‘Healing in the Heartland’ speakers offer differing views on the church’s political engagement
by mwoerman |[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri hosted a “Healing in the Heartland” event on March 16 designed to help bridge the divide in American society in a polarized election year, but it ended with its four speakers disagreeing on if and how the church should be engaged with politics.
The event featured remarks from three Episcopal priests and one United Church of Christ pastor:
- The Rev. Naomi Tutu, priest associate at All Saint’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, Georgia and a daughter of the late Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu;
- The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, interim president of the Episcopal Divinity School, canon theologian at Washington National Cathedral and theologian in residence at Trinity Church Wall Street.
- The Rev. John C. “Jack” Danforth, former U.S. senator from Missouri, current partner in a St. Louis law firm, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and envoy to Sudan;
- The Rev. Traci Blackmon, formerly the denominational lead for justice and local church ministries in the UCC and now a public theologian and author.
In individual remarks and other questions to the four as a panel, they described how they approach social justice and other potentially polarizing issues. But when asked how they would respond to the call to keep politics out of the pulpit, there was some disagreement.
Brown Douglas, Blackmon and Tutu – all Black women – described how their faith calls them to be engaged in working for justice and their understanding that Jesus didn’t stand outside the political systems of his day. Jesus wasn’t killed for praying too much, Brown Douglas said, but because he had become an enemy of the political and ecclesiastical structures.
Being a person of faith is political but not partisan, Blackmon said. “Politics is how we live our lives,” she said. “I am called to be political. I am not called to be partisan.” But, she added, “I do not think the pulpit should be used to tell people who to vote for.” Tutu noted that when people from the margins of society speak about issues from the pulpit, it’s labeled as political. When the preacher is a privileged person, it’s not.
Danforth, a white man, said that during his 26 years as an elected official, he always tried to do his best and do more good than harm. But in the end, “Politics isn’t the realm of the ultimate. It isn’t the kingdom of God. It’s just politics,” he said, adding, “Do not confuse politics and religion.”
Tutu said she never would have expected Danforth or other elected officials to be God’s representatives, but she does expect people in power “to do good for God’s people.” And when they fail, “I’m not gonna let you off the hook,” she said.
Because laws dictate where children like her could go to school, what water fountain they could drink from and where her family could buy a house, Blackmon said, “I don’t have the luxury of [politics] being a separate system.”
There is a difference between attacking people and attacking bad and unjust laws and policies, Brown Douglas said. And to know whether laws and policies are actually serving the people who are hurting the most, “when the least of these say, ‘Oh, that feels like justice,’ then we are at least on the way to justice,” she said.
Before the opening Eucharist, and printed in the service bulletin, was an acknowledgement that the diocese encompasses the traditional ancestral lands of the Osage Nation, the Illiniwek/Peoria Tribe, the O-Gah-Pah (Quapaw) Tribe, the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, and other First Peoples.
It also noted that Lewis and Clark used enslaved and Indigenous people as they explored what would become the state of Missouri, and that it became a state through the Missouri Comprise of 1820, which allowed it to enter the Union as pro-slavery. It also was the home of the enslaved Dred Scott, noted for the 1857 Supreme Court ruling that because he was Black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue for his freedom.
Missouri Bishop Deon Johnson and the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care, presided at the Eucharist, and Tutu was the preacher. Ministries around the diocese also had tables where they could share information with event participants.
–Melodie Woerman is a freelance reporter based in Kansas.
Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan vote to combine as Diocese of the Great Lakes
by dpaulsen |[Episcopal News Service] The dioceses of Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan voted on March 16 to pursue juncture, a canonical process that would merge the two dioceses and build on a partnership over four years involving ministry collaboration and some shared leadership, including a bishop.
The planned juncture, which now heads for final approval in June by the 81st General Convention, also aims to set the two dioceses on a new path together following tumultuous leadership transitions involving bishop disciplinary cases spanning nearly their entire time as partner dioceses.
At the weekend’s special joint convention, held at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in Grand Blanc, the votes in the two dioceses were overwhelmingly in favor of the juncture – 85% yes in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan and 82% in favor in the Diocese of Western Michigan.
The canonical process of “juncture” applies when two dioceses have not previously been a single diocese together. If the juncture is approved by bishops and deputies when they gather for General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, the first convention of the newly created Diocese of the Great Lakes would be scheduled for October in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Its business is expected to include the adoption of a new constitution and canons and elections to leadership bodies.
Eastern Michigan, based in Saginaw, and Western Michigan, based in Grand Rapids, are two of four Episcopal dioceses in the state. The Diocese of Michigan includes Detroit and the southeastern region of the state, while the Diocese of Northern Michigan encompasses the state’s more remote and sparsely populated Upper Peninsula.
Western Michigan was founded in 1874 after separating from the Diocese of Michigan, while Eastern Michigan separated from the Diocese of Michigan in 1995. Eastern Michigan has not had a diocesan bishop since 2017, when the Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley resigned to join the presiding bishop’s staff as head of the Office of Pastoral Development.
In October 2019, the two dioceses voted at their conventions to establish a formal partnership that included sharing Western Michigan Bishop Whayne Hougland Jr., who was elected bishop provisional of Eastern Michigan. Hougland, however, was suspended for one year in June 2020 after admitting to an extramarital affair. A year later, the two dioceses announced they had chosen not to welcome him back as their bishop.
Instead, they sought a new bishop provisional and elected the Rt. Rev. Prince Singh to that role in October 2021. Singh, formerly bishop of New York’s Diocese of Rochester, began serving the two Michigan dioceses in February 2022 but resigned in September 2023 to face allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife and two adult sons under the church’s Title IV disciplinary canons for clergy.
Retired Bishop Skip Adams agreed in November 2023 to serve Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan in the interim as an assisting bishop as the dioceses work toward juncture.
WCC urges UN Human Rights Council to address obstetric injury
by mwoerman |[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches, in a statement before the United Nations Human Rights Council, urged addressing the often-hidden condition of obstetric fistula, which violates the rights of thousands of women and girls in the world’s poorest countries.
The condition of obstetric fistula is a preventable physical injury which occurs after a prolonged or obstructed labor without access to adequate health care. “It can result in urinary and often fecal incontinence, infection, physical impairment, disability, societal rejection, breakdown of marriage and a loss of livelihoods,” the statement said.
Pregnant women in conflict zones are at particular risk, as they can’t access normal maternity services, including emergency caesarean sections, and often go into labor malnourished, weak and dealing with high levels of trauma.
Read the entire article here.
Slate of 28th presiding bishop nominees to be released April 2, starting petition process
Separate proposal could change canons for future presiding bishop transitions
by dpaulsen |[Episcopal News Service] The slate of nominees for The Episcopal Church’s 28th presiding bishop is scheduled to be announced April 2. From this list and any petition nominations, bishops will elect and deputies will confirm a new churchwide leader when they gather in June for the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop selects the nominees. The committee’s member bishops, clergy and lay leaders were elected by the church to develop a nominating process and produce a slate of at least three bishops. On March 18, the church’s Office of Public Affairs issued a news release with the committee’s latest timeline, including the process by which any bishop or deputy to the 81st General Convention may petition to add a name to the committee’s slate after it is released. Those additional nominations must be made April 3-15 with the consent of the bishop being nominated by petition.
In addition to electing a new presiding bishop to succeed outgoing Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, General Convention also will consider proposed canonical changes that would affect future presiding bishop transitions.
General Convention, the triennial churchwide gathering, splits its authority between the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, and each house has a distinct role in the selection of a new presiding bishop for a nine-year term. In Louisville, after the nominating committee formally presents the nominees on June 25, the House of Bishops will gather in a closed session June 26 to elect one of them. The House of Deputies then will vote to confirm or not confirm the result of that presiding bishop election.
The 28th presiding bishop is scheduled to take office on Nov. 1, and an installation is scheduled for Nov. 2 at Washington National Cathedral, the traditional seat of the presiding bishop.
The presiding bishop has a range of responsibilities, as outlined by The Episcopal Church Constitution and Canons. Those include presiding over the House of Bishops, chairing Executive Council, visiting every Episcopal diocese, participating in the ordination and consecration of bishops, receiving and responding to disciplinary complaints against bishops, making appointments to the church’s interim bodies, and “developing policies and strategies for the church and speaking for the church on the policies, strategies and programs of General Convention.”
There are few canonical requirements for presiding bishop candidates. They must be members of the House of Bishops and cannot yet have reached the church’s mandatory retirement age of 72. Nothing prohibits the election of a presiding bishop who would turn 72 in the middle of the nine-year term, though historically nominees have been able to complete the full nine years.
The church’s Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons has proposed Resolution A063 for consideration by the 81st General Convention recommending changes to clarify the timeline of future presiding bishop successions. Under the proposal, a new presiding bishop would take over for the outgoing presiding bishop 91 days, or 13 weeks, after the adjournment of the electing convention. Existing canons give fixed dates for the nine-year term, beginning on Nov. 1. The commission also recommends allowing a presiding bishop to remain in office beyond nine years if the electing convention has been postponed. In such a scenario, the church’s mandatory clergy retirement age of 72 would not apply, under the proposed changes.
Church leaders identified the need for those changes after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a one-year postponement of the 80th General Convention to 2022. Although that postponement didn’t coincide with or affect the end of Curry’s term, the commission’s proposal is intended to alleviate any future uncertainty.
“There is no provision in the existing canon for the presiding bishop to continue in office if there is a delay in the electing convention,” Christopher Hayes, the standing commission’s chair, told Episcopal News Service.
By contrast, the existing canons mark the end of the House of Deputies president’s term at the adjournment of the meeting when a successor is elected. That is why the previous president, the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, was able to serve an additional year, until the House of Deputies met in 2022 and elected Julia Ayala Harris as her successor.
“Our hope, as always, is that the legislation will serve its purpose for the indefinite future, no matter who is in office,” Hayes said.
The canonical changes, if approved by the 81st General Convention, would take effect Jan. 1, 2025.
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
Poll: Most Americans say religion’s influence is waning, and half think that’s bad
by mwoerman |[Religion News Service] As the U.S. continues to debate the fusion of faith and politics, a sweeping new survey reports that most American adults have a positive view of religion’s role in public life but believe its influence is waning.
The development appears to unsettle at least half of the country, with growing concern among an array of religious Americans that their beliefs are in conflict with mainstream American culture.
That’s according to a new survey unveiled on March 14 by Pew Research, which was conducted in February and seeks to tease out attitudes regarding the influence of religion on American society.
“We see signs of sort of a growing disconnect between people’s own religious beliefs and their perceptions about the broader culture,” Greg Smith, associate director of research at Pew Research Center, told Religion News Service in an interview.
He pointed to findings such as 80% of U.S. adults saying religion’s role in American life is shrinking — as high as it’s ever been in Pew surveys — and 49% of U.S. adults say religion losing that influence is a bad thing.
What’s more, he noted that 48% of U.S. adults say there’s “a great deal” of or “some” conflict between their religious beliefs and mainstream American culture, an increase from 42% in 2020. The number of Americans who see themselves as a minority group because of their religious beliefs has increased as well, rising from 24% in 2020 to 29% this year.
The spike in Americans who see themselves as a religious minority, while small, appears across several faith groups: white evangelical Protestants rose from 32% to 37%, white non-evangelical Protestants from 11% to 16%, white Catholics from 13% to 23%, Hispanic Catholics from 17% to 26% and Jewish Americans from 78% to 83%. Religiously unaffiliated Americans who see themselves as a minority because of their religious beliefs also rose from 21% to 25%.
“We’re seeing an uptick in the share of Americans who think of themselves as a minority because of their religious beliefs,” Smith said.
Researchers also homed in on Christian nationalism, an ideology that often insists the U.S. is given special status by God and usually features support for enshrining a specific kind of Christianity into U.S. law. But while the movement has garnered prominent supporters and vocal critics — as well as backing from political figures such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — Pew found views on the subject were virtually unchanged from when they asked Americans about the topic in recent years.
“One thing that jumped out at me, given the amount of attention that’s been paid to Christian nationalism in the media and the level of conversation about it, is that the survey finds no change over the last year and half or so in the share of the public who says they’ve heard anything about it,” Smith said.
About 45% of those polled said they had heard of Christian nationalism or read about it, with 54% saying they had never heard of the ideology — the same percentages as in September 2022. Overall, 25% had an unfavorable view of Christian nationalism, whereas only 5% had a favorable view and 6% had neither a favorable nor unfavorable view.
Researchers also pressed respondents on fusions of religion and politics, revealing a spectrum of views. A majority (55%) said the U.S. government should enforce the separation of church and state, whereas 16% said the government should stop enforcing it and another 28% saying neither or had no opinion. Meanwhile, only 13% said the U.S. government should declare Christianity the nation’s official religion, compared to 39% who believed the U.S. should not declare Christianity the state religion or promote Christian moral values. A plurality (44%) sided with a third option: the U.S. should not declare Christianity its official faith, but it should still promote Christian values.
When asked whether the Bible should have influence over U.S. laws, respondents were evenly split: 49% said the Bible should have “a great deal” of or “some” influence, while 51% said it should have “not much” or “no influence.”
But things looked different when Pew asked an additional question of those who supported a Bible-based legal structure: If the Bible and the will of the people come into conflict, which should prevail? Not quite two-thirds of that group — or 28% of Americans overall — said the Bible, but more than a third of the group (or 19% of the U.S. overall) said the will of the people should win out.
Here again, opinions have remained largely static, with researchers noting the numbers “have remained virtually unchanged over the past four years.”
Respondents were also asked whether they believed the Bible currently has influence over U.S. laws, with a majority (57%) agreeing it has at least some. But there were notable differences among religious groups: White evangelicals (48%) and Black Protestants (40%) were the least likely to say the Bible has at least some influence on U.S. law, compared to slight majorities of white non-evangelical Protestants (56%) and both white and Hispanic Catholics (52% for both). The religiously unaffiliated (70%), Jewish Americans (73%), atheists (86%) and agnostics (83%) were the most likely to agree that the Bible is a significant factor in the U.S. legal system.
The survey polled 12,693 U.S. adults from Feb. 13-25.
Diocese of Massachusetts announces slate of four nominees for next bishop
by dpaulsen |[Episcopal News Service] The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Massachusetts, after receiving the recommendations of the Bishop Nominating Committee, has approved a preliminary slate of four nominees for election as the 17th bishop diocesan of the Diocese of Massachusetts. They are:
- The Rev. Brendan J. Barnicle, rector, St. Francis of Assisi Church, Wilsonville, Oregon.
- The Rev. Jean Baptiste Ntagengwa, canon for immigration and multicultural ministries, Diocese of Massachusetts.
- The Very Rev. Gideon L. K. Pollach, rector, St. John’s Church, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
- The Rev. Julia E. Whitworth, rector, Trinity Church, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Additional information about each of the nominees is on the diocese’s bishop search website.
A seven-day petition period begins on March 15, during which anyone who meets the canonical requirements may petition to be added to the slate of nominees. The deadline to submit nomination materials is March 22.
An electing convention is scheduled for May 18 at Trinity Church in Boston, and the bishop-elect will be consecrated, pending a successful churchwide consent process, on Oct. 19.
The new bishop diocesan will succeed the Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, who has led the diocese since 2014. Gates said in May 2023 that he plans to retire at the end of 2024.
At Georgia ‘dinner church,’ families cherish time of worship, food, fellowship every Wednesday
by dpaulsen |[Episcopal News Service] Georgia resident Latoya Stewart first learned about Grovetown Episcopal Lutheran Mission when she and her three children were visiting a back-to-school fair at a local park. Members of the congregation were there giving away backpacks. That was back in 2018, the first year of Grovetown Mission’s launch. The Stewarts have been attending its worship services ever since.
“My children have grown up with the church,” Stewart told Episcopal News Service. “They don’t ever miss Wednesday.”
You read that correctly. Wednesday nights, not Sunday mornings, are the weekly worship time for Grovetown Mission. It has established itself as a lively “dinner church” in the city of Grovetown with financial backing from The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In November 2023, it received $20,000 as one of 38 worshipping communities supported by The Episcopal Church’s latest round of church-planting grants.
The Rev. Thomas Barron, rector of Grovetown Mission, describes the congregation as a diverse group of about 50 people, including a number of young families. “We all get to sit together and taste each other’s food, basically sit down like a family and talk about the day,” Barron told Episcopal News Service.
They come from different racial and economic backgrounds and bring a range of past experiences with religion. Some were drawn to Grovetown Mission as a rare LGBTQ+-affirming congregation in this city of about 17,000 people just west of Augusta. The congregation stands by is tagline of “there’s a place for you at our table,” Barron said.
They have come to see Grovetown Mission as a kind of extended family. “All of these folks have no problem loving each other,” he said.
Barron’s time as an Episcopal priest isn’t much older than his congregation. A native of Georgia, Barron comes from a nondenominational evangelical background. He previously served as minister at an evangelical church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, before a friend gave him a copy of The Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer. The prayer book’s liturgies and theology immediately resonated with Barron, as if he were coming back to a spiritual home he hadn’t known existed.
“I started reading it and discovered, wow, this is my theology. This is everything I believe,” he said.
While dealing with turmoil in his personal life, particularly his marriage ending in divorce, he decided to move back to Georgia and start over. He began attending St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick and was received as an Episcopalian in 2013, and he soon began discerning a call to the priesthood in the Diocese of Georgia.
At the same time, then-Bishop Scott Benhase saw an opportunity for a new Episcopal community in Grovetown, where the local population has increased by more than 50% since 2010. The city is home to Fort Eisenhower, and the region is rapidly growing as a cybersecurity hub. After Benhase ordained Barron to the priesthood in November 2017, Barron moved to the Augusta area and began laying the groundwork for a mission church in Grovetown.
“Based on the demographics, we really wanted to minister to younger families, particularly families with younger children,” Barron said. In early 2018, he and a small group of worshipers began meeting at a Lion’s Club in Grovetown. They chose Wednesday nights at first because they didn’t have anywhere to meet on Sundays.
They soon found more suitable accommodations in a community center at the city’s Liberty Park. A small room there held up to about 30 people, and they decided to structure the Wednesday night worship around communal dinners.
Barron researched similar worshiping communities around The Episcopal Church to help shape his evolving ministry in Grovetown. “I’ve always wanted to do something with food, gathering around the table,” Barron said. “I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of food and theology.”
The meals started with simple fare, such as takeout pizza and fried chicken. Soon, the congregation’s growing membership suggested bringing their own dishes to share. Members who didn’t have much money to contribute to the congregation could still bring some food each Wednesday evening, Barron said. Now the congregation has a rotation of themed meals, such as crock pot dishes, taco night and the ever-popular breakfast for dinner.
The family-friendly atmosphere is a large part of the appeal for Tierney Hall. She began attending Grovetown Mission about three years ago with her husband, Perry Hall, and their two sons, who are now 7 and 5.
“It’s such a nice, motley crew of people from all different backgrounds,” she said. “We rarely miss, and it’s just become part of our routine. We love the fellowship and the little community.”
The liturgy also is familiar to Hall, who grew up attending Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Augusta. At Grovetown Mission, the service is rooted in the Holy Eucharist that Episcopalians know from Sunday morning services, as Barron was able to adapt components of that liturgy to a dinner setting.
“It really is dinner and church. Everything is together,” Barron said. “And it has a certain flow to it. Dinner is very much part of the theology in the service.”
The congregation starts by praying a collect. Members then begin their meal, spending about a half hour to relax and enjoy the food. Scripture readings typically are scheduled around dessert time, followed by a homily or discussion. After the prayers of the people and the peace, the service turns to the Eucharist, which is distributed at the tables.
Many of the worshipers have very little experience with organized religion and are attending a church for the first time, Barron said. Others already have a background in the Episcopal or Lutheran faith. Some have turned away from Roman Catholic or evangelical traditions. “A lot of times, we’re a great fit for those people that are on the very edge” of religious belief, Barron said, noting that the services even have drawn some who identify as agnostic.
As the congregation grew and needed more space, it moved into a gym at the park’s community center. A separate area there is set up for a nursery, so parents of small children can focus on the worship service.
Stewart’s 16-year-old daughter, Amira, now volunteers to help monitor the nursery on Wednesday nights. Stewart also has a 12-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. The dinner services have been a blessing for her, as a single parent.
“I get a break and I don’t have to cook one night a week. We can sit down and have fellowship.” she said. “It’s like family, like home. The environment is loving. It’s like a breath of fresh air.”
Perry Hall appreciates the family atmosphere as well. “I think we’ve got something that nobody else in the area offers,” he told ENS. “We’re a pretty close-knit group of people, and we pray for each other every night.”
A while ago, Barron conducted a survey of the congregation to see if it was interested in pursuing a Sunday morning service. The overwhelming recommendation was to keep the Wednesday night dinner services. Barron still thinks there eventually might be an opportunity to add a second, more traditional service Sunday mornings, but Wednesday nights will remain the central service of Grovetown Episcopal Lutheran Mission.
“The dinner became such a huge part of what everybody loved,” he said. “That’s become our unique identity.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.
WCC calls on UN to ensure human rights in the Philippines
by mwoerman |[World Council of Churches] The World Council of Churches, in an intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council, called upon the U.N. to ensure that counter-terrorism laws and practices, including efforts to combat terrorism financing, do not unjustly curtail the legitimate activities of civil society organizations, impede civic space or hinder humanitarian endeavors in the Philippines.
The intervention was read by the Rev. Glofie Baluntong, from the United Methodist Church in the Philippines, a member of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. For over two decades, she has dedicated her life to serving the church and Indigenous communities in Mindoro.
On June 17, 2019, Philippine National Police forces entered Baluntong’s church without a warrant, demanding the surrender of Karapatan Southern Tagalog members the church was hosting, and accused Baluntong of aiding rebels. Since then, she has endured harassment, intrusive visits and questioning by the armed forces.
Read the entire article here.
Diocese of Northern Michigan traveling exhibit shares stories of Indigenous boarding school survivors
by skorkzan |[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Northern Michigan has launched a racial reconciliation initiative, “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground,” centered around a traveling exhibit that showcases stories of Indigenous boarding school survivors in Michigan.
The diocese spans the state’s Upper Peninsula and is based in Marquette, the ancestral and present-day homeland of the Anishinaabe people. Episcopal churches in the diocese are engaging in reconciliation efforts with Indigenous people locally and across the state, many of whom live with intergenerational trauma that can be traced to the United States’ historical attempts to erase their culture through the boarding school system.
The traveling exhibit documents how Indigenous boarding schools’ legacy continues to impact Native American people today. Known survivors are listed on an exhibit panel. When visiting the exhibit, participants can scan a QR code with their smartphones to listen to boarding school survivors tell their stories. Part of the exhibit features pre-existing information that was featured in a 2021 exhibit at Northern Michigan University in Marquette titled “The Seventh Fire: A Decolonizing Experience.”
Robert Hazen, an elder in the Lac Vieux Desert Band, attended the Holy Childhood of Jesus Catholic Church and Indian School in Harbor Springs. He is one of several survivors who shared their stories for the “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground” traveling exhibit:
“It’s part of a healing that’s so much needed in terms of our work with the Indigenous Anishinaabe people here,” Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray told Episcopal News Service. “We’re always looking towards reconciliation, and we have to heal first.”
At least hundreds — possibly as many as tens of thousands — of Indigenous youth are estimated to have died during the 19th and 20th centuries while attending boarding schools, which were designed to assimilate Native Americans into the dominant white culture and erase Indigenous languages and cultures. Many of those boarding schools were operated by Christian churches, including The Episcopal Church, though the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s research did not find any local ties between the church and the schools.
Of the 12 federally recognized Native American tribes based in Michigan, five are in the state’s sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. The diocese’s exhibit includes educational panels explaining the Upper Peninsula’s precolonial history. It also includes videos showing different perspectives on decolonization and Anishinaabe culture, including foodways, education, sovereignty and the issues Indigenous people face living in a colonized world.
“The traveling exhibit is just one huge aspect of becoming culturally competent through learning authentic history — those one-on-one interviews — that’s huge,” Leora Tadgerson, the diocese’s director of reparations and justice, told ENS. “There are so many different dioceses that are not at that phase yet that we are discussing with colleagues.”
The exhibit formally launched in January at the Niiwin Akeaa Center in Baraga coinciding with but separate from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s winter powwow. About 200 people visited, most of whom were Indigenous. The exhibit was next displayed for one week at the Ojibwa Senior Center in Baraga.
“Our hope with the traveling exhibit is to learn the culture, the traditions and also the pain and suffering that people have had to endure, and the genocide,” Ray said.
In 2018, the diocese received a $30,000 grant from The Episcopal Church’s United Thank Offering to work on the traveling exhibit, which was developed in partnership with the Great Lakes Peace Center, a Rapid River-based nonprofit committed to promoting peace building. The diocese received an additional $28,500 UTO grant in 2022. A family foundation then gave the diocese an additional $100,000 grant to be distributed over the course of five years. Most recently, St. John’s Episcopal Church in Midland in the Diocese of Eastern Michigan awarded the Diocese of Northern Michigan an additional $20,000 grant to continue supporting the exhibit. The diocese also accepts donations through its website to continue funding the exhibit. The money is being used to pay for research resources and equipment needed to physically set up the exhibit.
The legacy of Indigenous boarding schools made international headlines in 2021 with the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 children at a former boarding school in Canada. Following the discovery, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it was launching a comprehensive review of American boarding school policies dating to 1819. In 2022, a federal report revealed that more than 500 children died over the course of 150 years in Indigenous boarding schools, though Native American scholars estimate the number is closer to 40,000.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, a nonprofit based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has identified at least 523 schools that were part of the Indigenous boarding school system — including no less than eight in Michigan. Four of those were in the Upper Peninsula and one was on Mackinac Island between the Upper and Lower peninsulas. Nationwide, at least nine schools by the coalition’s tally were thought to have Episcopal Church connections, though the lack of churchwide records has made it difficult to fully account for the church’s role in the schools. Most of the boarding schools had closed by the mid-20th century or were taken over by Native American tribes.
The Northern Michigan traveling exhibit includes a recording of Ray formally apologizing to the Indigenous tribes in Michigan on behalf of The Episcopal Church and the wider Christian church. In the apology, Ray condemns The Episcopal Church’s participation “in the human trafficking of children to place them in orphanages, boarding schools, forced adoption and foster care as an attempt to wipe out Indigenous culture, language, identity, sovereignty and beliefs.” Ray also expresses his support of repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery, a centuries-old theological and political doctrine used to justify colonization and the oppression of Indigenous people. General Convention passed a resolution officially repudiating the doctrine in 2009. Ray told ENS the Department of Interior is aware of his apology and the exhibit.
Listen to Ray’s apology here.
“For me, as an Episcopalian, what Jesus calls us to do is to dismantle the racism and the white supremacy that is so much part of our way of life here,” Ray said. “We need to continue to make systemic change.”
Tadgerson, a member of the Bay Mills Indian Community and the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, has served as the Diocese of Northern Michigan’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion since 2022.
“What I love from the perspective of the director’s position, is how the diocese continues — even before I was there — to become culturally competent living in an Indigenous area,” she told ENS.
The 80th General Convention created a fact-finding commission to research The Episcopal Church’s historic role in boarding schools, and Executive Council has a Committee for Indigenous Boarding Schools and Advocacy. The research commission and the advocacy committee met most recently in January at the Mustang Island Conference Center in Port Aransas, Texas, and they plan to meet at least once more before the 81st General Convention takes place June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. Until then, the research commission is drafting a strategic plan to address all points of General Convention’s Indigenous boarding school resolution. At the January meeting, Tadgerson was selected to serve as chair of the advocacy committee.
“There’s a community aspect, that the church is so dedicated toward bridge-building and racial justice and racial equity,” Tadgerson said. “We are doing the same work through different avenues, and when we come together, we have a much larger impact.”
Ray said the “Walking Together: Finding Common Ground” exhibit is also scheduled to be on display at the Province V meeting April 25-27 in South Bend, Indiana. The traveling exhibit will eventually travel throughout the entire state of Michigan. The diocese also accepts local invitations to display the exhibit.
“This work is part of being the Beloved Community,” Ray said. “The Episcopal Church has been called to make supporting Indigenous communities a significant part of its life and missional work around healing and reconciliation. And that’s what Jesus’ role is about, healing and reconciliation.”
In addition to Ray and Tadgerson, traveling exhibit staff members include Kathy Vanden Boogaard, project coordinator; Ariel Gougeon, graphic designer; Mitch Bolo, videographer; and Lainie Scott, who served as an archival research intern while an undergraduate student in history and Native American studies at Northern Michigan University.
The five federally recognized Native American tribes in the Upper Peninsula are Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians; Keweenaw Bay Indian Community of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians; Hannahville Indian Community of Potawatomi Indians; Bay Mills Indian Community of Anishinaabe Indians; and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Altogether, more than 240,000 Indigenous people live in Michigan.
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.
Washington National Cathedral welcomes and blesses ACC universities’ mascots
by mwoerman |[Episcopal News Service] Washington National Cathedral is known as a house of prayer for all people. On March 12, it also became a house of prayer for all mascots – or, more immediately, mascots representing the 15 teams of the Athletic Coast Conference.
The teams were in Washington, D.C., for the conference’s annual basketball tournament taking place March 12-16. Kevin Eckstrom, the cathedral’s chief public affairs officer, told Episcopal News Service that it’s usual for teams and their mascots to tour the tournament’s host city and take photos at major sites. “The ACC reached out about coming to the cathedral, and we immediately said yes,” he said.
Two cathedral clergy – Provost Jan Naylor Cope and Vicar Dana Corsello – offered to provide a blessing to the mascots, and Eckstrom said seven of the 15 took them up on that offer. He said that Corsello “prayed for safety, good sportsmanship and fun at the tournament,” adding, “we were pretty clear that God doesn’t play favorites.”
In his blog post about the event, Eckstrom wrote, “We’re happy to report that the (Baptist) Demon Deacon from Wake Forest, the (Roman Catholic) Fighting Irish Leprechaun from Notre Dame and even the Blue Devil from Duke all felt right at home inside this Episcopal cathedral.”
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