[World Council of Churches] A new publication from the World Council of Churches Commission on Ecumenical Education and Formation brings together the voices and theological reflections of young ecumenists from around the world who attended the 2025 WCC Global Ecumenical Theological Institute (GETI). It brings fresh inputs to the pressing question for the churches today: Where now for visible unity? “GETI 2025: Voices and Visions of Transformative Unity,” edited by Ani Ghazaryan Drissi and the Rev. Teddy Chalwe Sakupapa, was published Oct. 8 during the Ecumenical Education and Formation Commission’s biannual meeting. “The fruits of ecumenical dialogue must take root in the lives of our churches,” Ghazaryan said. “The GETI 2025 message brought this bold challenge to the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order and the wider ecumenical movement: let the unity we confess become the life we share.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Calvary Episcopal Church in Charleston, the oldest historically Black parish in the Diocese of South Carolina, on Oct. 10 will unveil and dedicate an icon altarpiece signifying the church’s ongoing work of racial reconciliation, restorative justice and inclusion in a city that once was central to the transatlantic slave trade. The large icon, designed and created by British Jamaican artist Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, will permanently hang with two of the church’s original stained-glass windows indenting into the top center. Looking up, Jesus stands with his arms raised as stripes of different colors fan out like a sunrise from the middle of his body. “Jesus is making sure that all are welcome, which is symbolized by the various colors, and it shows the availability of everybody to be in communion with hospitality and welcoming,” the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “And in the theology of the church, everything leads to the altar. So, by this icon being an altarpiece, it … represents the fact that we sacramentally meet Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist at the altar, and then we’re also sent forth by the altar to be a blessing.” More than 160 people are expected to attend the worship service dedicating the icon. The service will include readings from Revelation 7:2-4 and 9-14, 1 John 3:1-3 and Matthew 5:1-12a. South Carolina Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley will preside. “To me, this icon signifies both the resurrection of our Lord and the resurrection, the rising of a people who follow Jesus amid such hardship and are not turned around,” Woodliff-Stanley told ENS. “Instead, they are pushing forward and they are moving outward.” Discussions on creating the icon for Calvary began in 2023, when Evelyn gave a presentation on iconography at South Carolina’s diocesan convention. Grace Wingfield, a Calvary parishioner, left the presentation inspired to start a project for her parish. Wingfield served as project coordinator throughout the multi-year process. Reflecting Calvary’s congregation, the icon’s development process symbolically incorporated elements of oral history, which is a crucial pillar of preserving Black history. Parishioners were invited to participate in painting the icon, making it a community project instead of the artist’s sole work. View this post on Instagram It was “a lot of thorough work,” according to Bailey. “As a community working with the parish, the diocese and the local artistic community, we decided to do some research – oral histories and deep dives into the parish’s historical records. From there, we were able to supply the narrative, and the whole idea of this icon came to fruition,” Bailey said. “The end result is expressing the Christian narrative of salvation.” The Calvary icon is the second of Evelyn’s planned series of icons housed in key geographic places in the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted from the early 16th to the late 19th centuries. The first icon was installed in 2011 at St. Stephen’s Church in Bristol, England. The other icons are planned to be installed in Ghana and Barbados. Calvary was chosen as the second site because Charleston, founded as a “slave society,” was the largest slave-trading and auction city in the United States, and it had the highest number of enslaved people in the country. Gadsen’s Wharf was the largest single point of entry for enslaved Africans. Calvary was founded in 1847 as a church for many of those enslaved people, as well as for freed people. “This image is of moving out into the world with this force of love and resilience and courage and joy and not naively moving out in the face of really unjust systems to nevertheless bring the love of the resurrected Christ into the world,” Woodliff-Stanley said. “That’s a very personal message for the people of Calvary because they … have raised up generations in strength. You can really see it today. Calvary is thriving now, and it has a great future.” Woodliff-Stanley and Bailey work closely with the rectors of Charleston’s two other historically Black Episcopal churches, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. As a coalition called the Three Churches United, Calvary, St. Mark’s and St. Stephen’s have hosted and participated in several events as part of the diocese’s commitment to racial reconciliation and justice work through its Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission. Part of those efforts include regularly hosting “learning day” events to teach the history of the Diocese of South Carolina. “Sharing with our local community, the whole church and the world our story helps ensure that the stories of The Episcopal Church and Calvary are not erased,” Bailey said. “So much has happened here, and we look forward to seeing what God will do in the near and far future.” –Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Anglican Journal] Worship at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, a historic Anglo-Catholic parish in downtown Toronto, Ontario, invariably provokes one of a few strong reactions from newcomers, according to the parish’s rector, the Rev. Nathan Humphrey. Some people, Humphrey told Anglican Journal, ask him, “Wow, where has this been all my life?” Others who come from Protestant or evangelical backgrounds can have a strong knee-jerk reaction against worship that seems to them “too Catholic,” even “weird” or “idolatrous.” “I don’t think anybody ever comes to the service at St. Thomas’s and has the attitude of ‘meh,’” Humphrey said. “A good Anglo-Catholic parish worth its salt won’t ever result in a ‘meh’ reaction from somebody who comes through the doors, because there’s always a particular identity that it’s conveying.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally issued the following statement on Oct. 7, the third anniversary of the 2023 attacks. Three years on from the horrific Hamas-led terror attacks of 7 October 2023 in Israel, I pray for all who continue to grieve those who were killed, for those who survived, and for all who still carry the trauma of that terrible day. I pray especially for Jewish people here in Britain and around the world, for whom this anniversary brings grief, trauma and renewed anxiety, and I reaffirm my solidarity with all who have been affected by antisemitism and hatred. Earlier this year I visited the Nova Exhibition in London, and I was profoundly impacted by meeting relatives of people who died or were taken hostage, and hearing the testimonies of those who survived and the life story of each precious person who was killed that day. In the name of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace, let us pray too for all the peoples of the region. May every person – Israeli and Palestinian; Jewish, Muslim and Christian – enjoy the peace, freedom, justice, security and dignity that belong to them as equally beloved children of God. The immense suffering and loss in the Middle East have also been acutely felt by many in this country who are connected to Israel and Palestine by faith, family or heritage. Let us pray for a renewal of trust, solidarity and understanding between Britain’s faith communities, the rejection of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, and a fresh commitment to loving our neighbours as ourselves.

[Episcopal News Service] A central component of the liturgy for baptisms in The Episcopal Church is the Book of Common Prayer’s Baptismal Covenant, in which congregations make five theological promises to act in Christian ways “with God’s help.” Some congregations are adding a sixth promise to the Baptismal Covenant, acknowledging their responsibility to care for God’s earthly creation. “The church is moving more and more toward allowing experimentation in many areas, including this one,” Terry DeLisio, a lay leader in the Diocese of Chicago, told Episcopal News Service. She is helping to coordinate the northern Illinois diocese’s implementation of an expanded Baptismal Covenant in congregations that wish to try it. This experimentation is not unique to Chicago. The Episcopal Church’s General Convention for more than a decade has considered incorporation of the language of creation care into the Baptismal Covenant. In 2024, bishops and deputies passed a resolution directing church leaders “to develop additional language for the Baptismal Covenant that expresses our baptismal responsibility to care for creation,” and it invited congregations to experiment, with the bishop’s permission. Dioceses from California to Connecticut have taken up that mission, and the Diocese of Chicago announced recently that Bishop Paula Clark has granted all of the diocese’s congregations permission to begin adding a sixth baptismal promise starting next month on All Saints’ Day. Congregations were offered two texts to choose from and were asked to report back to DeLisio or the bishop’s office after testing the new language. The following are the additional questions offered as options for use in the Diocese of Chicago: “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?” “Will you cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect [or protect and restore] the beauty and integrity of all creation?” DeLisio, a retired Bexley Seabury dean and liturgy professor, said the diocese’s approach to this liturgical experimentation is partly modeled after the Diocese of Vermont, where congregations likewise were empowered to try out the additional language without needing further approval from the bishop. Vermont congregations also can develop their own alternative language and submit it for diocesan approval. Under the Baptismal Covenant’s existing language, the five promises are affirmed by the congregation in response to the celebrant’s prompts. The first two commit members to following Christian teachings and practices, resisting evil and staying faithful to God. The third calls for proclaiming the Christian faith in the world, and the final two promises relate to Christian interactions with other people. The addition of a sixth promise aligns with The Episcopal Church’s broader ongoing emphasis on creation care as one of its top priorities, as regularly affirmed by General Convention. The text of Chicago’s first option for an additional promise is based on the Anglican Communion’s Marks of Mission, a theological framework shared by Episcopalians and Anglicans around the world. The Fifth Mark of Mission says: “Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Chicago’s second option draws on language first proposed by Connecticut Episcopalians in 2015 at the 78th General Convention and introduced again three years later at the 79th meeting. Neither of those conventions gave clear permission to experiment with such liturgical additions the way the 81st General Convention now has. “The challenge has always been that the Baptismal Covenant is so central to the whole structure and theology of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer that people don’t want to mess with it willy-nilly,” DeLisio said. “At the same time, the church has come to the recognition that ministry and mission is not all about social justice. It includes justice for creation as well, and creation care.” Although congregations in the Diocese of Chicago do not need to seek further permission, their feedback on the use of the new baptismal promises could help the church decide whether to approve official revisions to the liturgy, DeLisio said. The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music was given the task of researching this topic and reporting back to General Convention. The commission will submit its report soon and could propose an additional creation-themed baptismal promise for churchwide trial use. Its proposals will be considered by bishops and deputies when the 82nd General Convention convenes in July 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Mothers’ Union concluded a four-day event in Durban, South Africa, to mark its 150th anniversary. The Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 gathering’s theme was “Celebrating Worldwide Fellowship: One Worldwide Family in Christ.” The event united delegates from across the world to honor the legacy of its service to women, family and community life and look forward to the next chapter. “This anniversary is not simply a celebration of longevity; it is a testimony to God’s continuing presence,” Kathleen Snow, president of Mothers’ Union, said in her keynote address on Oct. 3. “We have heard much about listening and walking alongside each other and in our communities, and that is what has made a difference to our communities.” Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] In recent weeks, St. Mary-the-Virgin Anglican Church in Warwick, Bermuda, has been marking its 400th anniversary with special services and commemorative events. These celebrations culminated on Oct. 4 with a rededication service, which gathered distinguished guests, clergy and parishioners. The Rev. Carl Williams, priest-in-charge of St. Mary-the-Virgin, led the rededication service. West Indies Archbishop Philip Wright, bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Belize, preached. In a letter that was read aloud at the service, Joshua Puls, assistant private secretary to King Charles III, relayed the king’s “warmest congratulations” to St. Mary-the-Virgin, which was founded in 1626. As the reigning British monarch, Charles serves as supreme governor of the Church of England. “His Majesty greatly admires this remarkable milestone, marking four centuries of faith, service and community in Bermuda,” the letter says. “The church’s enduring presence is a tribute to the generations of clergy and parishioners whose dedication and commitment have sustained its ministry and strengthened its place at the heart of the community.” Read the full article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Anglican Communion Schools’ Network held its inaugural symposium Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in London, England. The symposium brought together Anglican school, education and church leaders from across the communion for learning, discussion, worship and fellowship. Together, they explored the theme “Anglican Schools as Places of Mission and Ministry.” Following the meeting, the network has released a communiqué. Click here to read the communiqué.

[Religion News Service] A pair of advocacy groups have released a new political advertisement featuring Washington Bishop Mariann Budde urging people to vote and referencing her headline-grabbing sermon from last year in which she asked President Donald Trump to “have mercy” on immigrant children. The new ad, posted on YouTube on Oct. 5 and slated to run in at least four states ahead of the midterm elections, opens with a clip of Budde standing in the pulpit of the Washington National Cathedral in January 2025, as she delivered the much-discussed sermon to the president the day after his inauguration. It draws from a section of the sermon where Budde addressed Trump directly, asking the president to “have mercy” on those “whose children fear that their parents will be taken away,” alongside footage of masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The ad then switches to Budde, who recently announced her intention to resign as the bishop of Washington, speaking directly to the camera. “We have all borne witness to the events of the last two years,” Budde says. “So today, I am asking you, again, to have mercy. Just as importantly, I am asking for your courage to love your neighbor, to respect the dignity of every human being, and now, to vote.” The new ad appears aimed at capitalizing on dwindling support for Trump’s immigration agenda, especially among white mainliners — many of whom celebrated Budde when she challenged Trump in the cathedral’s pews last year. Budde’s sermon sparked a sharp rebuke from Trump and his allies at the time, with the president referring to her in a social media post as a “so-called bishop.” Budde’s get-out-the-vote ad is part of a “Choose Love, not ICE” campaign launched last year by two liberal-leaning groups — Interfaith Alliance, a religious advocacy organization, and Protect Democracy, a secular group. A spokesperson for the groups told Religion News Service the new spot featuring Budde will run in four media markets: Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Raleigh, North Carolina. The media markets overlap with multiple hotly contested congressional races, including at least two in Iowa that feature clergy as Democratic candidates: the Rev. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran pastor and state senator vying for the state’s third congressional district, and the Rev. Lindsay James, a Presbyterian pastor and state representative campaigning for the state’s second congressional district. Representatives for the Republican and Democratic national committees did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new ad. Despite making mass deportation a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, a March survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that support for Trump’s handling of immigration dropped across every major religious group polled. That shift was especially pronounced among white non-evangelical Protestants, the religious subset that includes Budde and the denomination she serves. Their support for Trump’s immigration policies dropped 20 points since March 2025, dipping from 64% to 46%. Statistics pointing to increased opposition to Trump’s mass deportation efforts among white mainliners follow more than a year of faith-based advocacy against his policies, much of which was led by mainline clergy such as Budde. Clergy from virtually all major mainline Protestant traditions — such as The Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ, among others — have garnered national media attention for taking part in dramatic protests with other religious leaders against the administration’s ongoing deportation efforts. Seven faith leaders were arrested last November at a protest outside an ICE facility in Illinois; nearly 100 were arrested at a single protest outside the Minneapolis airport in January; and seven were arrested in Vermont last month while demonstrating near the offices of an ICE targeting center. Some mainline clergy protesting ICE have been shot with pepper balls and pepper rounds fired by Department of Homeland Security agents, and several mainline denominations — including The Episcopal Church — have joined a growing list of lawsuits challenging various aspects of the president’s immigration agenda. At the same time, some evangelical clergy have spoken about their support of the ICE raids. The “Choose Love, not ICE” campaign has featured images from some of the anti-ICE protests in its three previous ads, including one that celebrated the religious pushback to ICE. The series seeks to highlight the intensity of tactics used by DHS agents, which have long been a source of controversy: The first ad in the series, released last December, edited together clips of DHS agents and police officers violently detaining immigrants and protesters — including clergy — as a lone child sings the Christian hymn “O Holy Night.”

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