Hughes told ENS. “There’s no judgment or expectation, which is really countercultural in the ballet world because it’s very regimented with lots of expectations for dress and how you comport yourself. Taking that aspect of the ballet world off is, at least for me, really liberating.” Attending these one-hour lessons gives Sr. Sarah Margaret, an Episcopal nun who serves as director of associates for the Society of St. Margaret in Duxbury, Massachusetts, new perspectives on these topics. “Every week, Faith on Pointe sends me off with something new to consider – something more to pray about,” Margaret told ENS. “The world’s been dealing with so many unfortunate situations over the last few years. Julie’s helped us focus our praying through some of it by pulling in some music that’s not typically used for ballet, but we can still dance to, and other ways, too.” Margaret and several other students have been a part of the Tuesday evening group since its inception. The timing of Faith on Pointe’s establishment was “perfect” for the Rev. Eliza Tweedy, a United Church of Christ pastor who leads the Congregational Church of Laconia in Laconia, New Hampshire, and the virtual Living Mosaic Church for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people. Tweedy, who like Hoplamazian, Hughes and Margaret, also took ballet lessons as a child, was looking for a way to stay in shape and be part of faith-based communities while in quarantine. “Much of modern Western Christianity, especially mainline Protestant Christianity, we aren’t very good at considering faith as an embodied practice,” Tweedy told ENS. “If we call ourselves the body of Christ, then we can’t think that faith is just something we have in our heads. …And that’s what’s great about Faith on Pointe. You don’t need to have the stereotypical ballerina body to benefit from it physically or spiritually.” Over the last six years, Faith on Pointe has given the students and Hoplamazian an extra benefit: lifelong friendships. Several of them have met in person outside of class, including Margaret and Tweedy, who connected last year outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hoplamazian and Hughes met for the first time last week in Sacramento. These friendships are not just rooted in faith and ballet, but a shared love for Hoplamazian. When Hoplamazian was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, the students secretly collaborated to help make errands easier for her. They collected DoorDash gift cards to pay for meal and grocery deliveries. Students living in Manhattan and St. Michael’s parishioners volunteered to accompany Hoplamazian to her medical appointments. Tweedy handknit Hoplamazian a “knitted knocker,” a soft prosthetic for people who’ve had a mastectomy or lumpectomy. The biggest surprise for Hoplamazian, though, was a custom handmade quilt depicting her “favorite things,” including The Episcopal Church’s shield, animals, music notes and, of course, ballet and the Faith on Pointe logo. Students mailed fabric squares to Margaret, who sewed and stitched quotes from Scripture into the quilt. Hoplamazian received the quilt after finishing chemotherapy. Hoplamazian described her gift as “the most thoughtful, beautiful quilt I’ve ever seen.” “It’s the most incredible gift I’ve ever received in my life. It captures everything about me. I cried […]

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, with other churches and individuals across the world, are calling for the release of Natalie Abudayyeh, a 21-year-old university student who has now been held in Israeli prison for nearly two months. 

More than 600 households now have access to clean water through a project funded by the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

A few weeks into the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, Bishop C. Dale White of New Jersey joined a small delegation of religious leaders headed to Iran in hopes of fostering dialogue.

Retired Northern Illinois Conference elder reflects on his early experiences in the church and the relationships he built with United Methodist leaders during his years of ministry.