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<article class="media media--image display--large"> <div class="image-container"> <div class="field field-media-image"> <img loading="eager" width="430" height="323" alt="" class="lazyload" data-src="/sites/default/files/styles/default_mobile/public/2023-11/CRC%20Logo.jpg?itok=hqUY2pIn" /> </div> </div> </article> <br /> Senior CRCNA leaders respond to a letter from members concerned about the actions of the U.S. government administration.

[Diocese of Los Angeles] For 12-year-old Messiah, the 45-mile trip from Hesperia to St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Claremont, California, for a March 23 iftar was all about doing what God wants: “If we love God, we love people. “This is about having friends, being with family, here from a lot of places. It isn’t just about getting food,” the middle school student told the multi-faith group who gathered to observe the Muslim tradition of breaking the Ramadan fast at sunset. “It’s about basically being at peace with God,” he said, amid enthusiastic applause. Atilla Kahveci, vice president of the Pacifica Institute, an organizer of the gathering, explained that during Ramadan, a holy month of fasting, worship and community, Muslims “don’t eat or drink anything in the daytime. Then we gather to break the fast at an iftar, a community meal. We are here because we believe when the blessings are shared, it doubles, triples and quadruples.” Headquartered in Lake Forest in Orange County, the nonprofit Pacifica Institute is an Islamic organization dedicated to promoting social justice, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, peacebuilding and conflict resolution. The Rev. Jessie Turnier, St. Ambrose’s rector, who welcomed about 70 Christian, Muslim and Jewish guests, said the event grew out of the church’s interfaith partnerships, and called the iftar “a beautiful way of loving one another.” The evening began with the invitation to break the day’s fast by eating dates, an Islamic tradition emulating the example of the Prophet Muhammad. Following the call to prayer, guests were invited to a buffet-style potluck meal of salads, chicken quinoa soup, chili, eggplant moussaka, Halal meat and almond rice, cornbread, baklava, and pide, a traditional round Turkish bread topped with sesame seeds. Marianne Cordova, an associate minister at the Claremont Center for Spiritual Living and a member of the Claremont Interfaith Council, said she drew strength from the gathering. “We’re all one. We’ve got to practice what we believe, I believe that. There is strength in coming together and understanding each other.” Making connections and deepening interfaith understandings drew Zaw Lin Soe to the gathering. After moving to Claremont from Myanmar three years ago, “I have questions about other religions,” he said. “It is good to build relationships in this way.” Similarly, Moli Torres, a parishioner at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, California, said joining the multicultural, multiethnic event “was like taking a mini-trip around the world. If we all believe we are all made in the image of God, what a beautiful image we are.” The Rev. Paul Colbert said hearing once again the call to prayer, reminded him of his former experiences in Sudan and Yemen; “So thank you for that. “We’re all here as those on the path seeking the divine and we all have different ways of approaching that, different disciplines,” Colbert said. “It’s a joy to be with others on the road seeking the divine presence in our midst.” Tamara, a member of St. Ambrose, said the gathering helped offset “the climate in our world right now, so based on fear. I feel that things like this dissuade that fear. I feel very blessed to be in the presence of all of you.” A passion for interfaith engagement inspired Paul Knopf to join the gathering and is motivating him to pursue similar connections on a more personal level, he said. “I’m very thankful for tonight. At our table, we have people from all over the world, breaking bread together, speaking with one another. It’s a picture of what we can do in our regular lives. “We’re all blessed to live in Southern California, with so much diversity all around us,” he added. “We can engage and connect. This is motivational for me to reach out to others that don’t come from the same background. This is a blessing for my family’s life and so many others.” The Rev. Tom Johnson, retired Claremont School of Theology professor and retired pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Covina, California, also addressed the gathering, noting that eating together, sharing stories and traditions helps to build bridges and community and to reduce stereotypes about one another. “It’s a powerful experience, a wonderful thing, to come together like this and to affirm that although we come from different backgrounds, different traditions, we have common desires,” he said. “Diversity, equality and inclusiveness is a wonderful thing.”

Katie Reimer, executive director of the World Day of Prayer International Committee, visited the World Council of Churches (WCC) on 25-26 March to learn more about WCC Communications, library and archives, Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, and the Just Community of Women and Men programme. 

Faith-based organizations and economic justice advocates from around the world have gathered in Geneva for the sixth meeting of the Ecumenical Panel on a New International Financial and Economic Architecture (NIFEA). Hosted March 25-27, 2025, the event brings together key ecumenical bodies, including the World Council of Churches (WCC), World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), […]

The post 6th Meeting of the Ecumenical Panel on NIFEA Convenes in Geneva to Demand Systemic Change Ahead of UN Conference appeared first on WCRC.

Rev. Peter Adewale Adenekan, from Nigeria, is a master's student at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey. He is focusing his research on the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development. He reflects on what led him on this unique scholarly path, and his hopes for change. 

There will be a three-month grace period for organisations to become compliant

Louise Green

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Read an excerpt from Rev. Louise Green’s sermon “The Ecosystem of Congregational Care.”

An interfaith prayer vigil on the evening of Thursday, April 3, at 6:30 p.m. (Eastern time) held both in-person at National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., (5 Thomas Circle NW) and online via live-stream will support a court hearing in the sensitive locations lawsuit.

[Church of England] Acting to prevent global warming and biodiversity loss is the “right thing to do” and a sign of Christian compassion for those who are suffering as a result of the climate crisis, the Church of England’s lead bishop for the environment said on March 25. Speaking to a gathering of Church of England diocesan representatives, Norwich Bishop Graham Usher thanked parishes and staff for their “hard work and commitment” toward making churches net zero by 2030 and their support for churchyards to become havens for biodiversity. Both aims have been backed by the General Synod. He said the Net Zero program is already building up a “huge impetus,” resulting in savings on energy bills for churches and helping make many churches sustainable into the future. Acting to tackle climate change is the “right thing to do,” he told the gathering at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, attended by 120 diocesan environment and Net Zero officers as well as ecumenical representatives. “There is a link here through compassion with Anglicans – with all people around the world, many of whom are on the frontline of climate change and biodiversity loss,” he said. “If we truly believe that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, we should have a concern and a compassion for where biodiversity and climate change loss is impacting people’s lives.” During his speech, Usher highlighted the achievements of the Church of England’s Net Zero program. He spoke of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, a “demonstrator” church leading the way for other churches in energy efficiency, and the example of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, where solar panels have been installed. He said that changes available to churches could range from solar panels to low cost features  such as LED lighting, both of which could make “all the difference” to a church’s carbon footprint, whether rural or urban. Usher told the conference of his experience as part of the Anglican delegation to the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference last year in Cali, Colombia. He warned of the need to keep up pressure on governments on meeting the goals to halt climate change and biodiversity loss.“Climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin,” he said. “COP16 came over very loud and clear to me of the need to hold these together. Investment in conservation and restoration and environmental protection are futile if we are going be doing nothing around climate change.” The meeting also heard from Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley, director of innovation and impact at the British Antarctic Survey, on the extent of the climate change emergency, focusing on the impact of climate change in the polar regions. In a vote last year, the General Synod backed a series of measures to promote biodiversity on Church of England land from churchyards as havens of wildlife and plants to the stewardship of agricultural and forestry land. The General Synod endorsed a plan to reach net zero carbon by 2030 at its July session in 2022. The Net Zero program’s first impact report can be read here.

[Episcopal News Service] Parishioners at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Homestead, Florida, again this year can experience the events of Holy Week represented in dioramas on display in the church’s narthex. They include figures of Jesus, his disciples, Roman guards, onlookers, others and animals involved in the events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus carrying the cross. They end with the Crucifixion and Jesus’ Resurrection. The dioramas – models that use three-dimensional figures to depict a scene – all are the work of Ahmed Otero, a parishioner who also is the church’s senior warden. There are 10 scenes of Holy Week events in all, as well as a model of the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem. While five of his scenes overlap with the Stations of the Cross – a typical Lenten devotion depicting a series of usually 14 scenes representing the stages of Christ’s Passion and death – the others take place either before or after those depicted in the stations, he told Episcopal News Service. All of Otero’s scenes spring from his love of the Christmas Nativity sets, sometimes called a crèche, that he saw as a child at the Roman Catholic church he attended with his grandmother in Cuba. “We had a different Nativity each year,” he said. “It was always kind of mysterious and interesting.” He started annually displaying one of his several nativity sets at St. John’s four years ago. But after packing one away in 2022, he decided he wanted to create something similar for Lent that depicted the events leading up to Easter. In 2024, he displayed the Holy Week dioramas for the first time. The human figures are about 10 inches tall, Otero said, and he owns them all, including many he has collected since childhood and some that he bought in Europe. He makes the scenery from cardboard boxes and Styrofoam containers, and he buys items at dollar stores that he can transform into parts of the scene. When the dioramas debuted last year, they were displayed on one long table in the narthex. This year, he placed scenes on individual tables, beginning with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and ending with the Resurrection, to make the display more interactive. “It’s like a pilgrimage, as people start walking around each one,” Otero said. “It’s a whole journey.” The scenes are important to him because, he said, the nativity sets he saw as a child helped shape his faith and a lingering sense that he was called to be a priest. (He is now in the first phase of the ordination discernment process in the Episcopal Church in Southeast Florida.) He makes sure students at the church’s school also have the chance to experience them. “The kids are being touched by these dioramas, too,” he said. “I’m wondering whether one of them in the future will become a priest or a lay leader – you never know.” But it’s not just children who are benefiting from seeing the events of Holy Week depicted in Otero’s scenes. He said adult congregants have told him they have found them useful in recalling Holy Week events. He likened the scenes to stained-glass windows in medieval cathedrals that helped people understand and better remember the stories of the Bible. He admitted that doing both Holy Week and Christmas scenes is a lot of work, but he does get help from his wife. She comes in after he has set everything up and makes any small adjustments that are needed, he said, and she helps tackle one of the bigger jobs – cleaning up afterward. He also would like to get some of the students at the school involved, including teaching them how to craft scenery, making it a team effort. “We want people to get involved,” he said. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.