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Second Sunday in Lent Jesus’ Grieving and Ours Even Jesus did not have a life free from grief or sadness. Along with the Old Testament prophets, in whose footsteps he walked, his wisdom in evaluating the current state of affairs brought him sadness, and his knowledge of the consequences of human actions caused him grief. […]

The Rev. João Sambo, an elder in Mozambique, was elected a United Methodist bishop on the 14th ballot at the Africa Central Conference.

The pastor in Zimbabwe was elected a United Methodist bishop on the 12th ballot at the Africa Central Conference.

The pastor from Angola was elected a United Methodist bishop on the ninth ballot of the Africa Central Conference.

The dean of superintendents and speaker of the Senate in Burundi was elected a United Methodist bishop on the first ballot at the Africa Central Conference.

March 17, 2025 marks the 45th anniversary of the day President Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980, enshrining in law a framework for refugee resettlement and the protection of asylum seekers. The Trump administration’s indefinite pause on refugee resettlement and freeze on reimbursements to refugee service providers remain largely in place, and access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico ... Read More

[Episcopal News Service] As part of its ongoing commitment to racial reconciliation and education work, 46 people from the Charleston-based Diocese of South Carolina last week embarked on a racial justice pilgrimage to civil rights landmarks, museums and memorials in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama. Downtown Charleston’s three historically Black parishes – Calvary Episcopal Church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Church, known collectively as the Three Churches United – led the March 6-10 diocesan pilgrimage, which commemorated the 60th anniversary of the three 54-mile Selma to Montgomery marches organized by civil rights activists to demand that voting rights be granted to Black Americans. “These activists knew in the recesses of their hearts and their souls that what they were doing was right, and the way that they were being treated was wrong, especially with the right to vote,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “The powers that be at the time knew that if voting was accessible to Black folk, then the whole mindset of Jim Crow and racism and segregation were imminently going to be threatened.” The first march, which took place on March 7, 1965, is known today as “Bloody Sunday” because Alabama state troopers assaulted more than 600 nonviolent civil rights marchers, led by John Lewis, as they were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Two days later, Martin Luther King Jr. led 2,500 marchers over the bridge and said a brief prayer before turning everyone around because of a court order preventing them from making the full march. Later that night, three white Unitarian Universalist ministers who were in town for the march were attacked by Ku Klux Klan members, who killed the Rev. James Reeb. On March 21, nearly 8,000 people gathered at the historic Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma to march to Montgomery after U.S. district judge Frank Minis Johnson ruled in favor of their right to protest. The final march concluded on March 25 with 25,000 people gathering on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, where King delivered his “How Long, Not Long” speech. The marches led to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. “What many people fail to realize is that the crux of the Civil Rights Movement – with the loss of lives, the marches, the violence, all of it – really existed around the whole aspect of the right to vote,” Bailey said. “When you’re able to vote, you’re able to vote for people who you entrust with governance over you … You are able to vote people into office who can help to enact, as well as legislate, just laws.” The Rev. Laura Rezac, executive director of Camp St. Christopher in Seabrook Island, with support from the Three Churches United and South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, organized the diocesan pilgrimage, which began in Atlanta at the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing and the Martin Luther King Jr. Center of Nonviolent Social Change. From there, the pilgrims – most of whom were parishioners of the Three Churches United – drove together to Montgomery to visit the Legacy Museum – From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration; the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, informally known as the National Lynching Memorial; and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. “The itinerary and the daily devotions selected for prayer and reflection while on the pilgrimage – everything was chosen with purpose and intention,” Rezac told ENS. “How people choose to act on the experiences they had moving forward in the weeks and months to come will indicate the program’s success. I believe that this group of people will listen to how the Holy Spirit is telling them to use that work in our context here in Charleston.” On March 9, before joining thousands of other people who were also in town to commemorate the Selma to Montgomery marches and Bloody Sunday, the South Carolina pilgrims gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church to listen to Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and founder and executive director of the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative, preach. The Equal Justice Initiative provides legal representation to incarcerated people who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, low-income people, and people who may have been denied a fair trial. It also founded the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. “He reminded us that it’s kind of become a theme that grace and mercy seem to have been put on trial recently by many of our politicians and judges, and we the church need to do more to follow our scriptural mandate and act justly in love and mercy and walk humbly with God,” the Rev. Michael Shaffer, interim rector of St. Mark’s, told ENS. “Hearing that before going outside to walk across the [Edmund Pettus] Bridge, I felt like we were living into our calling as disciples of Christ.” While marching across the 1,248-foot bridge, the South Carolina pilgrims unexpectedly ran into the 56 pilgrims from the Detroit-based Diocese of Michigan. Bishop Bonnie Perry was part of the group. Woodliff-Stanley, a descendant of slaveholders who lived in Charleston, told ENS that she thought about the courage of people who didn’t let Bloody Sunday stop them from committing their fight for Black Americans’ right to vote. She also said that the interactive Legacy Museum left a large impression on her, making her reflect on U.S. history. “This country sits on top the displacement of Indigenous people, and on top of that is the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trade, and all the wealth and prosperity that was made started with the watery graves of the enslaved Africans [during the Middle Passage],” Woodliff-Stanley said. “Now, there’s an attempt to erase our story of race in America from school curricula … it makes really clear the work before us now, in both reading and seeing these historic sites in person.” Throughout […]

[Episcopal News Service] The Most Rev. Nestor Dagas Poltic Sr. was installed March 12 as the eighth prime bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John in Quezon City, succeeding retired Prime Bishop Brent Harry Alawas. Poltic, 57, was previously the bishop of the Diocese of the North Central Philippines, based in Baguio City in the Benguet Province. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1992 and to the priesthood in 1993. Poltic was elected prime bishop in May 2024 during the church’s synod at the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John. Special guests from Anglican provinces throughout Asia and the Pacific and elsewhere were in attendance, including from Lambeth Palace and the Anglican Communion Office. Hawai‘i Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick, and the Rev. Bruce Woodcock, partnership officer for Asia and the Pacific, and the Rev. Charles Robertson, canon and senior advisor to Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, who preached during Poltic’s installation, represented The Episcopal Church.  “Prime Bishop-elect, you and your fellow bishops are called to be shepherds of the flock, as Jesus describes in John’s Gospel. And perhaps even more importantly, you are called to be models to the rest of us of what good shepherds are. Because all of us here today – bishops, priests, deacons and lay people – all of us are both sheep and shepherds,” Robertson said during his sermon. “All of us go forth from here to be shepherds to the many around us who sometimes don’t even know what they so desperately need.” Fitzpatrick read a letter written by Rowe addressed to the new prime bishop during a reception. “Building upon the longstanding and strong relationship with the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, together we can face challenges and embrace our partnership efforts within Anglican Communion,” Rowe wrote in the letter. “By the Grace of God and sustained efforts on this journey, the relationship between our church members will continue to be strengthened well into the future. At the same time, I trust we can discover new and deeper ways for us to partner in God’s mission of healing in a broken world.” The Episcopal Church in the Philippines began as a missionary district of The Episcopal Church in 1901 and later consecrated its first Filipino bishop in 1967. It became an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion in 1990. Today, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines has seven dioceses and approximately 125,000 members. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

The 35th General Synod of the United Church of Christ, which will take place July 11-15 in Kansas City, Missouri, will consider and vote on several sets of proposed amendments to the UCC Constitution and Bylaws. The UCC Board is…

The post Changes to UCC’s Constitution and Bylaws to be considered by General Synod 35 appeared first on United Church of Christ.

United Women in Faith kicked off plans for Assembly 2026 in Indianapolis and heard the call to act now for racial justice.