Episcopal News Service

[Anglican Taonga] The 2025 Anglican Missions’ Lenten Appeal offers Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia donors a chance to support climate resilience in the Solomon Islands – notably on the climate change-affected Pacific atoll of Ontong Java – and the humanitarian work of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East in Gaza and the West Bank. This year Anglican Missions’ Pacific project for the Lenten Appeal works through the Anglican Church of Melanesia to help residents of Ontong Java build resilience to the impacts of climate change, so that their communities not only survive, but thrive. Anglican Missions is working on this project linked to a New Zealand government aid allocation, which will maximize donations by matching every $1 New Zealand donated to the Ontong Java project with another $5. With Gaza’s ceasefire holding, more people are seeking help from the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem’s Al Ahli Hospital, as they return to the devastation of their former neighborhoods in northern Gaza. The Anglican-run Al Ahli hospital offers shelter and support for people in need of medical care, with triage tents set up in its courtyard to receive the those arriving back. Chronic illnesses are a serious concern with Gazan people’s conditions going untreated during the months of bombing attacks, leading to severe consequences — for example, amputations of limbs due to lack of diabetes treatment. Al Ahli Hospital’s ability to respond has now increased with the ceasefire in Gaza, enabling the hospital to get fuel and supplies so that staff can offer healthcare to more than 600 outpatients a day. The hospital has also begun to repair some of its damaged infrastructure. This year the Anglican Missions’ Lenten Appeal supports the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East’s work in Gaza and in the West Bank to provide emergency health services and rehabilitation; education services, including psychosocial support to children facing trauma; and emergency support to affected communities.

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is one of 45 religious groups to initially sign Church World Service’s declaration calling on faith communities nationwide to stand against anti-immigrant policies through advocacy and prayer. Church World Service, of which The Episcopal Church is a “covenant member,” is an ecumenical organization that provides international disaster relief and assistance for refugees and asylum-seekers. The organization issued the Ash Wednesday Ecumenical Declaration: Defending Refuge on March 4, one day before the start of Lent, a time of reflection, prayer and penance. “With our nation now facing critical decisions about how it will uphold its most cherished values in relation to vulnerable immigrants and refugees, the ecumenical declaration urges the church to ground itself in Scripture,” the declaration says. “It also challenges our political leaders to remember that we are largely a nation of immigrants, and that how we treat the most vulnerable among us speaks volumes about our power and values on the global stage.” The declaration is open for signatures through Lent. The declaration was written in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders restricting immigration issued since he retook office on Jan. 20. The policy changes effectively halted the United States’ 45-year-old program of refugee resettlement, which had been facilitated by Episcopal Migration Ministries and nine other agencies with federal contracts to do that work. “Guided by our faith, we stand together against the sweeping measures that are devastating vulnerable families and jeopardizing their futures. These actions not only cause immediate harm but also threaten our country’s long-term ability to welcome and support those in need,” the declaration says. “We grieve for the families who have been torn apart, had years-long reunification plans cancelled, been detained and deported, have been unjustly blocked from accessing asylum protections, and have been left without access to the basic assistance they need to thrive.” The declaration lists seven pledges: Advocate for the Trump administration to reverse anti-immigration executive orders. Call on local, state and national policymakers to renounce the federal government’s anti-immigration policies while supporting policies that welcome and back immigrants. Encourage congregations to educate communities about the “biblical call to welcome” and honor immigrants through Sunday worship services and church activities at least once during Lent and during World Refugee Day on June 20. Provide resources, assistance and encouragement to congregations as they organize public educational events and advocacy actions. Work with immigration leaders to help identify and address community needs. Defend places of worship amid increasing immigration enforcement by speaking up for immigration and educating individuals and congregations on their constitutional rights. Invite other religious communities to make the same commitments supporting immigrants. “Against a backdrop of cuts to essential programs, a seeming push toward isolationism and rhetoric that encourages us to distrust our neighbors, this declaration is an urgent reminder of our values,” Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, said in a press release. “As followers of Jesus Christ, we welcome, we don’t turn away. We cherish inclusivity, we don’t spurn it. And, ultimately, our values lead us to community instead of division.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal congregations churchwide will begin Lent by offering Ashes to Go on Ash Wednesday, March 5, as a convenience for people unable to attend worship services in the middle of the week. Ashes to Go, is open to all branches of Christianity and “creates opportunities for people to take a fresh look at the church and the gospel.” Episcopal churches began participating in 2010, when Chicago, Illinois, and Missouri-area clergy and lay Episcopalians began imposing ashes on people in public areas, including suburban train platforms, coffee shops and outside grocery stores and laundromats. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, 40 days of penance, fasting, contemplation and prayer leading up to Easter. On Ash Wednesday, Christians receive blessed ashes in the shape of a cross on their forehead to symbolize mortality and penitence. The ashes are made from burning the dried palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday. The following is a list of some Episcopal parishes offering Ashes to Go. Check for additional offerings hosted by local dioceses and parishes in your area. All times are local. Washington, D.C. — St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square will offer Ashes to Go twice, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 4 to 6:30 p.m. Colorado Springs, Colorado — St. Michael’s Episcopal Church will impose Ashes to Go from 7 to 9 a.m. in the church’s parking lot. Bethesda, Maryland — St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church will impose Ashes to Go from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. in the church’s lower parking lot. Brownsburg, Indiana — Good Samaritan Episcopal Church will impose Ashes to Go at 7 a.m. in the church’s parking lot. Canton, Connecticut — Trinity Episcopal Church Collinsville will offer Ashes to Go from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m. Diocese of Los Angeles — Several churches throughout the Diocese of Los Angeles will host Ashes to Go events throughout the day. Click here for more information. Hillsdale, New Jersey — The Diocese of Newark will offer Ashes to Go at the Hillsdale Train Station from 6 to 8 a.m. Tallahassee, Florida — St. John’s Episcopal Church will offer Ashes to Go and one-on-one blessings from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Florida State Capitol rotunda. “The church rightly expects all practicing and able-bodied Christians to participate in the solemn Mass and Imposition of Ashes on this sacred day. We hope all who are far from home know they are welcome at our tables!” Bulverde, Texas — St. Nicholas Episcopal Church will offer Ashes to Go in the church’s sanctuary and front yard from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sacramento, California — St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will impose Ashes to Go from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the sidewalk outside the church at the corner of 15th and J streets. “As the Episcopal Church in the heart of downtown, St. Paul’s community will meet people where they are – on their way or during a break in the workday – just as Jesus went into the streets to find, teach and heal people. Ashes to Go moves the encounter with God out of the church building and into the spaces of everyday life where we live out our response to God. Please stop by for this brief encounter!” Roswell, Georgia — St. David’s Episcopal Church will offer a drive-thru Ashes to Go service from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. Seattle, Washington — The Episcopal Church of the Ascension will impose Ashes to Go from 8 to 8:30 a.m. Astoria, Oregon — Grace Episcopal Church will offer a curbside Ashes to Go service from noon to 1 p.m.  Anthony, New Mexico — St. Luke’s Episcopal Church will offer a drive-thru Ashes to Go service from 7 to 10:30 a.m. Elgin, Illinois — St. Hugh of Lincoln Episcopal Church will offer a drive-thru Ashes to Go service from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Omaha, Nebraska — St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church will impose Ashes to Go twice at the northwest corner of Elmwood Park at the drive into the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s campus, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Daphne, Alabama — St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will impose Ashes to Go between 2 to 5 p.m. in the church’s parking lot and the St. Paul’s Thrift Shop parking lot. Chandler, Arizona — St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church will offer Ashes to Go and prayers from 7 to 8 a.m. in the church’s parking lot. De Pere, Wisconsin — St. Anne’s Episcopal Church will offer drive-thru Ashes to Go services twice, from 7 to 8 a.m. and from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Crestwood, Missouri — The Episcopal Church of the Advent and the St. Thomas Deaf Church will offer Ashes to Go and prayers from 6 to 10 a.m. from the circle driveway off Buxton Dr.  -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Church of England] A church in the heart of one of the country’s most underprivileged areas is bringing local people together and helping them with their mental health and wellbeing, thanks to the launch of a series of environmental projects. Ten thousand people live in East Marsh in Grimsby. For many years it was home to those working in the fishing industry and at the port. But with the collapse of the fishing industry, things have changed in this community. East Marsh is now one of the poorest places in England on every metric: income, health, crime and education. More than a third of children in the area live in poverty, according to the End Child Poverty coalition, and within one square mile in the area, there are six food banks. One of them is linked to St. John and St. Stephen’s Church. It provides food for over 150 people three times a week. But the church is doing more than this; through changing its environment inside and out, it is aiming to bring people together, help with their mental health and wellbeing, and change the mindset of what’s possible, as well as greening the environment. Big ambitions for one church community. “We want to show people what can be done in a small place,” said the priest-in-charge, the Rev. Kay Jones. “So, we started with the church environment being different.” Inside the building, a bequest provided for LED lighting and thermal boards. ‘It’s not freezing anymore,” said Jones. “We can have warm-space activities. People like being here.” The church runs a dinner providing a main course and a pudding for £2.50 — or about $3 — which is “becoming more popular,” according to Jones. Outside, things have changed too. A gardening project has led to planters providing vegetables for the church kitchen, a potting shed and attractive planting. Nearby, the church plans to use a piece of waste ground to create a small orchard and a meadow. This was all funded through partnerships with grant-making bodies. The church was first approached by East Marsh United community group to build the potting shed using grant money from Grow Wild, the national outreach initiative of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Further funding was also given by the Royal Horticulture Society to build the planters at the front of the church. And a desolate patch on the street corner at the church will be transformed into a wildflower meadow and orchard thanks to the Native Species Project funding by Kew Gardens. “We have 0.07% tree cover,” said Jones. “It should be 15%, and the national requirement from the Tree Equity Score UK tool will be 30%, so we need people to buy into that. They need to see something small that they can connect with.” And people are connecting with it. An open day to launch the potting shed brought 17 adults and 27 children together. “It was hard to get rid of them at the end,” Jones joked. “It is changing things for lots of people,” she added. Those people included local youths, who destroyed the planters several times and threw things at people doing the gardening. But in the end, curiosity overcame them, and they helped “grafting” in the garden to help get the landscaping done. Older members of the church community are becoming grandparent figures to younger people who aren’t well-parented. “What I’m seeing is people wanting to be part of what we do,” said Jones. People are trying different foods grown in the garden, learning how – and what – to recycle in the church’s recycling bins, and crucially, learning where food comes from, helping to reduce their food bills. Many people live their whole lives in East Marsh, she said, unable to access the beautiful countryside around Grimsby, so greening the area is really important. “We have to be able to see that the natural world is beautiful, and the artificial world isn’t always working as well as it might for us,” she said. “If we can talk enough about that, people will see things differently.” Plans are afoot for a foraging garden, where you can touch and smell the plants, and pick raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and herbs. “If you sit among the plants, you will learn,” said Jones. “It won’t be forced. Our ethos is not about doing this to people, it’s working with them.” Local resident Melissa, who is recovering from drug addiction, regularly visits the church and enjoys the gardening club. She said, “I first came into the church when I was in a really vulnerable place. I was going back into active addiction and was in a bad way. This is a hard area to live and sometimes you can come here and be in a bad way – mentally and emotionally – but you will be cared about here and met where you are at.” East Marsh United Community Group member and local resident Rachel enjoys the church’s gardening club. She added, “When you are digging away or planting it gives you a chance to switch off, it’s so good for my mental health.” The enterprise shows that lives can be improved by simply enhancing the environment and naturally, people will come together, join in, and benefit from the changes.  

[Melbourne Anglican] Melbourne Anglicans will learn about the diocese’s gender-based violence work in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, often referred to as CALD,  in the lead up to this International Women’s Day, March 8. The Preventing Violence Against Women in Multicultural and Faith-Based Communities forum, taking place at at St. Philip’s, Collingwood on March 7, will feature learnings from the Safe and Thriving CALD Anglican project, research from Deakin University and observations from a panel of multicultural clergy. Panelist the Rev. Xiaoxi Lou said the forum would help increase awareness about violence in communities, which often does get seen but often goes unacknowledged. She hoped it would assure people caught in violent situations that the church supported them, while simultaneously making others aware they, too, could act to counter family violence. “Different cultures will often deal with violence differently, and being a voice to acknowledge that God and the Anglican church do not see violence as OK within the family, can help bring light and truth to these situations,” Lou said. The Rev. Prashant Bhonsle said he was participating because he was concerned about the world being divided by gender lines, globalization and patriarchy especially. He believed the focus on growing churches tended not to give long term consideration to how congregations would evolve without integrating gender justice and challenging the patriarchal structures of society. “We would not really be able to have a holistic, ecumenical and justice-oriented approach in our congregations without that long-term thinking,” Bhonsle said. “We need to have gender justice as a core concern running across all our themes and programs of our congregational life right from the beginning. Interpreting the Scriptures with an inclusive dimension is very important for any priest to foster an inclusive understanding.” He said this was important to empower women as well as people with different gender orientations in congregations. “Unless we affirm that we all created in the image of God, we will be unable to sail forward,” Bhonsle said. He added he hoped forum attendees would gain a good understanding of the challenges some congregations faced while trying to address such a sensitive issue as gender-based violence. CALD PVAW project officer Sarah Aruliah said the four-year-old initiative had given the diocese a better understanding about the CALD genderspace. She said there were many unique layers that needed to be covered in working with faith, multiple cultures and prevention work, and there were plenty of insights to be shared. Aruliah said the diocese was leading the way in intersecting those areas and working with different cultures, but it was still learning, and building support networks with other faith-based and secular anti-violence organizations. She said the forum was open to everyone, and would be especially useful for people from culturally diverse communities and clergy.

[Diocese of Dallas] The Bishop Coadjutor Search Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas on March 4 announced a slate of three candidates for the diocese’s bishop coadjutor. They are: The Rev. William Carroll, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Longview, Texas; The Rt. Rev. Fraser Lawton, bishop assistant in the Diocese of Dallas and rector of the Church of St. Dunstan’s Church in Mineola, Texas; The Very Rev. Rob Price, dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Dallas, Texas. The candidates will participate in five meet-and-greet sessions around the diocese from April 1–4. The electing convention is scheduled for May 3 at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas. No date has been announced for the consecration of the bishop coadjutor, who will serve alongside Dallas Bishop George Sumner until his retirement. The bishop coadjutor then will become the eighth bishop of Dallas. Sumner has been bishop since November 2015. The release of the slate also marks the beginning of the petition process. That process will close at noon Central time on March 11. Additional information is on the diocesan website’s bishop coadjutor election hub.

[Scottish Episcopal Church] Newcomers to the Scottish Episcopal Church and members of staff from the General Synod Office got together this month at Provincial Welcome Day in Edinburgh, to learn more about the church and how it operates, and to make useful contacts with others. Each year, invitations are extended to the newly ordained; those newly authorized as lay readers, clergy or lay readers who have come to the province from outside Scotland; and new members of staff at diocesan offices. Among them this year was the Rev. Nicholas Bundock, the new bishop-elect in the Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway. This year’s attendees were welcomed by the new secretary general, Dee Bird, who was also enjoying her first experience of Welcome Day. After opening worship led by the Rev. Elizabeth Thomson, the gathering heard an overview of the history of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and its place in contemporary Scottish society, from Primus Mark Strange. The morning session also included sessions on provincial governance and the General Synod Office, the Scottish Episcopal Institute, the church’s Net Zero strategy, and safeguarding. In the afternoon, Bishop Ian Paton guided the group through the history and development of Scottish Episcopal Church liturgies, then Claire Benton Evans, the provincial youth coordinator, gave a presentation on youth work, reminding everyone that young people are not the church of tomorrow, but the church of today. A networking opportunity then took place, to get to know others in similar positions in the church or to talk with GSO staff and establish provincial links, before the Rev. Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh of the Scottish Episcopal Institute brought the day to an end with closing worship.

[Anglican Communion News Service] Anglican women leaders from across the Communion gathered at Virginia Theological Seminary Feb. 25–28 for the Women Mentoring Women Leadership Conference, an event designed to empower, connect and support women in ministry and leadership. Hosted by the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at VTS, the four-day conference brought together over 40 women from 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. Participants included bishops, rectors, non-governmental organization leaders, church representatives, and students from VTS, creating a diverse space for sharing experiences, wisdom, and strategies for advancing women’s leadership across the Communion. The conference provided a space for women to engage in mentorship, peer learning and mutual encouragement, fostering strong networks for continued collaboration. Sessions explored pressing issues such as poverty, conflict, gender injustice, violence and the future of women’s leadership in the church. Participants engaged in panel discussions, small group reflections, worship, and mentoring sessions, all aimed at equipping and encouraging one another. The Rev. Katherine Grieb, director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies, reflected on the impact of the gathering, saying, “The conference empowered Anglican women to lead with nuanced understandings of self, history and context, and provided a space for Holy Spirit-led visioning and dreaming. It was exciting to hear powerful testimonies from so many leading women from around the communion.” A key highlight of the event was a screening of “The Philadelphia 11,” a documentary about the first women to be ordained as priests in The Episcopal Church, which sparked rich conversations about the challenges and breakthroughs of women in ordained ministry. Representatives from Women on the Frontline and the International Anglican Women’s Network were present, engaging in discussions on future collaborations and strategies to advance gender justice. The Anglican Communion Office was represented by Mandy Marshall, director for gender justice, who led a session on well-being and self-care for women in leadership. She described the gathering as a powerful moment of solidarity, learning, and encouragement, saying, “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have met with an amazing group of women from across the communion, who are bringing hope and light into dark places. Over these days, we have learned from and with one another, standing together in solidarity, prayer, and support. With so much happening in our world, it has been vital to gather, encourage one another, and strengthen our shared commitment to walking the path God has given us.”

[Episcopal News Service] People who have died from gun violence were remembered at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, through a recently concluded art installation that featured nearly 600 T-shirts, which represents the average number of gun deaths every 50 days in Texas. The shirts were arranged in rows and then mounted on three large panels made of netting. Those panels were placed on the outside of St. David’s parking garage, adjacent to the church, and displayed Feb. 20 to March 2. The installation, “Vidas Robadas/Stolen Lives,” was launched by Texas Impact, an interfaith advocacy network, as a way to make visible the reality of gun violence in communities all across the state. It was created under the direction of Austin artist Alicia Philley and was timed to coincide with Gun Violence Awareness Day at the Texas Capitol, also in Austin, on Feb. 27. Dianne Hardy-Garcia, the church’s director of community engagement and advocacy, told Episcopal News Service that church members made 250 of the shirts, all of them white, to remember people who died by suicide involving a gun. They were told which families wanted the name, age and birth date or death date to appear on the shirt of their loved one, she said. For others, their shirts simply remember “another life lost” or “otra robada vida.” All include the phone number for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline – 988. The colorful shirts were made by other churches and represent victims of gun homicide. Since some of them had been displayed elsewhere, St. David’s members made sure to touch up any of the information on them that had faded, Hardy-Garcia said. The installation was blessed on Feb. 26 by St. David’s assistant rector, the Rev. Kristin Braun, with Philley, the artist, and parishioners who had helped create T-shirts attending. St. David’s became involved with Vidas Robadas through a recently formed parish advocacy group, Hardy-Garcia said, which had been seeking ways to become involved in issues affecting the state from a perspective of faith. “The question was, how do we as people of faith talk about public policy in a way that comes from a prayerful place?” she said. “Members wanted to be part of this as an offering of public prayer,” she said, as well as a call to action. Texas Bishop Suffragan Jeff W. Fisher, a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, also noted the prayer-based nature of what the church undertook. “On Sundays, many of our churches pray ‘for the victims of hunger, fear, injustice and oppression,’” he said in an email to ENS. “The art installation at St. David’s is a visual form of prayer and a memorial to victims, bringing our attention to common sense gun safety measures.” Gun violence in the United States killed 48,204 people in 2022, according to the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. The majority of those – about 56% – were firearm suicides. Gun homicides make up 41%. The remaining 3% includes people who died by accidental gunshots or were killed by law enforcement. Hardy-Garcia said that as church members created the white T-shirts, they talked about their own experiences with gun violence. “Four people had lost a sibling to gun violence by suicide,” she said, and the chance to talk about it gave them a real sense of support. Texas also has seen its share of mass shootings, she said, noting the deaths of 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary Schools in Uvalde in May 2022. And while it’s hard for any gun violence legislation to pass the state Legislature, she said that “praying with their hands and hearts” to create the art installation has inspired some people to explore other actions they might take. The church isn’t calling for any particular policy to be enacted, she said. “We’re just encouraging people to find ways to be involved.” When it comes to taking political action, Fisher said that “one definition of ‘being political’ is to publicly care about the way that we regard and treat our neighbors, so that they may not fear violence and oppression.” He added, “Jesus expands our understanding of neighbor, so that we will love all people, with mercy, respect and dignity.” — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

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

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

[Religion News Service] The Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study’s 2023-24 edition, released on Feb. 26, points at changes in American religious observance, including those identifying as Christian, stabilizing after years of steady decline and growth of the religiously unaffiliated leveling off. Generally, a decline in American religiousness observed since at least 2007 has slowed over the past four to five years. However, Pew Research Center noted in its report that the country is heading toward less religiousness. “The U.S. is a spiritual place, a religious place, where we’ve seen a signs of religious stabilization in the midst of longer-term decline,” said Gregory Smith, a senior associate director of research at Pew, during a press briefing. Now on its third edition, Pew released similar reports in 2007 and 2014, aiming to fill a gap in recognized, reliable data sources on America’s religious composition, beliefs and practices. From July 2023 to March 2024, the center polled 35,000 adult respondents randomly selected from the U.S. Postal Service address registry. This third edition was to be published in 2021 but was postponed to avoid flawed results due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on religious life. After dropping from 78% to 71% between 2007 and 2014, the share of U.S. adults identifying as Christian has now dropped to 62%, according to the report. However, it notes this figure has been relatively stable since 2019, oscillating between 60% and 64%. Protestants are still the largest subgroup of Christians, with 40% of American adults identifying as such. However, all major Protestant denominations have declined since the first Pew RLS report in 2007. The percentage of respondents who identify as evangelical Protestants dropped from 26% to 23%; those who identify as mainline Protestants dropped from 18% to 11%; and those in historically Black Protestant denominations decreased from 7% to 5%. Catholics are the second largest, representing 19% of the entire Christian population. Other denominations, including Greek and Russian Orthodox, The Church of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, represent 3% of the Christian population. Members of the United Methodist Church declined from 5% to 3% of U.S. adults since 2007. The report also indicates similar declines in Baptist and Lutheran Christians. However, those identifying as non-Christian religious adults rose from 4.9% in 2007, to 5.9% in 2014, and to 7.1% in 2023-24. Among them, 1.7% identified as Jewish, 1.2% as Muslim, 1.1% as Buddhist and 0.9% as Hindu, in addition to 2.2% who identified as “other non-Christian religions.”  Additionally, the growth of the religiously unaffiliated, also called nones, has plateaued after decades of rapid growth. In 2007, they represented 16% of U.S. adults, rising to 23% in 2014, and 29% in 2023-24. It includes 5% who identify as atheists, 6% who describe themselves as agnostics and 19% who identify as “nothing in particular.”  More than 8 out of 10 American adults indicated they were spiritual or believe in the supernatural; 86% agreed people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. A large portion also believe in God or a universal spirit (83%) and/or something spiritual beyond the natural world (79%). About 70% indicated they believe in heaven, hell or both. These figures are relatively the same across age categories. Though this latest study shows a stabilizing religious composition in America, Pew researchers project a decline in religiousness in the future. Less religious younger generations are progressively expected to replace older, highly religious and heavily Christian generations. “This means that, for lasting stability to take hold in the U.S. religious landscape, something would need to change,” the report explains. “For example, today’s young adults would have to become more religious as they age, or new generations of adults who are more religious than their parents would have to emerge.”  While 54% of adults ages 54 and older said they pray daily, only 31% ages 24-34 do so, and 27% for ages 18-24. Younger cohorts also attend religious services less often compared with older generations and are also less likely to express beliefs in God or the universal spirit than other generations. The trend could shift if younger Americans became more religious as they age, which is unlikely to happen as such a trend has never been observed before, the report notes. And comparing the results to previous report findings, between 2007 and 2023-24, each age group has become less religious as it aged. The share of American adults who switched religions since childhood, at 35%, has also increased the religiously unaffiliated and led to fewer people identifying as Christians.  The percentage of Americans who engage in religious practices remained relatively stable over the last few years, despite decreasing from 2007, according to Pew. In the 2023-24 report, 44% of respondents said they pray at least once a day, which is consistent with 2021 findings from Pew’s annual National Public Opinion Reference Survey. However, that’s down from 55% who said they prayed daily in 2014, and 58% in 2007. Also, in Pew’s 2020 NPORS, 33% of U.S. adults said they attend religious services at least once or twice a month. Similar results were found in 2023-24 data, indicating stability over the last several years. Besides the generational aspect, other factors such as gender and political affiliations seem to weigh in levels of religiousness. Overall, women are more religious than men, but that figure appears to be narrowing slightly. Women are more likely to pray daily (50% to 37% for men) and are more likely to believe in God or a universal spirit (59% to 49%). Liberals also seem to be less likely to identify as Christians, with a notable decrease since 2007 — today, 37% of self-described political liberals identify as Christian, compared with 62% who did in 2007. Among self-described conservatives, 89% identify as Christian today, compared with 82% in 2007.   

[Episcopal News Service] Washington Bishop Mariann Budde has drawn intense national and international attention in the past month for her Jan. 21 sermon at Washington National Cathedral,  in which she spoke directly to President Donald Trump in attendance and asked him to “have mercy.” This week, Budde thanked all the people who have responded favorably to that sermon, in a video message she recorded literally in front of some 20,000 positive responses – a mountain of letters piled high in postal crates on a desk. “I cannot tell you how much it has meant to me to receive the letters and phone calls and notes and gifts and expressions of gratitude, support and encouragement, and I am persuaded that there is a spirit of love and goodness in this land that flows through all of us,” Budde said. Budde, in her post-inauguration 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 LGTBQ+ people and immigrants at the start of Trump’s second term. Trump later demanded an apology, calling Budde a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” whose sermon was “ungracious” and “nasty in tone.” Though many of Trump’s supporters shared the president’s view, Budde also became a kind of folk hero for many Americans who saw her as one of the few public figures calling for compassion and respect for human dignity as the new Trump administration began swiftly upending existing policies and democratic norms. Last week, churchwide leaders thanked Budde personally for her “courageous, Gospel-related words” when she appeared via Zoom in a gathering with members of Executive Council, which was meeting Feb. 17-19 in suburban Baltimore, Maryland. Executive Council greeted Budde with applause, according to an official summary of the meeting. “Then council members shared stories of the impact of her remarks as well as concerns about her safety,” the summary said. “Budde reassured everyone she was fine. One speaker described Budde’s remarks as a breaking in of the Spirit into the midst of much turmoil.” A Diocese of Washington spokesperson said nearly all of the more than 20,000 pieces of physical mail Budde received in the past month were positive. “They are almost all letters of thanks to Bishop Budde for speaking about mercy and kindness and for helping them feel comfort in their fear,” she told Episcopal News Service. Email communications to Budde and the diocese, on the other hand, have been more divided, some angry at the bishop and others expressing gratitude and support. Budde offered more words of encouragement in her video statement, posted Feb. 25 as a Facebook reel. The video had logged more than 300,000 views in less than two days. “Now is a time for us to stand together, to take courage from one another and learn together how we are to be brave now and to hold on to the things that are good about us and about our country,” Budde said. “Together, God will work through us to bring about the kind of society, the kind of community, that we all deserve and that we want to pass on to those who come after us. So, take good care, have courage and remember that together we can all be brave.” – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] “We’re embarking on a season of change … and it’s never easy,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said during a Feb. 26 keynote conversation at the 40th annual Episcopal Parish Network conference in Kansas City, Missouri. “This institution has got to change and shift. … I think the key with leadership in this time is not to be seduced by praise or depressed by criticism, but to do our most faithful work,” he said.  Nearly 700 Episcopal clergy and lay leaders churchwide are gathering at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center here for the Feb. 25-28 conference. This year’s theme, “Together in Hope: Leading With Purpose,” is intended to inspire Episcopalians to be productive leaders during times of transition, both in the church and in society. Rowe’s keynote conversation on the topic “Vision for Our Future” with Eric Motley, deputy director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and chair of the chapter at Washington National Cathedral, largely focused on innovative models of governance, collaboration and ministry to address necessary structural changes in The Episcopal Church. Formerly known as the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, the Episcopal Parish Network is a national, membership-based organization of clergy and lay leaders representing more than 250 parishes of all sizes and budgets. The network offers peer-to-peer online education and other leadership initiatives throughout the year. Its conference, the largest annual Episcopal gathering, is a time for clergy and lay leaders to learn from each other and share best practices for creating vigorous ministries and congregations. Sister Sarah Randall, a member of the Society of St. Margaret, an Episcopal women’s religious order, took notes during the keynote conversation. Afterward, she told Episcopal News Service that she appreciated Rowe explaining why structural changes are necessary for the church’s relevance in the long run, even though there may initially be “a lot of hurt” in the process. She also said she appreciated that Rowe “kept bringing it back to Jesus” throughout the conversation. “I’ll have to go back to my notes for reference because Bishop Rowe gave us a lot of food for thought and for prayer,” she said. “I liked the fact that he was calling a spade a spade, and at the same time he was explaining why there is still hope. If we are focused, we have all these things to do that are all good things that need to happen.” Rowe’s keynote conversation occurred less than a week after he announced staff cuts and the reorganization of several church departments as part of an anticipated structural realignment that eventually will reduce positions from about 143 to 110 and save an estimated $2.13 million a year – at least in the short term – in personnel costs.  Adaptive change requires identifying the actual problems, learning what the solutions are, and then saying the problems belong, not with the experts, but with all the stakeholders. In the first phase, he said, there will be errors. “I think I’ll know what success looks like if this church is doing what we’re called to do, which is to reach people from the Gospel and reconcile the world to God in Christ,” Rowe said. “We don’t need to be creating programs as much as empowering local grassroots networks for a more networked church. …We want to make a greater impact, and we’re networked together and we’re doing it in a way that is encouraging and inspiring to each other.” The Rev. Leon Sampson, an Arizona-based Navajoland priest and a member of The Episcopal Church’s research commission on Indigenous boarding schools, provided the opening prayer for the conversation in his native Navajo language. He told ENS that Rowe’s pointed self-awareness concerning the feedback he’d receive in response to the church’s staffing changes was “like fresh water” coming for the church in a time of uncertainty. “It was an affirmation for us to hear that we’re in the right place, and we’re in the right direction,” Sampson said. “This is a time of discernment for the church to take action in ensuring its vitality and recognize all that’s happening in the world so that we can engage with ministries and outreach in all the right ways.” Rowe said he’s “resigned myself to be maybe one of the least popular presiding bishops” with his plans to put The Episcopal Church on the right track to remain animated and pertinent to a rapidly evolving secular world. At the same time, he said he wants the church to respond compassionately to contemporary global challenges. “The work of repositioning is going to be painful; it’s also going to be extraordinarily hopeful, and I believe that we will position ourselves to do the things we really want to do,” Rowe said. “That’s what makes it exciting. The kingdom of God is in our midst. Christ is in our midst, and we have some serious issues that we’re facing – and they’re existential.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Office of the Archbishop of York] Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell has expressed concern over the decision by the United Kingdom’s government to cut Official Development Assistance (ODA) from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income, following the prime minister’s announcement of increased defense spending. While acknowledging the need for investment in national security, Cottrell has questioned whether reducing vital aid funding is the right approach. He said “Defense and development are not competing priorities; they are complementary. Properly used, development funding helps prevent conflicts, tackle instability and build a safer, more just world. Cutting aid in this way risks exacerbating the very crises that lead to insecurity.” This decision comes at a time when global need is rising and of the impact this will have across some of the poorest communities in the Anglican Communion. Cottrell is urging that the government ensures that increases in defense spending include robust investment in preventative diplomacy and conflict resolution mechanisms. “True security is not only about military strength — it is also about addressing the root causes of conflict, poverty, and instability,” he said. “I am asking that the government conduct a full assessment of how these aid cuts will affect existing U.K.-funded development programs and to take every possible step to shield the world’s most vulnerable from the consequences of this decision. “

[Melbourne Anglican] At-risk young people are being equipped with valuable life skills to help them transition into independent living, thanks to a community initiative at Footscray Anglican parish. The workshops focus on car maintenance and safety and are run in partnership with Concern Australia, a youth charity that works with disadvantaged young people across Melbourne. Footscray vicar the Rev. Nigel Pope said the church was excited to use its facilities to give hospitality and welcome to young people. “This initiative is about more than just skills — it’s about fostering belonging, support and a sense of community,” he said. Young people who participated said the program was fun and they learned a lot. They said they liked that the instructor was non-judgmental toward silly questions. “They made it fun to learn everything,” one participant said. “It was a great program run by good blokes and I enjoyed it very much,” said another. Footscray assistant curate the Rev. Kezha Angami said practical skills like car maintenance can make a real difference in people’s lives. “We hope these workshops will not only teach but also build confidence and community,” he said. Concern Australia chief executive Judith Atkinson said the partnership with Footscray was an exciting extension of the range of workshops and programs they already provide across Melbourne. “It will be a great way to help build positive community connections for young people as they transition to adulthood,” she said. Funding for the pilot program was provided by Maribyrnong City Council. Concern Australia grew out of projects initiated by the Rev. John Smith more than 40 years ago. It provides a range of services to young people including employment skills, housing and homelessness outreach.

[Religion News Service] Religious groups challenging President Donald Trump won a pair of legal victories this week, blocking the administration’s efforts to dismantle the refugee program and reinstating sensitive-location protections from immigration enforcement in some houses of worship. On Feb. 25, a federal judge in Washington state sided with the plaintiffs — which included Church World Service, HIAS and Lutheran Community Services Northwest, as well as individual refugees and family members — blocking the president’s Jan. 20 executive order to suspend the refugee program. In his ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said the president’s actions amounted to a “nullification of congressional will,” arguing the president does not have “limitless” authority over refugee admissions. Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, a Jewish refugee resettlement agency, said that unlike when Trump suspended new refugee admissions during his first term, his latest actions began to dismantle the program by abruptly cutting off funding for critical infrastructure. The funding freeze also resulted in widespread furloughs and layoffs within HIAS and other religious organizations that partner with the federal government to resettle refugees. Whitehead’s ruling will block the president’s suspension and allow entrance into the U.S. — at least for now — of refugees who had been approved to enter the country but were unable to after Trump’s executive order. This includes more than 600 refugees HIAS had been working with who, Hetfield said, had been left in a limbo. Hetfield also celebrated U.S. District Court Judge Amir H. Ali’s enforcement earlier Tuesday of his previous temporary restraining order that required the Trump administration to restore funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development and nonprofit partners, such as HIAS. “That ruling and this ruling gives us hope that you still have the rule of law in this country, and that the president is not above the law,” Hetfield said. He added: “The courts are still working in this country. Thank God.” Danilo Zak, director of policy at Church World Service, cautioned in an interview with RNS that “ it remains really difficult for us to understand what this will mean” until a written ruling from the judge is issued. Still, Zak said, “ we’re hopeful to see refugee resettlement resume and funds get reimbursed,” noting refugees resettled by CWS in the U.S. are facing homelessness without the federal funds promised to provide them housing in their first months in the country. Matt Misterek, communications director at Lutheran Community Services Northwest, said his group was also “very happy” about the ruling but said he expected the Trump administration would appeal. “There’s no guarantee the president is going to start refunding this program,” he said, noting evidence that the administration has bucked other recent court orders. Meanwhile, a small number of faith groups received a preliminary injunction Monday restricting immigration raids at their houses of worship, actions that were allowed after the Trump administration rescinded an internal “sensitive locations” policy that discouraged immigration enforcement at locations such as churches, hospitals and schools. The injunction only applies to the plaintiffs’ houses of worship, not all houses of worship nationwide. A collection of Quaker groups, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship network and a large Sikh temple in Sacramento, California, sued the Department of Homeland Security and its Cabinet secretary, Kristi Noem, last month over the policy change removing restrictions on immigration enforcement at houses of worship. The groups asked the court to declare the new policy — which leaves such raids up to the law enforcement officer’s “discretion” — to be an unconstitutional burden on their religious exercise. The plaintiffs argued the heightened possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at their houses of worship had impacted attendance at services, even for immigrants with legal status and U.S. citizens, because of a history of ICE arrests and deportations of those groups. In the weeks since Trump took office, in several high-profile cases, U.S. citizens who are Latino or Native American have been detained and questioned, as have immigrants with legal status. Noting that one CBF congregation had reported a 66% decline in attendance at its English-language class, in addition to widespread losses in attendance for many of the plaintiffs, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang wrote that “a reduction in attendance at religious services and activities constitutes a concrete injury in fact.” In their complaint, Quakers noted their commitments to peace and nonviolence and wrote that the threat of armed immigration officers entering their spaces would impact all members’ ability to exercise their faith. “The presence of a weapon in a Quaker meeting would be absolutely unacceptable,” the complaint notes. Chuang, appointed to the District of Maryland by former President Barack Obama, wrote that the court doesn’t question “that law enforcement, when necessary, must have the ability to conduct operations in or near places of worship,” but that, in DHS’ new policy, “the lack of any meaningful limitations or safeguards on such activity likely does not satisfy these constitutional and statutory requirements.” For the Rev. Juan García, pastor of the Hispanic congregation of First Baptist Church in Newport News, Virginia, Monday’s temporary injunction “means some fresh air to breathe” and relief from pressure. “There has been fear and anxiety among our church and not only immigrants that may be undocumented,” the Puerto Rican pastor said, but also for U.S. citizens like himself. “ We might be interrupted in our worship service any minute,” García said, noting this fear of immigration enforcement has also created anxiety around new visitors. “It is not our job” to check people’s immigration status, García said. “ There are people who need God. There are people who love God. There are people who are loved by God, so we just minister to them.” García’s church is part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a network of 1,800 Baptist congregations that formed in 1991 after breaking with the Southern Baptist Convention. The CBF’s governing board, which García leads as moderator, voted unanimously to join the lawsuit. The Rev. Paul Baxley, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, told RNS that the CBF leadership […]

[Diocese of Atlanta] To sing in the choir or take Communion at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Columbus, Georgia, you needed the ability to climb: two stories to the choir loft, three steps to the altar rail. Today those barriers are gone after the recent renovation funded by a capital campaign with the slogan “Making Room for All.” The new design makes level the sacred spaces that symbolize the passage between earth and heaven. On Feb. 23, Atlanta Bishop Rob Wright dedicated the new nave at the 10:30 a.m. service, which also included confirmation and reception into The Episcopal Church. “St. Thomas really seeks and welcomes and values all people,” the Rev. Grace Burton-Edwards, the church’s rector, said. “It was important to us to eliminate barriers to actively participating in the life of the church, sharing in the sacraments and being a full part of the body. We wanted to do everything we could to make it more possible for all people to share and participate.” Now communicants can easily receive at the altar rail, the A-frame nave holds 80 more people than before, and the 11 new parking spaces include four ADA-compliant spaces close to the chapel. Behind the new altar, a choir of 45 – with space for 60 or more – sings from behind a reredos (ornamental screen). The old choir loft is a cozy spot for families with young children and groups of youth. The project is a testament to the generous parishioners at St. Thomas. A $1 million unrestricted lead gift and a bequest helped inspire the congregation of 578. In a typical year, 160 parishioners pledge to support the church’s budget. That giving held steady as parishioners made an additional 145 pledges to the capital campaign, Burton-Edwards said. Those gifts enabled the church to avoid a construction loan and any debt from the project. “Each of these major gifts provided further encouragement that this was the right time to complete this project that was envisioned by the building’s original architect 50-some years ago,” said Ron Wirt, who chaired the fundraising committee along with Travis Wade, Tanya Edwards-Jones and Norm Easterbrook. “Being debt-free feels like an extra blessing in it all, that we’re not burdened,” Burton-Edwards added. “We were able to move forward prudently but also boldly due to the generosity of the congregation.” Designed to transform Built in 1958 with a design meant for expansion, St. Thomas has experienced significant growth in membership. By 2023, the average Sunday attendance was 226 — up 65%  from a decade before — and nearly $700,000 in plate and pledge offerings represents a 108 percent increase over the same span. Members began strategically planning ways to grow sustainably and better align the church with its mission. Along with the accessibility barriers, the original 270 seats weren’t enough; they needed 350. More parking was needed. “I think America needs 1 million more Episcopalians,” parishioner Andrew Meeks said during the vision campaign. “A million more people committed to social justice, to helping the poor, to praying for the sick. A million more people who believe in equality and that everyone is deserving of God’s love… But it would present a challenge: we are going to need somewhere for them to sit!” As the congregation explored accessibility solutions, they identified money-savers like more efficient lighting and HVAC systems. The renovation became a story that reflected who they are and where they are going. A preview during construction On the Sunday after Easter 2024, when the gospel lesson about St. Thomas’s encounter with the risen Christ is read, parishioners moved the worship space into the parish hall. Somewhat like a barn-raising, the nave-moving relocated all the pews, the altar rail, a piano and more. “We had a fried chicken lunch, the Easter egg hunt with all the kids, and then everybody moved everything into the parish hall in one fell swoop,” Burton-Edwards said. The main barriers to accessibility were in the chancel, where the altar, lectern, pulpit, credence table and seats for clergy are located. The chancel is typically raised somewhat above the level of the nave, where the congregation gathers. At St. Thomas, everything from the altar rail to the back wall was torn down and rebuilt. The organ was overhauled by Cornel Zimmer Organ Builders, with the pipes and digital components reconfigured to create an antiphonal organ, enhancing the variety of sounds and the accompanying voices. The relocation lasted during the eight months of construction, and it surprisingly previewed the power of making room for all. “I thought it was going to be unpleasant or hard or that people wouldn’t want to come worship with St. Thomas during that time,” Burton-Edwards said. “Instead, the feeling was that something wonderful is happening here. And we hadn’t even realized it, but in the parish hall we were handicapped accessible. You knew that we were all on one level.” The renovation led by Batson-Cook Construction and 2WR+Partners Architects also represented how the congregation identifies itself: “Like the apostle Thomas, we encounter the risen Christ in our lives together and find ourselves transformed.” Symbols of home and God’s enduring presence  The monumental reredos screen, with diagonal wood pieces that suggest a house, was part of the redesign by John E. Joyner III, who focuses on liturgical design and planning for Episcopal parishes. He holds a doctoral degree in architecture from Georgia Tech as well as a doctoral minor in Anglican studies from Candler School of Theology at Emory University. His design of the pulpit, lectern, Communion rail and credence tables echoes that of the patterns found in the reredos screen. A church’s design is a metaphor for its theology, Joyner said, and St. Thomas rebuilt the experience of leaving the nave (earth) and going to the chancel (heaven) to receive Holy Communion. “We wanted to stress the whole idea of the transcendent and being in eternal communion with God,” he said. The day after the […]

[Episcopal News Service] The realignment plan for churchwide operations that Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe unveiled last week was primarily focused on reorienting and, in some cases, phasing out departments and staff positions as a part of Rowe’s vision of an Episcopal Church that better serves its dioceses. At the same time, another level of church governance remains in a prolonged state of transition: the church’s canonical leadership team. The Episcopal Church is incorporated in the state of New York as the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, or the DFMS. Episcopal Church Canons and the DFMS’ Constitution specify at least five individuals serve as the institution’s officers, starting with the presiding bishop and the House of Deputies president. The other three positions named as officers are the church’s chief financial officer, its chief operating officer and the secretary of Executive Council. In recent years, the secretary role has been held by the executive officer of General Convention, who also has served as secretary of convention. All of those positions are now in transition. Kurt Barnes, the church’s current chief financial officer, announced in December that he plans to retire after 21 years. He agreed to remain on staff while the presiding officers – Rowe and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris – recruit and nominate Barnes’ successor. The canons give Executive Council the authority to appoint the presiding officers’ nominee. “We have had a quite tremendously diverse pool of applicants for the position,” Rowe told Executive Council on Feb. 19, the final day of the governing body’s three-day meeting last week. In consultation with current and former Executive Council members, Rowe said he and Ayala Harris have narrowed the field to four finalists. After picking their nominee, they expect to call a special meeting of Executive Council in March for an approval vote. A day after council’s meeting, on Feb. 20, Rowe issued a letter to the church summarizing a series of staff cuts, including 14 layoffs, as well as department reorganizations and changes to certain staff’s titles as he carries out the first phase of the realignment. One of the positions affected was chief operating officer. The church’s last permanent chief operations officer was the Rev. Geoffrey Smith, a deacon who retired at the end of 2022. Then-Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Ayala Harris selected Jane Cisluycis, a former Executive Council member, as their nominee to replace Smith, but when some members of Executive Council objected to the recruitment process, Curry and Ayala Harris agreed to change Cisluycis’ title to acting COO. Executive Council, though still divided over the nomination, approved Cisluycis in February 2023. In his Feb. 20 letter, Rowe stated, “our realignment process has indicated that, at this time, we do not need to fill the role of chief operating officer.” Instead, Cisluycis will remain on staff with the new title of senior director of operations, Rowe said. Cisluycis will retain most of the former responsibilities of the COO, including information technology, human resources, archives, and building services. Rowe did not say when, if ever, the COO position would be filled again, as outlined in the canons – which also leaves vacant one of the officer positions mandated by the DFMS Constitution. The canons say, “upon joint nomination by the Chair and the Vice-Chair [the two presiding officers], the Council shall appoint a Chief Operating Officer who shall serve at the pleasure of, and report and be accountable to, the Chair [the presiding bishop].” As for the Executive Council secretary, permanently filling that position is complicated by the fact that, in the past, the role of secretary has been filled by the person serving as executive officer of General Convention. General Convention’s last executive officer, the Rev. Michael Barlowe, retired at the end of the summer 2024 after 11 years in that office. During the ongoing transition, Barlowe’s former deputy, the Rev. Molly James, was named by Curry and Ayala Harris as interim executive officer, and for now, James also is filling Barlowe’s former role of Executive Council secretary. Barlowe, as head of the General Convention Office, had been the central churchwide official responsible for the administration of church governance. The General Convention Office’s duties have included negotiating contracts for venues and accommodations at each General Convention, coordinating the meetings of all the church’s interim governing bodies, receiving and tallying parochial report data from dioceses and congregations, facilitating the consent process for bishop elections, and ensuring the church has the technology needed to achieve all those goals. Initially, Curry and Ayala Harris announced a timeline for replacing Barlowe that would have culminated in the presiding officers presenting a nominee for Executive Council’s approval this month. That timeline no longer pertains. Rowe was elected the 28th presiding bishop in June 2024 and took office Nov. 1, and one of his first actions as presiding bishop was to propose a new committee structure for Executive Council, including the creation of a committee “to examine the role, function and canonical structure of the position of the executive officer of General Convention.” That newly formed committee, led by Katie Sherrod of the Diocese of Texas, produced a four-page report that was presented and discussed by Executive Council when it met last week in suburban Baltimore, Maryland. “The vacancy in the position of Executive Officer has afforded an opportunity to provide clarity for the church in the search for the right person for that role,” the report says.  “It is challenging to understand because it always has been entangled with the canonical positions of the Secretary of the House of Deputies, the Secretary of the General Convention, and the other offices held, ex officio, by the Secretary of the General Convention.” The role, if it were a painting, “would be by Picasso during his Cubism period,” the committee added. The committee suggested three possible paths to pursue: Separate the duties of secretary and executive officer, completely integrate the duties of the two […]

[Episcopal News Service — Kansas City, Missouri] The Episcopal Parish Network’s 40th annual conference is underway as Episcopal clergy and lay leaders come together to learn from each other and share best practices for creating vigorous ministries and congregations. “I think every year there’s always something new to learn or something to take home, something to be and someone to be inspired by,” the Rev. Peggy Lo, rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, and president of Episcopal Parish Network’s board of directors, told Episcopal News Service. “There’s so much going on in the church and lots to explore.” Nearly 700 Episcopal clergy and lay leaders churchwide are gathering at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center here for the Feb. 25-28 conference. This year’s theme, “Together in Hope: Leading With Purpose,” is intended to inspire Episcopalians to be productive leaders during times of transition, both in the church and society.  Formerly known as the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, the Episcopal Parish Network is a national, membership-based organization of clergy and lay leaders representing more than 250 parishes of all sizes and budgets. The network offers peer-to-peer online education and other leadership initiatives throughout the year. Its conference is the largest annual Episcopal gathering. Joe Swimmer, EPN executive director, told ENS that the organization and annual conference focus on local ministries. “I’m most enthusiastic to see how resources that come from the churchwide structure or from dioceses enable parishes and cathedrals to thrive,” he said. “Church is family … and I want The Episcopal Church to thrive so that we can have the impact within society that we should.” The conference officially kicked off on Feb. 25 with the Episcopal Preaching Foundation lunch, followed by a pre-conference session, with topics ranging from effective church communications to endowments and finance. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe is scheduled to participate in a keynote conversation with Eric Motley, deputy director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and chair of the Chapter at Washington National Cathedral, on the afternoon of Feb. 26. On the topic “Vision for Our Future,” they will look at innovative models of governance, collaboration and ministry to address necessary structural changes. The goal is to ensure The Episcopal Church remains animated and pertinent to a rapidly evolving secular world while compassionately responding to contemporary global challenges, according to the program.  The first full day of the conference, Feb. 26, will start with one final pre-conference session. The Rev. Fadi Diab, rector of St. Andrew’s Anglican/Episcopal Church in Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine, and the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Connecticut, will lead a keynote conversation on “Hope in the Shadow of Power: Leadership for the Sake of the Gospel and the World.” They will discuss how Episcopalians can be constructive leaders amid times of stress, anxiety and fear-inducing transition through a biblical lens. In all situations, Michael Sullivan, president and CEO of Kanuga Conference and Retreat Center, a nonprofit Episcopal camp and conference center in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and former president of EPN’s board of directors, told ENS that successful congregational leaders must be resilient.  “What is your ability to be agile, to address the situation – not just to maintain the status quo, but to see opportunities that situations bring? How do we as a church bring the Gospel in these places of darkness? Each place of darkness can have different characteristics, so how we do that in context is really important,” Sullivan said. The first series of workshops will begin following Diab’s and Mathews’ keynote conversation. Topics vary, covering multiple aspects of leadership, such as data-driven leadership transition planning and reimagining parish property. After the second round of workshops on the morning of Feb. 27, Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, and William Mattox, a board member of The Village Square, a community-based civic organization in Tallahassee, Florida, will lead a keynote conversation on “Building Meaningful Conversations and Community: Lessons for the Church from Civil Society and the Ballpark.” They will share how Episcopal leaders can overcome adversity and build community, connection and resilience. A keynote conversation on “Data, Faith, and Resource Allocation in the Modern Church” will take place on Feb. 28 featuring Ryan Burge, a political scientist and professor at Eastern Illinois University; the Rev. Molly James, interim executive officer of General Convention; and Matthew Price, senior vice president of research and data for Church Pension Group. They will explain the importance of demographic data and trends and how The Episcopal Church can use them to make decisions that will foster proper resource allocation, clergy development and congregational growth. “What is the algebra of the church? I think that as we move into this new era for the church, those are the kinds of metrics that people in our vestries are going to want to know and dive in on,” said Adam MacDonald, director of development of St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, and co-chair of the conference’s planning committee. “As a church staff person, I’m going to want to be able to report on those metrics.” The Very Rev. Andrew McGowan, dean and president of Berkeley Divinity School and McFaddin professor of Anglican studies and pastoral theology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, will lead the final keynote conversation on “Shifting Dynamics, Changing Landscapes, and the Future.” He will discuss the realities of declining membership in traditional churches and the cultural shifts that impact religion’s role in modern society. Karen Kraycirik, co-chair of the conference’s planning committee and chief operating officer of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas, told ENS that the planning committee knew when it began program preparation 10 months ago that participants would arrive at the conference with different emotions and needs. “We are at a time in which the United States and the world are undergoing a lot of […]