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Tuesday, 8 April, 7pm – 9pm, Windsor Baptist Church, Belfast

Iranian Christian Bahar Shahabi shares her experience of Ramadan and suggests ways we can pray for our Muslim friends at this time

Transfiguration Sunday Mountains to Valleys There’s something about the mountains that stirs the soul. For the Israelites, mountaintop experiences often reflected an encounter with God. This seems the case for Jesus as his clothes become dazzling white and, as at his baptism, a voice from the clouds calls him “Son,” “Chosen.” There is broader meaning […]

The Nominating Committee of the Standing Committee of district delegates to the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference is presenting the following ballot for the 2025 Conference taking place in Greensboro, N.C., on July 2-6.

As Br Matthew, prior of the Taizé Community, and seven other Taizé brothers visited Geneva, they returned to some of their community’s early roots. 

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Cuba on Feb. 28 elected the Rev. Angel Rivera, a priest from Puerto Rico, as its next bishop, marking a significant step toward self-determination as a diocese of The Episcopal Church. Rivera’s election on the first ballot was the first time the diocese has elected its own leader since Cuba’s return to The Episcopal Church was finalized in 2020, and he is poised to become the first Cuban bishop in more than four decades to be chosen by election rather than appointment. Rivera is rector of Parroquia Ayudada San José in the Rio Piedras district of San Juan. He won the bishop election on the first ballot, with 12 of 22 votes in the clergy and 28 of 43 votes in the lay order. The other nominees were the Rev. Aurelio Bernabé de la Paz Cot and the Rev. Halbert Pons Santana, both from Cuba. Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado has served Cuba as bishop provisional since June 2023 following the resignation of former Cuba Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio. She had served as bishop diocesan since 2010, including during the diocese’s reunification with The Episcopal Church. Anglican presence on the island dates to 1871. The church became a missionary district of The Episcopal Church in 1901, but the two churches separated in the 1960s, after Fidel Castro seized power and diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States disintegrated. For much of that time, Cuban bishops were appointed by a church body known as the Metropolitan Council of Cuba, which allowed the diocese to remain connected to the wider Anglican Communion. The reunification of the church in Cuba with The Episcopal Church was finalized in 2020, after five years of efforts that included approval by the 79th General Convention in 2018. It is now part of the church’s Province II, which also includes the Diocese of Puerto Rico. Rivera will be consecrated as bishop of Cuba after the diocese receives the necessary consents from a churchwide majority of bishops with jurisdiction and standing committees.

Remember that we are all called to leadership, to give our level best and be all that to which we were called and for which we were created—to serve, forgive, love, lift up and enable the other before us.

The post A prayer for those called to be our leaders appeared first on The Anglican Church of Canada.

Hunsam Lee, new general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, and Dr Sungkook Park, from the Ecumenical Department of the church, met with Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and Dr Manoj Kurian, director of the WCC Commission of the Churches on Health and Healing, at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. 

[Episcopal News Service] The Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, now offers children with sensory sensitivities a special place where they can take a break, relax and regroup. And for one young member, his parents say, the room makes his time at church much more comfortable – even enjoyable. The church’s Christian formation director, Emily Cantrell, told Episcopal News Service that the sensory room – previously an unused classroom – was designed in consultation with a local nonprofit with expertise in helping children with sense sensitivity – sight, touch, hearing. Sometimes called sensory processing disorder, it can occur in children and adults who have autism spectrum or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder – or it can occur on its own. They also met with parents of children who might make use of the room to determine what they needed. They realized the need for such a space after hosting two years of special sensory-specific Christmas events, which prompted Cantrell and others to wonder what they would need to make a permanent sensory room possible. Last September, they had outfitted the room in the church’s Sunday school wing and opened it for use. Fluorescent bulbs are covered to make the lighting softer, and on the walls are colorful light-up LED touchpads and several activity boards. Sensory stepping-stone tiles are on the floor. Furniture includes a couch and an enclosed swinging chair, along with a small trampoline. There is a kinetic sand station, and soft toys are placed around the room. For Peyton and Caleb Jordan, the room has been a blessing for their 7-year-old son. Caleb Jordan told ENS that he himself, their son and their 12-year-old daughter have autism, and their son has taken advantage of the sensory room. He “sometimes struggles to cope” with lots of light and sound and can get overwhelmed quickly, Caleb Jordan said. For him, the new space has been “wonderful.” In the past, “it used to be a little difficult to get him to go to church, and now he’s a lot more revved about it,” Caleb Jordan said. He and his children all have difficulty when surrounded by too much sensory stimulation, he said. While their daughter can calm herself more easily, their son gets quickly overwhelmed. “He needs silence and sometimes to just sit in the corner with the light off to reset,” he said, which he can do in the sensory room. He enjoys playing with the kinetic sand table, where he can run his hands through the sand and find small toys in it. “It’s very soothing to him,” Caleb Jordan said. Caleb Jordan described the type of autism he and his children have as all their senses operating constantly at full speed. “We take in too much information, information we don’t need, so we become overstimulated. But when we get to focus on just one sense, like playing with a squishy toy, that really soothes and calms us down.” While Caleb brings earplugs for himself and both children – they love the organ but sometimes find it too loud – he is delighted that Church of the Nativity also makes them available. It’s just another example of the church taking the initiative to be more inclusive, “and especially for those of us with maybe invisible disabilities that people don’t realize we have,” he said. It isn’t easy to make Nativity – an historic building in downtown Huntsville – fully accessible, but Cantrell said she and other church leaders are committed to doing everything they can. Outfitting the sensory room cost around $2,000, she said, which came out of the church’s budget. She noted that the room is staffed with specially trained behavior therapy technicians, hired by the church. Registration is required to use the room – which has capacity for five children – so the technicians can meet the needs of each child. So far, they’ve never had five at one time. The Jordans are relatively new members of Nativity, having first attended on Easter three years ago. Both Peyton and Caleb grew up in Baptist churches, she said, but found themselves no longer in agreement with that church’s teaching about the role of women. They struggled to find a church where they could belong. When they searched online for churches that aligned with their current inclusive beliefs, Nativity was at the top of the list. During their first visit, “we loved it immediately,” Peyton Jordan said. It did take them a while to get used to all the liturgical traditions, but once they did, she described the service as “brilliant” and “incredible.” The addition of the sensory room only made them love the church more. Caleb Jordan said the room also is a tool for evangelism. “If word got out that we had a sensory room, that we were making accommodations for people, I do believe more people would come to church.” Cantrell said she is glad the church can offer a new, safe space for children who need it, not only during church services but for other events that take place there. Another downtown church has contacted her to learn more about their sensory room. “Even if [a church] makes small steps or doesn’t have much space, I think it’s all in the right direction” toward greater accessibility and inclusivity, she said. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.