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‘Healing in the Heartland’ speakers offer differing views on the church’s political engagement
[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri hosted a “Healing in the Heartland” event on March 16 designed to help bridge the divide in American society in a polarized election year, but it ended with its four speakers disagreeing on if and how the church should be engaged with politics.
The event featured remarks from three Episcopal priests and one United Church of Christ pastor:
- The Rev. Naomi Tutu, priest associate at All Saint’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, Georgia and a daughter of the late Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu;
- The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, interim president of the Episcopal Divinity School, canon theologian at Washington National Cathedral and theologian in residence at Trinity Church Wall Street.
- The Rev. John C. “Jack” Danforth, former U.S. senator from Missouri, current partner in a St. Louis law firm, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and envoy to Sudan;
- The Rev. Traci Blackmon, formerly the denominational lead for justice and local church ministries in the UCC and now a public theologian and author.
In individual remarks and other questions to the four as a panel, they described how they approach social justice and other potentially polarizing issues. But when asked how they would respond to the call to keep politics out of the pulpit, there was some disagreement.
Brown Douglas, Blackmon and Tutu – all Black women – described how their faith calls them to be engaged in working for justice and their understanding that Jesus didn’t stand outside the political systems of his day. Jesus wasn’t killed for praying too much, Brown Douglas said, but because he had become an enemy of the political and ecclesiastical structures.
Being a person of faith is political but not partisan, Blackmon said. “Politics is how we live our lives,” she said. “I am called to be political. I am not called to be partisan.” But, she added, “I do not think the pulpit should be used to tell people who to vote for.” Tutu noted that when people from the margins of society speak about issues from the pulpit, it’s labeled as political. When the preacher is a privileged person, it’s not.
Danforth, a white man, said that during his 26 years as an elected official, he always tried to do his best and do more good than harm. But in the end, “Politics isn’t the realm of the ultimate. It isn’t the kingdom of God. It’s just politics,” he said, adding, “Do not confuse politics and religion.”
Tutu said she never would have expected Danforth or other elected officials to be God’s representatives, but she does expect people in power “to do good for God’s people.” And when they fail, “I’m not gonna let you off the hook,” she said.
Because laws dictate where children like her could go to school, what water fountain they could drink from and where her family could buy a house, Blackmon said, “I don’t have the luxury of [politics] being a separate system.”
There is a difference between attacking people and attacking bad and unjust laws and policies, Brown Douglas said. And to know whether laws and policies are actually serving the people who are hurting the most, “when the least of these say, ‘Oh, that feels like justice,’ then we are at least on the way to justice,” she said.
Before the opening Eucharist, and printed in the service bulletin, was an acknowledgement that the diocese encompasses the traditional ancestral lands of the Osage Nation, the Illiniwek/Peoria Tribe, the O-Gah-Pah (Quapaw) Tribe, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, and other First Peoples.
It also noted that Lewis and Clark used enslaved and Indigenous people as they explored what would become the state of Missouri, and that it became a state through the Missouri Comprise of 1820, which allowed it to enter the Union as pro-slavery. It also was the home of the enslaved Dred Scott, noted for the 1857 Supreme Court ruling that because he was Black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue for his freedom.
Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson and the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care, presided at the Eucharist, and Tutu was the preacher. Ministries around the diocese also had tables where they could share information with event participants.
–Melodie Woerman is a freelance reporter based in Kansas.
Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan vote to combine as Diocese of the Great Lakes
[Episcopal News Service] The dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan voted on March 16 to pursue juncture, a canonical process that would merge the two dioceses and build on a partnership over four years involving ministry collaboration and some shared leadership, including a bishop.
The planned juncture, which now heads for final approval in June by the 81st General Convention, also aims to set the two dioceses on a new path together following tumultuous leadership transitions involving bishop disciplinary cases spanning nearly their entire time as partner dioceses.
At the weekend’s special joint convention, held at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Grand Blanc, the votes in the two dioceses were overwhelmingly in favor of the juncture – 85% yes in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan and 82% in favor in the Diocese of Western Michigan.
The canonical process of “juncture” applies when two dioceses have not previously been a single diocese together. If the juncture is approved by bishops and deputies when they gather for General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the first convention of the newly created Diocese of the Great Lakes would be scheduled for October in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Its business is expected to include the adoption of a new constitution and canons and elections to leadership bodies.
Eastern Michigan, based in Saginaw, and Western Michigan, based in Grand Rapids, are two of four Episcopal dioceses in the state. The Diocese of Michigan includes Detroit and the southeastern region of the state, while the Diocese of Northern Michigan encompasses the state’s more remote and sparsely populated Upper Peninsula.
Western Michigan was founded in 1874 after separating from the Diocese of Michigan, while Eastern Michigan separated from the Diocese of Michigan in 1995. Eastern Michigan has not had a diocesan bishop since 2017, when the Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley resigned to join the presiding bishop’s staff as head of the Office of Pastoral Development.
In October 2019, the two dioceses voted at their conventions to establish a formal partnership that included sharing Western Michigan Bishop Whayne Hougland Jr., who was elected bishop provisional of Eastern Michigan. Hougland, however, was suspended for one year in June 2020 after admitting to an extramarital affair. A year later, the two dioceses announced they had chosen not to welcome him back as their bishop.
Instead, they sought a new bishop provisional and elected the Rt. Rev. Prince Singh to that role in October 2021. Singh, formerly bishop of New York’s Diocese of Rochester, began serving the two Michigan dioceses in February 2022 but resigned in September 2023 to face allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife and two adult sons under the church’s Title IV disciplinary canons for clergy.
Retired Bishop Skip Adams agreed in November 2023 to serve Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan in the interim as an assisting bishop as the dioceses work toward juncture.
WCC urges UN Human Rights Council to address obstetric injury
[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches, in a statement before the United Nations Human Rights Council, urged addressing the often-hidden condition of obstetric fistula, which violates the rights of thousands of women and girls in the world’s poorest countries.
The condition of obstetric fistula is a preventable physical injury which occurs after a prolonged or obstructed labor without access to adequate health care. “It can result in urinary and often fecal incontinence, infection, physical impairment, disability, societal rejection, breakdown of marriage and a loss of livelihoods,” the statement said.
Pregnant women in conflict zones are at particular risk, as they can’t access normal maternity services, including emergency caesarean sections, and often go into labor malnourished, weak and dealing with high levels of trauma.
Read the entire article here.
Slate of 28th presiding bishop nominees to be released April 2, starting petition process
[Episcopal News Service] The slate of nominees for The Episcopal Church’s 28th presiding bishop is scheduled to be announced April 2. From this list and any petition nominations, bishops will elect and deputies will confirm a new churchwide leader when they gather in June for the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop selects the nominees. The committee’s member bishops, clergy and lay leaders were elected by the church to develop a nominating process and produce a slate of at least three bishops. On March 18, the church’s Office of Public Affairs issued a news release with the committee’s latest timeline, including the process by which any bishop or deputy to the 81st General Convention may petition to add a name to the committee’s slate after it is released. Those additional nominations must be made April 3-15 with the consent of the bishop being nominated by petition.
In addition to electing a new presiding bishop to succeed outgoing Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, General Convention also will consider proposed canonical changes that would affect future presiding bishop transitions.
General Convention, the triennial churchwide gathering, splits its authority between the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, and each house has a distinct role in the selection of a new presiding bishop for a nine-year term. In Louisville, after the nominating committee formally presents the nominees on June 25, the House of Bishops will gather in a closed session June 26 to elect one of them. The House of Deputies then will vote to confirm or not confirm the result of that presiding bishop election.
The 28th presiding bishop is scheduled to take office on Nov. 1, and an installation is scheduled for Nov. 2 at Washington National Cathedral, the traditional seat of the presiding bishop.
The presiding bishop has a range of responsibilities, as outlined by The Episcopal Church Constitution and Canons. Those include presiding over the House of Bishops, chairing Executive Council, visiting every Episcopal diocese, participating in the ordination and consecration of bishops, receiving and responding to disciplinary complaints against bishops, making appointments to the church’s interim bodies, and “developing policies and strategies for the church and speaking for the church on the policies, strategies and programs of General Convention.”
There are few canonical requirements for presiding bishop candidates. They must be members of the House of Bishops and cannot yet have reached the church’s mandatory retirement age of 72. Nothing prohibits the election of a presiding bishop who would turn 72 in the middle of the nine-year term, though historically nominees have been able to complete the full nine years.
The church’s Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons has proposed Resolution A063 for consideration by the 81st General Convention recommending changes to clarify the timeline of future presiding bishop successions. Under the proposal, a new presiding bishop would take over for the outgoing presiding bishop 91 days, or 13 weeks, after the adjournment of the electing convention. Existing canons give fixed dates for the nine-year term, beginning on Nov. 1. The commission also recommends allowing a presiding bishop to remain in office beyond nine years if the electing convention has been postponed. In such a scenario, the church’s mandatory clergy retirement age of 72 would not apply, under the proposed changes.
Church leaders identified the need for those changes after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a one-year postponement of the 80th General Convention to 2022. Although that postponement didn’t coincide with or affect the end of Curry’s term, the commission’s proposal is intended to alleviate any future uncertainty.
“There is no provision in the existing canon for the presiding bishop to continue in office if there is a delay in the electing convention,” Christopher Hayes, the standing commission’s chair, told Episcopal News Service.
By contrast, the existing canons mark the end of the House of Deputies president’s term at the adjournment of the meeting when a successor is elected. That is why the previous president, the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, was able to serve an additional year, until the House of Deputies met in 2022 and elected Julia Ayala Harris as her successor.
“Our hope, as always, is that the legislation will serve its purpose for the indefinite future, no matter who is in office,” Hayes said.
The canonical changes, if approved by the 81st General Convention, would take effect Jan. 1, 2025.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
Poll: Most Americans say religion’s influence is waning, and half think that’s bad
[Religion News Service] As the U.S. continues to debate the fusion of faith and politics, a sweeping new survey reports that most American adults have a positive view of religion’s role in public life but believe its influence is waning.
The development appears to unsettle at least half of the country, with growing concern among an array of religious Americans that their beliefs are in conflict with mainstream American culture.
That’s according to a new survey unveiled on March 14 by Pew Research, which was conducted in February and seeks to tease out attitudes regarding the influence of religion on American society.
“We see signs of sort of a growing disconnect between people’s own religious beliefs and their perceptions about the broader culture,” Greg Smith, associate director of research at Pew Research Center, told Religion News Service in an interview.
He pointed to findings such as 80% of U.S. adults saying religion’s role in American life is shrinking — as high as it’s ever been in Pew surveys — and 49% of U.S. adults say religion losing that influence is a bad thing.
What’s more, he noted that 48% of U.S. adults say there’s “a great deal” of or “some” conflict between their religious beliefs and mainstream American culture, an increase from 42% in 2020. The number of Americans who see themselves as a minority group because of their religious beliefs has increased as well, rising from 24% in 2020 to 29% this year.
The spike in Americans who see themselves as a religious minority, while small, appears across several faith groups: white evangelical Protestants rose from 32% to 37%, white non-evangelical Protestants from 11% to 16%, white Catholics from 13% to 23%, Hispanic Catholics from 17% to 26% and Jewish Americans from 78% to 83%. Religiously unaffiliated Americans who see themselves as a minority because of their religious beliefs also rose from 21% to 25%.
“We’re seeing an uptick in the share of Americans who think of themselves as a minority because of their religious beliefs,” Smith said.
Researchers also homed in on Christian nationalism, an ideology that often insists the U.S. is given special status by God and usually features support for enshrining a specific kind of Christianity into U.S. law. But while the movement has garnered prominent supporters and vocal critics — as well as backing from political figures such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — Pew found views on the subject were virtually unchanged from when they asked Americans about the topic in recent years.
“One thing that jumped out at me, given the amount of attention that’s been paid to Christian nationalism in the media and the level of conversation about it, is that the survey finds no change over the last year and half or so in the share of the public who says they’ve heard anything about it,” Smith said.
About 45% of those polled said they had heard of Christian nationalism or read about it, with 54% saying they had never heard of the ideology — the same percentages as in September 2022. Overall, 25% had an unfavorable view of Christian nationalism, whereas only 5% had a favorable view and 6% had neither a favorable nor unfavorable view.
Researchers also pressed respondents on fusions of religion and politics, revealing a spectrum of views. A majority (55%) said the U.S. government should enforce the separation of church and state, whereas 16% said the government should stop enforcing it and another 28% saying neither or had no opinion. Meanwhile, only 13% said the U.S. government should declare Christianity the nation’s official religion, compared to 39% who believed the U.S. should not declare Christianity the state religion or promote Christian moral values. A plurality (44%) sided with a third option: the U.S. should not declare Christianity its official faith, but it should still promote Christian values.
When asked whether the Bible should have influence over U.S. laws, respondents were evenly split: 49% said the Bible should have “a great deal” of or “some” influence, while 51% said it should have “not much” or “no influence.”
But things looked different when Pew asked an additional question of those who supported a Bible-based legal structure: If the Bible and the will of the people come into conflict, which should prevail? Not quite two-thirds of that group — or 28% of Americans overall — said the Bible, but more than a third of the group (or 19% of the U.S. overall) said the will of the people should win out.
Here again, opinions have remained largely static, with researchers noting the numbers “have remained virtually unchanged over the past four years.”
Respondents were also asked whether they believed the Bible currently has influence over U.S. laws, with a majority (57%) agreeing it has at least some. But there were notable differences among religious groups: White evangelicals (48%) and Black Protestants (40%) were the least likely to say the Bible has at least some influence on U.S. law, compared to slight majorities of white non-evangelical Protestants (56%) and both white and Hispanic Catholics (52% for both). The religiously unaffiliated (70%), Jewish Americans (73%), atheists (86%) and agnostics (83%) were the most likely to agree that the Bible is a significant factor in the U.S. legal system.
The survey polled 12,693 U.S. adults from Feb. 13-25.
Diocese of Massachusetts announces slate of four nominees for next bishop
[Episcopal News Service] The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Massachusetts, after receiving the recommendations of the Bishop Nominating Committee, has approved a preliminary slate of four nominees for election as the 17th bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Massachusetts. They are:
- The Rev. Brendan J. Barnicle, rector, St. Francis of Assisi Church, Wilsonville, Oregon.
- The Rev. Jean Baptiste Ntagengwa, canon for immigration and multicultural ministries, Diocese of Massachusetts.
- The Very Rev. Gideon L. K. Pollach, rector, St. John’s Church, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
- The Rev. Julia E. Whitworth, rector, Trinity Church, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Additional information about each of the nominees is on the diocese’s bishop search website.
A seven-day petition period begins on March 15, during which anyone who meets the canonical requirements may petition to be added to the slate of nominees. The deadline to submit nomination materials is March 22.
An electing convention is scheduled for May 18 at Trinity Church in Boston, and the bishop-elect will be consecrated, pending a successful churchwide consent process, on Oct. 19.
The new bishop diocesan will succeed the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, who has led the diocese since 2014. Gates said in May 2023 that he plans to retire at the end of 2024.
At Georgia ‘dinner church,’ families cherish time of worship, food, fellowship every Wednesday
[Episcopal News Service] Georgia resident Latoya Stewart first learned about Grovetown Episcopal Lutheran Mission when she and her three children were visiting a back-to-school fair at a local park. Members of the congregation were there giving away backpacks. That was back in 2018, the first year of Grovetown Mission’s launch. The Stewarts have been attending its worship services ever since.
“My children have grown up with the church,” Stewart told Episcopal News Service. “They don’t ever miss Wednesday.”
You read that correctly. Wednesday nights, not Sunday mornings, are the weekly worship time for Grovetown Mission. It has established itself as a lively “dinner church” in the city of Grovetown with financial backing from The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In November 2023, it received $20,000 as one of 38 worshipping communities supported by The Episcopal Church’s latest round of church-planting grants.
The Rev. Thomas Barron, rector of Grovetown Mission, describes the congregation as a diverse group of about 50 people, including a number of young families. “We all get to sit together and taste each other’s food, basically sit down like a family and talk about the day,” Barron told Episcopal News Service.
They come from different racial and economic backgrounds and bring a range of past experiences with religion. Some were drawn to Grovetown Mission as a rare LGBTQ+-affirming congregation in this city of about 17,000 people just west of Augusta. The congregation stands by is tagline of “there’s a place for you at our table,” Barron said.
They have come to see Grovetown Mission as a kind of extended family. “All of these folks have no problem loving each other,” he said.
Barron’s time as an Episcopal priest isn’t much older than his congregation. A native of Georgia, Barron comes from a nondenominational evangelical background. He previously served as minister at an evangelical church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, before a friend gave him a copy of The Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer. The prayer book’s liturgies and theology immediately resonated with Barron, as if he were coming back to a spiritual home he hadn’t known existed.
“I started reading it and discovered, wow, this is my theology. This is everything I believe,” he said.
While dealing with turmoil in his personal life, particularly his marriage ending in divorce, he decided to move back to Georgia and start over. He began attending St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick and was received as an Episcopalian in 2013, and he soon began discerning a call to the priesthood in the Diocese of Georgia.
At the same time, then-Bishop Scott Benhase saw an opportunity for a new Episcopal community in Grovetown, where the local population has increased by more than 50% since 2010. The city is home to Fort Eisenhower, and the region is rapidly growing as a cybersecurity hub. After Benhase ordained Barron to the priesthood in November 2017, Barron moved to the Augusta area and began laying the groundwork for a mission church in Grovetown.
“Based on the demographics, we really wanted to minister to younger families, particularly families with younger children,” Barron said. In early 2018, he and a small group of worshipers began meeting at a Lion’s Club in Grovetown. They chose Wednesday nights at first because they didn’t have anywhere to meet on Sundays.
They soon found more suitable accommodations in a community center at the city’s Liberty Park. A small room there held up to about 30 people, and they decided to structure the Wednesday night worship around communal dinners.
Barron researched similar worshiping communities around The Episcopal Church to help shape his evolving ministry in Grovetown. “I’ve always wanted to do something with food, gathering around the table,” Barron said. “I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of food and theology.”
The meals started with simple fare, such as takeout pizza and fried chicken. Soon, the congregation’s growing membership suggested bringing their own dishes to share. Members who didn’t have much money to contribute to the congregation could still bring some food each Wednesday evening, Barron said. Now the congregation has a rotation of themed meals, such as crock pot dishes, taco night and the ever-popular breakfast for dinner.
The family-friendly atmosphere is a large part of the appeal for Tierney Hall. She began attending Grovetown Mission about three years ago with her husband, Perry Hall, and their two sons, who are now 7 and 5.
“It’s such a nice, motley crew of people from all different backgrounds,” she said. “We rarely miss, and it’s just become part of our routine. We love the fellowship and the little community.”
The liturgy also is familiar to Hall, who grew up attending Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Augusta. At Grovetown Mission, the service is rooted in the Holy Eucharist that Episcopalians know from Sunday morning services, as Barron was able to adapt components of that liturgy to a dinner setting.
“It really is dinner and church. Everything is together,” Barron said. “And it has a certain flow to it. Dinner is very much part of the theology in the service.”
The congregation starts by praying a collect. Members then begin their meal, spending about a half hour to relax and enjoy the food. Scripture readings typically are scheduled around dessert time, followed by a homily or discussion. After the prayers of the people and the peace, the service turns to the Eucharist, which is distributed at the tables.
Many of the worshipers have very little experience with organized religion and are attending a church for the first time, Barron said. Others already have a background in the Episcopal or Lutheran faith. Some have turned away from Roman Catholic or evangelical traditions. “A lot of times, we’re a great fit for those people that are on the very edge” of religious belief, Barron said, noting that the services even have drawn some who identify as agnostic.
As the congregation grew and needed more space, it moved into a gym at the park’s community center. A separate area there is set up for a nursery, so parents of small children can focus on the worship service.
Stewart’s 16-year-old daughter, Amira, now volunteers to help monitor the nursery on Wednesday nights. Stewart also has a 12-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. The dinner services have been a blessing for her, as a single parent.
“I get a break and I don’t have to cook one night a week. We can sit down and have fellowship.” she said. “It’s like family, like home. The environment is loving. It’s like a breath of fresh air.”
Perry Hall appreciates the family atmosphere as well. “I think we’ve got something that nobody else in the area offers,” he told ENS. “We’re a pretty close-knit group of people, and we pray for each other every night.”
A while ago, Barron conducted a survey of the congregation to see if it was interested in pursuing a Sunday morning service. The overwhelming recommendation was to keep the Wednesday night dinner services. Barron still thinks there eventually might be an opportunity to add a second, more traditional service Sunday mornings, but Wednesday nights will remain the central service of Grovetown Episcopal Lutheran Mission.
“The dinner became such a huge part of what everybody loved,” he said. “That’s become our unique identity.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
WCC calls on UN to ensure human rights in the Philippines
[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches, in an intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council, called upon the U.N. to ensure that counter-terrorism laws and practices, including efforts to combat terrorism financing, do not unjustly curtail the legitimate activities of civil society organizations, impede civic space or hinder humanitarian endeavors in the Philippines.
The intervention was read by the Rev. Glofie Baluntong, from the United Methodist Church in the Philippines, a member of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. For over two decades, she has dedicated her life to serving the church and Indigenous communities in Mindoro.
On June 17, 2019, Philippine National Police forces entered Baluntong’s church without a warrant, demanding the surrender of Karapatan Southern Tagalog members the church was hosting, and accused Baluntong of aiding rebels. Since then, she has endured harassment, intrusive visits and questioning by the armed forces.
Read the entire article here.
Diocese of Northern Michigan traveling exhibit shares stories of Indigenous boarding school survivors
[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northern Michigan has launched a racial reconciliation initiative, “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground,” centered around a traveling exhibit that showcases stories of Indigenous boarding school survivors in Michigan.
The diocese spans the state’s Upper Peninsula and is based in Marquette, the ancestral and present-day homeland of the Anishinaabe people. Episcopal churches in the diocese are engaging in reconciliation efforts with Indigenous people locally and across the state, many of whom live with intergenerational trauma that can be traced to the United States’ historical attempts to erase their culture through the boarding school system.
The traveling exhibit documents how Indigenous boarding schools’ legacy continues to impact Native American people today. Known survivors are listed on an exhibit panel. When visiting the exhibit, participants can scan a QR code with their smartphones to listen to boarding school survivors tell their stories. Part of the exhibit features pre-existing information that was featured in a 2021 exhibit at Northern Michigan University in Marquette titled “The Seventh Fire: A Decolonizing Experience.”
Robert Hazen, an elder in the Lac Vieux Desert Band, attended the Holy Childhood of Jesus Catholic Church and Indian School in Harbor Springs. He is one of several survivors who shared their stories for the “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground” traveling exhibit:
https://archives.nmu.edu/beaumier/Boarding/Hazen01.mp4“It’s part of a healing that’s so much needed in terms of our work with the Indigenous Anishinaabe people here,” Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray told Episcopal News Service. “We’re always looking towards reconciliation, and we have to heal first.”
At least hundreds — possibly as many as tens of thousands — of Indigenous youth are estimated to have died during the 19th and 20th centuries while attending boarding schools, which were designed to assimilate Native Americans into the dominant white culture and erase Indigenous languages and cultures. Many of those boarding schools were operated by Christian churches, including The Episcopal Church, though the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s research did not find any local ties between the church and the schools.
Of the 12 federally recognized Native American tribes based in Michigan, five are in the state’s sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. The diocese’s exhibit includes educational panels explaining the Upper Peninsula’s precolonial history. It also includes videos showing different perspectives on decolonization and Anishinaabe culture, including foodways, education, sovereignty and the issues Indigenous people face living in a colonized world.
“The traveling exhibit is just one huge aspect of becoming culturally competent through learning authentic history — those one-on-one interviews — that’s huge,” Leora Tadgerson, the diocese’s director of reparations and justice, told ENS. “There are so many different dioceses that are not at that phase yet that we are discussing with colleagues.”
The exhibit formally launched in January at the Niiwin Akeaa Center in Baraga coinciding with but separate from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s winter powwow. About 200 people visited, most of whom were Indigenous. The exhibit was next displayed for one week at the Ojibwa Senior Center in Baraga.
“Our hope with the traveling exhibit is to learn the culture, the traditions and also the pain and suffering that people have had to endure, and the genocide,” Ray said.
In 2018, the diocese received a $30,000 grant from The Episcopal Church’s United Thank Offering to work on the traveling exhibit, which was developed in partnership with the Great Lakes Peace Center, a Rapid River-based nonprofit committed to promoting peace building. The diocese received an additional $28,500 UTO grant in 2022. A family foundation then gave the diocese an additional $100,000 grant to be distributed over the course of five years. Most recently, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Midland in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan awarded the Diocese of Northern Michigan an additional $20,000 grant to continue supporting the exhibit. The diocese also accepts donations through its website to continue funding the exhibit. The money is being used to pay for research resources and equipment needed to physically set up the exhibit.
The legacy of Indigenous boarding schools made international headlines in 2021 with the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 children at a former boarding school in Canada. Following the discovery, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it was launching a comprehensive review of American boarding school policies dating to 1819. In 2022, a federal report revealed that more than 500 children died over the course of 150 years in Indigenous boarding schools, though Native American scholars estimate the number is closer to 40,000.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has identified at least 523 schools that were part of the Indigenous boarding school system — including no less than eight in Michigan. Four of those were in the Upper Peninsula and one was on Mackinac Island between the Upper and Lower peninsulas. Nationwide, at least nine schools by the coalition’s tally were thought to have Episcopal Church connections, though the lack of churchwide records has made it difficult to fully account for the church’s role in the schools. Most of the boarding schools had closed by the mid-20th century or were taken over by Native American tribes.
The Northern Michigan traveling exhibit includes a recording of Ray formally apologizing to the Indigenous tribes in Michigan on behalf of The Episcopal Church and the wider Christian church. In the apology, Ray condemns The Episcopal Church’s participation “in the human trafficking of children to place them in orphanages, boarding schools, forced adoption and foster care as an attempt to wipe out Indigenous culture, language, identity, sovereignty and beliefs.” Ray also expresses his support of repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, a centuries-old theological and political doctrine used to justify colonization and the oppression of Indigenous people. General Convention passed a resolution officially repudiating the doctrine in 2009. Ray told ENS the Department of Interior is aware of his apology and the exhibit.
Listen to Ray’s apology here.
“For me, as an Episcopalian, what Jesus calls us to do is to dismantle the racism and the white supremacy that is so much part of our way of life here,” Ray said. “We need to continue to make systemic change.”
Tadgerson, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, has served as the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion since 2022.
“What I love from the perspective of the director’s position, is how the diocese continues — even before I was there — to become culturally competent living in an Indigenous area,” she told ENS.
The 80th General Convention created a fact-finding commission to research The Episcopal Church’s historic role in boarding schools, and Executive Council has a Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy. The research commission and the advocacy committee met most recently in January at the Mustang Island Conference Center in Port Aransas, Texas, and they plan to meet at least once more before the 81st General Convention takes place June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. Until then, the research commission is drafting a strategic plan to address all points of General Convention’s Indigenous boarding school resolution. At the January meeting, Tadgerson was selected to serve as chair of the advocacy committee.
“There’s a community aspect, that the church is so dedicated toward bridge-building and racial justice and racial equity,” Tadgerson said. “We are doing the same work through different avenues, and when we come together, we have a much larger impact.”
Ray said the “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground” exhibit is also scheduled to be on display at the Province V meeting April 25-27 in South Bend, Indiana. The traveling exhibit will eventually travel throughout the entire state of Michigan. The diocese also accepts local invitations to display the exhibit.
“This work is part of being the Beloved Community,” Ray said. “The Episcopal Church has been called to make supporting Indigenous communities a significant part of its life and missional work around healing and reconciliation. And that’s what Jesus’ role is about, healing and reconciliation.”
In addition to Ray and Tadgerson, traveling exhibit staff members include Kathy Vanden Boogaard, project coordinator; Ariel Gougeon, graphic designer; Mitch Bolo, videographer; and Lainie Scott, who served as an archival research intern while an undergraduate student in history and Native American studies at Northern Michigan University.
The five federally recognized Native American tribes in the Upper Peninsula are Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians; Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians; Hannahville Indian Community of Potawatomi Indians; Bay Mills Indian Community of Anishinaabe Indians; and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Altogether, more than 240,000 Indigenous people live in Michigan.
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.
Washington National Cathedral welcomes and blesses ACC universities’ mascots
[Episcopal News Service] Washington National Cathedral is known as a house of prayer for all people. On March 12, it also became a house of prayer for all mascots – or, more immediately, mascots representing the 15 teams of the Athletic Coast Conference.
The teams were in Washington, D.C., for the conference’s annual basketball tournament taking place March 12-16. Kevin Eckstrom, the cathedral’s chief public affairs officer, told Episcopal News Service that it’s usual for teams and their mascots to tour the tournament’s host city and take photos at major sites. “The ACC reached out about coming to the cathedral, and we immediately said yes,” he said.
Two cathedral clergy – Provost Jan Naylor Cope and Vicar Dana Corsello – offered to provide a blessing to the mascots, and Eckstrom said seven of the 15 took them up on that offer. He said that Corsello “prayed for safety, good sportsmanship and fun at the tournament,” adding, “we were pretty clear that God doesn’t play favorites.”
In his blog post about the event, Eckstrom wrote, “We’re happy to report that the (Baptist) Demon Deacon from Wake Forest, the (Roman Catholic) Fighting Irish Leprechaun from Notre Dame and even the Blue Devil from Duke all felt right at home inside this Episcopal cathedral.”
England archbishops warns UK government over new extremism definition
[Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury] In a joint statement, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, and the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, archbishop of York, warn the United Kingdom government that its new extremism definition risks “disproportionately targeting Muslim communities” and “driving us apart.”
They suggest labelling a multi-faceted problem as hateful extremism may “vilify the wrong people and risk yet more division.”
Warning that the new definition may threaten freedom of speech, worship and protest, the archbishops urged the government to reconsider and consult far more widely with all those affected.
Read the entire article with the joint statement here.
New WCC Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration holds inaugural meeting
[World Council of Churches] The new World Council of Churches Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration is holding its inaugural meeting March 10-14 in Istanbul, Turkey.
The meeting is taking place at the invitation of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and is hosted by H.E. Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, WCC executive committee member and co-moderator of the Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration.
The agenda includes orientation, community building, and a review of the committee’s mandate. It also includes a review of membership matters, a report from the WCC Commission on Faith and Order, and a visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Participants include members of the Permanent Committee on Consensus and Collaboration, the WCC general secretary, and staff responsible for church and ecumenical relations, membership matters, and Faith and Order.
Read the entire article here.
Wisconsin affiliate prepares to welcome refugees as Episcopal Migration Ministries expands
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal Migration Ministries has three new affiliates since the Biden administration rejuvenated the federal refugee resettlement program, and one in Wisconsin is preparing to welcome a refugee family for the first time.
Love INC of Sheboygan County has been working with Grace Episcopal Church, the church’s ecumenical partners and city leaders for more than two years to reestablish a refugee resettlement operation in Sheboygan, a city of 50,000 on the shore of Lake Michigan halfway between Milwaukee and Green Bay. A Catholic Charities branch in Sheboygan previously had resettled refugees there but stopped after the Trump administration sharply reduced the number of refugees allowed into the United States.
Episcopal Migration Ministries, or EMM, is one of 10 agencies that have contracts with the U.S. State Department and receive federal funding to implement refugee resettlement through local offices and affiliates. EMM has provided training and resources for Love INC to begin resettling refugees in Sheboygan, and the first family of three is due to arrive there sometime in the coming weeks.
“EMM is extremely committed to the success of this program based upon each refugee’s experience in it,” Tandra Sbrocco, executive director of Love INC, told Episcopal News Service. Her agency – its initials stand for “in the name of Christ” – shares with EMM a desire for “every single person that comes here through the refugee resettlement program to succeed and thrive in their new lives in this community.”
The recent expansion of EMM’s resettlement efforts is a welcome reversal from the contraction experienced during the Trump administration. The former president slashed the maximum number of refugees allowed into the United States to a historic low of 15,000 a year, down from a norm of between 70,000 and 90,000 during the previous two decades.
EMM’s resettlement work had peaked at 6,600 refugees assisted in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration. At that time, EMM coordinated with 31 resettlement affiliates in 26 dioceses, but under Trump, the number of EMM affiliates decreased to 11.
When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, his administration pledged to work with EMM and other resettlement agencies to restore a spirit of welcome to refugees fleeing war and persecution in their home countries. Biden increased the resettlement cap to 125,000 a year, though it has taken time for EMM and other resettlement agencies to build back the program’s capacity after it was nearly dismantled.
Global resettlement needs, meanwhile, have only increased in recent years. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are more than 35 million such refugees worldwide, and tens of millions more people have been displaced within their home countries.
In the 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, EMM was able to help resettle 3,026 refugees, as well as 571 people who came to the country under a separate of special immigrant visa program. This fiscal year, EMM expects to resettle over 6,000 individuals.
During Biden’s term, one former EMM affiliate in Austin, Texas, closed in summer 2023, though it has been replaced by three new affiliates, bringing EMM’s current total to 13. In addition to Love INC of Sheboygan, EMM has new affiliates in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Huntsville, Alabama.
Love INC “joins us during a pivotal moment as we are expanding our network so that we may offer welcome to ever-increasing numbers of forcibly displaced individuals,” Sarah Shipman, EMM’s director of operations, said in a written statement for this article. “Episcopal Migration Ministries is excited to be a part of the rich history of refugee resettlement in Wisconsin.”
That history dates back at least to the late 1970s, when Sheboygan was among several Wisconsin communities that began welcoming large numbers of Hmong refugees fleeing persecution in Southeast Asian homelands for their support of the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
The Rev. Paul Aparicio, a deacon at Grace Episcopal Church, recalls growing up in Sheboygan and playing with Hmong refugee children whose families were supported by the congregation as they established new roots in Wisconsin. Today, he said, church members recognize that historic support as “part of their identity” and feel called to help resume refugee resettlement in the city.
“We are recognizing Christ being embodied in all of these refugees,” Aparicio, who also serves as Love INC’s board chair, told ENS. “When they come here, they are very much needing God’s love.”
Since the 1980s, EMM has helped more than 100,000 people establish new homes in the United States after fleeing war, violence and persecution in their home countries. EMM affiliates, with support from local congregations, offer a range of federally funded services, including English language and cultural orientation classes, employment services, school enrollment, and initial assistance with housing and transportation.
“If you don’t have buy-in from your local community, the resettlement is going to be nothing but an uphill battle,” Aparicio said, but the community of Sheboygan has rallied around welcoming these new arrivals.
Love INC already has three refugee cases assigned to it, including the family of three due to arrive soon. Sbrocco said she is not allowed to say which countries they are from, though lately, the largest numbers of refugees served by EMM are coming from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria.
Refugee resettlement aligns naturally with Love INC’s mission of developing relationships with neighbors in need and serving them “in the name of Christ” while respecting their dignity as individuals, Sbrocco said. “If we’re not going to ultimately take the opportunity to showcase the love of Christ to an unbelieving world, then who will?”
Love INC was approved for federal funding to facilitate refugee resettlement in the initial phase, the first 90 days after the refugees arrive. It and its ecumenical partners expect to continue supporting those refugees informally after that time expires. Grace Episcopal Church is one of 37 partner churches across 18 denominations involved with Love INC.
“We don’t exist without them,” Sbrocco said.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
Faith sector’s engagement with migrants, refugees for health and HIV services highlighted
[World Council of Churches] A workshop at the World Council of Churches has highlighted the right to health and dignified access to it, as well as the faith sector’s engagement with migrants and refugees for health and HIV services in fighting stigma and discrimination.
Workshop facilitator the Rev. Robert J. Vitillo, general secretary of the International Catholic Migration Commission, thanked the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ( PEPFAR) for supporting faith communities in health.
“We want to have a call for action,” Vitillo said at the March 12-14 workshop, as speakers recalled days gone by when some international groups did not welcome faith-based groups into the discourse on health, HIV and AIDS.
Read the entire article here.
Central New York church ministry makes, donates sleeping bags for people who are homeless
[Episcopal News Service] Since 2017, volunteers at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Endicott, New York, have been meeting the second Thursday of every month to make sleeping bags for people who are homeless across Broome County.
“This can make a difference. It’s a great way to give back to the community,” Deborah Wirag, coordinator of St. Paul’s sleeping bag ministry, told Episcopal News Service. “And we have built a relationship [with the recipients] while making sleeping bags.”
The sleeping bags are made by cutting sheets of fabric into 7-foot squares, then joining three of them together with minimum sewing. Each piece of fabric is one layer of the sleeping bag, with a flat sheet in the middle. A portion of the sleeping bag is stuffed with a lightweight filling before the layers are tied together with knots. Wirag said the pattern comes from the Sleeping Bag Project, a national initiative that started in 1985 to help minimize discomfort for homeless people, especially during colder months.
“You don’t have to be a quilter or a seamstress; you just have to be someone who loves to help those in need,” Dorothy Bachman, a regular volunteer, told ENS. “This is something I look forward to every month.
The volunteers have collectively made about 50 sleeping bags to date. Wirag said they were unable to make many sleeping bags during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they’re now operating normally.
Wirag and Bachman said the ministry gets its materials through donations dropped off at St. Paul’s office. The ministry accepts flat sheets, blankets, comforters and quilts.
Once completed, the sleeping bags are donated to nearby shelters, churches and agencies, such as the Volunteers of America office in Binghamton. Volunteers will sometimes put small toiletries inside the sleeping bags before donating them.
Sometimes, agencies will contact St. Paul’s asking if any sleeping bags are available for immediate donation. In one of those instances, the ministry was able to provide sleeping bags for a family of seven whose possessions were burned in a fire underneath a bridge where they were encamped.
The Rev. John Martinichio, rector of St. Paul’s, called it a “labor of love” for the congregation. “Everybody deserves dignity and respect. We can share the love God has given us by our acts of kindness,” Martinichio told ENS.
Homelessness is a growing concern in Broome County, especially in Binghamton, the county seat. In November 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the grand opening of 27 recently renovated apartments throughout Binghamton that will provide housing for formerly homeless people. The state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s Homeless Housing and Assistance Program funded the $8.1 million development.
Martinichio said his congregation’s ministry also gives the volunteers, who are mostly older women, an opportunity to socialize and give back to their community.
“It gives them a purpose, doing something good for somebody,” he said.
Once a sleeping bag is completed and rolled up and ready to be donated, the volunteers say a prayer. They also tuck a written prayer inside each sleeping bag.
“We need to let people know, even if they don’t know us personally, that we are there and we are a church there for others,” Wirag said.
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.
Images from the Marshall Islands portray pain and pursuit of justice in wake of nuclear tests
[World Council of Churches] As a photo exhibition from the Marshall Islands opened March 8 at the World Council of Churches office in Geneva, Switzerland, speakers offered a stark overview of the damage done by nuclear testing, as well as the resilience and determination of the Marshallese people to pursue justice.
The Rev. James Bhagwan, general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, noted that the 470 tests that took place in the Pacific in the 50 years following the end of World War II “were the equivalent to 9,010 Hiroshima bombs.” Today, nuclear-related waste continues to leak into portions of the Pacific, the “food source of the region and fishing ground of the world,” he said.
The Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, president of the U.S. United Church of Christ and a member of the WCC central and executive committees, expressed the WCC’s ongoing commitment is to continue to journey with the Marshall Islands in the quest for justice and compensation.
Read the entire article here.
Five cities recommended as finalists to host 83rd General Convention in 2030
[Episcopal News Service] The 81st General Convention will convene this June in Louisville, Kentucky. The next meeting is scheduled for 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona. What city will host The Episcopal Church’s triennial churchwide gathering in 2030? We now know the finalists.
The 83rd General Convention will be held in one of the following five cities and dioceses: Kansas City in the Diocese of West Missouri, Minneapolis in the Diocese of Minnesota, Portland in the Diocese of Oregon, San Juan in the Diocese of Puerto Rico or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Those finalists were recommended by the Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements and proposed as Resolution A002 for consideration when the House of Bishops and House of Deputies gather June 23-28 in Louisville. Under the church’s selection process, (Canon I.1.13 here) General Convention will endorse a list of finalists, empowering the joint standing committee to conducts further inquiries and negotiations with each city before making a recommendation on the host site and seeking the consent of Executive Council.
This is the third straight selection cycle that San Juan is a finalist for hosting a General Convention. It first was a runner-up to Louisville to host the gathering this year. Then in June 2023, San Juan was passed over a second time, in favor of Phoenix hosting the 82nd General Convention. That decision generated some controversy at that month’s Executive Council’s meeting. Several Executive Council members said the U.S. territory in the Caribbean should have been given the opportunity to host.
General Convention, which splits its authority between the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, is both the church’s primary governing body and a large hub for networking and fellowship, drawing as many as 10,000 people to the host city. It typically meets every three years and generates several million dollars in economic activity for the local economy while shining a spotlight on the work of the host diocese.
General Convention has only met outside of the continental U.S. once – in Hawaii, in 1955 – despite The Episcopal Church having a presence in countries and U.S. territories around the world. No General Convention has ever been held in one of the Spanish-speaking dioceses in the Caribbean and Central and South America, though San Juan has twice hosted meetings of Executive Council since 2017.
Phoenix previously hosted General Convention in 1991. Of the five finalists for the 83rd General Convention in 2030, Minneapolis is a three-time former host, in 1895, 1976 and 2003. Portland (1922) and Kansas City (1940) have each hosted once before. Like San Juan, Pittsburgh has never hosted, though the triennial General Convention has convened 17 times in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to the Archives of The Episcopal Church.
The Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements, in collaboration with the General Convention Office, takes a range of factors into account when recommending finalists and eventually selecting a host city, including the size and accommodations of each city’s convention center. Other factors include costs, hotel capacities, convenience of travel connections and the host diocese’s commitment to recruiting volunteers.
In June 2023, after Phoenix was chosen over San Joan as the host city for 2027, Executive Council passed a companion resolution urging broader criteria for the site review process. It called on church leaders to “prioritize sites that would advance the church’s mission of addressing and repairing harm caused by the church as a result of its history and complicity with racism and colonialism.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
Churches in two Pennsylvania dioceses raise funds to eliminate $3 million in medical debt
[Episcopal News Service] The leaders of two Pennsylvania dioceses – Central Pennsylvania Bishop Audrey Scanlan and Bethlehem Bishop Kevin Nichols – on March 10 celebrated the efforts of the Help, Healing and Hope initiative, through which churches from both dioceses raised $30,000 to eliminate $3 million in medical debts of fellow Pennsylvanians.
During an Evensong service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, the two bishops joined the congregation as sheets of paper representing medical bills were set aflame in a metal bucket.
“Things like taking care of medical debts … is not merely social work, it’s the work of God,” the Rev. David Zwifka, St. Luke’s rector, said in his sermon. People are liberated when the crush of medical debt is removed from their lives, he said, calling this “the very work of Jesus.”
The dioceses were able to alleviate the burden of medical debt in their communities through RIP Medical Debt, a charity that has partnered with numerous Episcopal churches in recent years. It buys outstanding medical debts from collection agencies for pennies on the dollar and helps people and organizations pay off the debts through donations.
The catalyst for the Help, Healing and Hope Initiative grew out of a medical emergency in 2022 that struck the daughter of the Rev. Bradley Mattson, rector of Hope Episcopal Church in Manheim, Pennsylvania, and the Rev. Jennifer Mattson, rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth, then 5 years old, became seriously ill and nearly died before being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Bradley Mattson told ENS that even with excellent insurance, some bills that weren’t covered, including a $6,000 charge from an ambulance company that was due in 30 days. “And if you don’t or can’t pay, the debt just balloons.”
Elizabeth now is doing well, he said, thanks to a glucose monitor and insulin pump attached to her body to regulate her blood sugar. But Jennifer Mattson told ENS that the price of insulin has cost their family about $1,000 a month.
They have been able to manage their bills with financial assistance available to Pennsylvania clergy, but they started to wonder how people without good insurance could pay for such a major illness. Rob Gokey, the former outreach chair at Hope Church, told Bradley Mattson about RIP Medical Debt. The nonprofit focuses their efforts on low-income people who have limited capacity to pay their medical bills.
Since its founding in 2014, it has provided $10.4 billion in medical debt relief to more than 7 million individuals and families.
From that nonprofit, the Mattsons learned that medical debt accounts for half of all bills under collection in the United States. According to a recent report, 20 million people in the United States – nearly 1 in 12 adults – owe medical debt of more than $250 each, collectively totaling as much as $220 billion. Low- and middle-income adults and those without health insurance are more likely to have medical debt.
For those who can’t pay off their bills in full, medical providers usually sell those debts for about 1% of the total to a collection agency, which then seeks to recover the full amount from the patient, plus a fee.
For Nichols, those collection efforts hit close to home. During the March 10 service, the bishop noted that his adult daughter was a transplant recipient more than 10 years ago. He recently overheard a phone call she received from a debt collector. She told him it was one of the dozens of debt collectors who still call her each week.
“What you are doing, the lives that you are touching, the hearts that you are giving hope to, is a building of the beloved community,” he told the congregation.
Jennifer Mattson told ENS she thinks profiting off someone’s medical debt “is a sin.”
Fundraising efforts began in Advent 2022 with a goal of $2,500, and after raising that, it was increased to $5,000 and then $10,000. Other churches in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania started to chip in, too. Zwifka, a friend of the Mattsons, got his church involved early on. St. Luke’s was started in 1858 as a mission of Hope Church, just seven miles apart, but they ended up in different dioceses when the Diocese of Bethlehem was created in 1904. The two dioceses recently have begun exploring the possibility of reunification.
Both dioceses promoted the effort, and contributions grew, ultimately bringing the total to $30,000.
The church is good at healing the sick, clothing the naked, giving the thirsty a cup of water and visiting the prisoner, Scanlan said during the service, but there are other kinds of illness, distress and disease that go unseen, including the mental anguish and suffering of medical debts.
“I’m especially proud that we have been able to make a significant difference and bring and restore people to wholeness, to alleviate the anxiety and the suffering that they are feeling,” she said.
Bradley Mattson said the initiative will officially close on Easter, and by then he thinks it will have raised closer to $35,000 or maybe even $40,000. At that point, some of the dioceses’ fellow Pennsylvanians will begin to get letters in the mail telling them their debt has been paid in full by The Episcopal Church.
He told ENS that he was delighted to have a celebration of this effort that involved both dioceses. Noting how full their schedules can be, he said, “It was wonderful to have both bishops there, especially on a Sunday in Lent.” Also present with her parents was the Mattsons’ daughter, Elizabeth, now a thriving 7-year-old.
–Melodie Woerman is a freelance reporter based in Kansas.
New Festival of Faith and Music to launch at York Minster
[Office of the Archbishop of York] The Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, will give a keynote speech at the Church Times Festival of Faith and Music, a new venture created in partnership with the Royal School of Church Music, that will be staged for the first time at York Minster April 26-28.
The event is for clergy, music leaders, people involved in church music and anyone with a general interest in sacred music. The festival aims to be a source of celebration, inspiration, encouragement, support, learning and resource.
The festival program includes workshops and discussions on subjects as diverse as how to take a church choir into the community, using music to support church engagement with dementia, caring for a pipe organ, choosing hymns, and growing the church younger through music. A range of speakers will share their perspectives on the world of church and choral music. Festival goers will also be able to experience York Minster’s choral music tradition at special services and at Evensong during the weekend.
Read the entire article here.
Animal chaplains offer spiritual care for every species
[Religion News Service] Sarah Bowen says she’s been doing the work of an animal chaplain since she was 6 years old.
Raised in the Midwest as a Presbyterian preacher’s kid, she was often hauled to hospice facilities and funeral homes but noticed that the chipmunks and other animals crumpled by the side of the road weren’t treated with the same compassion shown to people.
“At a very young age, I began picking up those little animals, putting them in my lunchbox, and giving them burials in the way my father did when he was working with humans,” said Bowen, who recalls saying “May the force be with you!” after the burials.
Today, Bowen is an interfaith animal chaplain with credentials from Chicago Theological Seminary, One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and Emerson Theological Institute, and she continues to create rituals that both dignify the death of animals and empower those grieving that death, whether it’s the loss of a loyal golden retriever or the untimely death of a “feisty, beloved goat.”
“That’s one of the more powerful things I think I’ve ever witnessed in my life,” Bowen said. “That goat was originally intended for a dinner plate.”
Bowen remembers getting the call from the animal sanctuary in 2022, reporting a favorite goat had been fatally wounded in a vehicle accident. Bowen led sanctuary staff and volunteers in a ritual that involved writing letters to the goat on dissolvable paper, then dropping them in a bowl of water, “representing all of the tears that were being shed or the tears that people felt they could not shed,” said Bowen. She also held a “furry wake,” where humans gathered alongside other goats and sheep to share stories about the goat’s antics. Bowen left the group with a wind chime placed where the accident happened.
The field of animal chaplaincy — including pet and veterinary chaplaincy — is nascent but growing and involves ministering to animals, pet owners, animal care providers and entire communities affected by wildlife conflicts.
“The scale can really vary widely, but any place where there is a relationship between some number of humans and some number of animals, that is where an animal chaplain is going to work,” said Michael Skaggs, director of programs for the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.
What started as a few individuals offering ad hoc support for people grieving pets has become an informal network of professionals, both paid and unpaid, providing spiritual support everywhere from veterinary clinics to animal shelters. Animal chaplain training programs are reporting increased enrollment year over year, as well as a growing recognition that the work they do is no joke.
“This is beyond animal blessings and pet funerals,” said Bowen. “What we’re talking about are deep systemic and existential questions about our relationships with other species.”
The definitions of animal, veterinary and pet chaplains aren’t universally agreed upon. Most often, animal chaplaincy is used as an umbrella term, and while veterinary chaplains may work in a veterinary clinic, some also use the term interchangeably with animal chaplains. Rob Gierka, who founded the Pet Chaplain organization in 2004, owns the registered trademark for the phrase “pet chaplain” and says the term refers specifically to his organization.
Though not always overt, faith is central to many animal chaplains’ practices. Some provide spiritual care for animals themselves, holding animal blessing events, praying for pets or being a grounding presence during euthanasia.
It’s not just pets and their owners who require spiritual support. Veterinarians are more likely than the general population to die by suicide, and many in animal care fields grapple with moral injury and compassion fatigue.
“Some shelter workers euthanize 100 cats a day as part of their job. So attending to loss in the community is important,” said Bowen.
Scott Campbell, a veterinary chaplain at the Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine, said it was seeing the toll of the veterinary field up close that drew him to becoming a veterinary chaplain.
“I became aware of the suicide statistics in the veterinary profession. I’ve been around the veterinary profession for, like, 45 years now,” said Campbell, whose father-in-law and wife both worked in the field. “I realized that that’s an area that really needed help.”
About every 10 days, Campbell said, he wanders throughout the teaching hospital, offering a listening ear to everyone from the veterinarians to folks working in shipping and receiving.
For many animal chaplains, their vocational path stems from personal loss. That was true for Valerie Richards, a cradle Catholic and longtime social worker now enrolled at a Buddhist seminary, and for Delores Hines-Kaalund, who completed a training program through Pet Chaplain in 2021.
Both lost longtime pets — Richards, a cat named Ellington; and Hines-Kaalund, her Chihuahua, Taz — and were taken aback by the intensity of their grief.
“It left such an impact on me, in terms of grief or bereavement. It was far beyond what I’d experienced with a human loved one,” said Hines-Kaalund, who describes herself as a “charismatic and nondenominational” Christian. She integrates her pet chaplaincy training into her full-time work as a hospice chaplain, helping patient families make decisions about the pets of their dying loved ones while also supporting people grieving dying pets.
A few years after Ellington died of cancer, Richards attended a Chaplaincy Innovation Lab webinar on animal chaplaincy hosted by Bowen, when something clicked. “I was like, I have to do this,” said Richards, who enrolled in Bowen’s online course on animal chaplaincy, hosted through the Compassion Consortium, in September 2023. She hopes to become a full-time animal chaplain supporting others struggling with pet loss and illness.
“People are often really surprised by how intensely they grieve. We hear it all the time, people saying they’re ashamed to say this, but they grieved more for their pet than when their mother died,” said Karen Duke, who, along with her partner Gierka, runs the Pet Chaplain organization where Hines-Kaalund was trained.
Gierka added that, unlike other chaplaincy fields, animal chaplains often support people whose grief is minimized by family, employers and faith leaders.
Animal loss can also trigger existential questions about God’s existence and character, or whether animals are in the afterlife. Trained chaplains aren’t there to provide answers but are familiar with a range of religious and spiritual worldviews and can help people make meaning from their circumstances.
Campbell recalled one man he met with at a veterinary clinic who seemed to be in good spirits as his dog received chemotherapy.
“I was preparing to close, and the client stopped, was quiet for a moment, looked at me and said, ‘You know, I have the exact same kind of cancer my dog has. And so I’m seeing my future laid out before my eyes,’” said Campbell. “All of a sudden, that turned into a completely different kind of conversation.”
Because veterinary and animal chaplaincy are still emerging fields, there’s little consistency around training and credentials. According to Skaggs, ordination is common for non-animal chaplains who work in highly institutionalized settings, like hospitals or the military, but it’s rarely a requirement for animal chaplains. Financial compensation is also inconsistent, with some animal chaplains charging hourly rates or being paid by an institution and others working on a volunteer basis and accepting donations.
Gierka and Duke are passionate about empowering lay people to be animal chaplains and did so for years through their online Introduction to Pet Chaplaincy course. What started two decades ago as a six-week course with six people became a 15-week course with more than 30 people a semester. In 2022, the pair paused the course to translate it into a book series, which is expected out later this year.
“We’re seeing, after 20 years, now we’re at a tipping point,” said Duke. “There’s definitely a need.”
Campbell is hoping to help animal and veterinary chaplains connect through the American Association of Veterinary Chaplains, a professional membership organization he recently founded he hopes will eventually certify veterinary chaplains.
And Bowen launched an online animal chaplain training program in 2022 and told RNS that more than 50 people are completing the nine-month program each year. Her students include ministers, rabbis, veterinarians and animal activists. While there’s not a professional board for animal chaplains, Bowen is currently completing a Ph.D. program where she’s developing guidelines for the field.
“What I would say is, the field is gathering,” Bowen said. “This field started around pet bereavement. This field has grown to encompass so much more than that.”