Latest News

[Diocese of Alabama] The Diocese of Alabama ordained and consecrated the Rt. Rev. Richard T. Lawson III as its 13th bishop on June 27 at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham. Lawson succeeds the Rt. Rev. Glenda S. Curry. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe served as chief consecrator. Co-consecrators included Curry, the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley Jr., 10th bishop of Alabama; the Rt. Rev. John McKee Sloan, 11th bishop of Alabama; West Tennessee Bishop Phoebe Roaf; Louisiana Bishop Shannon Duckworth; and the Rev. Kevin Strickland, bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Duckworth preached. Ahead of the consecration, Lawson shared, “I am overjoyed to be called to serve alongside you. After every baptism, the priest says, ‘You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.’ If you are longing for this kind of love and a spiritual home, I invite you to visit one of the 86 parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.” Lawson was elected bishop on the first ballot during a special electing convention held Jan. 31 at the Cathedral Church of the Advent. Prior to his election, Lawson served as dean and rector of St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, Colorado. Before moving to Colorado, he served as rector of Grace–St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and School in Memphis, Tennessee. He also served as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Decatur, Alabama. A native of Guntersville, Alabama, Lawson has served as a priest since 2001. Throughout his ministry, he has been recognized for his commitment to parish vitality, pastoral leadership and the proclamation of the Gospel. He earned a Master of Divinity from General Theological Seminary and a Master of Sacred Theology from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Lawson is married to Katherine, a Birmingham native, and they have two adult children. As bishop of Alabama, Lawson will provide pastoral and episcopal leadership to 86 parishes, two worshiping communities and eight college ministries across seven convocations that serve more than 29,000 baptized members throughout the diocese.

Angelo Mante was a graduate student in Atlanta when he received a predawn phone call on Sept. 13, 2016. It changed everything. He received the news that his first cousin Nick had been violently killed in Fort Wayne.

Eder Financial had big news for the delegates this year as they described the background of the decision and the process for moving employee retirement and organizational investing services to Everence Financial.

Two adjustments to the 2014 Ministry Leadership paper that governs credentialing of ministerial leaders in the Church of the Brethren were approved by the delegate body on Monday, June 29. One pertains to licensed ministers and the other to commissioned ministers. As a change of polity, this item of business required and received a two-thirds majority to pass.

[Episcopal News Service – Belfast, Northern Ireland] The Episcopal Church is one of 42 member provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion. But what is the Anglican Communion, and what binds its provinces together? Those foundational questions are up for debate this week at the 19th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, and disagreements over the definition – down to specific word choices – have already created uncertainty about how the ACC might reach consensus on a resolution that could bring significant structural changes to the communion. The potential changes, known as the Nairobi-Cairo proposals, are scheduled for more discussion time than any other issue or resolution at ACC-19’s June 28-July 4 meeting. The proposals’ central issue relates to the archbishop of Canterbury’s role as a leader of both the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. The proposals would move the communion toward a shared leadership model that could diminish the archbishop of Canterbury’s traditional and historical role as “a focus for unity” and as a link to all Anglican provinces. On June 29, the commission that developed the proposals officially presented them to ACC members, representing 37 of the communion’s autonomous, interdependent provinces. The members then engaged in table discussions on the proposals on June 30. Another discussion is set for July 2 before scheduled votes on the final day of the meeting. “We want to remain in communion with one another,” the Rev. Anastasia Huntley, an ACC member from the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, said during the June 30 discussion. “We are a family, and families can fight and families can have disagreements and have all those spats, but [that] doesn’t break them.” ACC members generally share the desire for the provinces to remain connected, but they have expressed a wide range of views on how best to structure those relationships. The leaders of some theologically conservative provinces, for example, have said they can no longer give deference to the archbishop of Canterbury because of the Church of England’s moves in recent years toward greater LGBTQ+ inclusion. On the other hand, leaders from other provinces, including  The Episcopal Church, have raised concerns about changing the role of the archbishop of Canterbury without thoroughly considering the potential consequences. Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, who also serves as president of ACC, alluded to those tensions in her opening day speech on June 28, emphasizing that restoring trust is a paramount goal. “What unites us is greater than what divides us,” Mullally said. “God has chosen to work through our messy body to love the world he saved. For me, that is hope. But hope cannot grow without trust.” The Anglican Consultative Council meets about every three years, bringing together up to three representatives from each of the Anglican Communion’s member provinces for a week of inter-Anglican fellowship, presentations on global Anglican initiatives and discussions and votes on a range of resolutions proposed by Anglican commissions and ACC members. The more than 100 bishops, other clergy and lay leaders form one of the four “Instruments of Communion,” a leadership structure that also includes the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, the Primates’ Meeting of provincial leaders and the office of the archbishop of Canterbury. The Episcopal Church’s representatives to ACC-19 are Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado; the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and Yvonne O’Neal, a lay leader from the Diocese of New York. ACC-19 is meeting in the Presbyterian Church’s Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in central Belfast. The theme of ACC-19 is “Called to One Hope.” “If hope is the fruit, trust is the root,” Mullally said in her opening remarks. “Lasting unity is built by trust. That is why our task this week is not simply to determine what changes we may wish to make. It is first to listen, to learn, to pray, to deepen our understanding of one another, to create the conditions in which trust may grow and hope may flourish.” Rethinking the role of the archbishop of Canterbury On June 29, leaders from the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order, or IASCUFO, introduced the Nairobi-Cairo proposals with a presentation that invoked the history of the Anglican Communion over the past century. Andrew Khoo, a commission member from the Province of South East Asia, explained that the Anglican Communion’s existing definition – some prefer the term “description” – dates to 1930, when the Lambeth Conference adopted the following language: “The Anglican Communion is a fellowship, within the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted dioceses, provinces or regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury.” ACC, at its last meeting in 2023, instructed IASCUFO “to explore theological questions regarding structure and decision-making to help address our differences in the Anglican Communion.” Khoo said the commission kept coming back to the communion’s 1930 description, but only as a starting point. “How might it need to be adjusted to describe the Anglican Communion of today?” Khoo said. “What was or what is missing from that, and what should be added or revised?” The commission’s discussions produced one proposal that would change the language that, Khoo said, currently frames the office of the archbishop of Canterbury as the provinces’ “gateway to membership” in the communion. The proposed change, rather than requiring provinces to be “in communion with” Canterbury, would affirm the provinces’ “historic connection with the See of Canterbury,” as well as their “shared inheritance, mutual service, [and] common counsel in conference.” The second principal proposal seeks to broaden the geographical diversity of Anglican Communion leadership. Under it, the Anglican Communion could empower the provincial leaders on the Primates’ Standing Committee to fulfill some global obligations that previously had fallen to the archbishop of Canterbury, such as attendance at the inauguration of a new province or the installation of a new primate. IASCUFO also initially suggested that the role of ACC president could be […]

Ethan Loewi

:

The Association reaffirmed its commitment to UUA Shared Values of pluralism, justice, and interdependence.

While grateful that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Trump’s executive order denying birthright citizenship, United Methodists also lament that the court upheld other measures targeting immigrants.

Resonate Global Mission has led several Witness Trips with groups from Canada and the United States to experience God at work in various places around the world. This past spring, ministry leaders flipped the script and welcomed a Salvadoran ministry team to the United States. A group from Semillas de Nueva Creación (“Seeds of New Creation”), a Resonate partner in El Salvador, received a warm welcome from churches and ministries in Sioux Falls, S.D. Resonate leaders have designed Witness Trips to give believers an opportunity to experience God at work in a country, culture, or context different from their own. While service projects can be a key part of Witness Trips, these trips emphasize learning from ministry leaders as they...

Ashley Nwaokolo’s life was shaped by her experience studying abroad through Trinity Christian College’s Semester in Spain program. Years later, when she learned the college in Palos Heights, Ill., would permanently close at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year, she and her husband felt compelled to use their skills to preserve the memories and meaning the campus has provided for generations of students, graduates, staff, supporters, and others. “My dad’s college shut down in the 1990s, leaving him with no physical campus to ever go back to,” she said. “I couldn’t bear the thought of that same erasure happening here.” Ashley and her husband, Shalom Nwaokolo, are the founders of Egents, a virtual-experience company launched in 2020. Six years...

Two powerful earthquakes have struck central-northern Venezuela, leaving widespread devastation and significant humanitarian needs across the region. On June 24, 2026, earthquakes measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 impacted densely populated areas including La Guaira, Caracas, Miranda, Carabobo, and Yaracuy. La Guaira has been identified as the most severely affected area, with extensive destruction reported. At least 920 people have died and more than 3,360 people have been injured, with casualty figures expected to rise as search-and-rescue operations continue. Over 214 aftershocks have been recorded, further increasing fear and instability for affected families. Critical infrastructure has been significantly disrupted, including electricity and water systems, telecommunications, public transportation such as the Caracas Metro, and operations at Maiquetía International Airport. The Government of...