[Episcopal News Service] “Audrey’s Children,” a feature-length biopic about Dr. Audrey Evans, a pioneering British American pediatric oncologist and a devout Episcopalian who co-founded Ronald McDonald House Charities with members of the Philadelphia Eagles and McDonald’s, will have a limited theatrical release beginning March 28. Natalie Dormer – best known for her roles in “Game of Thrones” and “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2” – stars as Evans, the first female chief of oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first doctors to treat pediatric cancers with chemotherapy. Directed by Ami Canaan Mann, “Audrey’s Children” highlights Evans’ myriad accomplishments in the 1970s while battling sexism and medical conventions of the time. Julia Fisher Farbman, a close friend of Evans, wrote the script and produced the film. “There are so many things that happen in the movie that I remember Audrey telling us that happened. …Natalie [Dormer] did such a great job showcasing the persistence and also the pain in Audrey’s life, too,” David Kasievich, president and head of school at St. James School, a tuition-free Episcopal school for children grades 4 through 8 in Philadelphia, told Episcopal News Service. Not long after she retired in 2009 from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Evans co-founded St. James School, which opened its doors two years later. “Being a woman – being in a very male-dominated role – Audrey hit so many roadblocks and legal issues,” said Kasievich, who watched an early screening of the movie. “You’re going to see some things in this movie, and you’re going to say, ‘Whoa.’ This woman defied all the resistance.” Born in York, England, in 1925, Evans was the only female student at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Scotland and the only woman in her residency program at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the early 1950s. In 1953, she earned a Fulbright Fellowship and moved to Massachusetts to train at Boston Children’s Hospital for two years. Evans completed her medical training at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1955. She briefly moved back to England to practice pediatrics but returned to the United States after learning that the field was closed to women in her home country. After working in pediatric oncology in Boston and Chicago, Illinois, Evans was recruited to create a pediatric oncology unit at CHOP, where she spent the rest of her medical career. In 1971, she developed the Evans Staging System for neuroblastoma – a cancer that starts in neuroblast cells and mostly affects infants and young children – to help determine disease progression and treatment efficacy. The system helped cut the mortality rate in half, and today, the survival rate is 90-95%. “To be the one who cares is one of the most rewarding experiences in a person’s life,” Evans once said. While serving as chief of oncology, Evans noticed that many out-of-town families of children receiving treatment at CHOP had no place, or no affordable place to stay in the city. In the early 1970s, she met Jim Murray, then-general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles, when the NFL team raised and donated $100,000 to the hospital for children with cancer in honor of a leukemia patient, Kim Hill – the daughter of Fred Hill, a tight end and wide receiver. At the time, another Eagles player, quarterback Roman Gabriel, was advertising seasonal Shamrock Shakes for McDonald’s. (Kim Hill later died of brain cancer in 2011.) After Evans proposed free housing for families of children treated at CHOP, Murray reached out to Ed Rensi, McDonald’s regional manager, for a donation toward purchasing a house. Rensi said yes and that he would donate proceeds from Shamrock Shake sales toward the house if it would be named the Ronald McDonald House, after the fast-food chain’s clown mascot. Gabriel was inspired to later open the first Ronald McDonald House in North Carolina, his home state. Dormer told the hosts of “The View” television program in a March 27 interview that she “could not fathom that [Evans] wasn’t a household name.” “[Audrey’s Children] is just the most amazing tale of the most incredible woman – pioneering, determined woman,” said Dormer, who met Evans before filming commenced. Evans died two weeks into filming in 2022 at age 97. “[Evans] was one of those great Americans who dedicated her life to giving hope and comfort to families. She didn’t just sit back; she saw the pain – the need – and she stepped into it,” Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez told ENS in a phone interview. “She was extraordinary in every way that it’s hard even to encapsulate the profound impact she made on the world. “To know Audrey Evans – her study and her advancements in medicine, especially pediatric oncology – it’s indescribable. She was a faithful Episcopalian who cared so much and who did so much. Audrey lived a life of love as a true Christian servant, living in and caring for the community.” The first Ronald McDonald House – founded by Evans, Murray, Fred Hill, Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose and McDonald’s – opened in 1974 in Philadelphia. An independent nonprofit, Ronald McDonald House Charities is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where the McDonald’s Corporation is based. Today, it operates more than 387 houses in 62 countries, all located minutes away from special care hospitals. It provides at least 2.7 million overnight stays annually. In 2023, families saved $736 million in lodging and meal expenses. The charity also provides free home-cooked meals and holistic services to families, an additional service that Evans encouraged. Ronald McDonald House Charities also operates more than 271 “family rooms” inside hospitals in 28 countries, which allow families to rest while staying beside their sick children. The family rooms provide free snacks and toys, as well as a private place to shower and take a nap. Additionally, Ronald McDonald House Charities operates 41 “care mobiles” in

[Episcopal News Service] At Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the 11 a.m. Eastern service on March 16 was a special observance of the fifth anniversary of the church’s shutdown during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It included readings that dealt with illness and loss, prayers for healthcare workers and those who died, and music that often is used at funerals, including “O God our Help in Ages Past.” The Rev. Jonathon Jensen, the church’s rector, told Episcopal News Service that he started wondering last fall why his congregation, or any congregation in The Episcopal Church, had yet to liturgically mark something that had impacted so many people for so long. So, he and Alan Lewis, the church’s director of music, started making plans to do it. They chose March 16 because five years earlier it was on Sunday, March 15, 2020, that in-person worship was suspended at Calvary, and it remained that way for about 14 months, Jensen said. The remembrance formed the first part of the service and began with the clergy and choir all wearing masks. “I hadn’t worn a mask in a couple of years,” he said. “I had forgotten how hot it was, how itchy, how hard it is to breathe.” The choir sat apart from each other as they had in the days of social distancing, and paper signs reminding people to stand 6 feet apart lined the center aisle. Jensen said that people told him those elements were “more powerful than they had imagined, and they had forgotten what it was like.” After the offertory, masks came off and the choir returned to their usual place near the altar. The service included elements that Jensen said were intentionally tactile and sensory, as a contrast to the COVID-era practice of staying away from others. That included the offer to anoint people with oil, and while that is available every week, about 20% of the congregations took part that day. “That never happens on a Sunday,” he said. In his sermon, Jensen described how he learned to preach to a pole in an empty nave during early online worship, “hoping somebody on the other end was watching.” He mentioned the losses people suffered, from missed graduations and kids learning behind screens to postponed weddings and funerals held online – including his own father’s funeral. Another impact is reflected, he said, in a recent Pew survey that showed that 72% of Americans said the pandemic did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together. One thing he believes the church can do is to help people heal. He hoped this service and its offering of “a ritual, a liturgical acknowledgement of the death, literally and metaphorically, that we experienced,” was a start, he said. Other remembrances in Georgia, Church of England St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia, used a different medium to mark the anniversary – a 4-by-5-foot icon featuring a variety of COVID-era images, including washing hands, worshipping online and getting a vaccine. The Rev. Patricia Templeton, St. Dunstan’s rector, commissioned the icon in memory of her husband, Joe Monti, who died from Covid in 2023. Monti taught moral theology and Christian ethics at the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, for 27 years before he retired in 2009. The icon was created by Kelly Latimore, a noted icon writer known for his icon of Matthew Shepard displayed at Washington National Cathedral. The murder of Shepard, a gay college student, in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming, sparked a national outcry against homophobia and violence against LGBTQ+ people. Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright blessed the icon on March 16. During that service, parishioners were invited to put a bit of gold leaf on their thumbs and press it to the icon to add to the halos of people portrayed in it. Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell officiated at an online service on March 25 that marked five years since the Church of England began hosting a virtual, national worship service it calls Church at Home. The Church of England has offered a weekly online service from a variety of churches nationwide since March 22, 2020, when former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby officiated at the first one. In 2024, the services drew over 21 million views. The virtual anniversary service included some notable recorded elements from the past five years, including the Rev. Richard Allen leading the confession from a lifeboat in Cornwall’s Trelawny Benefice, and hymns from St. Martin’s Voices, one of the United Kingdom’s most notable choral ensembles, singing in a stable, where a donkey famously interrupted filming with its chorus of braying. The service also included a reflection from the Rev. Gill Behenna, national Deaf ministry advisor for the Church of England and one of its regular sign language interpreters. Cottrell said that these services “have connected us as a Christian community and as an online community.” About 30% of Church of England congregations continue to offer a regular Church at Home service. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The secretary general of the Anglican Communion, the Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, was welcomed in Lae, the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea, March 21 by the Rt. Rev. Nathan Ingen, bishop of Aipo Rongo and acting primate of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea. Poggo’s visit March 21-24 formed part of his recent tour of the Oceania region. Papua New Guinea includes five dioceses: Aipo Rongo, Dogura, New Guinea Islands, Popondota and Port Moresby. While the majority of the population identify as Christians, only 3.2% identify as Anglican, according to the 2000 census data. Poggo undertook visits around Oceania primarily to encourage the Anglican Communion and related agencies and to learn more about the Anglican church in the regions. Reflecting on his visit, Poggo said, “I have greatly enjoyed and appreciated my time in Papua New Guinea. It has been particularly valuable for me to visit churches, meet with the leadership network here and to learn more about the community-based philanthropic initiatives that are happening here regarding education and health. I thank God for the vibrant spirituality I have witnessed in the people I have met in Papua New Guinea and pray that my visit has inspired them as it has me.” After arriving at Nadzab Tomodachi Airport, Poggo was welcomed with gifts and celebration by church representatives and the Tufi Maising singing group before visiting Dennis Kabekabe Conference Center. During his time in Lae, Poggo and the four bishops of Papua New Guinea planted tree seedlings to commemorate their meeting. Across the Anglican Communion, trees are often planted as a symbol of the importance of caring for the environment, nurturing future generations and celebrating the strong connections between branches of a global Anglican Communion, rooted in Christ. Planting trees is also something that the Anglican Communion Office has been encouraging through the Communion Forest initiative, which aims to significantly increase the number of Anglican tree-growing and ecosystem conservation, protection and restoration activities around the world and to deepen care for creation within the life of the church and its members. Poggo also visited the Anglican Health Office, a body of the Anglican Health Service, and saw the good works they are doing to improve the physical, psychological, social and spiritual health and wellbeing of everyone in the communities they serve. The Anglican Health Service includes 119 facilities in Papua New Guinea, which the government helps to fund and the church builds. Most of these clinics are in rural areas where medical assistance is otherwise difficult to access and acuity levels range from rural hospitals through health centers and aid posts to village clinics. Providing for those over 15 years of age, the Adult Literacy Program in Papua New Guinea is a pilot program funded by the Anglican Mission Board of Australia, which educates adult students in English, math, social inclusion and religious education with the goal of enabling students to read and write within nine months. This program is vital for those who have not already attended school for reasons such as getting married at an early age but still wish to pursue education. Within this pilot program, there are currently three schools in Port Moresby and three in Popendetta, and the students only have to pay for their school materials — travel is covered by the program. Poggo was particularly pleased to see the project and spend time with those involved. “One of the things that I admired while I am here is the adult literacy initiatives carried out by the church,” he said. “This is an encouragement to me, personally, as someone from South Sudan, where literacy levels are very low. The program aimed at helping people learn to read and write is so important to me.” On March 23, Poggo attended a morning service of confirmation at All Souls Anglican Church in Lae. Bishops or clergy from the five dioceses of Papua New Guinea assisted with the service and welcomed the new confirmation candidates. The service included a welcome address by the acting primate and bishop of Aipo Rongo, the Rt. Rev. Nathan Ingen; a sermon by Poggo; communion and confirmation of several of the parish’s young people, who also led the prayers. Ingen said in his address, “We are truly honored to have you among us as we gather for this sacred occasion of worship, celebration and the confirmation of our candidates. Bishop Poggo, your presence here today is a great blessing to our parish, our diocese and the entire Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea. As secretary general of the Anglican Communion, you carry the important responsibility of fostering unity and strengthening the mission of the church worldwide. We are grateful for your leadership and your commitment to the growth of the Anglican family across all nations.”

[World Council of Churches] The Second Africa-Europe Ecumenical Forum on Migration took place March 17-21 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, organized by the All Africa Conference of Churches and the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe.  The forum built on the outcomes of the first forum held in Hamburg, Germany, in March 2023. A communiqué released by the forum reads, in part, “We affirm that migration is an integral part of humanity, yet it remains an area fraught with injustices. We remain steadfast in opposing the criminalization and weaponization of migration and resisting migration management policies that disregard human dignity and safety.” The forum discouraged exploitative migration practices that hinder many from experiencing the love and goodness of God. “We noted the growing frustration among a significant proportion of young Africans who are seeking every possible avenue to migrate in pursuit of employment and better living conditions,” the communiqué said. Read the communiqué here. Read the entire article here.

[Diocese of Los Angeles] For 12-year-old Messiah, the 45-mile trip from Hesperia to St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Claremont, California, for a March 23 iftar was all about doing what God wants: “If we love God, we love people. “This is about having friends, being with family, here from a lot of places. It isn’t just about getting food,” the middle school student told the multi-faith group who gathered to observe the Muslim tradition of breaking the Ramadan fast at sunset. “It’s about basically being at peace with God,” he said, amid enthusiastic applause. Atilla Kahveci, vice president of the Pacifica Institute, an organizer of the gathering, explained that during Ramadan, a holy month of fasting, worship and community, Muslims “don’t eat or drink anything in the daytime. Then we gather to break the fast at an iftar, a community meal. We are here because we believe when the blessings are shared, it doubles, triples and quadruples.” Headquartered in Lake Forest in Orange County, the nonprofit Pacifica Institute is an Islamic organization dedicated to promoting social justice, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, peacebuilding and conflict resolution. The Rev. Jessie Turnier, St. Ambrose’s rector, who welcomed about 70 Christian, Muslim and Jewish guests, said the event grew out of the church’s interfaith partnerships, and called the iftar “a beautiful way of loving one another.” The evening began with the invitation to break the day’s fast by eating dates, an Islamic tradition emulating the example of the Prophet Muhammad. Following the call to prayer, guests were invited to a buffet-style potluck meal of salads, chicken quinoa soup, chili, eggplant moussaka, Halal meat and almond rice, cornbread, baklava, and pide, a traditional round Turkish bread topped with sesame seeds. Marianne Cordova, an associate minister at the Claremont Center for Spiritual Living and a member of the Claremont Interfaith Council, said she drew strength from the gathering. “We’re all one. We’ve got to practice what we believe, I believe that. There is strength in coming together and understanding each other.” Making connections and deepening interfaith understandings drew Zaw Lin Soe to the gathering. After moving to Claremont from Myanmar three years ago, “I have questions about other religions,” he said. “It is good to build relationships in this way.” Similarly, Moli Torres, a parishioner at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland, California, said joining the multicultural, multiethnic event “was like taking a mini-trip around the world. If we all believe we are all made in the image of God, what a beautiful image we are.” The Rev. Paul Colbert said hearing once again the call to prayer, reminded him of his former experiences in Sudan and Yemen; “So thank you for that. “We’re all here as those on the path seeking the divine and we all have different ways of approaching that, different disciplines,” Colbert said. “It’s a joy to be with others on the road seeking the divine presence in our midst.” Tamara, a member of St. Ambrose, said the gathering helped offset “the climate in our world right now, so based on fear. I feel that things like this dissuade that fear. I feel very blessed to be in the presence of all of you.” A passion for interfaith engagement inspired Paul Knopf to join the gathering and is motivating him to pursue similar connections on a more personal level, he said. “I’m very thankful for tonight. At our table, we have people from all over the world, breaking bread together, speaking with one another. It’s a picture of what we can do in our regular lives. “We’re all blessed to live in Southern California, with so much diversity all around us,” he added. “We can engage and connect. This is motivational for me to reach out to others that don’t come from the same background. This is a blessing for my family’s life and so many others.” The Rev. Tom Johnson, retired Claremont School of Theology professor and retired pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Covina, California, also addressed the gathering, noting that eating together, sharing stories and traditions helps to build bridges and community and to reduce stereotypes about one another. “It’s a powerful experience, a wonderful thing, to come together like this and to affirm that although we come from different backgrounds, different traditions, we have common desires,” he said. “Diversity, equality and inclusiveness is a wonderful thing.”

[Church of England] Acting to prevent global warming and biodiversity loss is the “right thing to do” and a sign of Christian compassion for those who are suffering as a result of the climate crisis, the Church of England’s lead bishop for the environment said on March 25. Speaking to a gathering of Church of England diocesan representatives, Norwich Bishop Graham Usher thanked parishes and staff for their “hard work and commitment” toward making churches net zero by 2030 and their support for churchyards to become havens for biodiversity. Both aims have been backed by the General Synod. He said the Net Zero program is already building up a “huge impetus,” resulting in savings on energy bills for churches and helping make many churches sustainable into the future. Acting to tackle climate change is the “right thing to do,” he told the gathering at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, attended by 120 diocesan environment and Net Zero officers as well as ecumenical representatives. “There is a link here through compassion with Anglicans – with all people around the world, many of whom are on the frontline of climate change and biodiversity loss,” he said. “If we truly believe that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, we should have a concern and a compassion for where biodiversity and climate change loss is impacting people’s lives.” During his speech, Usher highlighted the achievements of the Church of England’s Net Zero program. He spoke of St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, a “demonstrator” church leading the way for other churches in energy efficiency, and the example of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, where solar panels have been installed. He said that changes available to churches could range from solar panels to low cost features  such as LED lighting, both of which could make “all the difference” to a church’s carbon footprint, whether rural or urban. Usher told the conference of his experience as part of the Anglican delegation to the COP16 United Nations biodiversity conference last year in Cali, Colombia. He warned of the need to keep up pressure on governments on meeting the goals to halt climate change and biodiversity loss.“Climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin,” he said. “COP16 came over very loud and clear to me of the need to hold these together. Investment in conservation and restoration and environmental protection are futile if we are going be doing nothing around climate change.” The meeting also heard from Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley, director of innovation and impact at the British Antarctic Survey, on the extent of the climate change emergency, focusing on the impact of climate change in the polar regions. In a vote last year, the General Synod backed a series of measures to promote biodiversity on Church of England land from churchyards as havens of wildlife and plants to the stewardship of agricultural and forestry land. The General Synod endorsed a plan to reach net zero carbon by 2030 at its July session in 2022. The Net Zero program’s first impact report can be read here.

[Episcopal News Service] Parishioners at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Homestead, Florida, again this year can experience the events of Holy Week represented in dioramas on display in the church’s narthex. They include figures of Jesus, his disciples, Roman guards, onlookers, others and animals involved in the events of Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus carrying the cross. They end with the Crucifixion and Jesus’ Resurrection. The dioramas – models that use three-dimensional figures to depict a scene – all are the work of Ahmed Otero, a parishioner who also is the church’s senior warden. There are 10 scenes of Holy Week events in all, as well as a model of the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem. While five of his scenes overlap with the Stations of the Cross – a typical Lenten devotion depicting a series of usually 14 scenes representing the stages of Christ’s Passion and death – the others take place either before or after those depicted in the stations, he told Episcopal News Service. All of Otero’s scenes spring from his love of the Christmas Nativity sets, sometimes called a crèche, that he saw as a child at the Roman Catholic church he attended with his grandmother in Cuba. “We had a different Nativity each year,” he said. “It was always kind of mysterious and interesting.” He started annually displaying one of his several nativity sets at St. John’s four years ago. But after packing one away in 2022, he decided he wanted to create something similar for Lent that depicted the events leading up to Easter. In 2024, he displayed the Holy Week dioramas for the first time. The human figures are about 10 inches tall, Otero said, and he owns them all, including many he has collected since childhood and some that he bought in Europe. He makes the scenery from cardboard boxes and Styrofoam containers, and he buys items at dollar stores that he can transform into parts of the scene. When the dioramas debuted last year, they were displayed on one long table in the narthex. This year, he placed scenes on individual tables, beginning with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and ending with the Resurrection, to make the display more interactive. “It’s like a pilgrimage, as people start walking around each one,” Otero said. “It’s a whole journey.” The scenes are important to him because, he said, the nativity sets he saw as a child helped shape his faith and a lingering sense that he was called to be a priest. (He is now in the first phase of the ordination discernment process in the Episcopal Church in Southeast Florida.) He makes sure students at the church’s school also have the chance to experience them. “The kids are being touched by these dioramas, too,” he said. “I’m wondering whether one of them in the future will become a priest or a lay leader – you never know.” But it’s not just children who are benefiting from seeing the events of Holy Week depicted in Otero’s scenes. He said adult congregants have told him they have found them useful in recalling Holy Week events. He likened the scenes to stained-glass windows in medieval cathedrals that helped people understand and better remember the stories of the Bible. He admitted that doing both Holy Week and Christmas scenes is a lot of work, but he does get help from his wife. She comes in after he has set everything up and makes any small adjustments that are needed, he said, and she helps tackle one of the bigger jobs – cleaning up afterward. He also would like to get some of the students at the school involved, including teaching them how to craft scenery, making it a team effort. “We want people to get involved,” he said. — Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[Church in Wales] St. David’s Church in Loughor, in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, Wales, has become the 75th Gold Eco Church in England and Wales. The award was given by the Christian conservation charity A Rocha UK, and reflects St. David’s commitment to walk in step with nature and put creation care at the heart of its mission. While there are more than 8,000 registered churches with Eco Church, St. David’s is only the third gold award in Wales to date and the first in the diocese. St. David’s has adapted its worship to regularly include messages and hymns about creation care, and has changed from printed worship sheets to TV screens. Regular community litter picks and recycling points for harder-to-recycle items have been established for a number of years involving the wider community, and its solar panels and associated battery storage, LED lighting, water saving, and toilet and bin twinning have been described as “great examples to demonstrate to others.” Helen Stephens, Eco Church’s church relations manager, said, “Our huge congratulations to St. David’s Church, Loughor, on their well-deserved gold Eco Church award. Becoming a gold Eco Church is not an easy journey, and they are an example of the dedication and perseverance that is required to reach this accolade. “By remaining focused on the biblical mandate to care for God’s creation and love your neighbor, we hope other churches will join them in taking action to care for this amazing world. We wish them all the best as they celebrate their award.” St. David’s was also praised for improving the limited land around the church for wildlife – including the presence of several bird boxes and feeding stations, bug hotels and a “messy corner” – and also for people, with a recycled church pew from its closed sister church at St. Michael’s for quiet contemplation alongside the fruit trees and herb beds. A Rocha UK aims to equip churches and individuals to create a movement to help restore biodiversity at a local level in this critical decade for the climate. Now, in its ninth year, the Eco Church award scheme brings together a national community of churches addressing the environmental crisis, using a common framework and an online toolkit to learn and speak up together.

[World Council of Churches] The newly published resource “Hope for Children Through Climate Justice: Legal Tools to Hold Financiers Accountable” provides churches and communities essential legal tools designed to hold financial actors accountable for their role in perpetuating the climate crisis. Developed by the Churches’ Commitments to Children program of the World Council of Churches, the resource aims to equip people of faith and partners in WCC’s global constituency with the knowledge on climate litigation, a rapidly growing and impactful way of addressing the climate crisis and protect the rights of young people and future generations. In the foreword of the publication, the Most Rev. Julio Murray, the Anglican archbishop of Panama and moderator of the WCC Commission on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development, points out that our faith calls us to speak truth to power and to seize every available legal measure to protect our planet and its inhabitants. “The urgency of this moment demands that we engage with the law not merely as a tool but as a moral imperative to safeguard human lives and uphold justice,” said Murray. “It is our hope that these resources will empower individuals and communities to advocate for justice effectively, ensuring that future generations inherit a world that is not only livable but thriving.” Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] The House of Bishops gathered March 19-24 at Camp McDowell in Nauvoo, Alabama, for its annual spring retreat, which centered on discussions of witnessing to the Gospel amid today’s contentious political climate and The Episcopal Church’s future in a secular society. The spring meeting is one of two biannual in-person House of Bishops gatherings. Traditionally, the spring meetings are more retreat-like and tend to occur at church camps. The second meeting occurs in the fall during non-General Convention years, and usually includes participation from the bishops’ spouses. “It’s always an opportunity for bishops to gather, be in prayer together, to reconnect and to consider how we best participate in God’s mission,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said during a virtual media briefing. “We were sure to find our grounding in prayer and also to consider the world around us, what’s happening and how we can most effectively both speak to the world around us and to our own diocese in our own context.” This was the first in-person House of Bishops gathering Rowe led as presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church and president of the house.  Each day, the bishops – 116 in person and three virtually – engaged in discussions on various topics ranging from using church property for mission to declining membership. The latest parochial report data shows that The Episcopal Church has decreased from about 2.3 million members to fewer than 1.6 million over the past two decades. “We really looked hard at the statistics – the current reality – what’s happening and where in the church and how we might think about how to address those issues, both together as a House of Bishops, but also in our dioceses,” Rowe said. “We don’t have the same number of resources, but we all have enough gifts to share, and so those conversations are just getting started.” Like last year, the bishops also reviewed and discussed Title IV disciplinary canons and churchwide calls for greater oversight and transparency in disciplinary cases involving bishops. In February 2024, The Episcopal Church, under then-Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s direction, updated its website with a series of informational resources, including chronologies of active cases involving bishops under Title IV. The bishops heard other presentations from leaders on issues concerning the wider church, including theological reflections from fellow bishops. Notably, Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright earned a standing ovation for his reflection on Christian nationalism, which has been growing throughout the United States in recent years. “Christian nationalism is not an imperfect or evolving rendering of Jesus’ life and teachings, nor should it be characterized as simply a difference of theological or political interpretation or emphasis,” Wright said in his reflection, per his notes provided to Episcopal News Service. “This is a deeply embedded, well-funded, strategic and compellingly argued appeal.” During the 81st General Convention in 2024, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies adopted Resolution A081, “Combat Rising Religious Nationalism,” which requires General Convention to acknowledge and urge The Episcopal Church and its mission-related entities to partner with the Anglican Communion to combat rising religious nationalism. The resolution encourages individuals, congregations, dioceses and other Episcopal affiliates to educate themselves on how religious nationalism harms marginalized groups. “The ‘Christian’ in Christian nationalism is not so much about a religious faith as an ideologically driven identity, even though religious beliefs are cleverly deployed to support its ideological stance on certain political and social issues,” Wright said, in his notes provided to ENS. “Therefore, Christian nationalism is theologically illegitimate and must be called by its proper names: idolatry, blasphemy and heresy.” Rebecca Blachly, The Episcopal Church’s chief of public policy and witness, presented the latest updates on immigration actions in the United States since President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders in January 2025, including restrictions on the asylum process. She shared what could happen to immigration policies in the coming months and highlighted how the church is responding to the legislative changes through litigation, advocacy, education and prayer. More information is available on the Episcopal Public Policy Network and Episcopal Migration Ministries websites. The Episcopal Church’s immigration action toolkit can be viewed here. Blachly also invited the bishops to consider the different ways they can individually respond as church leaders, including making public statements and engaging with local and state government officials.  The bishops gathered both in small table conversations and as a large group to discuss each presentation. Alabama Bishop Glenda Curry said during the media briefing that the bishops also informally shared how they’ve been able to successfully make the Gospel’s message “more relevant or obvious to the world” in their dioceses. “Sharing programs and different ways that they’re trying to address their own context sometimes applies to everybody,” Curry said. “We’re looking for those places where the sharing of the Gospel is growing – the attraction to the church is positive. We’re looking for ways that we can build on each other’s experience.” Scott Bader-Saye, dean and president of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, presented a theological reflection on faith in institutions. Bader-Saye, who is also a professor of Christian ethics and moral theology, described institutions like churches as nests that serve as containers holding the practices of people trying to accomplish a goal. Those “nests,” he said, can be adjusted and enlarged over time to accommodate new challenges and paradigms. During the media briefing, Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, vice chair of the House of Bishops, described Bader-Saye’s reflection as “sitting in a seminary classroom.” “There was so much depth to his presentation,” she said. “The way I might encapsulate it is that institutions are living, breathing things.” Each morning and at various times throughout the day, the bishops took time to worship together, meditate and reflect quietly. Some bishops expressed themselves through art, including pottery. Baskerville-Burrows said those times of shared spiritual expression throughout the gathering helped bring the bishops “closer to Jesus”