The Cathedral Church of St. Paul’s video of the Easter Vigil on March 30 shows the moment when Bishop Alan Gates removed the Rev. Tamra Tucker’s white tab collar before saying “just kidding.” Gates has since apologized for the incident.

[Episcopal News Service] Massachusetts Bishop Alan M. Gates has issued a written apology for what he calls “an instant of altogether misguided mischief” in which he removed a female priest’s tab collar insert in front of those who were gathered March 30 at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston for an Easter Vigil.

The priest, the Rev. Tamra Tucker, leads The Crossing, an LGBTQ+-affirming congregation that is based at the cathedral and organizes the annual Easter Vigil there. The festive service is attended by several Boston congregations, including other Protestant denominations, with the churches’ members helping to act out Scripture lessons. A drag queen serves as emcee.

The incident between Gates and Tucker happened toward the end of the service while they and others were standing at the altar. Video of the March 30 service shows Tucker addressing worshipers to offer Communion instructions but momentarily forgetting the liturgical language for administering the elements. After Tucker joked about having recently returned from a three-month sabbatical, Gates stepped up to her and snatched the piece of white tab collar from her neck, placing it on the altar. Gates could be heard saying, “just kidding,” to a visibly surprised Tucker. Gates then picked up the white tab and handed it back to her, patting her on the back. Tucker then reinserted the white tab into the collar and proceeded with Communion.

“It was a devastating and demeaning act, which I regret with all my heart,” Gates said in his April 12 statement. “The Rev. Tamra Tucker is a valued colleague and fine priest whose leadership it has been my honor to affirm. It was not and would never be my intent to humiliate Rev. Tamra; however, that was precisely the impact of my action.”

When reached by Episcopal News Service, Tucker said she was not ready to speak publicly about the incident and declined to comment for this story.

Two other sources who attended the service and asked not to be named told ENS that Gates appeared to realize his mistake almost instantly, when Tucker and others were taken aback by his gesture. They described the service as an otherwise joyful occasion, typical of the Easter services organized each year by The Crossing.

Gates’ actions also drew the attention of the Rev. Jay Williams, the lead pastor of Union Combined Parish, a United Methodist congregation in Boston. Members of the congregation attended the Easter Vigil at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. The next day, Williams referenced the incident in his Easter sermon, describing it as an example of “violent patriarchy and sexism.” Tucker’s wife, the Rev. Sara Garrard, serves as executive pastor of Union Combined Parish.

Gates “literally stripped Rev. Tamra of her clergy collar in public. You can’t make this stuff up,” William told his congregation, as captured on the church’s video of the service. “The male bishop tried to say it was a joke and apologize in public, but it’s no joking matter when a man publicly violates the personal space of a woman and symbolically strips her of her sign of ordination.”

The Crossing was founded in 2006 by the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, who now serves Presiding Bishop Michael Curry as his canon for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care. The congregation is rooted in a spirit of “radical welcome,” according to its website, and today, its primary ministry is to provide “a welcoming worship space for LGBTQIA+ folks.”

“We have always been a queer church. Trans, gay, lesbian, non-binary and other folks have always been a part of The Crossing,” the congregation’s website says.

Tucker, formerly from Oklahoma, moved to Boston in 2010 and joined The Crossing while serving in the Episcopal Service Corps, according to her online biography.  She earned her Master of Divinity degree from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific and was ordained to the priesthood by Gates in February 2019 at the cathedral.

Bishop Alan Gates ordained the Rev. Tamra Tucker, in red, to the priesthood on Feb. 23, 2019, in a ceremony at Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston. Photo: Bob Greiner/Diocese of Massachusetts

Gates is in the final year of his episcopate. He announced last May that he intended to retire at the end of 2024 and has called for the election of his successor. The election is scheduled for May 18. There are four nominees on the slate.

In his written statement, Gates extended his apology to Tucker, The Crossing, its members and others who were harmed by his actions.

“I misused my authority, failed to extend episcopal grace and transgressed personal space and boundaries. I am deeply sorry,” Gates said. “In our baptismal covenant we pledge to ‘respect the dignity of every human being.’ I seek forgiveness for my failure to keep this pledge, and God’s grace to renew that commitment.”

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

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Texas has suspended the Rev. Jason Myers, who had been serving as associate rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, after he was arrested and charged with online solicitation of a minor. The charge is a felony when it involves attempted sexual contact with a person younger than 17.

Myers, 43, was arrested by deputies of the Collin County sheriff’s office on April 11, according to news reports.

The Rev. Robert F. Pace, Trinity’s rector, said he first learned of Myers’ arrest when an investigator in the sheriff’s office contacted him on April 12, according to an April 13 email sent to parishioners and friends of the parish.

Upon hearing of the arrest, Pace informed Texas Bishop Andy Doyle, who suspended Myers under the Title IV disciplinary canons of the church. This prevents Myers from functioning in any capacity as an Episcopal priest during the duration of the legal proceedings. He also cannot have contact with anyone in the congregation.

Pace said that Myers and his family will have pastoral support during this process.

The church does not have any reason to believe that anyone in the congregation or its preschool has been harmed, he said, but noted “there is much that we do not know or understand, and we have many questions that cannot yet be answered.”

Anyone in the congregation who wants to share information about the case was urged to contact the diocese’s intake officer for clergy misconduct complaints, local law enforcement or the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Noting that “this situation comes as a shock,” Pace was available in the parish hall after the 9:30 a.m. worship service on April 14 for anyone who wanted to talk or pray.

He closed his email by inviting parishioners to join him in prayer for all involved. “We pray for all children and adults who have experienced harm. We pray for our parish family. We pray for Jason’s wife and their children. Please also pray for Jason.”

The Episcopal Church in North Texas, formerly the Diocese of Fort Worth, and the Houston-based Diocese of Texas merged in 2022.

Bishop Mark Edington of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe spoke in favor of Resolution A009, which would create full communion between The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, during the April 12 hearing of the Ecumenical & Interreligious Relations legislative committees.

[Episcopal News Service] Members of the Ecumenical & Interreligious Relations legislative committees heard testimony April 12 during an online hearing on a resolution that would establish full communion between The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (in German, the Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern), that often is noted by its initials, ELKB.

The hearing on Resolution A009 drew seven people, six of whom were participating from Europe, speaking in favor of full communion through the document “Sharing the Gifts of Communion,” also known as the Augsburg Agreement. This resolution was carried over from the 80th General Convention to the 81st convention because of the reduced number of legislative days in 2022, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Full communion agreements require changes to the canons of The Episcopal Church (Title 1, Canon 20, Section 1) and currently exist with seven other churches: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Moravian Church-Northern and Southern Provinces; the Mar Thomas 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 Canada.

Full-communion partnerships allow members of both churches to receive the sacraments in the other body, and it also allows for interchangeability of clergy, allowing them to officiate at services and celebrate the sacraments with equal authority in either church.

One of the questions about full communion with the ELKB has centered on the role of bishops in that church. The presence of “the historic episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration” is one of the requirements set forth in the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral, which is the framework for how The Episcopal Church and other denominations can reach full communion.

The Rt. Rev. Mark Edington, bishop of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, expressed his “fervent” support” for the resolution and noted the numerous studies that had explored the nature of the ELKB episcopate. He said that after all of those, he has become very comfortable that “the sign of the historic episcopate [is] present throughout their long history.”

Edington noted the Episcopal congregations in Munich, Nuremburg and Augsburg are the only Anglican presence in Bavaria, which is one of 16 federal states in Germany. Those three congregations all meet in ELKB buildings.

Eugene Schlesinger, a member of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, noted that over time any concerns about the historic nature of the ELKB episcopate would be removed, as Episcopal bishops lay hands on ELKB bishops during ordinations and thus create a “shared history of succession.”

The Ven. Walter Baer, a Convocation deputy and a member of the Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, said that connections between the two churches dates to 2013, when then-Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and then-Landesbischof (Regional Bishop) Heinrich Bedford-Strohm of the ELKB met informally. A formal dialogue with a formal dialogue between the two churches began in 2018.

Two leaders within the ELKB also spoke in favor of the resolution. Theologian Oliver Schuegraf, who also is an honorary canon theologian of Coventry Cathedral in England, was one of the people who drafted the Augsburg Agreement. He said the ELKB has both a historic and an evangelical episcopate – historic, in that it is passed down over time, and evangelical, in which preaching the Gospel has taken place unbroken from generation to generation. “It is absolutely clear that we have episcopé” he said, although it is exercised both by bishops and other church structures.

Maria Stattner, the ELKB ecumenical officer, gave an overview of those other structures: Synod, Executive Committee of Synod, the Council and the regional bishop, who is elected for a 12-year term by the Synod. The ELKB already has adopted the Augsburg Agreement, she said, and if General Convention adopts this resolution, “we hope to have reason to celebrate the agreement of full communion and to fill it with life.”

Two people from the Church of the Ascension in Munich spoke in support of the resolution. The Rev. Daniel Morrow, its priest-in-charge, told the committees that his congregation has met in an ELKB church for over 50 years. “We work on projects together, we minister together, we pray for each other weekly. And we love each other,” he said. He acknowledged that there are differences in structure between the two churches but urged the committees “not to equate unity with uniformity.” Being in full communion, he said, “will make a day-by-day difference for the Episcopal churches in Bavaria.”

Loren Stuckenbruck, a member of Ascension and a professor of New Testament and early Judaism at the University of Munich’s school of theology, urged passage of the resolution for practical reasons. Episcopalians wishing to study for ordination would be able to take classes and undergo some formation through the Lutheran theology school in Munich, which would be more cost-effective than other options. Having an ELKB pastor able to officiate at Episcopal services, or vice versa, in their shared building, would provide sense of familiarity and continuity during times when clergy are absent, he said.

The agreement also calls for bishops of each church to regularly take part in ordinations of the other, but Edington noted that most likely would involve ordinations taking place in Europe.

Resolution A037, which is identical to A009, was proposed by the Standing Commission on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations. Bishop Douglas Sparks of Northern Indiana, chair of the bishop’s committee of the Ecumenical & Interreligious Relations legislative committee, said he thought that when the committees discuss these resolutions in an upcoming meeting, they would be combined into a single resolution to be submitted to the convention with the committees’ recommendation.

Legislative committees include parallel committees of deputies and of bishops, which, though distinct, typically meet and deliberate together. Committees can recommend that General Convention adopt, reject or take no action on a resolution, and every resolution must be voted upon by the convention. Resolutions also can be placed on each house’s consent calendars, in which resolutions are not individually debated on the floor but are voted on together.

Because A009 would amend the canons, it also would need to be reviewed by the legislative committees on Constitution & Canons.

The General Convention is the governing body of The Episcopal Church. Every three years it meets as a bicameral legislature, dividing its authority between the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops, and is composed of members from each diocese.

—Melodie Woerman is a freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[World Council of Churches] World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Jerry Pillay, on behalf of the global fellowship, expressed grave concern regarding the recent escalation of violence in the Middle East following the first direct confrontation between Iran and Israel.

“We firmly believe that violence and warfare offer no sustainable solutions and only serve to further harm vulnerable communities and destabilize the region,” he said. “We reaffirm our conviction that safety and security are not singular achievements but collective realities that depend on the access of all people to justice, peace, and human dignity equally.”

He described five calls to action and then concluded, “As followers of Christ, who calls us to be peacemakers, we are compelled to speak against the spiraling cycle of violence and to work tirelessly for a world where peace is rooted in justice.”

Read the entire article here.

General Convention’s Social Justice & U.S. Policy committees heard testimony April 11, 2024, on five proposed resolutions seeking to affirm and, in some cases, broaden The Episcopal Church’s stance on pacifism and just war, gun safety and addressing homelessness. Photo: Screenshot

[Episcopal News Service] General Convention’s Social Justice & U.S. Policy committees heard testimony April 11 on five proposed resolutions seeking to affirm and, in some cases, broaden The Episcopal Church’s stance on pacifism and just war, gun safety and addressing homelessness. 

Forty-six people attended the virtual hearing of the House of Bishops’ and House of Deputies’ committees, which though distinct, typically meet and deliberate together. Once finalized, resolutions will advance to the 81st General Convention, to be held June 23-29 in Louisville, Kentucky, June 23-28. 

All but one person who testified supported the resolutions, with exceptions mostly addressing the resolutions’ wording. The full list of resolutions can be found here. 

Two of the resolutions, D011 and D014, were proposed by Joe McDaniel, a member of the church’s Executive Council from the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. Both address gun violence. D011 calls for General Convention to urge the U.S. Congress to adopt a new ban on the purchase and ownership of all assault, automatic and semi-automatic weapons. 

“These guns are often used in mass shootings and are recovered at crime scenes, but research shows a prohibition on assault weapons can prevent mass shooting fatalities and active shooter events,” McDaniel said during the hearing.

Alaska Bishop Mark Lattime said the resolutions need to be more specific in their language, particularly when distinguishing between rate of fire and velocity of assault weapons.

“It may be nitpicking, but sometimes that’s what some people use to derail any conversation that we might have about this,” he said.

D014 calls for convention to promote legislation aimed at reducing gun violence and to urge U.S. officials to declare gun violence a national health crisis. The resolution also calls for General Convention to urge the reform of the Victims of Crime Act, which was created by Congress in 1984 to provide federal assistance to state and local programs that support crime victims. 

The Diocese of North Carolina proposed resolution C003, which asks General Convention to establish a 13-member task force on affordable housing and homelessness. The task force would investigate and document the engagement of Episcopal dioceses and congregations in the development of affordable housing using best, local practices. The resolution also calls for formulating a standing commission on housing and homelessness to “elevate and empower” Episcopal engagement in addressing what is a racial and economic justice issue. The requested budget to implement C003 is $95,000.

“We found that when we created a focused group of individuals who were involved with and committed to the development of affordable housing, the amount of congregational involvement in affordable housing ballooned,” testified Rebecca Yarbrough, a member of the Diocese of North Carolina’s Bishop’s Committee on Affordable Housing and a deacon at Chapel of Christ the King in Charlotte.

Resolution A081 calls on 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 Standing Commission on World Mission proposed A081.

“This is not just Christian nationalism. How does it impact how we are doing mission around the world, and how does it impact who we are as both Episcopalians and Anglicans?” Thomas Diaz, a member of the Standing Commission on World Mission, said during the hearing.

Some hearing participants expressed a need for A081’s language to be clearer with what, exactly, the resolution hopes to accomplish.

“What kind of education action do you want The Episcopal Church to do?” said Ed Sisson, a deputy from the Diocese of Mississippi. “It’s not clear in my mind what it is you want to do. If we pass this resolution, what would the first attempt be in terms of an advocacy and education approach?”

Resolution A018 calls on General Convention to authorize a task force of 12 church leaders to study pacifism and just war. The task force would use the experience and expertise gathered from the Military Chaplains Just War Education Project, which was funded by a 2020-21 Constable Grant. The proposed budget to implement task force duties is $5,000.

“I feel strongly on behalf of the standing commission that this is one of these issues that we have not necessarily delved into as best we can,” said Martha Gardner, the Diocese of Massachusetts’ missioner for networking and formation.

The General Convention is the governing body of The Episcopal Church. Every three years it meets as a bicameral legislature dividing its authority between the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops and composed of members from each diocese. 

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

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church’s two presiding officers on April 12 publicly released a letter addressed to Executive Council that outlines their plan for appointing a new General Convention executive officer to succeed the Rev. Michael Barlowe, who plans to retire later this year.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris, in their letter, cited Episcopal Church Canon I.1.12a, which grants them in their leadership roles the authority to jointly appoint the executive officer, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council. Curry and Ayala Harris also serve, respectively, as chair and vice-chair of Executive Council.

“We have developed a timeline that will allow our body to study the position, discern the needs of our church, and ensure an opportunity for the presiding bishop-elect to provide ample input,” Curry and Ayala Harris said. “Upon Secretary Barlowe’s retirement, leadership of the General Convention Office will operate via the cabinet approach … until a new executive officer is appointed.”

Barlowe is scheduled to retire around Labor Day in September after serving as executive officer and secretary of the 81st General Convention, which convenes June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. Barlowe announced in January his plans to retire after 11 years as executive officer and more than 40 years as an Episcopal priest.

At Executive Council’s last meeting, held in late January in Louisville, council member Annette Buchanan of the Diocese of New Jersey asked for information on succession planning for the executive officer. At the time, Ayala Harris responded that she, Curry and their chancellors were still reviewing the canons and would report back to Executive Council with a clear answer.

In their April 12 letter, Curry and Ayala Harris announced that this spring they will develop an advisory committee that will include members of Executive Council, the House of Deputies and House of Bishops. From July to September, that advisory committee will work with the presiding officers to “review the job description of the executive officer, study the current needs of the church, make recommendations to them for any necessary changes, and assist them in their discernment with regard to candidates for the position.”

The executive officer leads the General Convention Office, the church’s central office responsible for the administration of church governance. The General Convention Office’s duties include negotiating contracts for venues and accommodations at each General Convention, coordinating the meetings of all the church’s interim governing bodies, receiving and tallying parochial report data from dioceses and congregations, facilitating the consent process for bishop elections, and ensuring the church has the technology needed to achieve all those goals.

After conducting their review of the position, the presiding officers plan to publish a job description and begin recruiting candidates for the role from October 2024 to January 2025. During that time, Curry also will hand off his role in the recruitment process to a newly elected successor, who will become the church’s 28th presiding bishop on Nov. 1. (The presiding bishop election is one of the top agenda items at the 81st General Convention this June.)

Through the beginning of 2025, the presiding officers will interview qualified candidates while providing updates to Executive Council, the letter says. Appointment of the new executive officer is scheduled for February 2025, at which time the presiding officers will seek consent from Executive Council, presumably in a vote at the governing body’s in-person meeting scheduled for that month.

“We are committed to a transparent and intentional process, which is essential to identifying the best candidate to serve as our next executive officer,” Curry and Ayala Harris said. “We ask for your continued prayers and support as we undertake this important work together.”

This will be the second major churchwide leadership appointment that current members of Executive Council are asked to endorse. Curry and Ayala Harris previously chose Jane Cisluycis to serve as the church’s chief operating officer, but that process drew vocal objections from some members of Executive Council that the search was not broad enough, didn’t involve the council and failed to generate a racially diverse pool of candidates.

Curry and Ayala Harris stood by their appointment of Cisluysis while adjusting her title to acting chief operating officer. Executive Council approved the appointment in February 2023, with a third of the members voting against giving their consent.

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

Panama Bishop Julio Murray blesses a group of young adult children of clergy who are no longer active in church after they participated in an April 10 panel discussion addressing how churches can effectively reach out to younger people and serve them. The panel discussion was a highlight of the 2024 International Black Clergy Conference, which took place April 8-11 in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Sandye Wilson

[Episcopal News Service] To attract and retain young parishioners, Episcopal churches need to fully live up to the saying, “all are welcome,” Kayla Byrd said during an April 10 panel discussion at the 2024 International Black Clergy Conference. “What actions are you and your congregation taking when it comes to going out into the community to bring up young adults and being genuinely inclusive?”

“I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘hey, we want young people to come to our church and be a part of our ministry.’ But the ministry or the worship might not speak to young people to the extent that we feel passionate when we go to church,” Kayla Byrd told Episcopal News Service in an April 11 interview. “At my dad’s church, I knew that I could ask questions. However, other churches aren’t necessarily like that, but instead have a butts-in-pews mentality and don’t preach with energy and passion. I want to leave church every week knowing that I’m getting the right message and feeling energized and ready to go do my own evangelism.”

The Rev. Ronald C. Byrd, the church’s missioner for African Descent Ministries, whose office organized the conference, is also Kayla Byrd’s father. 

Some 160 Episcopal and Anglican bishops, priests, deacons and guests from across the African diaspora attended the triennial International Black Clergy Conference April 8-11 in Baltimore, Maryland. 

During the conference, which took place at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards, participants discussed conditions affecting Afro-Anglican ministry and witness, including the closure of historically Black churches and gentrification. The discussions reflected this year’s theme, “Unshakeable Faith in Troubled Times,” which reflects II Corinthians 5-7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

“Having unshakable faith means that we need to hold on and embrace the beauty of these folks who were African who helped to shape and carve out Christianity as we know it,” the Rev. Michael Battle, founder of the PeaceBattle Institute and theologian-in-community at Trinity Church Boston in Massachusetts, told ENS. “But we never would know these African theologians unless we lift the veil … and those of African descent always need to figure out how to be more than the sum of our parts, which to me is the image of God.”

The PeaceBattle Institute offers consulting services on peacemaking and forgiveness. As theologian-in-community, Battle advises church leaders on how to advocate theologically for social justice around culture and race.

During an April 9 discussion on “theological framework,” Battle listed some African theologians who made significant contributions to contemporary Christianity but who remain relatively obscure in modern theological discussions: St. Athanasius of Alexandria, St. Anthony of Egypt and St. Pachomius the Great. These three theologians are considered monasticism contemporaries today.

“The goal with the International Black Clergy Conference is to meet with those we’ve known before and meet new clergy we’ve never met before,” the Rev. Jemonde Taylor, rector of St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, a historically Black parish in Raleigh, North Carolina, told ENS. “Hopefully, those bonds of affection will continue to grow long after the conference.”

Taylor helped lead a discussion on climate change and environmental justice on April 9.  

“We must ask God and be with God to continue moving our steps forward as we continue to dream of a new Episcopal Church in the 21st century,” the Rev. Ronald C. Byrd told ENS. “We must continue to be able to provide spiritual needs and to always remind people that we can trust in a loving and capable God.”

The Rev. Ronald C. Byrd said he was particularly excited about the April 10 panel discussion of young adult children of clergy who are no longer active in church addressing how churches can effectively reach out to younger people and serve them.

A group of young adult children of clergy who are no longer active in church participated in an April 10 panel discussion addressing how churches can effectively reach out to younger people and serve them. The panel discussion was a highlight of the 2024 International Black Clergy Conference, which took place April 8-11 in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Sandye Wilson

Kayla Byrd told the panel attendees that churches can attract and retain younger congregants by being intentional about serving them by preaching from the Bible, rather than about the Bible. This means fully living up to the saying “all are welcome” and making conscientious efforts to support everyone within the communities they build.

“Don’t be afraid to be real and draw analogies of current issues and correlations with the Bible and showing how the Bible is relevant now,” she said. “You say you are inclusive and serve the LGBTQ+ community, but do you state your pronouns when you’re having a conversation or when you send an email? And do you respect other people’s pronouns? These actions are a small way of saying, ‘I hear you. I understand you. I see you.’”

Kayla Byrd said the last time she went to a church and felt the “energy and genuine effort to build a welcoming community” was during an Easter worship service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brighton, Michigan, when Missouri Bishop Deon K. Johnson was rector.

Johnson, who was elected bishop of Missouri in November 2019, celebrated the Eucharist during the conference’s evening worship service after the April 10 panel discussion. Vermont Bishop Shannon MacVean Brown preached. The day before, Chicago Bishop Paula Clark celebrated the Eucharist and Arkansas Bishop John T.W. Harmon preached during evening worship.

Daily worship services included liturgies from across the African diaspora, including Ethiopia, Botswana, the West Indies and other countries and regions. One of the Eucharist services was bilingual in French and English as an homage to Haiti. Musicians from St. Ambrose performed a variety of music genres reflecting the African diaspora’s diversity, including African American spirituals, jazz and reggae.

The Rev. Ronald C. Byrd said the liturgies and music were “carefully thought out and planned” for the International Black Clergy Conference.

“It’s our music, and in some ways it’s much different from a white, colonized Episcopal Church,” he said. “This is what lifts us up. This is what gives us energy. This is the way in which we praise and worship God, and we make a joyful noise in praise of the almighty one and his son, Jesus Christ.”

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

Melissa Toedtman meets Baby Motka, a stray kitten she agreed to adopt, for the first time in the Community of the Transfiguration convent in Cincinnati, Ohio. The kitten was found in Oklahoma and was brought to Ohio by members of a Facebook group of clergy with cats. Toedtman is the community’s pianist. Photo: Sister Diana Doncaster

[Episcopal News Service] Sister Diana Doncaster of the Community of the Transfiguration, an Episcopal religious order for women in Cincinnati, Ohio, was one link in a chain of people who helped an abandoned kitten in Oklahoma find a home with a local pianist, Melissa Toedtman, who plays for the convent’s worship services.

Sister Diana, who also is a priest, told Episcopal News Service that on March 22, she and other members of the Facebook group “Clergy with Cats,” a private group with some 3,000 members, were alerted by Jeannie McMahan of Okemah, Oklahoma, to a stray kitten that had been found by her neighbor. McMahon, who already had her hands full with her own cats, couldn’t take her in, so she posted the kitten’s photo and asked if someone could offer it a home.

The group, Sister Diana said, is an interfaith, ecumenical and international mix of ordained people. “It’s an amazing group of mutual support, caring, laughter and, of course, cats,” she said.

Motka (top), who belongs to Sister Diana, meets Baby Motka in the convent after the kitten arrived in Cincinnati. Photo: Sister Diana Doncaster

Because group members often share photos of their own cats, McMahan thought this kitten looked like one of Sister Diana’s cats and gave her the same name, Motka, which means “Gift of God” in Russian. Sister Diana’s Motka is a Siberian Forest Cat – hence the Russian name – and has a long, thick coat of black, brown and cream fur. This makes her very fluffy, a trait her kitten namesake shares.

As luck, or perhaps providence, would have it, Toedtman, the pianist, mentioned after the Palm Sunday service that she was thinking of getting a kitten after the unexpected death of her beloved dog. “So I whipped out my phone, showed her the photo of Baby Motka, and it was love at first sight,” Sister Diana said.

To get the kitten from Oklahoma to southern Ohio, the Facebook group jumped into collective action. Fifty-nine donors contributed to a rescue and travel fund, which paid for Baby Motka’s initial shots and microchip, as well as travel expenses for her helpers. Three people each took a leg of the journey as a “kitten train,” driving through parts of five states before arriving in Cincinnati on April 6.

Since Toedtman was away on a long-planned trip, Baby Motka joined the much larger Motka in the convent until she could be united with her new owner – or as Sister Diana suggested, her new servant – on April 10.

For Sister Diana, the story of this kitten’s rescue and new home is “about God pouring out grace in unexpected ways.” She noted that this effort wasn’t a carefully planned church event but rather sprang from “one kitten, one Facebook group, some loving and generous people who were moved to help, and a woman who needs a kitten in her life.”

It shows, she said, “that God does amazing things through small opportunities.”

—Melodie Woerman is a freelance reporter based in Kansas.

[World Council of Churches] World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Jerry Pillay, on behalf of WCC member churches, said that the organization cannot reconcile the Decree of the XXV World Russian People’s Council describing the conflict in Ukraine as a “Holy War.” 

On March 27,  the decree of the XXV World Russian People’s Council, “The Present and Future of the Russian World,” was approved. The chair of the council was the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.

The decree, which is addressed to the legislative and executive authorities of Russia, has raised grave concerns among WCC member churches. Pillay said, “Among other concerns arising from the recent decree, the World Council of Churches cannot reconcile the statement that ‘the special military operation [in Ukraine] is a Holy War’ with what we have heard directly from Patriarch Kirill himself, nor with relevant WCC governing body policy pronouncements, nor indeed with the biblical calling for Christians to be peacemakers in the midst of conflict.”

Read the entire article here.

General Theological Seminary, located in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, regularly welcomes outside groups to use its facilities for events, including Chapel of the Good Shepherd. Photo: General Theological Seminary

[Episcopal News Service] The seven Episcopal bishops who serve the dioceses of New York and Long Island are publicly opposing the potential long-term lease of General Theological Seminary’s property and facilities to a nonprofit choral music school that has ties to Christian conservatives.

The School of Sacred Music, which describes itself on its website as “grounded in the Roman Catholic tradition,” has been using part of the seminary as its base since late 2023 through a short-term rental agreement. “We engage and inspire students and professional church musicians, members of the clergy, congregations, faith communities, and all interested members of the public,” the website says. The school’s vespers are now scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.

In November, the General Theological Seminary, The Episcopal Church’s oldest seminary, announced negotiations with the school, then unnamed as the nonprofit, for a long-term agreement to lease and renovate the buildings on its close, or campus, in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. Such an agreement, it said, would aid the seminary’s efforts to address ongoing budget shortfalls and deferred property maintenance while it focuses on growing its hybrid Master of Divinity program. Since 2022, the seminary has been governed through an affiliation agreement with Virginia Theological Seminary.

In late March, citing The Episcopal Church’s generation-long struggle toward full inclusion, the bishops released a written statement opposing the seminary’s negotiations with what they disclosed as the School of Sacred Music. “We are concerned by the lack of full acceptance of the LGBTQ stance of its founders and the lack of transparency in its funding,” the bishops said on March 22. “We recognize the difficult financial situation of VTS/GTS with the General Seminary campus. We are also making difficult decisions about the future use of sacred spaces. It’s important to make decisions that align with our mission and values. Human dignity is not negotiable.”

The statement was signed by Bishop Matthew Heyd, Bishop Suffragan Allen Shin and Assistant Bishop Mary Glasspool of the Diocese of New York, and by Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, Assistant Bishop Geralyn Wolf, Assisting Bishop Daniel Allotey and Assisting Bishop William Franklin of the Diocese of Long Island. Both dioceses sponsor students at VTS/GTS and expressed support for continued program partnerships.

When asked to elaborate on their concerns, a Diocese of New York spokesman told Episcopal News Service that the bishops would be offering no further comment at this time. Long Island, copied on the request, also declined further comment.

The only contact information listed on the school’s website is an email address for Thomas Wilson, identified as president and master of chapel music. ENS sent him an email but has not received a response.

The Very Rev. Ian Markham, dean of Virginia Theological Seminary and president of General Theological Seminary, provided a written statement to ENS that disputed the bishops’ description of the School of Sacred Music and the seminary’s lease negotiations.

“GTS is committed to inclusivity and ensuring the close remains a welcoming space to LGBTQIA+ persons,” Markham said. “The School of Sacred Music is also committed to a spirit of ecumenism and inclusion of all people. Even so, safeguards to ensure LGBTQIA+ inclusivity will be included in any agreement.” He added that the seminary has “conducted extensive due diligence on the funding sources” of the school and is satisfied by its transparency.

After ENS asked about those funding sources, a spokeswoman for the seminary responded that the School of Sacred Music is a subsidiary of a nonprofit known as the Ithuriel Fund, with more than $75 million in assets. The major donor, though not the only donor, is Colin Moran, an investment fund manager who also serves as chairman and president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life.

The institute is known for publishing First Things, a magazine and website that serves the institute’s stated mission, to “advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society.” Though the Episcopal bishops did not specify what they found concerning, some of the articles published by First Things under Moran’s leadership express particularly conservative views toward human sexuality.

In one recent article, for example, the headline asks, “Can Christians Attend Gay Weddings?” The author, Carl Trueman, offers his answer: No.

Markham, the Virginia Theological Seminary dean since 2007, has written at least three scholarly pieces on religious topics for First Things dating back to 1992, none of them related to sexuality. The most recent was in 2014. In response to an ENS inquiry about Markham’s connection to the publication, the seminary spokeswoman confirmed that Markham was a visiting scholar with the Institute on Religion and Public Life in the early 1990s, before Moran became the institute’s president. Markham, a Christian ethicist and biblical scholar, has also written many books.

Markham said through the spokeswoman that he did not know of Moran or the School of Sacred Music until June 2023, when he was introduced to the school by Christopher Wells, the former publisher of The Living Church. The School of Sacred Music soon began using part of the close through its short-term rental agreement.

The General Theological Seminary is The Episcopal Church’s oldest seminary, founded in 1817. Photo: General Seminary.

Under the longer-term lease agreement that the seminary is pursuing, the School of Sacred Music “would restore the exteriors of all the GTS-owned buildings on the close, including the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, cover the expenses of the close and pay GTS an annual rent,” according to the November news release. “The arrangement would create income for GTS, enabling it to support and potentially expand its programs.”

As seminaries across The Episcopal Church have struggled to adjust to the needs of a denomination in long-term membership decline, General Theological Seminary has faced a particularly dire financial outlook in recent years. In its 2023 fiscal year, it had $7 million in expenses compared with income of $4.3 million.

In an update released the day of the bishops’ statement, Markham underscored the “significant revenue and cashflow challenges” facing the seminary. “The seminary has no funding source for any emergency capital expenditure, or deferred maintenance, which is estimated to be tens of millions of dollars.”

Markham also noted that the seminary board gave unanimous backing in November to enter negotiations with the school, and it again backed those negotiations in February.

Those negotiations are ongoing, the seminary told ENS this week. A variety of rental and lease options of different durations are under consideration, but the seminary declined to say more until the two sides are closer to an agreement.

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