Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] For many years, the duplex space in the Project Canterbury building at Christ Church Episcopal in downtown Chattanooga, Diocese of East Tennessee, was vacant and unlivable. After meeting with members of the secular nonprofit Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, last year, Christ Church Episcopal’s congregation decided to transform the empty space into free apartments for teenagers who age out of the foster care system and need a place to stay while they adjust to adulthood. For the Rev. Will Levanway, priest-in-charge of Christ Church Episcopal, the monthslong project felt like the “building up of a kingdom of God.” “Here’s a way of really concretely caring for people, making sure they have a place to sleep, food to eat and support,” Levanway told Episcopal News Service. “If we’re going to uplift people in the image of God, it has to include their physical, material life.” Renovations started in January and finished in September. The duplex was split into four fully furnished apartments, each with their own appliances. They share a laundry facility. The tenants aren’t required to pay for rent or utilities. The space now looks “shockingly different” from before, according to Kevin Hyde, CEO of Partnership for Families, Children and Adults. The only salvaged elements were the original brickwork and tiles, which were repaired and restored. “People pay big money to have that type of [exposed brick] aesthetic in their homes these days,” Hyde told ENS. “We wanted to make the apartments livable, clean and modern feeling.” Christ Church Episcopal’s 60+ member congregation also was involved in the development project. Parishioners collected and furnished the apartments with household supplies, like towels, bedsheets, laundry detergent and brooms. “These are everyday important things that we take for granted in our homes. They may not sound like much, but these gestures are very helpful in helping these teens achieve safety and stability, and feel hope for their futures,” Hyde said. “Often when teens age out of foster care and come to [Partnership for Families, Children and Adults], they come to us with not even a suitcase – literally just a garbage bag with all their worldly possession in it and the clothes on their backs.” Children and youth can enter foster care for different reasons, including abuse, neglect or abandonment by their parents or legal guardians. The experience is traumatizing because children and youth are being removed from their homes, and siblings are oftentimes separated from each other, according to the National Institute of Health. Teenagers age out of foster care when they legally reach adulthood at 18, though some states extend support up to age 21. In Tennessee, foster care services and support can be extended until age 23 through the state’s Extension of Foster Care Program. Every year nationwide, more than 15,000 young adults, including more than 850 in Tennessee, age out of the foster care system, according to data compiled in 2024 by the federally mandated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. Without support, they risk facing homelessness, substance abuse, incarceration and unplanned pregnancy, according to the 2025 Impact Case with data compiled by the Innovation Labs at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. To help reduce these systemic risks, Partnership for Families, Children and Adults’ Bright Futures program additionally operates a rape crisis center, a domestic violence shelter, life skills and career training and other services run by hired social workers. Locally, young adults who enroll in these programs and services and have stable housing, according to Hyde, experience lower risk rates of substance abuse, incarceration and unplanned pregnancy. “We’re working alongside people who I don’t really know what their religious views are, but I know that they want people housed and fed and cared for, and that’s what really matters,” Levanway said. So far, one person has moved into Christ Church Episcopal’s apartment since the Sept. 29 ribbon-cutting and blessing ceremony, and additional tenants are expected in the coming weeks. Hyde thanked Christ Church Episcopal’s congregation.  “The congregation’s generosity of providing the actual space and more is just an incredible gift and support to us [at Partnership for Families, Children and Adults] in the work that we do,” Hyde said. “More importantly, it’s really going to make a difference for the immediate needs of our clients – kids who didn’t have the advantages many of us had growing up but deserve to have hope for their futures.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal Diocese of Cuba] The bishop and clergy of the Diocese of Cuba sent the following letter to the church on Oct. 4.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” — Luke 4:18-19 Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ: We address you people of God and people of Cuba with heavy hearts, yet placing our hope in the One who brings justice to the oppressed. As the Body of Christ in this land, we cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering we all endure at this moment in our history. OUR REALITY We are living through painful times: mass migration is tearing families apart and emptying communities; the high cost of basic goods makes daily life impossible; and the growing inequality among Cubans contradicts the dignity God has bestowed upon each of His children. We feel deep distress over the shortages afflicting our people: hunger, a lack of medicines, unbearable blackouts, water shortages, and the near-total deterioration of healthcare and education systems – despite the heroic efforts of doctors and teachers striving to fulfill their vocations amidst such circumstances. These are not abstract realities; they manifest as a lack of bread on the table, the sick left without treatment, new generations without education, and mothers without hope. OUR SOLIDARITY We stand with the Christian denominations and institutions – as well as the thousands of Cubans – that have expressed their support for Anna Bensi and her mother, whether before or after the trial. These include the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, the Evangelical Pentecostal Church in Cuba (Assemblies of God), the Evangelical League of Cuba, the Methodist Church of Cuba, the Alliance of Unregistered Cuban Churches, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches in Cuba (“Berean Mission”), Open Bible Churches, the Cuban Conference of Religious (CONCUR), and the “Servants of Saint Joseph” religious congregation, among others. OUR VOICE We also express our frustration and pain regarding the use of violence, intimidation, and harassment by police forces against those who choose to raise their voices and demand their rights—especially given that this right to freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution of our Republic. We are pained by the suffering these actions are causing thousands of families, particularly young people. To silence the voices of the youth is to silence the present and future of the nation. In the face of this, we say: Enough! We firmly believe that no Cuban should raise a hand against another Cuban, whether for political reasons or any other. We stand with the vulnerable and the dispossessed, and with all those who are suffering direct consequences for the integrity of freely expressing their discontent. OUR CALL We appeal to God’s mercy, asking that our authorities and government bodies heed the cry of the people – a people they are called to serve and protect, rather than continually asking for further sacrifices. Our reflection serves as a call to attention for the authorities; it is intended not to provoke confrontation, but to foster dialogue. OUR COMMITMENT The clergy of the Episcopal Church in Cuba are – and will always be – here to accompany and serve our people with the faithfulness demanded by the Lord’s Cross. We affirm the justice and truth embodied in the message of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and we ardently desire that they embrace Cuba and all of us who live here. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN. + Ángel Roberto The Rt. Rev. Ángel Roberto Rivera Rodríguez IX Bishop of Cuba Rev. Can. Aurelio Bernabé de la Paz Cot Rev. P. Rody Pérez Risco Rev. Can. Gilberto Tadeo Caballero Elizalde Rev. P. Santiago Rodríguez Rodríguez Rev. Can. Halbert Pons Santana Rev. P. Haydee Lugo Marrero Rev. Can. Juan Carlos Diez Moreira Rev. P. Roberto Faya Amaro Ven. P. Alfredo Nuño Sierra Rev. P. Gil Fat Yero Ven. P. Yordanis Acosta Porta Rev. P. Yannel Valdivia Melo Rev. P. Dra. Marianela de la Paz Cot Rev. P. Dra. Carmen Nualla Parets Rev. P. Armando Alfonso Delgado Orozco Rev. P. Yulien Yoslán Esparsa Matos Rev. P. Lis Margarita Hernández Martínez Rev. P. Leynis Morales Delgado Rev. P. Frank Miguel Fernández Triana Rev. P. Carlos Alberto Tamayo López

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northwest Texas’ Standing Committee has announced a slate of four nominees for election to succeed retiring Bishop Scott Mayer. The diocese named the following candidates on Oct. 6: The Rev. Amy Peden Haynie, St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Midland, Texas. The Rev. Elizabeth Anne “Betsy” Randall, Diocese of Oklahoma. The Rev. Christopher Blake Thomas, St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, Dallas, Texas. The Rev. Andrew R. Wright, Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. Additional information on the nominees is posted here. Mayer announced his intention to retire in October 2025. He plans to step down in June 2027, when his successor will be consecrated as the sixth bishop of the Lubbock-based diocese. The diocese has opened a 10-day period for submission of additional nominees by petition. After that, meet-and-greet events with the candidates will be held in November. The bishop election is scheduled for January 2027.

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Lexington, with backing from The Episcopal Church’s United Thank Offering, is strengthening a partnership between families, schools, churches and community organizations around “pop-up” family festivals in low-income neighborhoods of Lexington, Kentucky. Grace United Lutheran Episcopal Church has taken the lead in organizing the pop-up events with neighborhood schools and the church’s ecumenical and community partners. The events typically are scheduled on weeknights in the center of an apartment complex or housing development on the south side of Lexington. Church volunteers set up craft projects, sidewalk chalk, games, food, music and other activities. The schools provide additional volunteers, including teachers. And community groups and agencies set up booths with information on resources and services, such as health clinics, employment assistance and federal nutrition assistance programs. “We wanted to be part of this because it lets us be in the community,” Dawn Webb, a Grace United lead organizer, told Episcopal News Service. She said she and other organizers take the approach of working with residents, rather than merely delivering services to them. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, organizers say. Carisa Lipp, a family resource coordinator with Tates Creek Elementary School, told ENS that the school was eager to partner with Grace United because it offered a less formal way to invite parents to meet their children’s teachers. In surveying families, school administrators learned that some parents didn’t feel comfortable entering institutional settings like school buildings. “We have this issue, a lot of parents don’t want to come into the schools,” Lipp said. So, the administrators thought, “Why don’t we bring the [school] community to them?” The first pop-up event was held in March 2025, at an apartment complex across from Millcreek Elementary School. That site now hosts events two or three times a year, and other sites have been added. The event schedule now is filled with two to four pop-ups a month from March through October. Organizers have focused on a zone of the school district that includes five elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. A majority of students’ family incomes qualify them for reduced-cost or free school meals. These families face a range of challenges, Webb said, including inadequate public transportation and lack of easy access to community resources and activities. The pop-up events help to bring activities and community agencies to the families where they live. Webb described the atmosphere as a small festival in the middle of the apartment buildings, sometimes centered around a playground. The set-up team plans to invest in better, more permanent gear for the events with the help of the $20,191 UTO grant, one of 25 grants awarded during this year’s UTO cycle, totaling nearly $1 million. The pop-up events also have been welcomed by teachers, who otherwise wouldn’t have the same opportunities to engage so closely with their students’ families, said Joanie Louis, the family resource coordinator at Millcreek Elementary School. Strengthening those connections can make a big difference in a child’s education, Louis said. “That’s a positive for the teachers, to meet the students in their own environment … to see them for who they are.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] Oct. 4 was the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology, and Episcopal congregations nationwide celebrated by welcoming “all creatures great and small” to church. At these special “blessing of the animals” services, Episcopalians went to church with their pets, who received special blessings. “May [our furry companions] have another year of good health and good behavior,” All Souls’ Episcopal Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, said in an Oct. 4 Facebook post. At St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Burlington, Wisconsin, Trinity Church in the City of Boston in Massachusetts, and St. Matthew’s Episcopal School in Houma, Louisiana, the invitation was extended to scaly, feathered, furry and stuffed animals.  At Christ Episcopal Church in Lancaster, South Carolina, the invitation on its website literally meant “ALL creatures great and small,” including hamsters, turtles, birds, snakes, llamas and giraffes. “Every day we receive a special kind of unconditional love from our pets no matter how big or small,” Christ Episcopal Church’s website said. “Just as we receive blessings for ourselves, don’t our other family members deserve them too?” For farm animals and pets who feel uncomfortable leaving their homes, their human companions were instead welcome to bring photos for the blessing. St. Francis of Assisi was an Italian mystic and friar who founded the Franciscans, a Catholic religious order. He believed that all creatures, including plants, were his “brothers” and “sisters” and preached sermons to birds and other animals. St. Francis died on Oct. 3, 1226, 800 years ago. St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Ooltewah, Tennessee, took its namesake seriously during its blessing of the animals celebration, which featured a parade of animals that included insects, fish, alpacas, llamas, horses, pigs, donkeys, goats, ducks and snakes. The celebration also included a short worship service, a petting zoo and educational activities for all ages. The Pet Festival at St. John’s Cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida, also focused on education, including presentations by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department’s Canine Unit and a local reptile nonprofit. Local rescue groups also brought in adoptable pets for visits. Some churches, like St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in West Seattle, Washington, gave visiting pets St. Francis medals during its blessing of the animals. General Convention has passed 10 resolutions since 2003 affirming the practical and spiritual significance of pets, including service animals. Some of the resolutions include adopting special prayers and liturgy for animal caretakers and for observing the loss of a companion animal. “Our pets are often sources of comfort, joy and unconditional love – reminding us of God’s own faithfulness,” St. John’s Episcopal Church Norwood in Chevy Chase, Maryland, said on its website. The spoken blessing for the animals comes from The Episcopal Church’s 2022 Book of Occasional Services, called “St. Francis Day/Blessing of the Animals”: “God’s animals inhabit the sky, the land and the sea; we share the Earth with them, and like them, rely on God’s blessing to sustain and preserve us. We gather today in communion and friendship with Francis of Assisi, who preached to animals and moved throughout the known world sharing God’s unconditional love for all beings. Remembering Francis’ love for all God’s creatures, bring forward the animals entrusted to your care so that we may bless them.” At All Saints Episcopal Church in Sunderland, Maryland, the annual blessing of the animals tradition “is guaranteed to bring smiles, laughter and a few unexpected moments,” according to the parish’s Instagram post promoting its service. The blessing of the animals service is “one of the most beloved events of the year” at Washington National Cathedral. This year, the cathedral partnered with City Dogs and City Kitties Rescue and Miri’s Haven Senior Dogs to share how to get involved with the nonprofit organizations’ work during the service. Some churches, like St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Port Neches, Texas, collected pet food to donate to local animal shelters. For St. Francis Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California, the “blessing of the animals” is both a celebration of pets and a celebration of St. Francis’ namesake church and city. Human participants made treats for San Francisco Animal Care and Control. Some churches, like St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Thousand Oaks, California, honored deceased pets to “remember those beloved pets whom we love but see no longer.” Ahead of its blessing of the animals service at Grace Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, the Rev. Anne Michele Turner, rector, wrote in a blog post on the church’s website encouraging people to consider climate change and human activities affecting wild animals when reflecting on St. Francis of Assisi’s feast day: “When we bless the animals, do we only pray for dogs and cats? What would it mean to offer our blessing to endangered red wolves and North Atlantic right whales, dying off because of human activity in their habitats? What would it mean to bless the osprey that are declining in number because their diet of fish is declining in number, too? How might we bless the salamanders and toads whose suffering is the first sign of a poisoned environment?” Turner said.  “The reality of climate change means that such blessings are not just fanciful. They are an urgent ethical obligation. If we are to be good stewards of the world God has made for us, we have to consider how our fellow creatures are suffering. Our well-being is interlinked.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal, Lutheran and Roman Catholic bishops in Tennessee are calling on Gov. Bill Lee to commute death row inmate Christa Pike’s sentence to life in prison after state authorities this week botched their attempted execution of Pike by lethal injection. Pike, 50, was reportedly in critical condition at a Nashville hospital after surviving the state’s injection of two doses of pentobarbital intended to kill her for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer when Pike was 18. Corrections officials said the drug was administered following prison protocol, but Lee has responded to Pike’s botched execution by stopping the state from carrying out the death penalty for at least the rest of this year. The group of faith leaders, including all three of the state’s Episcopal bishops, said in their Oct. 1 letter to Lee that he should “ensure that the State of Tennessee does not attempt to execute [Pike] again.” “We make this appeal mindful of the horrific murder of Colleen Slemmer and the immeasurable grief endured by her family and those who loved her,” the faith leaders said. “Nothing in our request diminishes the gravity of that crime, the preciousness of Colleen’s life, or the legitimate responsibility of the state to hold those who commit violence accountable. Yet accountability need not require another death.” The letter was signed by West Tennessee Bishop Phoebe Roaf, Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt and East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole. The three Episcopal leaders were joined by their counterparts with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southeastern Synod and the Roman Catholic bishops of Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville. “Our churches have long and consistently opposed capital punishment,” they said. “These convictions arise from the heart of our Christian faith. We believe every human being bears the image of God and therefore possesses a dignity that even the most grievous sin cannot erase. We believe in accountability, but we also believe in repentance, redemption, mercy, and the possibility of transformation.” Lee, in halting the one remaining execution scheduled for this year, has called for a third-party investigation into what went wrong with the lethal injection in Pike’s case. Even after the second dose, Pike remained alive and appeared to be snoring. The nature and extent of her injuries have not yet been detailed. A WPLN-TV reporter, Catherine Sweeney, who was among the media witnesses at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, said afterward that “none of it was normal.” “I covered all the executions last year, and most of the ones this year,” Sweeney said. “We haven’t seen anything like it. It went really poorly.” The Episcopal Church first expressed formal opposition to execution at the 1958 General Convention and has called on Episcopalians to urge their state governments to stop the practice. General Convention reaffirmed its opposition in 1979, 1991, 2000, 2015 and 2018, when it called for all death row prisoners to have their sentences reduced. To commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison would “not deny justice,” the Tennessee bishops said in their letter to Lee. “It declares that justice need not become vengeance and that the State of Tennessee can choose restraint, human dignity, and mercy. “As Christian bishops, we believe the Gospel continually calls us beyond cycles of violence and death toward the difficult work of justice, reconciliation, repentance, and life. In that hope, we respectfully ask you to grant clemency.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal leaders in the Diocese of Texas are joining ecumenical partners and advocates for prisoners’ rights in calling on the state to provide air conditioning in all Texas prisons amid complaints that overheated cells violate the U.S. Constitution. A federal judge recently agreed with the advocates and ecumenical partners. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled Sept. 22 that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice must cool all 104 of the prison system’s lockups by the end of 2029 in compliance with Eighth Amendment prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishments. The Texas Newsroom, a public news collaborative, analyzed temperature readings in state prisons that lack air conditioning and found that most regularly reached 90 degrees and some topped 100, even though state regulations require county jails to maintain temperatures of 85 or cooler. Only a third of Texas’ state prisons currently have air conditioning, according to the Texas Tribune. The state has said that compliance with the judge’s order could cost $1.5 billion. St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, has been active on this issue. On Sept. 23, a day after the judge’s ruling, the church hosted an evening vigil it had organized with Texas Prisons Community Advocates and the 85 to Stay Alive Campaign. In the afternoon before the vigil, St. David’s also offered its parking lot for an “experiential exhibit,” in which visitors could enter a full-scale replica of an enclosed prison cell and feel the heat that many inmates experience. “The community member can leave, can explore and walk out of the mock cell, but we couldn’t,” Jennifer Toon, a formerly incarcerated Texan, told KVUE-TV in its report about the exhibit. Toon now serves as executive director of Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance and is one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit contesting inmate living conditions. She recalled how the summer heat felt behind bars. “When I was locked up, experiencing summers in a Texas prison was something that you dreaded,” Toon told the TV station. Now that a federal judge has ordered the state to remedy those conditions, Episcopal leaders are calling on the state to heed the judge’s order. “Every human being deserves dignity, including those who are held in our prisons,” the Rev. Hope Tinsley Benko, St. David’s associate rector, said in one of a series of compiled written statements from faith leaders. “Our faith compels us to prevent the cruelty of needless death and illness in unairconditioned facilities. As Jesus said, I was in prison and you did not visit me, whatever we do the least of these, we do also to him.” The Rev. Jim Harrington, a missioner serving at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Austin, said a society’s prison conditions say a lot about its “religious and moral framework.” “Denying life-threatening air conditioning to prisoners offends our religious beliefs and our moral standards,” Harrington said. And the Rev. Genevieve Razim, rector of All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Austin, compared the Eighth Amendment’s protections to the Scriptures’ Golden Rule, to treat others as you wish to be treated. “Whether you approach this issue as a person of faith or no faith, the extreme heat our fellow human beings inside Texas prisons are being exposed to is wrong,” Razim said in her written statement. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Religion News Service] In a “State of the Force” address on Sept. 30, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs that would elevate “spiritual health at the same level as physical health.” The office, and its director, would report directly to him, Hegseth said, to ensure soldiers have “religious support” in the form of chaplains with religious expertise rather than “secular careerists” and “lawyers.” “Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual. God is good; evil is not, and America’s military must understand the difference,” Hegseth said during an hour-long talk at a base in Virginia. A memo announcing the establishment of the Office of Religious Affairs said it would “obtain sufficient funding and resources for religious affairs,” and “oversee research, technology, and analytical tools to support and assess spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience” of soldiers. The memo said the creation of the office should not be “construed to compel religious participation or to diminish the free exercise rights of any Service member, civilian employee, or family member of any faith or no faith.” But prominent declarations of Christian faith have been central to Hegseth’s speeches and in his vision of the military. He is a member of a conservative denomination, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, that explicitly advocates for Christians to exert their faith’s influence over the government. Pastor Doug Wilson, one of the founders of the denomination and Hegseth’s pastor, told RNS that while he knows “next to nothing about the scope of the new office,” he has hope it will be a good thing, “considering the source of it.” Hegseth also spearheaded an initiative to bring prayer services to the Pentagon. Shortly after the start of the Iran War, he prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” And he regularly quotes from the Bible, including multiple times on Sept. 30. He cited Psalm 33:12, “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” in addition to the passage from Ephesians that calls for believers to “put on the whole armor of God” and Isaiah 6, when the prophet says to God, “Here am I; send me!” Hegseth also claimed that “less than 5% of our force identifies as non-religious.” A 2019 Congressional Research paper on military demographics reported that 2.3% of military troops identified as “atheist or agnostic”; however, an additional 24.4% of the military troops were religiously identified as “other, unclassified or unknown.” According to the Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, who serves as the eighth bishop suffragan of Armed Forces and Federal Ministries of the Episcopal Church, the announcement of the new Office of Religious Affairs was met with confusion. “My first reaction is: What is going on? Because this is completely out of the ordinary,” she said. “Nothing like this has been seen before in the military in regards to the Chaplain Corps.” Ritonia said that upon reading the memo describing the new office, she found “really good things,” such as the possibility of helping underfunded chaplaincy programs. She noted concerns about the Armed Forces Chaplain Board being “understaffed” and “not adequately funded,” and celebrated the prospect of efforts to change that. But Ritonia said she also has concerns about the structure of the new office. “My initial assessment is that it violates the chain of command,” she said. “Chaplains have direct access to the Religious Affairs office, is how this reads, rather than going through their chain of command. That can undermine good order and discipline, particularly if a particular religious group has the ear of the director of the Office of Religious Affairs.” “I think it could be very confusing, unless there’s real clarification about the role of the chiefs of chaplains,” she said. The bishop also noted that some of the military chaplains she works with are wary of the new office in part because it is being created under Hegseth. She described the Defense Secretary’s rhetoric as “definitely Christocentric” and argued that at least some of his efforts amount to a “push of fundamentalist Christianity into the military.” “It feels like the free exercise of faith for chaplains has become more important than protecting the free exercise of those they serve,” she said. Franklin Graham, who sits on the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission, said he thought the new office was “a great idea.” “Unfortunately, not all administrations have treated military chaplains as necessary — but they are some of the most necessary because they are entrusted with caring for the spiritual well-being of our men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line to protect our nation,” Graham told RNS. Americans United for Separation of Church and State denounced the new office. “It’s yet another example of Hegseth abusing the power of his government position to impose his beliefs on others — and worse, it puts the needs of America’s service members second to this administration’s Christian Nationalist agenda,” the organization said in a statement. Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation was more blunt. ‘This is the latest example of a pervasive and pernicious pattern and practice of the elevation of unconstitutional Christian nationalism to a position of total control of technologically the most lethal organization ever created by our species,” said Weinstein, whose nonprofit organization includes 100,000 active-duty military and veterans seeking legal help to resolve religious freedom cases. In June, the Department of Defense announced it was reducing the number of religions it officially recognizes from 211 to 31, the vast majority being various Christian denominations. Excluded were atheists, pagans, humanists and New Age faiths. The U.S. Air Force recently announced that atheists have until Oct. 16 to reclassify their religious affiliations in accordance with the Department of Defense’s new “Religious Affiliation Codes” or risk being automatically reclassified. In its […]

[Episcopal News Service] Washington Bishop Mariann Budde, one of The Episcopal Church’s most prominent bishops because of her role leading the diocese based in the nation’s capital, announced Oct. 1 that she is calling for the election of her successor in 2028. “I have not come to this decision lightly or alone, and it will not be easy to say goodbye to the diocese I love,” Budde said in a message to her diocese, which includes 86 congregations in Washington, D.C., and parts of Maryland. “Alongside the diocesan staff and leadership bodies, I will do everything in my power to ensure that the diocese is as strong and healthy as possible for this leadership transition. I am praying for all involved, and especially for the one God is preparing to serve as the tenth bishop of the Diocese of Washington.” Budde’s diocese includes Washington National Cathedral, which also serves as the seat of The Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop. In January 2025, Budde generated national headlines and intense scrutiny, both positive and negative, for addressing President Donald Trump directly in her sermon at the cathedral during a service held after his inauguration. Budde, in her sermon, had asked Trump to show mercy to “the people in our country who are scared now,” and she specifically held up the fears felt by many LGBTQ+ people and immigrants at the start of his second term. In her 15 years as Washington bishop, she has regularly been at the forefront of the church’s engagement on political issues that intersect with the faith, though she also has focused on a more pastoral approach to challenges facing the diocese’s congregations, from navigating the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to nurturing the diocese’s growing number of Spanish-speaking congregations. Budde told Episcopal News Service in a 2021 interview that, since her consecration as Washington bishop in 2011, she has tried to focus on her primary role as chief pastor to the diocese’s Episcopalians and, when engaging in advocacy, to “take a moral position and not a partisan position, to start somewhere we have authority.” In her Oct. 1 message, she said: “Next month marks the fifteenth anniversary of our shared ministry. I hope that you know that serving as your bishop is one of the great blessings of my life.” The election of her successor, she said, would take place at the diocesan convention in January 2028, with the new bishop’s consecration expected in June 2028. “It takes time and considerable effort to elect a bishop in our church,” Budde said. “The responsibility for shepherding that process rests with the Standing Committee, the elected body that provides counsel to the bishop and oversees important diocesan matters.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole and ecumenical faith leaders from across the South gathered Sept. 30 for an event in Knoxville to express their support for immigrant families living in fear of the Trump administration’s push for mass deportations. The event was part of a regional gathering, “Deepening Our Moral Witness,” hosted by the Roman Catholic dioceses of Knoxville and Lexington and convened by the Catholic Immigrant Prophetic Action Project. Faith leaders from Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and West Virginia participated on the steps of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. “Increasingly, fear and chaos and brutality appear to be the point in immigration policy,” Cole said, according to a news release. “God has made us all, and we all belong to each other.” Read the full news release here.

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northern Indiana Standing Committee has released a lengthy statement outlining the reasons the diocese, in November 2025, decided it wasn’t ready for reunification with the Diocese of Indianapolis, saying the decision “came from a renewed understanding of our own identity.” No single factor led to the votes at the diocesan convention last year, the standing committee said on Oct. 1. The Diocese of Indianapolis also voted on a resolution that acknowledged the reunification talks without moving forward with a plan to reunify. Both dioceses said they intended to “continue and expand this Season of Collaboration.” “Several themes emerged” during the discernment process, the Northern Indiana standing committee said. “Many people expressed a desire for a more compelling vision of what a reunited diocese would become. … Though leadership was asked many times for reasons for ‘why reunify,’ no sufficient or convincing answers were given by leadership.” The standing committee did not specify which leaders it was referencing. The standing committee also cited practical concerns, such as preserving ministries that have long been part of the diocese’s identity, as well as uncertainty about how Northern Indiana congregations and members would be represented in a combined diocesan structure. “Despite sincere efforts by leaders in both dioceses, we have not yet built the depth of relationships that many believed would be necessary to support such a significant step,” the standing committee said in its Oct. 1 statement. As the diocese prepares for its next convention on Nov. 7, it also has begun discernment about the role of diocesan bishop. Bishop Douglas Sparks announced in February that he intended to retire in August 2027. “Working with the leadership of our diocese, we will consider whether to elect the next and ninth bishop of Northern Indiana or, because we are serious about continuing to consider the possibility of reunification with our siblings in Indianapolis, to call for the election of a bishop provisional until that decision is made,” Sparks said in his February message. The two dioceses in the state of Indiana had announced in January 2023 that they were launching a process to discern whether to reunify as one statewide diocese. That process coincided with several other examples of dioceses considering new partnership models as churchwide Episcopal leaders called for new approaches to addressing denominational decline. In Wisconsin, the state’s three Episcopal dioceses reunited as one in 2024. Also, that year, the dioceses of Eastern and Western Michigan agreed to a juncture and combined as the Diocese of the Great Lakes. And in Pennsylvania, the dioceses of Central Pennsylvania and Bethlehem completed their merger at the beginning of 2026 to become the Diocese of the Susquehanna. Similar conversations about cross-diocesan collaboration had been underway since 2018 in the dioceses of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York. Though a merger was never openly considered, the two dioceses in April 2019 began sharing a bishop and combining some administrative and ministry functions. In 2025, the two dioceses decided to part ways rather than maintain their six-year partnership.

[Religion News Service] He was 17 years old when armed men from the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Christian extremist group based in Central and East Africa, abducted him from his northern Ugandan home, killed his mother and father and took his sister, whom he has not seen since. The wave of violence that engulfed his family eventually led to violence he perpetrated on others. “We could be sent to attack villages and slaughter people,” said the man, now 40, who asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation from the community to which he recently returned. But, he added: “We are also victims.” Earlier this month, he joined more than 2,000 former LRA captives, combatants and family members in Lira City in northern Uganda for a prayer service of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. Organized by the Anglican Diocese of Lango in partnership with LRA returnees, the gathering brought together people carrying one of the conflict’s most complicated legacies: Many were abducted, some as children, and forced to fight and kill. Some were forced to marry warlords. Years after returning home, some struggle not only with what was done to them, but also with what they were forced to do, and with communities that sometimes regard them as perpetrators rather than victims. Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Sept. 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an annual observance to bring awareness to Indigenous boarding schools and to honor victims, survivors and their families. Episcopal dioceses and institutions are observing the day with educational events, including lectures, panel discussions with survivors and documentary screenings. The day of remembrance isn’t an official churchwide observance, but The Episcopal Church’s Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools is working on a resolution to make it so. Some dioceses, including Maine and Northern Michigan, have been observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation for several years. Several members of the Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools will participate in events. Episcopal Divinity School, the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery and the Diocese of Arizona will co-host a livestreamed presentation and panel discussion on Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern via Zoom. Pearl Chanar, an Athabaskan tribal member and a boarding school survivor from Alaska who serves as the commission’s co-chair, will be one of the panelists. Like many Native Alaskans, Chanar was sent out of state, hundreds of miles away from home, to attend a boarding school. “For me as a boarding school survivor and being on this commission, I’m driven by the fact that something has to be done for these children,” Chanar told Episcopal News Service. Joining Chanar in the panel discussion are Vance Blackfox, a Cherokee theologian who serves as the Indigenous Theological Circle’s ecumenical and tribal relations director and is a member of the boarding schools commission, and the Rev. Allen Buck, a Cherokee elder who serves as director of the United Methodist Church’s Circle of Indigenous Ministries in the Northwest. They will discuss how churches and communities are working towards truth-telling and repair, and how Christians can participate. The Rev. Debbie Royals, former canon for the Diocese of Arizona’s Native American Ministry and a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, will give a presentation before the panel discussion. Click here to register for the presentation and panel discussion. In Old Town, Maine, Episcopalians will participate in the Penobscot Nation’s public Every Child Matters Orange Shirt Day Walk the evening of Sept. 30. A public Remembrance Walk in Sonora, California, will begin in front of St. James’ Episcopal Church the evening of Sept. 30. The walk will end with singing and drumming. During the afternoon and evening of Sept. 30 throughout the Diocese of Arizona, Episcopalians will attend a screening of a documentary on the yearlong Listening & Healing pilgrimage the diocese’s Council for Native American Ministry hosted in 2024. During the pilgrimage, which was split into multiple events, pilgrims listened to survivors, families, researchers and Indigenous leaders share their stories. The pilgrimage ended with a healing ceremony led by Royals. Arizona had the second-highest number of Indigenous boarding schools in the country, behind Oklahoma. None of the identified 47 schools were Episcopal-operated, but the Diocese of Arizona is still conducting its own archival investigation to make sure none were overlooked. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation began in 2013 in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada, as Orange Shirt Day with the tagline “Every Child Matters.” The inspiration came from Phyllis Jack Webstad, a Secwépemc survivor who shared her story of attending the St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in 1973, when she was 6 years old. On the first day of school, Webstad was stripped of her clothes, including the new orange shirt her grandmother bought for her. The school never gave it back to her. “The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing,” Webstad said in her story on the Orange Shirt Society’s website. “All of us little children were crying, and no one cared.” The U.S. Indigenous boarding school system was intended to assimilate the children into white society at the expense of their Native American identities, languages and cultures. Indigenous students endured a wide spectrum of experiences at the boarding schools, dating as far back as 1819. Some were forced to attend the schools, run by the federal government and Christian denominations, while other families voluntarily sent their children to receive what often was the only education available. In some cases, they faced a nightmare of mistreatment, abuse and even death far from home. Other boarding school survivors recall no physical abuse but still experienced trauma from the family separation and deprivation of their culture and identity. The Episcopal Church has so far confirmed its involvement in at least 34 of the more than 500 known boarding schools in the United States. Over the last two years, the Truth, Justice & Healing Commission on Native Boarding Schools, has identified 25 additional schools by researching diocesan records, Miskopwaaganikwa Leora Tadgerson, commission co-chair and a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community, told ENS. The commission formed in 2025 from two working groups that were established in 2022 by General Convention and Executive Council. Tadgerson, who also serves as the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of reparations and justice, anticipates that researching the full extent of The Episcopal Church’s complicity and gathering testaments from survivors will take several more years. “There are still so many dioceses that we have to work with, and so many tribes. This work is just the beginning,” Tadgerson told ENS. Observing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a “good starting point” for non-Indigenous people to learn about the boarding schools’ lasting effects, Tadgerson said. “Beyond larger events like Orange Shirt Day, we definitely encourage folks to get involved with the local tribal initiatives,” she said. “Take the time to learn how the Indian boarding school experience was localized. That’s also a good starting point.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service — Salt Lake City, Utah] Even though the 18 dioceses in The Episcopal Church’s Province VIII are geographically spread across more than 7,000 miles, from Navajoland to Alaska, Hawai‘i and Taiwan, they share similar climate-related challenges, including water scarcity and wildfires. Episcopalians who live in the westernmost province have come together to address these issues as a province. To start, dozens of them gathered Sept. 25-27 here at the Episcopal Retreat & Conference Center to learn about the causes and effects of climate change in desert regions, and how to mitigate and prevent them. Some 75 participants from 14 dioceses, including ecumenical partners from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ, attended the Creation Care Network Conference. Presentations were organized by element: water, air, fire and land. Topics ranged from saving the Great Salt Lake from drought and overuse to preventing desertification by practicing sustainable farming and grazing practices. The conference aimed not only to educate and inspire, but to encourage collaboration in everyday climate action. “Inspiration without practice gets absorbed with our already full lives,” the Rev. Lisa Graumlich, a climatologist and a deacon serving at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona, said in her keynote speech at the conference. “The covenant community is how we find courage to truly see what is happening, to seize this moment as transformative rather than merely catastrophic. … We were never meant to do this alone.” Using the Great Salt Lake and Colorado River as case studies, the water-related presentations centered on conservation and the potential consequences of inaction, including possible permanent desiccation. The Great Salt Lake, for example, is a key ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere as the largest saline lake in North America and a habitat for 10 million migratory birds and other animals. Due to water overuse, including diverting water from the Great Salt Lake to grow water-intensive crops like alfalfa and hay, the lake has lost 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area since 1850, and since 2020, it is losing around 2 million acre-feet of water through evaporation annually, according to research conducted by Brigham Young University in Provo. Amy Quirk, a climate change consultant and parishioner of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California, shared how the nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper uses a three-part model – investigation, advocacy and litigation – to protect and preserve the San Francisco Bay.  That combination “has yielded more than 300 legal and policy victories, holding polluters and government agencies accountable for the health of our community’s wildland communities,” Quirk said during her presentation. “Perhaps it will be useful to consider in your own creation care work in other parts of The Episcopal Church’s Province VIII.” During the air-related presentation, Daniel Moyer and Bob Wohlsen shared how churches throughout the Diocese of Northern California have drastically improved their energy efficiency and reduced fossil fuel dependency. The diocese is on track to achieve The Episcopal Church’s churchwide 2030 carbon neutrality goal, which was established in 2022 by General Convention Resolution A087. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arcata, for example, achieved a zero-carbon footprint in 2025 through comprehensive solar, water and electric upgrades. The parish’s initiative began in 2018 after it established a creation care “green team.” “I hope that listeners took away from my presentation that there’s not a barrier that can’t be overcome to starting a ‘green team’ and being successful at it,” Moyer, a member of St. Alban’s team, told Episcopal News Service. “There are a lot of grant and funding opportunities and resources to figure out how to do these projects. At the end of the day, there is not too small a project that can make a difference. It could be as simple as making sure we turn off lights when we leave a room or use cloth napkins and non-plastic cutlery during church coffee hour.” Ed Stafford is a marketing professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University in Logan who specializes in sustainable entrepreneurship and marketing renewable energy and clean technology. In his presentation, he shared how scientists are addressing preparations for Salt Lake City to host the 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Rising global temperatures threaten the long-term viability of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, reducing the number of reliable host cities and building a dependency on creating artificial snow. A January World Economic Forum analysis estimates that 10 countries will be able to host the Winter Olympics and Paralympics by 2040 as snowfall declines worldwide. “I’ve always felt that there’s this moral obligation that in order to be a good Christian we need to protect God’s planet,” Stafford, a parishioner at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Logan, told ENS. “We’re trying to get more people thinking about air pollution and how to respond to it. … BYU canceled a football game a few years ago because of wildfire air pollution. We might not even have snow by the Olympics. Thinking about all these things, my belief is that we need to be proactive now and try to mitigate climate issues before they happen. We’ve only got eight years to prepare.” Speakers from the fire-related panel shared lessons, including preparation and climate resilience planning, from the deadly wildfires that devastated communities across the Diocese of Los Angeles in 2025, destroying one Episcopal church, two rectories and several school buildings. The land-related panelists shared how improper farming and grazing practices cause desertification and how to transition to sustainable practices. They also shared how native plants and grasses can improve soil and save water. Since General Convention passed a resolution in 2024 calling on Episcopal institutions to “build networks around creation care and renewable energy,” 12 have been established across 55 dioceses in the United States, Latin America and Taiwan, and they’re now addressing region-specific environmental concerns and possible solutions. These eco-region networks seek to “link people, projects and properties dedicated to nature-based solutions to slow […]

[Episcopal News Service] Two Episcopal congregations in the Diocese of Long Island began worshipping together this month through a merger that expects to benefit financially from the prospective sale of one of the two church properties for $11.8 million. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a historically Black congregation that was founded in 1902 in New York’s Queens borough, had spent decades discussing what to do about its aging church in the Jamaica neighborhood. “In recent years, the challenges of maintaining the property and sustaining the parish financially have become increasingly difficult,” the Rev. Frederick Walker, the congregation’s priest-in-charge, said last month in a diocesan article. In March 2026, St. Stephen’s vestry voted to merge with St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in the nearby Hollis neighborhood, allowing both congregations to invest their resources in parish life and ministry together. The final service at St. Stephen’s occurred Sept. 6, and the congregations’ first joint worship was held at St. Gabriel’s on Sept. 13. “What excites me is what becomes possible when we no longer have to devote so much energy and so many resources to maintaining aging buildings,” Walker said. “St. Stephen’s and St. Gabriel’s each have gifted, committed people, and together I believe they can build a vibrant ministry, strengthen their relationships in the community and flourish as one parish for years to come.” The diocese has put the former St. Stephen’s property up for sale for $11,750,000. The corner .38-acre lot is located next to a public library branch and is zoned for commercial developments and multifamily housing. The merged congregation intends to preserve spiritually and historically distinctive elements of the former St. Stephen’s, such as stained-glass windows and other furnishings, though the structure could be demolished in a redevelopment.  Proceeds from the sale would become “part of the resources of the merged parish,” according to the diocese. “This is truly a merger, not simply the closing of one congregation,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano said in a diocesan article, published before his successor, Bishop Adam Shoemaker, was consecrated as the new bishop of Long Island. “The people of St. Stephen’s carry with them more than a century of faith, relationships and witness in Jamaica,” Provenzano said. “As they say farewell to a place that generations have called home, we give thanks for all that has been built there and look with hope toward what St. Stephen’s and St. Gabriel’s will build together.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service – Navasota, Texas] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally visited the House of Bishops Sept. 25 here at Camp Allen during its fall meeting. Texas was the first stop on her Sept. 22-28 visit to the United States, her first as archbishop of Canterbury. Anglican provinces, including The Episcopal Church, “face very similar challenges and very similar joys” even though they’re geographically, culturally and linguistically different, Mullally told the bishops.  As archbishop of Canterbury, “I have had the joy of being in Jerusalem and Europe. I’ve had the joy of being in Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya and Burundi, and in all of those places, when you go to church, you see an Anglican church,” she said. “Despite the different cultures, different languages, different social settings, different environments, the churches are recognizable as part of the Anglican Communion. I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the welcome that I have received in all those places, and it has been a reminder to me that we’re family.” The House of Bishops was equally excited for Mullally to be part of its Sept. 23-28 gathering, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told Episcopal News Service. “It’s amazing to have the archbishop of Canterbury with us. She’s shown her genuine leadership and care for the [Anglican] Communion and love for this church,” Rowe said. “It’s exciting to have her represent the unity of the church.” Mullally noted she was addressing the House of Bishops exactly six months after her March 25 installation as the first woman archbishop of Canterbury in the office’s 1,400-year history. As archbishop of Canterbury, Mullally is the most senior bishop in the Church of England and serves as the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes 42 member provinces. “Bishop Sarah has long been known in the Church of England as a wise and steady leader, committed to supporting those who are vulnerable and leading God’s people through difficult times,” Rowe told the bishops as he introduced Mullally. “In these last six months, the rest of us across the Anglican Communion have come to see these qualities for ourselves and give thanks for the gift of serving alongside her.” Before Mullally arrived, several bishops submitted questions for Rowe to ask her during a Q&A discussion. Question topics ranged from evolving as an increasingly postcolonial and polycentric – having more than one center of control – church, to her experience meeting with Pope Leo XIV in April in Vatican City, to supporting Anglicans in the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. Mullally described the bishops’ questions as showing that “we have lots of common ground.” “Having those conversations where there may be differences is so important because we not only gain understanding of other people, we gain understanding of ourselves,” Mullally told ENS Sept. 25 at Camp Allen. “They were great questions, and maybe the one that I will hold on to is, ‘What brings me joy?’ because I think that is so important for us to find joy in our lives, and, for me, it’s joyful to be here today with The Episcopal Church. It’s joyful to go out in parishes in the Church of England, and also across the Anglican Communion and see the way that God is working.” Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, who co-represented The Episcopal Church at Mullally’s installation as vice-chair of the House of Bishops, described Mullally’s brief visit as a “real blessing.” “Our part of the [Anglican] Communion is eager to know her and to walk alongside her and continue to pray for her,” Baskerville-Burrows told ENS. “To have even just a few minutes was a real blessing.” Colorado Bishop Kym Lucas, who participated in a small Bible study group with Mullally during the 2022 Lambeth Conference, echoed the sentiment. She described Mullally’s visit as a “testament” to increasing connection in the Anglican Communion. “I think it is a testament to our connection and the desire for increased connection across the Anglican Communion, and I’m excited about it,” said Lucas, who serves as the House of Bishops’ secretary. “It’s something that I’m working on as well from my diocesan perspective – how can we build community across distance? I think [Mullally] being here was just a really helpful step in that. Everyone seemed receptive. I’m excited about her leadership, and I know her as a very faithful person.” After departing Camp Allen in the early evening, Mullally left for Greenwich, Connecticut, where she preached and joined a Q&A forum at Christ Church the morning of Sept. 27. Later that evening, she led the Evensong and benediction at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York, New York. On Sept. 28, Mullally went to the United Nations to meet with U.N. leaders. She was also scheduled to participate in a private roundtable discussion at The Episcopal Church’s headquarters in New York with the International Committee of the Red Cross on protecting health care in conflict. “At this time, going into the meeting in the U.N., I’m conscious that right across the world, Anglican churches are involved in health care, often in places of conflict,” Mullally, a former cancer nurse, told ENS. “For me, the question is: ‘What could we be doing in partnership with the other organizations to ensure that health care continues despite conflict in the world?’ We are Christ’s hands and feet in the world, and that is true in places of conflict as well as in places of peace.” While reflecting on these questions and those asked during the meeting, Mullally described Anglican and Episcopal bishops communion-wide as “figures of unity,” key to building understanding and friendship in a socially and politically “polarized world.” Bishops are called to be figures of unity and people of peace, and how they enable churches and create unifying spaces is critical, Mullally told ENS. “[Having] wonderful links across the Anglican Communion builds understanding and friendship, which really helps in a polarized world.” –Shireen […]

[Episcopal News Service] Clergy need housing, but housing is expensive in Philadelphia. One thing the Diocese of Pennsylvania, which spans the five-county metro region, has is available space on which to build. That combination of factors sparked an idea that now has become the diocese’s latest experiment in adaptive reuse of church properties. The diocese recently announced the launch of a new initiative that has identified at least three Episcopal properties for construction of affordable housing units that will be offered for rent to diocesan clergy and for priests who have been called to serve at churches that no longer have rectories. The initiative coincides with the diocese’s ongoing Transformation Initiative. The diocese’s emphasis is on new uses for underutilized church properties, including to ease the financial burden on congregations struggling to maintain aging facilities. The housing sites would be a mix of single-family houses or townhomes centered around a chapel or other worship space. Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez, in an interview with Episcopal News Service, said he envisions a kind of “neighborhood for priests.” Each would live in diocese-owned rental housing resembling a “seminary setting,” Gutiérrez said, with easy commutes to one of the diocese’s 136 congregations. In addition to providing affordable housing, “we also thought this is a good way of building a community of new clergy,” Gutiérrez said. Newly relocated priests often feel isolated and alone in their new city. “They don’t know anyone, and they’re coming from maybe Mississippi or California.” The clergy housing will help break down those social barriers while also offering living spaces for single people, couples and families of all sizes. Gutiérrez declined to provide detailed information about the three prospective sites because discussions are still underway with congregations and zoning authorities, though he specified that one is a diocesan property and the other two would be next to active churches. He added that one site is within the Philadelphia city limits, along with two suburban sites. Similar efforts are already underway through the diocese’s Transformation Initiative. Planners have estimated the diocese has 2.5 million square feet of underutilized space, and the diocese has identified 26 church properties where housing redevelopment projects could be viable — not to replace those congregations, but to make more productive use of their campuses. Under a separate but related branch of the Transformation Initiative, the diocese is working with another test group of congregations to launch a program of diocesan administrative support services. The diocese intends to leverage expertise in a range of tasks, from financial accounting to web design, to relieve local leaders of some of those burdens. The clergy housing initiative, then, represents a third branch of these diocesan efforts toward sustainability, at a time when lack of affordable housing has been identified as a national crisis. In 2023, the diocese’s Board of Trustees authorized $4 million in proceeds from the 2021 sale of the Wapiti diocesan retreat property in Maryland to be used as seed money for the Transformation Initiative, and some of that money will be available to build housing for clergy, Gutiérrez said. Site configurations are still being designed, though Gutiérrez has insisted that a central worship space be incorporated into the plans, so residents can gather for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer or other services. “I want this to feel like not only a home but a spiritual place,” he said. He expects the initial plans will be finalized in the coming months, so that the diocese can break ground on housing construction by late 2027 or early 2028. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal dioceses and congregations are getting a first look at the 2027 health insurance landscape, and it will be expensive. The Episcopal Church Medical Trust, which manages the Denominational Health Plan that insures all full-time clergy and lay employees, has projected an overall cost increase of 12.6% for the year. The rate increases for the vast majority of individual dioceses range from 6% to 14%, potentially adding a substantial financial burden to many Episcopal congregations, including some that already are struggling to make ends meet. For some Diocese of Southwest Florida congregations, which span from the Tampa area to Naples, getting hit with a large health insurance increase on top of several years of property insurance increases “feels like an existential crisis,” Mike Booher, the diocese’s canon of finance and administration, told Episcopal News Service. “We’re working very hard at a losing battle.” The inflationary pressure on insurance costs is not unique to The Episcopal Church. Across the health insurance industry in recent years, costs have been driven higher by an aging population, increasingly expensive treatments and the growing use of high-cost specialty drugs, including GLP-1 prescriptions for weight loss. In response, the Medical Trust, an affiliate of Church Pension Group, will end coverage of GLP-1s except for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Episcopal employees will also see higher deductibles, higher copayments and higher out-of-pocket maximums for 2027 to help minimize the premium increases. At the same time, some dioceses are considering options for short-term and long-term assistance for their congregations. The Diocese of Massachusetts, for example, is offering one-time subsidies to bring Massachusetts congregations’ rate increases in 2027 from 10.5% down to 5.25%. “The spiraling costs of health care and resulting insurance premium increases affect every congregation in our diocese, large and small,” Bishop Julia Whitworth said in a written statement to ENS. “As a diocesan community, we support one another in moments of challenge. It is important to me that our diocese offer financial support to reduce premium costs for our 170 worshipping communities, so that they are not saddled with budget-breaking, unexpected rate increases in 2027.” In the United States, a family of four with an employer-sponsored health plan is spending an average of $37,824 a year on health care in 2026, according to the Milliman Medical Index, after costs jumped by nearly 8% from 2025. CPG’s most recent annual report, released in July 2026, alludes to the industry-wide insurance inflation. “Amid some of the highest market trend levels seen in the last 30 years, employer-sponsored plans continue to face sustained cost pressure, driven by factors largely beyond any single plan’s control, including medical inflation, rising prescription drug prices, increased chronic disease prevalence, and regulatory coverage mandates,” the annual report said. New York Bishop Matthew Heyd has also sounded the alarm about the impact of rising health insurance costs in his diocese, which spans Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx in New York City and several less-populated counties upstate. The Diocese of New York’s insurance rates are going up 14% in 2027. “This is a steep increase. It will be painful for many of our congregations. Health care costs can force congregations to decide whom they can call, and whether they can afford a full-time priest,” Heyd said this month in a message to his diocese. The diocese formed a task force a year ago to consider ways to address the long-term trend toward costlier health care. Any solutions developed by that task force could “take years to phase in,” Heyd said. In the short term, church leaders are gathering now in meetings around the diocese to understand the new health coverage plans and discuss options for handling the 2027 cost increase. The increases also affect the cost of insuring the churchwide staff. The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the church’s corporate entity, budgeted $4 million for employee health insurance in 2026, and its 2027 rates are going up by 13%, according to a church spokesperson. The Diocese of Massachusetts, in its message this month about health insurance rates, made clear that it will only be offering “a one-time offset” of up to $280,000 for 2027. Leaders in the Boston-based diocese still will need to work with congregations on a sustainable long-term approach to continued cost increases. “By providing this one-time assistance, our Diocesan Council hopes to create a bit of breathing room for congregations to plan for what will be significant increases in coming years,” Whitworth told ENS. “As part of our diocesan commitment to congregational vitality, we are actively exploring long-term, sustainable solutions for providing benefits to our clergy and lay professionals that mitigate rising costs.” The Episcopal Church’s canons mandate that health care coverage be available to all full-time employees through the Denominational Health Plan, created in 2009 by General Convention. Church Pension Group, through the Medical Trust, administers that insurance, and each year it adopts a range of plans and coverage levels from which dioceses can choose. Rates are specific to each diocese and depend on several factors, including age and other workforce demographics, geographical price differences, General Convention policies and each diocese’s three-year trend in incurred claims. The Denominational Health Plan requires dioceses to offer at least one plan in which premiums will be covered by the diocese or congregation, though employees can choose to pay additional premiums for plans with higher coverage levels. Annual rate increases for the Denominational Health Plan in past years typically have ranged from 4% to 8%, so the sharp increase for 2027 was both unexpected and unprecedented, policy managers say. They added that the Medical Trust is working to better align coverage and costs after being hit with several large individual claims in recent years. CPG has not adjusted its deductibles, copayments and out-of-pocket maximums in six years. Without any chance to redesign those plans in 2027, the churchwide rate increase would have reached 22.5%, according to John Servais, CPG’s senior vice president of […]

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopalians from the church’s Province VIII will gather Sept. 25-27 at the Episcopal Retreat & Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for its inaugural Creation Care Network Conference to learn about building climate resilience, how to reduce fossil fuel dependency and more. Many of the potential solutions presented will center Indigenous wisdom and leadership, including an overview of what it looks like to live a subsistence lifestyle; how to manage natural resources and their harvest sustainably; an overview of regenerative agriculture; and land, water and animal conservation and stewardship practices.  “We have disconnected from nature, from our creator,” Forrest Cuch, a member of the Ute tribe and senior warden of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Whiterocks, Utah, told ENS. “Indigenous people are reminding people that it’s important to stay connected … to fulfill what Jesus taught us to be, which is to share the power.” Cuch is one of several Indigenous leaders who will speak at the conference. He also will lead the closing ceremony. During the conference, the Rt. Rev. Cathleen Bascom, The Episcopal Church’s eco-region networks coordinator and a former bishop of the Diocese of Kansas, will share information on the church’s eco-region networks, including the granting process. Since General Convention passed a resolution in 2024 calling on Episcopal institutions to “build networks around creation care and renewable energy,” 12 have been established across 55 dioceses in the United States, Latin America and Taiwan, and they’re now addressing region-specific environmental concerns and possible solutions. These eco-region networks seek to “link people, projects and properties dedicated to nature-based solutions to slow climate change.” Under Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, who took office in November 2024, development of the eco-region networks has been one of the church’s primary creation care initiatives. It is now facilitated through a partnership with the Center for Religion & Environment at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Last month, The Episcopal Church relaunched its creation care granting program with an emphasis on local ministries connected to the eco-region networks. The church is now accepting proposals until Oct. 26 for grants of up to $15,000 to fund projects involved with “nature restoration, regenerative agriculture, climate advocacy and environmental justice.” Each new eco-region network that is formed receives $10,000 a year from The Episcopal Church to hold an annual in-person gathering and to support an “eco-fellow” to help organize events and activities, Bascom told ENS. The Center for Religion & Environment’s eco-region networks facilitator, Hampton Randall, works closely with the “eco-fellows.” Part of Bascom’s inspiration for developing the eco-region networks came from serving as a delegate at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s annual Conference of the Parties. “At the U.N. climate summits, nature-based solutions were being talked about,” Bascom said. “This is a larger work of healing God’s creation that we have, that in many ways we’ve damaged more than we probably even realize.” When she was bishop of Kansas, Bascom led the formation of the first eco-region network, the Grasslands Network, which largely spans the Great Plains. It includes the dioceses of Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Navajoland, Nebraska, North Dakota, Northwest Texas, Rio Grande, South Dakota, Texas, Western Kansas, and Wyoming. The network, which held its first gathering in 2025, aims to address grasslands preservation and restoration, biodiversity, regenerative ranching and farming, and water quality, depletion and rehydration. Like the eco-region networks, the Creation Care Network Conference will focus on region-specific climate issues. In the case of Province VIII, its 18 dioceses share similar challenges, including water scarcity and wildfires, even though they’re geographically spread across more than 7,000 miles, from Navajoland to Alaska, Hawai‘i and Taiwan. The Rev. Jazzy Bostock is a Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Episcopal priest who serves as vicar of St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church and Maluhia Lutheran Church in Waianae, Oahu, Hawai‘i. She integrates Kānaka Maoli perspectives with spiritual creation care and environmental justice in her ministry. As an Indigenous presenter at the conference, Bostock said she hopes to help guide participants to approaching regional climate issues from both an academic and a spiritual perspective. “I hope we can help ground the conference more in a spiritual kind of heart space, not just an academic kind of approach to tackling these issues,” she said. “There are a lot of facts to learn, but also pieces of our faith and spirit that are affected when creation is affected negatively. That impacts the way that we live.” As the eco-region networks are developing, the Earth’s surface temperatures continue to rise due to human-induced climate change, exacerbating severe weather events like droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, heavy rain and floods. This year, for example, wildfires have burned more than 8.5 million acres nationwide, especially in the western part of the United States. Last month, intense storms throughout Indiana killed at least seven people, displaced at least 1,000 people and left hundreds of thousands of households without power for up to two weeks. Meanwhile, since beginning his second term in 2025, President Donald Trump’s administration has rolled back multiple environmental protection policies in favor of energy policies that aim to increase oil, gas and coal production, while reducing renewable energy development. “This is not what God intended. This is not living in right relationship with ourselves, with the natural world, with non-human kin. We’re not doing it right,” Bostock said. The Rev. Lisa Graumlich, a climatologist and a deacon serving at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Tucson, Arizona, will be the conference’s keynote speaker. In her speech, she will question why, she believes, not enough action is being taken to mitigate climate change even though climatology research and data are frequently updated and readily available.  “I’ve spent 50 years as a climate scientist watching the gap between what we know and what we do grow wider, not narrower,” Graumlich, who’s served with Bascom as an Episcopal delegate at U.N. climate conferences, told ENS. “We have the science. We increasingly have the […]

[Episcopal News Service] Natalie Whiting was an active member of her congregation, Calvary Episcopal Church in Flemington, New Jersey, for most of her 79 years. In loving her church, Whiting wasn’t afraid to offer some constructive criticism. The historic building was woefully inadequate to accommodate people with disabilities and older people who had difficulty climbing its stairs. Whiting, in life, pressed for the church to upgrade the facility for accessibility, but church leaders deemed the costs prohibitive. Whiting died in January 2025 from cancer and is now posthumously addressing the church’s accessibility issues. She left her entire estate, estimated at more than half a million dollars, to the congregation with a request that it spend the money on accessibility upgrades. “She had a passion for making our building accessible to all people,” the Rev. Kyle Cuperwich, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “The church had talked about for years doing something about it but never had the resources.” Now Calvary is in the middle of the renovation project that Whiting had long requested. Accessible restrooms are being installed in the parish hall. Related upgrades are underway in the parish hall’s kitchen. The two sets of stairs into the worship space, which have posed a challenge to some parishioners in the past, will soon be complemented by wheelchair lifts. “We had older congregation members who would practically age themselves out of the church because they couldn’t get into the building anymore,” Cuperwich said. Some of them have already expressed excitement at the thought of returning to in-person worship services once the lifts are installed. The project is expected to cost more than $600,000. Additional funding was provided by the Diocese of New Jersey through a $3,000 Commission on Ministry with the Disabled grant and a $250,000 loan from the diocese’s Venture in Mission Fund. “Together, these efforts are helping Calvary prepare not only a more accessible building, but a more accessible and welcoming future for its community,” the diocese said in a Facebook post about the project. Flemington is a borough of about 5,000 people in central New Jersey’s Hunterdon County, a few miles from the Pennsylvania state line. Whiting was born to the east of Flemington, in Somerset, and lived most of her life in Hunterdon County, where she worked as a teacher at North Hunterdon High School. Whiting and her husband, who died in 2013, had no children, though she “cultivated a profound sense of community and fellowship, deeply rooted in her Christian faith,” according to her obituary. “She felt the church was really her home,” said Cuperwich, who has served at Calvary since 2023. The congregation now is honoring her wishes by finally following through with its plans for accessibility upgrades. “She really had the church in mind.” The design phase began last fall, and demolition work in the parish hall occurred in May 2026. The congregation has been posting updates on its website and Facebook page, with photos showing the new restrooms and kitchen taking shape. The wheelchair lifts will be installed soon, and the entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year or early 2027. “It will look really nice when it’s done,” Cuperwich said. In addition to honoring Whiting’s legacy, the congregation sees the renovations as an opportunity to offer a greater welcome to the Flemington community at a time when the borough’s population is growing. “We want to be part of that growth,” Cuperwich said. Current attendance at Sunday worship services counts about 30 to 35 worshippers. “We are a small church, but we are growing slightly, and we want to keep that momentum going.” Making the church more accessible is another step in that direction. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].