[Episcopal News Service] Venezuela is still in the early stages of recovering from back-to-back earthquakes that devastated the northern state of La Guaira and Caracas, the capital, last week. At least 1,450 people have died, and tens of thousands remain missing. All Episcopalians in the Diocese of Venezuela are accounted for and safe, and some of them are helping with recovery efforts. The diocesan center in Caracas, which sustained minor infrastructure damage, reopened as a collection center primarily with supplies for rescue personnel and anyone in need. And Episcopalians have volunteered to drive around the city on motorcycles to distribute some of the supplies. “Right now, we are addressing high-priority needs,” Pragedes Coromoto Jiménez de Salazar, the diocese’s communications director, told Episcopal News Service in a WhatsApp message. She also serves as secretary of the diocesan standing committee and diocesan convention. The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Venezuela northwest of Caracas 39 seconds apart on June 24. They caused widespread damages to buildings and structures and cut off running water and gas services in many homes. The Iglesia Anglicana Episcopal La Reconciliación in Caracas and the Iglesia de San Andrés in Catia sustained minor infrastructure damage. The Rev. Ana Graciela Anthony, president of the standing committee, will inspect the diocesan center and the damaged churches’ structural integrity once transportation is available, Jiménez de Salazar said. The Rev. Jose Francisco Salazar, a priest in the Diocese of Venezuela, is now leading a diocesan earthquake response team. The Rev. Rodolfo Albarran, a deacon who leads the Misión Santos Ángeles Custodios, is co-coordinating pastoral, medical and community responses with public and private organizations. The Diocese of Venezuela, which is part of The Episcopal Church’s Province IX, has nine clergy serving 15 organized missions throughout the South American country’s 23 states and Curaçao, a Dutch Caribbean island country located about 40 miles north of Venezuela’s coast. The earthquakes didn’t affect All Saints Episcopal Church in Willemstead, Curaçao’s capital. Nevertheless, “We offer our sincere prayers for our brothers and sisters,” the Rev. Joe Parrish, a priest serving All Saints, and senior warden Ivy Doorstam told ENS. Litoral Ecuador Bishop Cristóbal Olmedo León Lozano serves as the provisional bishop of Venezuela. Salazar, Jimenez de Salazar and other church leaders have been communicating with the bishop and the Rev. David Ulloa Chavez, The Episcopal Church’s partnership officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, to provide updates. Episcopal Relief and Development launched a disaster fund to support on-the-ground immediate and long-term recovery support led by partners in Venezuela. “We are working here for the good of the community,” Jiménez de Salazar, who is part of the diocesan response team, said. “Please pray for us.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service – Belfast, Northern Ireland] Anglican leaders on June 28 opened the weeklong meeting here of the Anglican Consultative Council, or ACC, with repeated references to hope and unity in the face of persistent divisions. It is the first major Anglican Communion meeting attended by Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally since she took office in January. Mullally, in her introductory remarks as president of the ACC, joined others in underscoring this meeting’s theme, “Called to One Hope,” taken from Ephesians 4:4. “We have this hope because we make this journey with God,” she said. Representatives from 37 Anglican provinces, including The Episcopal Church, are attending this 19th meeting of the ACC, one of four “Instruments of Communion” that connect Anglicans worldwide in a shared mission through their theological beliefs and historical roots in the Church of England. The other Instruments of Communion are the Primates’ Meeting of provincial leaders, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, and the office of the archbishop of Canterbury as a “focus for unity.” “Gathered here in fellowship, we embody the witness of God’s family,” Mullally said during the opening session underway at the Assembly Buildings Conference Centre in central Belfast.  Anglicans from the 42 autonomous, interdependent provinces may have different cultures, languages and local contexts, yet they are “drawn together by the same Gospel and the same lord, Jesus Christ,” she said. The show of unity, however, could not alleviate evident divisions familiar from past Anglican Communion meetings. For years, leaders from the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda have not sent representatives to ACC meetings, reflecting their objection to the more progressive positions on women’s ordination and LGTBQ+ inclusion taken by The Episcopal Church and several other provinces. Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda are again absent from this ACC meeting. The other provinces absent from ACC-19 are Sudan, whose country in recent years has been besieged by war and violence, and Congo, now dealing with an Ebola outbreak that has prompted travel restrictions. Uganda is also at the center of Africa’s Ebola crisis. ACC Chair Maggie Swinson, a lay leader from the Church of England, opened the June 28-July 4 meeting with a call for prayers and a moment of silence for Venezuela, where the death toll from two major earthquakes has topped 1,400. The Diocese of Venezuela is part of The Episcopal Church’s Province IX. Anglicans are called to gather this week as the ACC “not simply to transact business,” Swinson said. “We gather to listen, to consult and discern together.” Conversation across differences is possible because Jesus has shown the way, she said, and the Anglican Communion’s structures provide “a basis on which to meet, listen and remain in relationship with each other.” “We have important work before us,” she said. “May we undertake it carefully, constructively and with attention to one another and the communion we are here to serve.” Each Anglican and Episcopal province may send two or three representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council, which typically meets once every three years. Although its resolutions are not binding on individual provinces, they can offer a framework for dialogue on issues of relevance to all provinces, as well as collaborative approaches to bolstering the provinces’ mission and ministry. The ACC is also the only Anglican Communion body that gives an equal voice and vote to lay leaders. The Episcopal Church’s representatives to ACC-19 are Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado; the Rev. Ranjit Mathews, canon to the ordinary of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and Yvonne O’Neal, a lay leader from the Diocese of New York. O’Neal is proposing a resolution at this ACC, signed by members from several other provinces, to raise awareness and call for a common witness about domestic violence, sexual violence, gender-based violence and other forms of abuse. The resolution builds on O’Neal’s work in New York and the wider Episcopal Church to promote “Break the Silence Sunday” and similar observances lamenting violence and abuse. Such violence is “all around us,” O’Neal told Episcopal News Service during a break in the June 28 meeting. ACC is scheduled to vote on all resolutions on its last day, July 4. Another central topic for discussion at this meeting will be the Nairobi-Cairo proposals, named for the cities where they were drafted by the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order. Under the two principal proposals, the ACC would consider a revised definition of the Anglican Communion to reframe how the provinces relate to each other and changes to the communion’s leadership structure that could diminish the role of the archbishop of Canterbury. O’Neal said she welcomes the discussion but is not eager to adopt the proposals yet at this meeting. “They need more refining. They need more thought,” she said. The potential changes to the role of the archbishop of Canterbury, in particular, “don’t sit well” with her, given that Mullally is still getting started as the first woman to hold that office. O’Neal, who attended Mullally’s installation in March, said she feels a connection to the archbishop and looks forward to working with her as the ACC helps plan for the communion’s future. Other activities scheduled for this week range from daily Bible studies and Holy Eucharist – an opening service was celebrated June 28 at Belfast Cathedral – to informal table discussions that will give ACC members from different parts of the world opportunities to share the “good news” and the “tough challenges” experienced by their churches. Another series of discussions will engage the ACC members in “global conversations” on some of the major issues that are shaping local ministries, including migration, the environment, education and interfaith relations. And on July 2, the members are scheduled to board buses for a daylong pilgrimage to Londonderry. The city near Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland had been a flashpoint for conflict during the decades of Catholic-Protestant fighting known as The Troubles.  Since a landmark

[Religion News Service] On a recent Friday morning, groups of young men on motorbikes roared around the grounds of the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi to disrupt and scare those gathered for a civil meeting about the country’s proposed national budget reforms. Police officers initially repelled the estimated 50 bikers, who then spread panic into nearby streets by reportedly mugging passersby. But they returned on foot half an hour later and managed to storm into the historic Anglican church, attempting to rob clergy, civil society leaders, lawyers and members of the public. “Initially, we thought probably it was a politician who had come here to do something, then we realized they were rowdy … In one minute processing, I knew we were under attack,” the Rev. Evans Omollo, provost of the cathedral, told RNS. “I think the person who mobilized the goons wanted to silence our prophetic voice.” The June 12 attack is the latest underscoring of a rising culture of “goonism” in Kenya, referring to young men from poor neighborhoods believed to be hired by politicians and influential businessmen to attack or intimidate individuals and disrupt meetings associated with political activities the gangs’ bosses oppose. The African nation is grappling with rising costs of living amid subsequent protests against proposals to raise income taxes. Kenyan President William Ruto on June 23 signed the 2026 Finance Act into law, which he said was the result of extensive public engagement and will not raise new taxes. Ruto campaigned on a promise to inject Christian values in the 85% Christian country and is running for a second term. He has condemned the rising use of “goons” or gangs to intimidate political opponents and vowed to restore order. But critics accuse politicians in Ruto’s administration of hiring and protecting thugs to attack and intimidate their opponents. They also allege that the administration is pressuring police to allow the gangs to suppress dissent. Churches and church meetings are becoming targets of the violence, clergy told RNS, because they often host independent forums, debates and human rights defenders who teach people about their rights. “We are afraid there is a growing concern that ‘goonism’ is having an official support,” said Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba of Kisumu in a statement Tuesday. Makumba, who is chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, pointed to how the attackers at All Saints did not seem to fear the police presence. “Can Government dispel this suspicion from the minds of citizens? Is there political will to deal with the menace of ‘goonism’ or is it in the interest of the political elite?” Makumba warned that “the increasingly visible weaponization of goons to disrupt lawful public gatherings, including in worship places, and intimidation of citizens seeking to participate in democratic dialogue, also poses a grave threat to the rule of law and the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.” An attack on Jan. 25 targeted a Sunday service at the Rev. Joseph Njakai’s home church, St. Peter’s Witima Anglican Church in Othaya, Nyeri County. Thugs disrupted the service with guns and tear gas, trapping and choking worshippers, including babies and children. “I remember my grandchild, 3 years old, saying he cannot go to that church again because he was in that service that day,” Njakai said. Members of the church are still traumatized, and some are considering how to seek compensation from the government. “The church is the voice of the people and a government watchdog,” Njakai added. While the thugs’ bosses give them money directly, they also engage in looting, sometimes stealing mobile phones, electronics and cash. In the attack on All Saints, participants reportedly lost their phones, bags and other items. In 2024, young Kenyans organized mass protests against proposed tax hikes in an earlier finance bill, which culminated in the storming of Parliament and the deaths of at least 60 people in the following months of unrest. A memorial for those who died is scheduled for Thursday. “Knowing that we are in a politically charged context — that is, looking forward to the Gen Z two-year memorial — I think somebody felt this scare would contribute to silencing the All Saints Cathedral,” Omollo said. The Rev. Elias Otieno Agola, a Presbyterian Church of East Africa cleric and the chairman of the National Council of Churches, said the All Saints meeting was attacked because it was meant to educate people about the debt crisis. With Kenya’s debt surpassing Kenya shilling 12 trillion ($92.7 billion), activists and ordinary citizens accuse the government of excessive borrowing. “Kenyans are paying 12.4 billion shillings per year to debt,” Agola said. “If you quantify this, you’ll realize that this is a lot of money and therefore the common Mwananchi (citizens) have to be told the effect and the impact of this finance bill on the country.” He warned that the violence might be tribal or regional at the moment but could grow into a bigger conflict. “This is taking us back to similar moments in the late 1980s and early ’90s,” he said, referring to Kenyan state police who stormed into the All Saints sanctuary in 1992 shooting bullets and tear gas at protesters. At least 13 churches in the national council were attacked last year by gang members, according to Agola. The gangs had either followed politicians into churches to disrupt services or support their presences there. “They are attacked because somebody somewhere thinks the [council] is not supportive enough,” he said, while pointing at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa church attacks in Kariobangi North on Nov. 30, 2025, and Mwiki, Kasarani, on April 6, 2025, both in parishes in Nairobi. Bishop Lambert Mbela, a Redeemed Gospel Church leader in Mikindani, Mombasa city, said the attacks are also spiritual, and disrespect for churches starts at the top of the country’s leadership. “It is not a secret that from the top there is a disdain and a disrespect for the places of worship, then because these things are

  [Episcopal News Service] Many medical agencies, organizations and facilities recognize substance and alcohol addictions as chronic diseases, but stigma keeps many people from seeking treatment. St. Mary Anne’s Episcopal Church in North East, Maryland, is working to reduce the stigma through its recovery ministry. Like many churches, St. Mary Anne’s, which is in the Diocese of Easton, hosts several recovery support group meetings, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon and Narcotics Anonymous, throughout the week. The heart of St. Mary Anne’s ministry, though, is its monthly Faith and Recovery Service. A special evening Eucharist is held the second Sunday of each month for people in recovery, their loved ones and parishioners who wish to attend. “The challenge with churches who host any kind of 12-step group is getting them from, as I like to call it, the church basement into the church proper itself,” the Rev. John Schaeffer, St. Mary Anne’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “It can be difficult establishing a deeper relationship with these groups and extending welcome into the church. We want them to know they have a whole congregation supporting their recovery process.” For Schaeffer, who’s been rector of St. Mary Anne’s since 2016, building connections with people in recovery, and helping them along their journey, is personal. When his father, an alcoholic, was alive, Schaeffer accompanied him to weekly AA meetings. “That’s where I learned so many of the stories of these people, and they truly wanted to get better and to be able to get their lives back in order again,” Schaeffer said. “They really benefit from community support.” The recovery worship service is informal and simpler than a traditional Eucharist. Schaeffer wears street clothes rather than vestments, and he uses a card table in the nave’s aisle instead of the altar. Communion is offered with grape juice instead of wine. The liturgy incorporates the 12 steps, the roadmap to recovery in AA and NA, into the Kenyan Eucharist Rite II. The Anglican Church of Kenya’s Eucharist emphasizes joy and community over atonement. The service’s highlight, though, is that Schaeffer doesn’t preach. Instead, individuals in recovery share their stories and reflect on their recovery journey, with no time limit. “Everyone’s journey is different – and some people’s stories are horrific – but what comes out of it is the light when they realize that they can overcome things with help and with guidance and with counselors and with true faith in themselves,” Schaeffer said. “From the first step all the way to the last step, recovery is a roller coaster. … It’s truly a wonderful thing to see someone persevere.” After every recovery service, the community shares a meal in the parish hall, a time for fellowship. Some people stay for the nightly NA meeting. Since the church offered its first recovery worship service in 2018, many attendees have been baptized and begun joining regular weekly worship services. Some couples have gotten married at a recovery service. Beyond the monthly service, some have turned to Schaeffer for individual pastoral care. Families have trusted him to hold funeral services for their loved ones who died by addiction. “The recovery community is a true part of our wider church community,” Schaeffer said. “We’re all equally part of God’s family and the body of Christ – his hands and feet.” Many of the people who regularly attend the recovery service and voluntarily serve St. Mary Anne’s other outreach ministries, including its food pantry, are guests and alumni of the church’s partner recovery houses; Dexter House for men and Charlotte House for women. The houses offer peer support, family support and living spaces for up to eight residents per house.  “When [Schaeffer] came up with the idea to do the recovery service, it connected us to the church in a way that I don’t think would have ever happened,” Tricia Jones, co-manager of Dexter and Charlotte Houses, told ENS. “It helped us in our mission to show people that recovery works. The parishioners started to interact with our people, and we saw relationships start to form where it just would have never happened under any other circumstances.” St. Mary Anne’s parishioners and the recovery house residents and alumni are now friends outside of church and volunteering environments, including on social media, Jones said. If someone is moving into a new home, for example, help is a call away. Many people in the recovery community also look forward to volunteering at St. Mary Anne’s annual Garden Market, a two-day garden and arts and crafts festival that attracts thousands of visitors. The mutual relationship and support are never-ending, even for those who’ve been clean or sober for many years. “We’re seeing a lot more support and encouragement on both sides,” Jones said. “The congregation is older and the recovery community skews younger, but this unusual partnership started to tie more people to the church. They may or may not believe in God, and some are maybe angry with God, and the most difficult part of recovery, I think, is the spiritual piece. “It’s very difficult to overcome some of the barriers in recovery because there’s a lot of trauma that happens with addiction. … Giving the recovery community an extra place – the church – where they know they will never be judged is a very positive thing.” Schaeffer will retire at the end of June and move to Pennsylvania. He and Jones both stressed, however, that the church’s recovery ministry and relationship with Dexter and Charlotte House and North East’s recovery community will continue “as long as possible.” “Everyone at St. Mary Anne’s has really embraced this ministry, and I hope it serves as a role model for other churches to begin an active relationship with their recovery communities,” Schaeffer. “It can physically and spiritually be lifesaving.”  If you are struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free and confidential helpline at any time

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church’s Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations issued a statement on behalf of the church June 25 lamenting the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Trump administration in its attempt to restrict asylum-seekers’ entry into the country. The statement also took issue with a separate Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians. Both cases were decided, 6-3, in rulings endorsed by the court’s conservative supermajority and opposed by the court’s three liberal justices. “We recognize that the full consequences of these rulings are still uncertain and will depend on how the administration implements them, how agencies exercise discretion, and whether further legal challenges or congressional action follow,” the church statement said. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris were among a long list of ecumenical and interfaith leaders who signed a legal brief in support of the lawsuit related to asylum-seekers. It was filed by Al Otro Lado, a California-based organization that supports refugees and migrants. The class-action lawsuit sought to end the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of turning away asylum-seekers at the border based on criteria that, opponents say, do not follow U.S. immigration law. The church also has been vocal in the past in its support of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a program by which the executive branch can protect certain foreign nationals from deportation if they would risk harm from war, violence, natural disasters or other threats to safety upon returning to their home countries. The following is the text of the church statement released June 25. The Episcopal Church laments the Supreme Court’s June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, which held that asylum seekers who are stopped before physically crossing into U.S. territory have not “arrived” in the United States for purpose of claiming asylum. This decision could mean that those who are fleeing persecution, and who historically have had the right to claim asylum at ports of entry, will not be able to do so. As a result, we fear that vulnerable people will be turned away, and that our nation’s pledge to provide protection for those fleeing persecution will be eroded. As we stated in the amicus brief signed by our presiding bishop the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris: “The Government’s theory that it can bar asylum seekers from lawfully crossing the U.S. border at a port of entry—without an opportunity to seek asylum, even if they are entitled to it—rejects our civilization’s heritage and our religious and moral obligations to offer persecuted strangers a place of safety.”  We also regret the Supreme Court ruling in Mullin v. Doe, which cleared the way for the administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status for many Haitians and Syrians who have been able to live and work legally in the United States during a time of great instability in their home countries. This means that families who have built their lives, raised children, worshiped, worked, and contributed to their communities in the United States may now face the loss of work authorization and protection from deportation, and may need to return to countries still marked by violence, instability, or humanitarian crisis. We recognize that the full consequences of these rulings are still uncertain and will depend on how the administration implements them, how agencies exercise discretion, and whether further legal challenges or congressional action follow. The Episcopal Church will continue supporting immigrants and asylum seekers in all of our ministries. We will advocate for laws and policies that center welcome, protection from harm, and integration. The Episcopal Church is a home to immigrants, and Episcopalians across the country and around the world continue to minister to and walk alongside migrants in need. We will continue to uphold the dignity of refugees and migrants following the biblical call to welcome the stranger.

UPDATE: All Episcopalians in the Diocese of Venezuela are accounted for and safe, according to Pragedes Coromoto Jiménez de Salazar, the diocese’s communications director and secretary of the diocesan standing committee and diocesan convention. The diocesan center and the Iglesia Anglicana Episcopal La Reconciliación, both in Caracas, have sustained minor damage. [Episcopal News Service] Episcopal and Anglican leaders are calling for prayers and offering support after back-to-back major earthquakes in Venezuela killed more than 900 people and injured at least 3,000 others while causing widespread damages to buildings and structures. Hundreds of people remained trapped under rubble as of June 25. “We pray for the Venezuelan people, asking for God’s protection and safety over every life, every family and every community,” Central Ecuador Bishop Juan Carlos Quiñonez Mera said in a June 24 Facebook post. “May the Lord bring peace, comfort and calm to their hearts amidst the circumstances they are facing.” The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Venezuela near Caracas, the capital, 39 seconds apart on June 24. Maiquetía “Simón Bolívar” International Airport was severely damaged and closed indefinitely. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has declared a state of emergency. Episcopal Relief & Development has been communicating with partners in Venezuela who are responding to on-the-ground recovery efforts, according to its website. The Diocese of Venezuela, which is part of The Episcopal Church’s Province IX, has nine clergy serving 15 organized missions throughout the South American country’s 23 states. Litoral Ecuador Bishop Cristóbal Olmedo León Lozano serves as the provisional bishop of Venezuela. ENS attempted to reach Lozano by WhatsApp, and coverage of the disaster will be updated upon receiving a response. Quiñonez Mera said in his Facebook post that Lozano has called for prayers for Venezuela. Church leaders have been communicating with Lozano and Episcopalians in Venezuela to assess their immediate and long-term needs, according to the Rev. David Ulloa Chavez, The Episcopal Church’s partnership officer for Latin America and the Caribbean. “We are thankful that Episcopal Relief & Development is assessing needs in order assist with a humanitarian response,” Chavez told ENS in an email. “We join with Episcopalians and our ecumenical partners in the region as together we all pray for Venezuela.” The earthquakes also struck less than six months after the U.S. military attacked Venezuela and removed President Nicolás Maduro from office to face criminal charges in the United States. While in office, Maduro was accused of human rights abuses and other violations. Venezuela also has been facing an economic crisis for more than a decade. Dozens of countries, including the United States, have offered financial and recovery assistance after the earthquakes. Search-and-rescue teams have been deployed to Venezuela to support relief efforts. Other Episcopal bishops from Latin America have offered their prayers and support for Venezuela. “On behalf of the Diocese of Puerto Rico, I wish to express our love, solidarity and prayers to our Venezuelan brothers and sisters – particularly to the Diocese of Venezuela, Bishop Cristóbal and everyone there,” Puerto Rico Bishop Rafael Morales Maldonado said in a June 24 Facebook post. “Venezuela has a strong soul. God and we are with you!” In a June 25 Facebook post, Dominican Republic Bishop Moisés Quezada Mota highlighted his Caribbean diocese’s historically close relationship with the Diocese of Venezuela: “The Dominican Episcopal Church expresses its solidarity and shares in the grief weighing upon [Venezuela] and its diocese,” he said. “We are also praying that God grants you the strength and courage to face the days ahead.” Several bishops in the United States also offered prayers on social media. Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor called for additional prayers for the family of Los Angeles Bishop-elect Antonio Gallardo, who is from Venezuela. Gallardo still has family, including his mother, siblings and cousins, living there. “Almighty God, we lift our prayers to you for the people of Venezuela, especially those mourning loved ones, those trapped, injured or otherwise in danger,” Taylor said in a June 25 Facebook post. Gallardo is scheduled to be ordained and consecrated as the Los Angeles bishop diocesan on July 11. The Anglican Communion also offered prayers for Venezuela and the Diocese of Venezuela in a June 25 Facebook post, as well as gratitude for “emergency responders, medical teams, local authorities, churches and community organizations offering help, shelter and care as survivors continue to be found in the rubble”: “God of mercy, draw near to all who are afraid, grieving or facing uncertainty. Strengthen those who are in positions of leadership or responding with courage and compassion. Protect those still in danger, comfort those who mourn and guide all who work to bring relief, healing and hope.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Archbishop of Canterbury] Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally and Jerusalem Archbishop Hosam Naoum have written a pastoral letter to the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, as well as Anglicans around the global Anglican Communion. The letter was published at the end of Mullally’s five-day pilgrimage in the Holy Land with Naoum to meet and pray with Palestinian Christians across Palestine and Israel. Mullally made the pastoral visit at the invitation of Naoum, to be alongside Anglican clergy and congregations in Palestine and Israel, as well as meet with other churches leaders and communities in the region. During the visit, Mullally also met with civil society and interfaith groups working for human rights, coexistence and peace in Israel and Palestine. The following is the text of their joint pastoral letter. Dear Friends, Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. From 19-24 June, 2026, we travelled as disciples of Christ on a pilgrimage through the Holy Land, praying and listening to God, listening to those we met, offering solidarity with those that are suffering, and allowing ourselves to be changed by all that we have seen and heard. To be a pilgrim is to undertake a journey through places, but it is also a journey of the heart and mind. Through this pilgrimage we have found ourselves drawn more deeply into the realities of life experienced by Palestinian Christians and by many others who call this land their home. During our pilgrimage we have witnessed how the Church remains a place of encounter, hospitality, and witness. Through its schools, hospitals, and ministries, the Church defends human dignity and works for life lived in all its fullness. Amidst many hardships, we have witnessed a resilient Christian steadfastness that chooses love over hate and refuses to let despair have the final word. However, despite their faithful resistance we fear for the long-term future of the indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land that stretches back to the time when our Lord walked this land. This existential challenge demands our focused attention and collective responsibility. The time to act is now. Across Palestine and Israel, we met families that feel unmoored and traumatised by endless conflict. In Israel, the simultaneous fighting of many conflicts at one time, and the deep-seated aftermath of the horrifying atrocities of 7 October, have created a state of intense sensitivity to potential danger that has transformed society and politics. In the West Bank, unchecked settler violence, forced displacement, systemic discrimination, and expanding checkpoints have left the Palestinian population impoverished, desperate and powerless to enact change. Annexation is already taking place in all but name. Meanwhile, the profound suffering in Gaza continues. The international community must not look away; it bears a moral responsibility to relieve this agony and help rebuild Gaza’s society. We give thanks that despite a health system in catastrophic collapse, the Anglican Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City – alongside Church clinics across the region – continues to serve those in need as an embodied sign of God’s healing love. We pray and call for an end to the enduring injustice in this land. Our pilgrimage was deeply enriched by our meetings with Palestinian and Israeli civil society, ecumenical, and interfaith groups working tirelessly to advance trust, justice, equality, and mutual understanding within and between communities. Their creativity and determination to secure self-determination for the Palestinian people, and a sustainable peace for all, must be amplified. The conflicts across the Middle East are not merely local conflicts. They are symptomatic of a deeper political and spiritual crisis – an abandonment of international law and an increasing recurrence of military force to resolve disputes. We hold that war is never the answer. War destroys human life and tears apart the human family.  Disputes must be solved in accordance with international law through patient diplomacy, negotiation and a vigorous defense of the rules-based international system. International humanitarian law is not an optional constraint but an unwavering commitment to protect the sanctity of human life and our God-given dignity. In light of the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of 2024, we urge you to advocate with political representatives to take all necessary measures to establish a credible path towards ending the occupation. This must lead to a viable two-state solution enabling Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and security. Jerusalem’s status should be determined through negotiation as a shared capital, fully respecting the religious rights of all faiths and preserving both the historic Status Quo and the Hashemite custodianship of the holy sites in Jerusalem as ratified in Article 9 of the 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. We are grateful to the Anglican Alliance and other Church partners around the world for their exceptionally generous support to the Diocese of Jerusalem over the past two and a half years. We ask that you continue to generously support these works so that they can continue their life-giving ministries. Maintaining this ministry will become more difficult in the years ahead given the increased financial and regulatory pressures Church institutions face. This ministry is essential to help support the Christian presence in this land. Our prayer is that by God’s grace, we might bear witness to the hope of the Gospel, and that we might offer to this land, its people and to the wider world a foretaste of God’s peace and love.

UPDATE: After this story was posted, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 6-3 ruling June 25 in the case involving temporary protective status, saying the Trump administration could precede with ending those protections. [Religion News Service] On a Sunday in March, the Rev. Andy Moore looked out at the empty back-left pews at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which had once been filled with Haitian immigrants. “We pray in a very special way for our Haitians who aren’t here at this service, stricken by fear,” he said, before breaking the Communion wafers. Only a few months earlier, his Haitian parishioners were reviving the aging St. Elizabeth’s, whose choir had gone dormant. Nearly a dozen Haitians led the church in worship on Christmas Eve, singing “Mèsi Bondye”— thanking God in Haitian Creole. St. Elizabeth’s had helped many of them find housing, learn English and secure jobs in the United States. That morning, though, Haitian parishioners had good reason to stay home: Word had spread that immigration enforcement agents were gathering outside a nearby Wendy’s — two blocks from St. Elizabeth’s. Last November, the Trump administration announced it sought to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, and fears of arrest among Haitian immigrants soared in New Jersey and nationwide, as mass deportation efforts were underway. The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the revocation of TPS in April and is set to rule on the fate of some 330,000 affected Haitians by late June. At Voice of the Gospel Tabernacle, in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, parishioners deliver groceries to two dozen Haitians who fear leaving their homes to come to the church’s food pantry. Three hundred people used to gather there on a Sunday. Now Bishop Nicholas Homicil, the church’s lead pastor, estimates about 80% stay home. Across the Southern Baptist Conference’s National Haitian Fellowship, with over 500 churches nationwide, there has been an average 30% decline in attendance, according to the Rev. Keny Felix, president of the fellowship and senior pastor at Bethel Evangelical Baptist Church in Miami. Moore’s efforts to bring Haitians back to St. Elizabeth’s have proven unsuccessful. A donated minivan to shuttle Haitian immigrants to and from church required more repairs than the church could afford, and the two drivers — both Haitian immigrants — began feeling unsafe themselves. A WhatsApp group chat, called “Haitian ministry,” where a church member translated Moore’s messages offering rides from English to Creole, found few takers. “They said no, they don’t want to come over,” said the church member, who requested the pseudonym Roseline for fear of immigration enforcement. “Even with Zoom, they are afraid. They say they don’t want to be tracked.” Then she corrected herself. “We are afraid, not ‘they.’ We are afraid.” Haitians were first granted TPS in 2010 after an earthquake killed over 220,000 people and displaced 1.5 million. Protections have been repeatedly extended as Haiti has experienced a succession of crises. The fear spreading through Haitian communities in the U.S. now is inseparable from what drove them to flee Haiti in the first place. One St. Elizabeth’s parishioner told RNS that she held leadership roles at her Pentecostal church in Cité Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince’s most violent neighborhoods. Then gang violence destroyed her husband’s trucking business, and a shootout burned down her childhood home in May 2023. A few months later, she and her husband, with their 1-year-old in tow, crossed Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico, landing in Texas before making their way to New Jersey. They found St. Elizabeth’s in April 2024, through an English class St. Elizabeth’s offered. Moore quickly realized they were “practically homeless.” The church put them up in a hotel until they secured housing and connected them with legal aid to apply for TPS. They found ways to give back: She sang solos with the Haitian Creole choir; her husband became one of the volunteer drivers. Before the influx of Haitian refugees began arriving in Elizabeth in 2010, Moore said, church membership was largely flat, in the low forties on a Sunday. (Together, the Haitians and new parishioners who joined the church to support them quadrupled this number, he said.) Moore said he saw “an opportunity,” and the church started collecting non-perishable foods and clothing for new arrivals. Soon came the English classes, which outgrew a small room above the sanctuary to attract more than 300 eager Haitian students. Church members helped newcomers secure stable jobs, often as home health aides or nursing assistants — fields where New Jersey faces an acute shortage. Sam Crawford, St. Elizabeth’s organist, created résumés for over 100 recent migrants. Crawford spent so much time printing copies at the Elizabeth Public Library that a staffer called Moore, inviting St. Elizabeth’s Haitian students to the library’s own English classes. But they preferred staying at church. “They became very familiar with our teacher here and this environment, and it was not as public as the library,” Crawford said. “They stuck to us more.” The Haitians soon became fully ingrained in the life of the church, serving as acolytes and Eucharistic ministers. On Sundays, Scripture was read in French and Haitian Creole. “After worship, you’ll have to push them out the door, because they’ll be here for hours,” Moore said. They cooked the pork shoulder delicacy known as griot in the church kitchen, and conversation would spill into song. At 10 p.m. on Jan. 1, Moore invited dozens of Haitians and other Caribbeans to St. Elizabeth’s parish hall to celebrate Haitian Independence Day over soup joumou, “freedom soup,” which he’d learned to prepare. Those who came stayed until two in the morning. “It’s like they told us, ‘We know you are here, and we see you, and you matter,’” Roseline said. “That’s why Jesus is sharing food all the time.” Yet she was one of the few who still felt safe. The woman from Cité Soleil stopped singing in the Haitian choir before Christmas, when her husband became too fearful of being detained to keep driving

[Diocese of Rhode Island] After nearly a decade of planning and collaboration, construction has begun on a 2.9-megawatt solar energy project at the Episcopal Conference Center (ECC), a ministry of the Diocese of Rhode Island. The project is expected to provide long-term financial support for the conference center, generate energy savings for congregations across the diocese and advance The Episcopal Church’s commitment to environmental stewardship. Located on approximately 20 acres of ECC’s 186-acre campus in Pascoag, the solar array is being developed by Kearsarge Energy and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. Through a long-term land lease agreement, the project will provide the conference center with a predictable source of revenue to support its ministry for decades to come. Much of that revenue will be directed toward building an endowment that will help sustain ECC’s mission long after the solar array has reached the end of its useful life and the land has been restored. “This project is one way we are responding to our call to participate in the healing of God’s world,” Rhode Island Bishop Nicholas Knisely said. “We are deeply grateful to the many people whose vision, persistence and expertise helped bring this project from an idea to reality. “By generating renewable energy, supporting the ministry of ECC and helping congregations reduce their energy costs, this project demonstrates that caring for creation is not separate from the church’s mission; it is part of it. As we seek to be faithful stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us, this investment will benefit our congregations, our camp ministry and future generations throughout Rhode Island.” The project reflects the diocese’s ongoing commitment to creation care and environmental stewardship. Construction and long-term management plans include measures to protect wetlands and wildlife habitat, establish native and pollinator-friendly vegetation, minimize impacts to soil and water resources and restore the site at the conclusion of the array’s useful life. When fully operational, the solar array is expected to offset approximately 8,400 metric tons of carbon emissions annually, the equivalent of removing nearly 2,000 passenger vehicles from the road each year. The project’s benefits extend beyond the Episcopal Conference Center itself. Through Rhode Island’s Community Solar program, 40 of the Diocese of Rhode Island’s 48 congregations have enrolled to receive credits on their Rhode Island Energy bills. Participating churches are expected to see energy cost savings of 20%, helping congregations direct more resources toward ministry in their local communities. For generations, congregations throughout Rhode Island have helped sustain the ECC’s ministry through their generosity and support. One of the most meaningful aspects of the project is that its benefits will now flow back to those same congregations, strengthening local ministry while helping secure the conference center’s future. The initiative is unique among Episcopal camp and conference centers in New England, combining long-term land lease revenue, diocesan-wide community solar participation and renewable energy generation in a single project. Founded in 1949, the Episcopal Conference Center serves hundreds of children, youth, families and adults each year through summer camp programs, retreats and year-round ministry. For ECC, the project is ultimately about ensuring that this ministry can continue serving future generations. “We often remind ourselves that we inherit the work of those who came before us and become responsible for those who will come after us,” Sara Clarke, the Episcopal Conference Center’s executive director, said. “ECC exists today because generations of faithful people invested their time, resources and love into this ministry. This project allows us to honor that legacy while creating a more sustainable future for those who will encounter God’s love here in the years ahead.” As construction begins, ECC leaders remain focused on the ministry that has guided the organization for more than 75 years: helping people encounter God, build authentic community and discover who they are called to be. “Our hope remains the same as it has always been,” Clarke said. “That future generations will come to ECC, walk these paths, gather in the Barn, build lifelong friendships and discover God’s presence in this place. This project helps ensure that ministry can continue for generations to come.”

[Council of Christian Churches in Germany] The Rev. Kirsten Guidero, The Episcopal Church’s ecumenical and interreligious relations officer, met this week with ecumenical leaders at the Ecumenical Centre in Frankfurt, Germany, which is the Council of Christian Churches in Germany’s headquarters. They discussed how The Episcopal Church can contribute to ecumenical cooperation in the European country. “Cooperation between churches around the world enriches our own work in Germany,” the Rev. Christopher Easthill, the Council of Christian Churches in Germany’s chair, said during the June 23 meeting. “In particular, The Episcopal Church’s experience with structured ecumenical practice offers valuable inspiration as we continue to strengthen the unity of the churches.” Founded in 1948 and reconstituted in 1992 following Germany’s reunification, the council represents 25 churches and denominations countrywide. Its members include the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church in Germany (the main Protestant denomination), the Moravian Church, the Syrian and Coptic Orthodox churches, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches and many others. It focuses on shared witness, is committed to justice, peace and upholding the integrity of creation, and advocates for the rights of persecuted Christians worldwide. During the meeting, Guidero expressed interest in the resources the council has developed for local congregations and ecumenical initiatives. She also supported the Charta Oecumenica, a joint document from the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences that contains guidelines for increasing ecumenical partnerships among churches in Europe. Guidero also shared information on The Episcopal Church’s many ecumenical dialogues. For example, the dialogue between The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church is moving toward a vote on full communion at the Episcopal Church’s 82nd General Convention in 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona. The United Methodist Church had already approved full communion with The Episcopal Church at its General Conference in 2024. The Episcopal Church is currently in full communion with eight other churches: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; the Moravian Church (Northern and Southern Provinces); the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India; the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht; the Philippine Independent Church; the Church of Sweden; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. In practice, this means, for example, that Episcopal and Lutheran congregations in Iowa are able to share the ministry of a pastor or priest. During the meeting, Guidero highlighted the common challenges facing churches in Europe and around the world: “Our dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria has shown how fruitful close cooperation can be,” she said. “We want to share these experiences and, together with the [Council of Christian Churches in Germany], explore new paths toward deeper ecumenical understanding.” Verena Hammes, the Council of Christian Churches in Germany’s executive director, welcomed the international exchange. “It is a privilege to hear first-hand about ecumenical life in the United States,” Hammes said. “We are particularly interested in learning about the work of the National Council of Churches in the USA and its current priorities.”