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Students at St. Mary’s, an Episcopal school for Indigenous girls on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, are seen in an undated photo from the G.E.E. Lindquist Papers, held by the Burke Library Archives at Union Theological Seminary.

[Episcopal News Service — Port Aransas, Texas] The Episcopal Church is working to address the intergenerational trauma many Native Americans live with today and how to best engage in advocacy and reconciliation efforts.

Hundreds — or 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. Many of those boarding schools were operated by Christian churches, including The Episcopal Church.

The legacy of boarding schools made international headlines in 2021 with the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 children at a former Indigenous 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 response to the discovery and report, the 80th General Convention established a fact-finding commission to research and document The Episcopal Church’s historic role in these boarding schools. Around the same time, Executive Council created the Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy. The commission and committee met Jan. 17 and 18 at the Mustang Island Conference Center in Port Aransas, Texas, to establish an agenda for the coming year.

The topic of Indigenous boarding schools is “complex” because of the varied experiences Indigenous children had, the Rev. Bradley Hauff, The Episcopal Church’s missioner for Indigenous Ministries who is Lakota and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told Episcopal News Service. Some children were forced to attend, while other families voluntarily sent their children to receive what was often the only formal education available. In many cases, students faced physical and mental abuse, even death. “There was no uniform Indigenous boarding school experience,” Hauff said.

“The boarding schools alienated families from each other. I myself never knew my grandparents because they lost touch with my parents and died young, and I grew up barely knowing my aunts and uncles,” said Hauff, whose parents attended Indigenous boarding schools during the Great Depression.

The Episcopal Church’s two Indigenous boarding school groups are working together yet have distinctive mandates — General Convention Resolution A127 established a commission to focus on researching and documenting the church’s historic involvement and complicity in the boarding schools. Executive Council formed its committee to focus on advocacy work. The two groups first met in person in October in Seattle, Washington, to discuss how to interpret and apply existing General Convention resolutions.

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. At least nine of those boarding schools 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.

It was a 2022 federal report that 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. Hauff, who’s a member of both the research commission and advocacy committee, called those deaths a “genocide.”

“How does a people recover from genocide? I don’t know if that’s even possible or what it would involve, but I think the first step is talking about the truth of what happened and not sugar-coating the truth with a false narrative,” he said.

Much of last week’s discussion centered around sharing stories of the intergenerational trauma experienced today by Indigenous people, as well as healing efforts and the need to specify advocacy priorities. The intergenerational trauma caused by Indigenous boarding schools lingers today in various forms, including poverty, violence and substance abuse. The groups also discussed how to best spend the $2 million Executive Council allocated to them. 

During the two-day meeting, Executive Council’s committee selected leadership. Leora Tadgerson will serve as chair. She serves as the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion and is a member of Gnoozhikaaning-Bay Mills and Wiikwemkong First Nation. Roth Puahala, junior warden of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, and a native Hawaiian, will serve as secretary.

Hauff told ENS he thinks the advocacy committee selecting its leadership during the discussions was a “major breakthrough.”

“It empowered these two commissions to move forward working together, and at the same time it’s responsible to the two different governmental entities of The Episcopal Church — Executive Council and General Convention,” he said.

The research commission’s immediate priority is to hire a facilitator and draft a strategic plan to address all points of General Convention’s Indigenous boarding school resolution before the 81st General Convention takes place June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. Collaborating with tribes, dioceses with significant Native American populations and other Christian organizations involved in similar research into Indigenous boarding schools and reconciliation is a possibility for the future. Because many boarding school records were lost or destroyed upon closure, the commission also discussed searching for names of unknown victims through cemetery records in nearby areas. 

Members from both the commission and the committee unanimously agreed that gathering stories from boarding school survivors will be crucial for advancing research and advocacy efforts.

“We need things such as trauma-informed interviewing styles,” the Rev. Leon Sampson, curate priest at Good Shepherd Mission in Fort Defiance, Arizona, and a member of the General Convention commission, said during the discussions, which he attended via Zoom. “We need to try to do this work very sensitively so that we don’t offend anybody.”

Outside of strictly addressing boarding schools, members of both groups also discussed how The Episcopal Church can bring awareness to the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the United States and Canada. In the United States, Indigenous women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than women from any other demographic, according to research conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“A lot of the work that’s being done now is at the grassroots level,” Sampson said. “So, what do we do as The Episcopal Church to support the grassroots groups?”

In 2022, General Convention passed legislation recognizing the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis and supporting advocacy efforts to support victims, including directing the church’s Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations to support related federal government legislation.

Intergenerational healing was also a major discussion topic, and the endgame of the commission and committee’s research and advocacy efforts. The Rev. Cornelia Eaton, The Episcopal Church in Navajoland’s canon to the ordinary and a member of the research commission, mentioned Navajoland’s efforts through its Hozho Wellness Center as an example. The center, which is based in Farmington, New Mexico, serves as a support and counseling center for Navajo women and their families by offering a food delivery program and parenting, gardening, cooking, art and storytelling classes. The word “hózhó” means “balance and beauty” in the Navajo language.

Hauff told ENS that the commission and committee plan to have another in-person meeting before the 81st General Convention.

“It’s taken us a long time to get here, and it will take time to reach a point of resolution,” he said. “We’re not going to resolve anything quickly, but the onus is on us, in The Episcopal Church, to look to Jesus and rationally respond to the damage that’s been done.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Anglican Communion Office] Meeting during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, bishops from the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions will be gathering for Growing Together, a weeklong summit for ecumenical discussion and pilgrimage in Rome and Canterbury between Jan. 22 and 29.

The bishops will come in pairs — Anglican and Catholic — representing different countries from around the world. More than 50 bishops are participating, from 27 countries.

Visiting holy sites in both Rome and Canterbury, the bishops will pray, reflect and learn from one another. The aim is to discuss ways of growing together in joint witness and mission in the world.

On Jan. 25, near the tomb of the Apostle Paul, Pope Francis and the Most Rev. Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, will commission the bishops, sending them out in pairs, to be witnesses to Christian unity. This will be a significant moment, symbolic for Anglican-Catholic bonds and advancing ecumenical dialogue.

The summit is organized by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM). IARCCUM is an official commission of the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church, established to ecumenical dialogue between the traditions.

Alongside daily discussions, the bishops will make visits to the following sites:

In Rome

Jan. 23: St Peter’s Basilica for a tour and a service of Anglican Choral Evensong.

Jan. 25: Bishops visit the church of San Bartolomeo, where the archbishop of Canterbury will preside and preach at a sung Anglican Eucharist; commissioning of the bishops by the archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Francis at the tomb of the Apostle Paul (Basilica of St Paul Outside The Walls).

Jan. 26: Visit to the church of San Gregorio al Celio, from which the first archbishop of Canterbury was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great in 597.

In Canterbury

Jan. 28: Bishops will take part in Choral Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral, where the Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, will preach. There will be discussions on a joint statement about the future work of IARCCUM/ongoing dialogue.

[World Council of Churches] Materials for the world’s largest prayer gathering — the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity — are newly available on smartphones via a Bible app that is reaching millions of people.

In addition to the online material available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic, the resources also are available for smartphones via a Bible app produced through a collaboration with the World Council of Churches and YouVersion.

The theme for 2024 is “You shall love the Lord your God …and your neighbor as yourself…”

Members of different churches in Burkina Faso, facilitated by the Chemin Neuf Community, prepared the resources for the week, reflecting on the need to place love at the center of the quest for peace and reconciliation.

Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is recovering at home following a successful Jan. 18 medical procedure to alleviate the underlying condition that has caused his recurrences of subdural hematoma, according to a press release from the church’s Office of Public Affairs. 

Curry had been treated twice at a hospital near his home in Raleigh, North Carolina, since early December, when doctors diagnosed the subdural hematoma, or brain bleed, after he suffered a fall during a visit to the Diocese of Central New York. Doctors planned to use a catheter to insert a metal coil intended to prevent blood from pooling in the brain during the Jan. 18 procedure.

His medical team had previoulsy expected him to spend one night in the hospital for observation and then continue his recovery at home.

Curry, at 70, is wrapping up the final year of his nine-year term as presiding bishop. Unrelated to the subdural hematoma, last September, he underwent surgery to remove an adrenal gland and a non-cancerous attached mass following treatment last year for episodes of internal bleeding.

[Office of Public Affairs Press Release] The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop (JNCPB) met Jan. 9-11 in Phoenix, Arizona, to discern which bishops to invite to join them for an in-person meeting in March. The committee will announce its slate of nominees in the weeks following that meeting.

The committee spent its time considering the list of bishops it formed following the committee’s call for nominations from May 15 to July 15. During that time, 111 Episcopalians submitted bishops’ names.

The committee invited those bishops to enter the discernment process. Those who agreed to join the process provided biographical information, references, and written and video responses to several questions. Small groups of committee members interviewed each bishop via Zoom this past fall while other groups talked with each bishop’s references. All committee members viewed recordings of the bishops’ interviews and reviewed what each team learned when consulting the references.

The Rev. Maureen-Elizabeth Hagen, a deacon who chairs the nominations subcommittee, noted: “The committee is grateful to the bishops who have joined us in discernment. We look forward to continuing to listen to the Holy Spirit with them.”

During their time together at the Hilton Phoenix Airport, committee members kept events in the church and the world in their prayers. They prayed for Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s continued healing and for the people of Ecuador as violence wracked that country. Committee member the Rev. Diego Chinguá of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Ecuador updated his colleagues on events in that country.

Dr. Steve Nishibayashi, a canon in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles who co-chairs the committee, said, “As we continue to discern which bishops to nominate for election as the next presiding bishop, we are focused on the state of the church and the world.”

The Episcopal Church’s Canon I.2.1(d) charges the committee to present a slate of no fewer than three nominees. The JNCPB will announce the names of its nominees in early spring. Then there will be a set period during which any deputy to the 81st General Convention or bishop may indicate an intent to nominate other bishops from the floor at convention. The committee will vet any such nominees with the same process it used for its nominees (Canon I.2.1(d)). The names of any additional nominees will be announced in early June 2024.

The Most Rev. Michael Curry’s nine-year term as presiding bishop concludes Oct. 31, 2024.

The JNCPB will present all the nominees to both houses of General Convention on Friday, June 21. Formal nomination of candidates will follow on Tuesday, June 25. Bishops will elect the next presiding bishop during a sequestered session on Wednesday, June 26. The House of Deputies will then be asked to vote to confirm or not confirm the election by the House of Bishops.

The committee began working together in the fall of 2021. View the committee roster.

For more information, contact the committee at pb28@episcopalchurch.org.

Follow the committee on the following social media sites:

• Facebook: facebook.com/PB28Nominations
• Twitter: twitter.com/PB28Nominations, @PB28Nominations
• Instagram: instagram.com/pb28nominatingcommittee

See past press releases about the committee’s work.

The campus of Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Photo courtesy of Saint Augustine’s

[Episcopal News Service] Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of two historically Black colleges that are affiliated with and supported by The Episcopal Church, is poised to lose its accreditation unless it wins an appeal, putting the school’s continued viability in doubt.

The university’s latest accreditation crisis coincides with renewed leadership upheaval at Saint Augustine’s. In early December, its board of trustees fired President Christine McPhail, and McPhail is pursuing a discrimination claim against Saint Augustine’s – raising gender- and race-based discrimination allegations that the board said are unfounded.

The university’s Board of Trustees reportedly fired McPhail on Dec. 3. She told local media that the board had not given her a reason, though the termination occurred the same day that its accrediting agency had voted to remove Saint Augustine’s as an accredited member institution. The agency cited problems with the university’s governance and finances.

Saint Augustine’s remains an accredited university but on probation while it makes an appeal with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC.

Saint Augustine’s and the much smaller Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, have received several million dollars from The Episcopal Church in recent years while also accepting the church’s guidance on administrative and fundraising matters. Church leaders remain committed to the two schools and plan to assist Saint Augustine’s in its appeal, according to the Rev. Martini Shaw, a Pennsylvania priest who chairs Executive Council’s Committee on HBCU.

“As the church continues to look at racial and social injustices that exist in our country, I think we have to, we must, support those institutions that are mainly geared toward people of color,” Shaw said in an interview this week with Episcopal News Service.

The HBCU committee held its October meeting on Saint Augustine’s campus. Last week, on Jan. 10, it gathered online for a special meeting to discuss ways the church might respond to the possibility of Saint Augustine’s losing accreditation, which certifies that colleges and universities meet certain academic, financial and operational standards.

The accrediting agency’s Dec. 5 disclosure statement doesn’t detail how Saint Augustine’s fell short other than to say it failed to meet six of the agency’s requirements and standards, including those relating to the university’s governing board, its financial resources and financial documents.

The university is behind on financial audits, which it already has pledged to catch up on its, Shaw said, and he expressed hope that the appeal would be successful.

“We as a committee, and the church, will be working with them as much as we can to see how we can assist them in that appeal process,” Shaw said.

Saint Augustine’s, Voorhees and other historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, were founded after the Civil War to provide educational opportunities to Black men and women who were excluded from white institutions of higher learning because of segregation.

Saint Augustine’s dates back to 1867, when it was established by Episcopalians in the Diocese of North Carolina. Though still rooted in the Episcopal tradition, it now operates as an independent institution. Its enrollment in fall 2021 was 1,261 students, according to the latest data compiled and released by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The school that later would become Voorhees College was founded in 1897, and The Episcopal Church has supported it since 1924. It reported 402 students enrolled as of fall 2021.

The church once was connected to 11 historically Black colleges in Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. By 1976, only three remained. In 2013, Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville, Virginia, folded, leaving just Saint Augustine’s and Voorhees.

Saint Augustine’s University had previously faced financial struggles and enrollment decline, but by December 2018, it appeared to be turning a corner when it announced that it had been taken off probation by SACSCOC.

“We have saved Saint Augustine’s University,” the university’s then-President Everett Ward said at the time. He cited The Episcopal Church’s longtime financial and advisory support in helping restore the university to full accreditation.

A month later, Ward announced he was retiring after five years leading the university, sometimes referred to as SAU. Ward’s successor, Irving Pressley McPhail, died in October 2020 from COVID-19 just months into his tenure, and his widow, Christine McPhail, was appointed to take his place in February 2021.

Christine McPhail served as president of Saint Augustine’s University from February 2021 to December 2023. Photo: Saint Augustine’s University

“Our agenda at SAU involves student success and university sustainability,” McPhail said in an April 2022 news release promoting the university’s spring commencement ceremony. “Our graduates are the evidence of our institution’s effectiveness.”

In October 2023, McPhail filed an internal complaint with the university accusing the Board of Trustees of creating a “hostile environment” for her and other female leaders, according to the law firm representing her.

In its statement denying McPhail’s allegations, Saint Augustine’s board said it was focused instead on maintaining accreditation. “The university’s accreditation is critical to the university’s ability to continue as one of the predominant HBCUs in this State,” the board said. “This critical mission will remain our central focus as we continue to support the faculty, staff, alumni, and, most importantly, the students of Saint Augustine’s University.”

North Carolina Bishop Samuel Rodman, who serves on the Board of Trustees, declined to comment for this story, saying he preferred to wait until after the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Jan. 19.

Under federal guidelines, colleges and universities seek accreditation by an approved governmental or non-governmental agency like SACSCOC to ensure they meet “acceptable levels of quality,” according to the U.S. Department of Education. Accreditation, for example, is a minimum standard typically verified by managers when assessing graduates for potential employment. An academic institution that fails to retain accreditation also could be disqualified from federal grants and student aid programs, potentially jeopardizing the school’s ability to remain open.

SACSCOC had first placed Saint Augustine’s on probation in 2016 because of earlier concerns about its financial security. At that time, The Episcopal Church was ramping up its support for Saint Augustine’s and Voorhees, first through a task force and then through the Committee on HBCU that was established by Executive Council in 2017.

The church also has approved a little more than $1 million for each school every three years since the 2016-18 churchwide budget. That support continued through the pandemic, and the draft 2025-27 budget plan that is advancing to the 81st General Convention this June proposes similar funding levels for the two colleges.

Separately, the church’s Development Office has worked to increase awareness of the schools within the church and to help with fundraising. Its appeal every Feb. 13 on the Feast Day of Absalom Jones, the church’s first Black priest, raises money to support historically Black colleges.

Voorhees is in a better financial position than Saint Augustine’s, with no known threat to its accreditation, Shaw told ENS. He partly credits the collegiality of the leadership at Voorhees, something that has not always been the case at Saint Augustine’s in recent years.

“It’s very disconcerting,” Shaw said. “It hasn’t been a good relationship with board and president [at Saint Augustine’s]. That seems to be an issue, and it continues to be issue.”

In mid-December, the Saint Augustine’s board announced that it was appointing Marcus Burgess as interim president. Burgess previously served as vice president for institutional advancement at Claflin University, a historically Black school in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Burgess, in a university news release, said he would work to preserve Saint Augustine’s “mission of excellence in education.”

“I am committed to ushering in a new era of stability and growth for the university, ensuring its continued accreditation and fostering a culture of transparency and collaboration,” Burgess said. “I stand with the dedicated faculty, staff, and students as we navigate these challenges and build a promising future for SAU.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[World Council of Churches] Within the framework of the negotiations and conversations of the third cycle of the Peace Dialogue Table between the government of Colombia and the Estado Mayor Central FARC-EP, the news was received that President Petro approved Decree 0016 of Jan. 14, 2024, which extends the ceasefire with the EMC FARC-EP for six more months.

“We receive this news with great joy,” said World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Jerry Pillay. “It shows that further steps are being taken for the peace process to advance, in the interests of the security and rights of the civilian population,” he said.

The World Council of Churches participates in the Round Table of Dialogue for Peace as a Permanent Accompanying Party along with the Roman Catholic Church, the Organization of American States and the United Nations Verification Mission.

Read the entire article here.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, seen offering his Christmas message in 2022, will undergo a procedure Jan. 18 to prevent recurrences of subdural hematoma, or brain bleed.

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will undergo a medical procedure on Jan. 18 that doctors hope will alleviate the underlying condition that has caused Curry’s recurrences of subdural hematoma, according to an update from the church’s Office of Public Affairs.

Curry has been treated twice at a hospital near his home in Raleigh, North Carolina, since early December, when doctors diagnosed the subdural hematoma, or brain bleed, after he suffered a fall during a visit to the Diocese of Central New York. The new procedure will use a catheter to insert a metal coil intended to prevent blood from pooling in the brain.

“Up to this point, we have been responding to emergency situations, but this is a positive and proactive approach designed to get these bleeds under control,” Curry said in the Jan. 17 update. “The procedure has a very good success rate, and I am hopeful this will address the underlying issues.”

The Office of Public Affairs release said Curry’s medical team expects him to spend one night in the hospital for observation and then continue his recovery at home.

“I continue to be so thankful for all your prayers, which have been working in tandem with my medical team’s excellent care,” Curry said. “I count it a blessing to be in an area with good research hospitals and in a loving church with such faithful, prayerful support.”

Curry, at 70, is wrapping up the final year of his nine-year term as presiding bishop. Unrelated to the subdural hematoma, last September, he underwent surgery to remove an adrenal gland and a non-cancerous attached mass following treatment last year for episodes of internal bleeding.

[Episcopal News Service] Retired New Jersey Bishop Chip Stokes has agreed to help the Diocese of Florida during its leadership transition, the Florida Standing Committee said in a Jan. 17 update to the diocese.

The standing committee previously had announced that retired Georgia Bishop Scott Benhase would serve the Diocese of Florida as part-time assisting bishop starting this month following Florida Bishop John Howard’s retirement at the end of October. Stokes will support Benhase.

“Bishop Stokes will be actively involved in parish visitations for confirmations and pastoral support, regional gatherings, clericus meetings and ordinations,” the standing committee said in its latest update.

Stokes retired as bishop of the Trenton-based Diocese of New Jersey in June 2023.

Attendees of Winter Talk 2024 gather for a group photo Jan. 14 at the Mustang Island Conference Center in Port Aransas, Texas. Photo: Shireen Korkzan/Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service — Port Aransas, Texas] Episcopalians representing multiple Indigenous tribes throughout the United States and worldwide gathered in person and virtually Jan. 13-15 at the Mustang Island Conference Center in Port Aransas, Texas, for the annual Winter Talk conference.

“This endeavor strengthens our Indigenous community, which we then take with us back to our own communities,” said Forrest Cuch, a member of the Ute tribe and senior warden of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Whiterocks, Utah. “It’s just a wonderful time. It’s something we all look forward to. It’s incredible.”

The Episcopal Church’s Office of Indigenous Ministries organizes Winter Talk as a forum where participants can highlight their Indigenous traditions and contributions to the church. This year, 38 people participated in person and as many as 75 people participated via Zoom. Participants included priests, bishops, lay leaders and tribal elders. Every day of Winter Talk included morning and evening worship. Many participants prayed aloud in their native languages.

This year’s Winter Talk theme was “Indigenous Ways of Learning, Knowing and Relating.”

“Jesus had an Indigenous worldview … Indigenous people — our way of learning — is circular. It’s not linear,” the Rev. Bradley Hauff, a Lakota and a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who serves as the church’s missioner for Indigenous ministries, said during his remarks opening the conference. “We see life as a lifelong learning experience.”

After Hauff spoke, participants created an altar — a table adorned with a handmade quilt and blessed beforehand by a tribal elder — by bringing forward items of significance to them personally, as well as their culture, tradition and ministry. Items included handmade jewelry, books and seashells. The Rev. Lauren Stanley, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of South Dakota, brought ashes from Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Parmelee, which arsonists burned to the ground in October 2023. The historic church served Episcopalians on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Virtual participants, joining from Latin America, Africa and New Zealand, also symbolically offered items to the altar.

Cuch told Episcopal News Service that it’s important for Indigenous people to share their stories as a step forward to collectively heal.

“We must extend that up to greater communities, and the more we can share, the greater the interfacing with the international community,” he said.

During Winter Talk 2024 in Port Aransas, Texas, participants created an altar — a table adorned with a handmade quilt and blessed beforehand by a tribal elder— by bringing forward items of significance to them personally, as well as their culture, tradition and ministry. Items included handmade jewelry, books, seashells and ashes from Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Parmelee, which arsonists allegedly burned to the ground in October 2023. Photo: Shireen Korkzan/Episcopal News Service

Every day of Winter Talk consisted of presentations addressing a range of topics, including a presentation from Alan Yarborough, church relations officer for the Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations, explaining the function of the office and the Episcopal Public Policy Network. During the presentation, Yarborough explained how the Office of Government Relations works with organization and coalition partners to address areas of concern in Indigenous communities, such as the alarmingly high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Other discussions included creation care efforts and the lasting harmful legacies of 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.

Several bishops from dioceses with significant Indigenous populations also participated in Winter Talk either in person or virtually. They offered words of encouragement and support for the Indigenous Episcopal communities.

“I stand here before you, extraordinarily grateful not just for your friendship,” South Dakota Bishop Jonathan Folts told Winter Talk participants in person. “Your relationship with each other in Jesus Christ, that’s tangible. I can touch that; I can feel that; I am emboldened by that, and I’m grateful for that.”

The Diocese of South Dakota is home to the largest Indigenous ministry in North America, serving the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people, according to the diocese’s website.

Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray, who participated in Winter Talk virtually, informed attendees of the diocese’s ongoing reconciliation efforts with Indigenous people in the Upper Peninsula. On Jan. 26 and 27, during an event in Baraga, the diocese will launch “Walking Together Finding Common Ground,” a traveling exhibit that will include a powwow gathering. During the launch, Ray will offer a formal public apology of Christian churches’ efforts to assimilate Native American children into the dominant white culture and erase Indigenous languages and cultures in boarding schools. Some children were forced to attend, while other families voluntarily sent their children to receive what often was the only formal education available. In many cases, students faced physical and mental abuse, even death. The intergenerational trauma caused by Indigenous boarding schools lingers today.

“I appreciate the work that’s been done by many people here in the Upper Peninsula, and we have lots more to do,” Ray said. “We’re just getting on with the healing process towards reconciliation, and we’ve got a way to go, but we are working towards them.”

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 commission and the committee are meeting Jan. 17 and 18 at the Mustang Island Conference Center.

The Rev. Garth Howe, community/cultural liaison officer for Church Pension Group and a deacon in the Diocese of Chicago, shared CPG’s outreach initiative to establish a network of support for Indigenous clergy, many of whom are non-stipendiary, meaning they don’t earn a salary or receive health insurance.

“That’s why I’m here at this conference,” said Howe, who is of Oglala Sioux and Stockbridge ancestry. “I’m here personally to experience the good work around here … to make sure that the organization I represent here has the best understanding of the ins and outs of Indigenous thinking.”

In between presentations, the Rev. Bude VanDyke, rector of Church of the Good Shepherd in Decatur, Alabama, and a part of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, played guitar and sang songs he wrote himself about pain, addiction, healing and hope for Indigenous communities. VanDyke told ENS that he picked up music after recovering from alcoholism more than 20 years ago.

“Even amid all of the institutional kind of stuff [with The Episcopal Church], what I’m interested in is this relationship with people that matter to me and knowing that I matter,” he said.

Winter Talk concluded with participants taking down the altar. Some people kept the items they shared while others gave their items away to fellow participants.

“We ended up inspiring each other, invigorating each other and building our faith together — our love and understanding,” Cuch said. “A lot of wonderful things came out of these meetings. We inspired each other with our stories, and we just shared everything that’s in our hearts.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] Six Anglican women bishops from Africa — collectively known as the “Africa Six — gathered Jan. 11 at St. Paul’s University in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss Christian leadership in the 21st century. The discussion was part of a retreat that took place Jan. 9-14 at the Anglican Church of Kenya’s St. Julian’s Centre in Limuru. The Episcopal Church’s Office of Global Partnerships co-sponsored the event with St. Paul’s.

The “Africa Six” includes Bishop Filemona Teta of Angola; Bishop Vicentia Kgabe of Lesotho; Bishop Dalcy Dlamini of Eswatini; Bishop Elizabeth Awut of South Sudan; Bishop Rose Okeno of Butere, Kenya; and Bishop Emily Onyango of Bondo, Kenya.

“It wasn’t and it will not be easy, but I believe that we have a God who can do everything for us,” Teta, the first woman bishop in Angola, said during the panel discussion. “We carry the flag of women.”

“Women leadership has provided the Church rich and diverse approaches of spreading the Gospel, inspiring hope and mentoring younger generations,” Kenya Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit wrote in a Facebook post. He officially commenced the gathering with a Eucharist celebration.

At the gathering, the “Africa Six” bishops shared their personal experiences as female bishops during a panel discussion that more than 500 people attended in person, according to a report by the World Council of Churches. On YouTube, 1,375 people watched the livestream.

Because Jan. 11, the day of the gathering, was on a Thursday, in-person participants wore black in observance of the Thursdays in Black campaign for a world free from sexual and gender-based violence.

The bishops also met students and faculty of St. Paul’s School of Theology and participated in a workshop at the Anglican Church of Kenya’s St. Julian’s Retreat Centre. The African Anglican Sisters in Leadership arranged the workshop for the bishops.

“Leadership is the one who goes through the fire to purify for those who come next, ” Kgabe said during the panel discussion while describing her perspective on leadership and service.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Michael Barlowe, whose leadership of the General Convention Office as executive officer put him at the forefront of the church’s years-long shift to digital technology and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Jan. 16 that he plans to retire in August.

The Rev. Michael Barlowe, secretary of General Convention, gives an overview of the work of Executive Council in an October 2018 meeting. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

Barlowe, an Episcopal priest for more than 40 years, is known in church governance for wearing many hats. In addition to General Convention’s executive officer, he serves as that governing body’s elected secretary, as its registrar and as secretary of Executive Council, the church’s governing body between meetings of General Convention. He also is secretary of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the church’s corporate entity, and chairs the joint standing committee that considers and recommends host cities for the church’s triennial General Convention.

In his Jan. 16 letter to Executive Council, he announced that the 81st General Convention in June will be his last.

“It has been an honor to serve The Episcopal Church as executive officer of the General Convention for the past 11 years,” Barlowe said in his letter. “During my tenure, the church has lived through considerable change and challenge, while achieving much good for the mission of God.”

Barlowe was a six-time deputy to General Convention and had served for six years as canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of California when he was appointed as executive officer, effective January 2013. He was selected for the position by the church’s two presiding officers at the time, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, House of Deputies president. He resigned as a member of Executive Council to become executive officer.

In that role, Barlowe has led the central office responsible for the administration of church governance. The General Convention Office’s duties include 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.

The creation of the Virtual Binder was one of the most significant technological advances overseen by Barlowe during his time heading the General Convention Office. Previously, bishops and deputies followed the progress of hundreds of resolutions at General Convention by flipping through paper in a physical binder. Starting with the 78th General Convention in 2015, the church moved to a Virtual Binder, which deputations could access using church-provided iPads.

“The Virtual Binder provides enhanced support for the legislative work of the church, and allows us to reduce greatly the use of paper,” Barlowe said in 2015.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, disrupting church operations from the congregation level to churchwide, the General Convention Office under Barlowe was responsible for helping church governance move online, including meetings of Executive Council.

Working with Jennings and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Barlowe also led planning of the 80th General Convention in July 2022 after a one-year postponement. His office facilitated Zoom meetings for committees so they could conduct almost all their business online in advance of the shortened in-person meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

The General Convention Office starts planning for the triennial meeting at least three years in advance – nearly from the moment the previous convention ends – and the scaled-down meeting in Baltimore was still a major undertaking, Barlowe told Episcopal News Service at the time.  “The infrastructure for putting on General Convention is essentially the same whether it’s four legislative days or nine legislative days.”

A 1983 graduate of General Theological Seminary, Barlowe also had served as a parish priest in New Jersey and as dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Des Moines, Iowa.

Barlowe, in his retirement announcement, said serving the church has brought him “enormous joy.” He said he scheduled his retirement for late summer to allow time for the General Convention Office to tie up loose ends from the June meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, adding that he will not run for re-election as secretary.

“I look forward to new ministries ahead, and to new adventures with my spouse of nearly 42 years, the Reverend Paul Anthony Burrows,” he said.

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

A new web-based parish register app not only allows users to add data about every church service to be compiled for the required parochial report, it also can display information about worship services in a variety of graphs. Photo: Screenshot of app demonstration video

[Episcopal News Service] The General Convention Office has released a new web-based app that helps tally items on the annual parochial report relating to church services and attendance.

The parish register app allows users to track aspects of every liturgy that takes place in their congregation and then adds that data to the church’s parochial report, the Rev. Molly James, deputy executive officer of General Convention, told Episcopal News Service. Every congregation in The Episcopal Church is required to complete the parochial report annually. This year’s report based on 2023 data is due March 1.

“It tracks everything related to worship, so that at the end of the year, when you go to fill out the parochial report, the number of Eucharists you have, the number of baptisms, your average Sunday attendance – all of the math is done for you,” she said. Data that is entered during 2024 will be compiled for the parochial report that is filed in 2025.

The availability of the new app was first announced in the General Convention Office’s December 2023 newsletter.

The app is designed to work on a variety of devices – computer, tablet or phone – using an internet browser, James said, so it can be accessed anywhere. She noted that some church offices may not have robust internet connection, but a user could enter data on a phone, or even note Sunday’s numbers and add them later from home.

A section of the app also clarifies how to count online worshipers, James said, using two metrics – unique live views of an online stream and unique recorded views of an online stream during the week.

But beyond automating part of the report data, James said it also provides users with the ability to see the data visually through graphs in a variety of formats. To create that feature, the General Convention Office collaborated with outside vendor Worship Times. “The IT department has custom-built filing sites, but we needed someone with expertise to make our graphical user interface on the front end,” she said.

The Rev. Chris Rankin, who served as chair of the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church from 2018 to 2022 and has worked on aspects of the parochial report, told ENS by email, “It is great there is an online tool that can populate the parochial report. It will make life easier for people and will make it clear what to track and how.”

The app requires users to create a log-in using the unique user identity for each congregation, which is searchable in the app by church name. It then walks users through the data they can enter. A video explaining the log-in process, as well as how to use the app, also is on the app website.

James said that once a user sets up an account and starts using the app, if they have questions they can be sent to a special email address at the General Convention Office.

–Melodie Woerman is a freelance writer and former director of communications for the Diocese of Kansas.

[World Council of Churches] As the World Economic Forum annual meeting commenced in Davos, Switzerland, beginning Jan. 15, World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Jerry Pillay urged the gathering to renew its commitment to multilateral cooperation for the longer-term good of all people. 

The forum is convening under the theme “Rebuilding Trust.” 

Pillay reflected that trust is the essential ingredient without which human societies—and the global community—cannot function. “However, in today’s divided and increasingly conflictual world, it is a commodity in critically short supply,” said Pillay. “While some of those in attendance in Davos are themselves drivers of inequality, injustice, and division, we want to believe that many others are genuinely committed to exercising their considerable influence to promote a greater measure of justice and peace in the world.”

Read the entire article here.

[World Council of Churches] The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be held Jan. 18-25, with materials from Burkina Faso facilitated by the Chemin Neuf Community. Each year ecumenical partners in a different region are asked to prepare the materials.

With roots going back over 100 years, the dedicated octave of prayers has been jointly commissioned and prepared since 1966, after the Second Vatican Council, by the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches.

This year’s theme is “You shall love the Lord your God …and your neighbor as yourself…” The reflections explore how we find our common identity in the experience of God’s love. The specific context of Burkina Faso reflects the need to place love at the center of the quest for peace and reconciliation.

Read the entire article here.

From left, Jebaroja Suganthy-Singh, Nivedhan Singh and Eklan Singh speak in a video on their website, Episcopal Accountability, which accuses church leaders of failing to properly respond to their abuse complaints against Bishop Prince Singh.

[Episcopal News Service] The family of former Rochester Bishop Prince Singh has called for an independent investigation into how Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Bishop Todd Ousley, the former Title IV intake officer for complaints against bishops, handled their allegations of domestic abuse by Singh.

Singh’s ex-wife and their two adult sons have accused Curry of not taking prompt and sufficient action in response to their claims of abuse, which date back to when the sons were boys. They first made the claims directly to Curry in December 2022 and revealed them publicly in June 2023, after they said Curry and other Episcopal leaders failed to follow the church’s Title IV disciplinary canons regarding bishops and other clergy.

Since then, a Title IV reference panel has referred Singh for an investigation under the canons, according to an email update Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, vice president of the House of Bishops, sent to her fellow bishops on Jan. 10.

Gray-Reeves’ update, a copy of which was obtained by Episcopal News Service, included two attachments. In one, Gray-Reeves informed Singh’s family that she she was recusing herself from the Title IV complaint involving Curry. The Rt. Rev. Herman Hollerith IV, retired Southern Virginia bishop, will take her place.

The second attachment is a 19-page letter dated Dec. 28, 2023, from Singh’s family to all Episcopal bishops, detailing their objections to the handling of their complaints by Curry and Ousley, who leads the church’s Office of Pastoral Development. Ousley served as intake officer for Title IV complaints against bishops until last year, when Curry reassigned that role to a newly hired intake officer for bishop complaints.

When the family went public with their allegations last June, Singh was serving as bishop provisional of the diocese of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. Curry recused himself from the case, designating his Title IV role to the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, a former bishop of East Carolina and former dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

In September 2023, Daniel restricted Singh his ordained ministry while the Title IV case was pending. Singh resigned as bishop provisional a day later.

Bishop Prince Singh, at the time the provisional bishop of the dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan, appears in a video message June 16, 2023. Photo: YouTube

Singh had been elected by the two dioceses in October 2021 and took office the following February. At the time, the bishop faced growing family strife. He and his wife, Jebaroja Suganthy-Singh, finalized their divorce in April 2022, and in December, she sent a letter to Curry saying she and her sons felt ignored and abandoned by the church. The sons, Nivedhan Singh and Eklan Singh, sent separate letters to Curry detailing the physical and emotional abuse they said they suffered at the hands of their father.

In written responses, Curry pledged his support for the family, and in February 2023, he met with Suganthy-Singh on Zoom, saying he previously had been told they did not want to be contacted. The family has since launched a website, Episcopal Accountability, to document their correspondence with Curry, arguing that Curry and Ousley failed to follow the Title IV disciplinary canons or even inform the family that the canons might apply to their case.

Their most recent letter to the House of Bishops calls for a third-party investigation of the matter, saying they have no faith that a bishop or other clergy member could impartially investigate their complaint against Curry and Ousley.

“Survivors of abuse who have already been failed by the church should not be sacrificed to uphold the images of leaders who have repeatedly failed in their duties,” they said in their letter. “We are not pursuing this course out of a desire for revenge or out of bitterness. Rather, we wish for the goals of Title IV for ‘healing, repentance, forgiveness, restitution, justice, amendment of life and reconciliation among all involved or affected’ to be truly achieved.”

As is consistent with the private nature of Title IV cases, Curry and other churchwide leaders have said little publicly about the claims against Singh and the separate claims against Curry and Ousley. Gray-Reeves’ letter suggests that the case against Singh has advanced to an investigation but has not yet been referred to a hearing panel, the body that would consider formal charges against a bishop.

Gray-Reeves’ letter confirms for the first time that Curry and Ousley are the focus of a Title IV inquiry. In response to an inquiry by ENS, the church’s Office of Public Affairs said only that the matter is in the intake stage. Most complaints against bishops are resolved without the matters reaching a hearing panel.

In a case involving a bishop, much of the initial work is completed by an entity known as the Reference Panel, which includes the presiding bishop, the intake officer and the president of the Disciplinary Board for Bishops, an 18-member body made up of a mix of bishops, other clergy and lay leaders.

Gray-Reeves noted that when the presiding bishop is the focus of a complaint, the vice president of the House of Bishops fills the Title IV role normally held by the presiding bishop.

She said she is recusing herself because of her “current pastoral relationship with Bishop Curry and his family during this challenging time,” presumably a reference to Curry’s ongoing recovery from multiple surgeries to treat a subdural hematoma. He was released from the hospital this week and is recovering at his home in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Singh’s case is one of several involving Episcopal bishops in recent years that have fueled renewed scrutiny of the church’s Title IV canons. Some Episcopal leaders have called on the 81st General Convention, when it convenes this June, to address what is perceived as a different standard for bishops than is applied to other clergy.

Curry, who chairs the House of Bishops, released a video message in September 2023 asking the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons “to listen to the concerns and hopes of the laity, clergy and bishops of this church” and “to recommend to the General Convention needed canonical and procedural changes in ecclesiastical discipline of bishops.”

In October, the commission called for churchwide input as it considers a range of Title IV concerns. The commission added that the goals of its deliberations are to ensure rules that “work well in practice to protect people from misconduct; resolve complaints fairly, promptly, and efficiently; and screen out meritless claims.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Religion News Service — Vatican City] Four hundred years after its creation, the famed baldachin that sits above the tomb of St. Peter in Rome will be restored ahead of the 2025 Jubilee year in what experts described as a titanic undertaking during a news conference at the Vatican on Jan. 11.

Nearing 100 feet tall and weighing over 60 tons, the bronze and metal structure decorated with gold details towers beneath the dome in St. Peter’s Basilica. The term “baldachin” derives from an ancient name of the city of Baghdad, Iraq, known for its precious fabrics. Four spiraling, 36-foot-tall bronze columns placed on 8-foot-tall marble blocks support a canopy made to resemble richly adorned cloths.

Since famed architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, along with a team of master artisans and artists, completed the imposing structure, the baldachin has suffered significant decay. The Fabbrica of St. Peter’s, which handles the maintenance of the basilica, teamed up with Microsoft to take 6,000 detailed pictures of the baldachin using drones, which revealed that the structure was in dire need of repair.

The sheer size of the baldachin represents a challenge for restorers. The tight schedule, which promises to unveil the newly restored structure in December, just in time for the Holy Year, makes it a massive undertaking.

“Everything is big in St. Peter’s, and this challenge is also big,” said Alberto Capitanucci, who leads the technical team at the Fabbrica of St. Peter’s, during the news conference.

The decay of the baldachin is also caused by the large number of visitors who come to view the basilica, sometimes as many as 50,000 in a single day. This alters the temperature and humidity enough to corrode the bronze and iron of the structure and to cause the constant expansion and compression of the wood.

“A prerogative of planning the work is the awareness of coming up against a giant,” said Pietro Zander, responsible for overseeing the tombs and artwork at the Fabbrica. “It’s a giant for art history, but above all a giant for its shape and size.”

“We are about to embark in a titanic endeavor,” he added.

The bright gold ornaments of the structure, especially at the top, are covered in a dark coat caused by fatty substances used to restore the baldachin in 1758, when a team of 60 experts worked for years on the project. Almost 250 years later, only a dozen people will work on restoring the baldachin using the latest technologies to assess the alloys, materials and a few mysteries.

At the base of the winding columns, inspired by the original columns’ position by the tomb and supposedly taken from King Solomon’s Temple, there are quirky and unexplained details that have puzzled art historians and enthusiasts alike. Small, gilded reliefs of a fly, a rosary, a lizard eating a scorpion and a reptile appear on the baldachin.

“The restoration will lead to many discoveries,” Zander predicted, including how it was built and the alterations that occurred during the restoration.

The restorers will be able to get close to the baldachin using a large structure that will enclose it completely. Masses and liturgies will still be able to take place in the basilica, reassured Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who oversees the running of the basilica and heads the Fabbrica.

“The baldachin, as tall as a 10-story building, can be seen from any point in the basilica. It is the focal point of the basilica,” Gambetti said during the news conference. “The provisional works and the works on the construction site will not hinder the celebration of papal ceremonies on the main altar. Indeed, just as during the construction of the basilica, it will be possible to continue celebrating Holy Mass at Peter’s Tomb.”

The impressive undertaking will also need significant financing. For this, the Vatican has turned to the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic men’s organization with over 2 million members that has already collaborated with the Vatican on 16 artistic projects. The Knights will cover the full 700,000 euro bill for the restoration.

“The decision to support the restoration of the Baldacchino of St. Peter’s was an easy one for the Knights of Columbus. Why are we doing this?” said Patrick Kelly, the supreme knight of the organization. “Well, in the first place … it’s Bernini’s Baldacchino!”

Speaking at the presentation event at the Vatican, Kelly said the restoration is also an opportunity for the Knights of Columbus to fulfill its mission.

“It’s a singular masterpiece of sacred art — one which is instantly recognizable and impressive,” he said. “But, if that weren’t enough, this project also fits very well with our mission and with our history of service to the church, and especially, the successors of St. Peter.”

[Church of England] The Ministry Experience Scheme (MES) could play a key role in helping the Church of England achieve its goals of recruiting more people to work in ministry to children, youth and families by 2030, a conference has heard.

The Rev. Helen Fraser, head of vocations for the Church of England, spoke of her hope that the MES Future Youth program – providing training in children and youth work for young adults as part of a year-long ministry placement – will grow following its pilot launch in six dioceses this year.

The program, in its first intake, has 11 participants currently and is part of a wider MES placement scheme where young adults get a chance to explore ministry for a year. In the last decade more than 800 people have taken part in the scheme.

Speaking to more than 100 MES participants at a conference in London, Fraser said vocation was not only about ordination and could include calling to a range of other ministerial roles in the church.

Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has been released from the hospital and will continue his recovery at home under the supervision of his doctors, according to a Jan. 11 Office of Public Affairs press release. 

Curry underwent surgery on Jan. 6 to treat a reoccurrence of the subdural hematoma, or brain bleed, he experienced in early December 2023.

Doctors initially diagnosed the brain bleed in December after he fell while visiting Syracuse, New York. After that incident, he was admitted to a hospital near his home in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Dec. 3 and underwent surgery on Dec. 4.

Earlier this year, on Sept. 20, the presiding bishop underwent surgery to remove an adrenal gland and a non-cancerous attached mass following treatment earlier for episodes of internal bleeding.

Curry, at 70, is wrapping up the final year of his nine-year term as presiding bishop. He suffered a subdural hematoma at least once before, in the first month of his tenure. A subdural hematoma is usually caused by a head injury strong enough to burst blood vessels, which can then cause pooled blood to push on the brain.

Further updates will be provided as they become available, according to the release.