A candlelight vigil at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky, memorializes transgender individuals who’ve been targeted or murdered for being who they are. Nov. 20, 2023. Photo: John Nation

[Episcopal News Service] On Nov. 20, Episcopal churches nationwide will observe Transgender Day of Remembrance by holding special worship services and prayer vigils to memorialize transgender individuals who’ve been targeted or murdered for being who they are and to raise awareness of violence against trans people.

“There are a lot of days where I’m terrified to leave my house, so knowing that Episcopal churches are somewhere I can always go and be safe is amazing,” Rocky Vanderford, webmaster for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and a trans man, told Episcopal News Service.

St. Mark’s, in partnership with several local nonprofits and faith groups, will host an evening vigil on the 20th and a fundraiser at Highlands Community Ministries, with proceeds benefiting Mandala House, an LGBTQ+-affirming outpatient mental health facility in Louisville. The money will be added to a mental health grants fund for trans people without health insurance. 

“A lot of people within the trans community, especially trans people of color, have a harder time accessing the resources they need when they’re visibly trans … in terms of employment and housing and health care access,” Vanderford said.

On the 21st, St. Mark’s members will attend a community Q&A panel discussion on trans issues at Mandala House.

The term “transgender” refers to an individual whose gender identity, expression, or behavior does not conform with the person’s assigned sex at birth; nonbinary reflects a gender identity that is not strictly male or female. The terms are often associated with each other but are not interchangeable.

Luminaries bearing the names of transgender people who’ve been murdered are lined in front of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church ahead of its Nov. 20, 2024, candlelight vigil observing Transgender Day of Remembrance. Photo: Dick Arnspiger

Worldwide, 281 trans people – including 31 in the United States – were murdered between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, though the exact number may be much higher, according to the latest data compiled by the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, an initiative of the Berlin, Germany-based Transgender Europe. Most victims were Black or brown.

In Russellville, Arkansas, All Saints’ Episcopal Church will host a candlelight labyrinth walk on Nov. 20 in the parish hall. Names and photos of trans people murdered in the last year will be projected on screen, with participants asked to reflect silently on their lives while walking the labyrinth.

Jana M. Hall, co-coordinator of the labyrinth walk and an All Saints’ parishioner, told ENS that the church is working to establish relationships with Arkansas Tech University students and the newly formed local chapter of the nonprofit advocacy organization Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG. She hopes the relationships will make LGBTQ+ community members aware that they are safe to be themselves at All Saints’.

“We’re in a small town in rural Arkansas, so there’s a lot of struggle and a lot of hatred and a lot of fear going around as trans people try to live their daily lives,” Hall, who has trans siblings, said. “Not everyone has a solid support network, but we can try to be that for them.”

Out of 1,012 bills introduced nationwide in 2025 by federal, state and local legislators targeting LGBTQ+ rights, 124 have passed and 506 remain active. This is the sixth consecutive record-breaking year for the total number of proposed anti-LGBTQ+ bills, according to Trans Legislation Tracker, an independent research organization that tracks bills affecting anti-trans and gender-diverse people in the United States.

Many trans Americans and their families are moving to more LGBTQ+-affirming states or, if they can access passports, to other countries for safety reasons and in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender rights, including limiting access to gender-affirming care for minors, according to Rainbow Railroad, a global nonprofit that helps LGBTQ+ people move to safety. Latoya Nugent, Rainbow Railroad’s head of engagement, told Time Magazine in an interview that the organization has received a record-high number of relocation assistance requests from U.S. citizens since Trump was elected a year ago.

However, not everyone can move because of financial constraints, family ties and other reasons. That’s why it’s “really important” for Episcopalians not only to support trans and nonbinary people at church, but also through political advocacy, Aaron Scott, The Episcopal Church’s gender justice officer and a trans man, told ENS. 

“Episcopalians need to ground ourselves in whatever we’re doing in our congregations and communities and support policy at every level – local, state and federal – to help everybody access gender-affirming care and establish and strengthen all LGBTQ rights,” Scott said. 

For example, General Convention in 2022 passed Resolution D066, which calls on Episcopalians to advocate for policies that support gender-affirming care for people of all ages, including minors. 

Scott has been working with the church’s Office of Communication to build a social media campaign in support of transgender people, which will launch on Nov. 20. The campaign will include a blessing video by the Rev. Cameron Partridge, rector of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California, and a tribute to three trans Episcopal leaders who have died in recent years: the Rev. Gari Green, a founding member of TransEpiscopal, a group that advocates for more inclusive church policies toward transgender people and creates supportive spaces for trans Episcopalians; the Rev. Iain Michael Stanford, a member of TransEpiscopal who co-led advocacy efforts to add “gender identity and expression” to The Episcopal Church’s nondiscrimination canons for access to the ordination process at all church levels of leadership; and the Rev. Vicki Gray, the first openly trans person ordained in the Diocese of California.

“I miss each of these friends very, very much, and I think of them in the great cloud of witnesses standing with us,” Partridge, a trans man, told ENS. “I don’t know anyone who’s not impacted deeply, internally, emotionally, spiritually by the targeted attacks that are coming at us in various forms of violence in the wider world.”

Partridge said he will spend Transgender Day of Remembrance at a gathering at San Francisco City Hall. The group of activists will march to a nearby LGBTQ+ center.

“Organized action, active prayer … all are super important on Trans Day of Remembrance and beyond,” he said.

The day of remembrance was first observed in 1999 in response to the separate murders of three Black trans women in the Greater Boston, Massachusetts, area: Chanelle Pickett in November 1995; Monique Thomas in September 1998; and Rita Hester in November 1998. Hester’s unsolved murder sparked the day of remembrance. The Nov. 20 international observance concludes Transgender Awareness Week, Nov. 13-19. The day of remembrance is distinct from International Transgender Day of Visibility, which takes place every March 31 to celebrate and acknowledge transgender people and their contributions to society.

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

Members of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois, joined 75,000 other protesters in a nonviolent “No Kings” protest in downtown Chicago’s Grant Park on Oct. 18. Nearly 7 million people participated in more than 2,500 “No Kings” demonstrations in all 50 states, U.S. territories and other countries to oppose several of the Trump administration’s policies, including the slashing of federal education resources and environmental protections, and more. Photo: Courtesy of Mark McKelvey

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal clergy and laity were among the nearly 7 million people who participated Oct. 18 in nation- and worldwide nonviolent “No Kings” marches in opposition to authoritarian leaders and here in the U.S., Trump administration policies aimed at cutting services to the poor, public education, health care, environmental protection and targeting immigrants.

“As a church, we are called to witness redemptive love and work together to speak truth to power,” Chicago Archdeacon Michael “Mike” Choquette told Episcopal News Service. He and about 10 Chicago-area Episcopal and Lutheran deacons wore their clerical collars and marched east from Grace Episcopal Church in the South Loop to Grant Park to take part in downtown Chicago’s “No Kings” event, while many other Episcopalians marched in Chicago-area suburbs.

Choquette said the deacons called out multiple injustices, including those specifically targeting immigrants. Chicago has been at the center of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting raids. Since September, ICE has arrested at least 1,000 people in Chicago and hundreds more in neighboring states.

The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts, held an interfaith prayer service Oct. 18 ahead of a nearby “No Kings” rally, where more than 100,000 protesters demonstrated in Boston Common. Photo: David M. Rider

More than 2,700 “No Kings” events took place in all 50 states, U.S. territories and worldwide, where they’re called “No Dictators” or “No Tyrants. Saturday’s events were the second in a series, with the first in June drawing an estimated 5 million people in opposition to a military-style parade commemorating the U.S. Army’s 250th Anniversary and Trump’s 79th birthday. 

In Washington, D.C., more than 200,000 protestors, including members of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill, marched on the National Mall. Just outside the nation’s capital, the Falls Church, a historic Episcopal Church parish named for the city, held a gathering before at least 1,000 protesters formed a human chain.

The Interfaith Center of New York, led by the Rev. Chloe Breyer, an Episcopal priest, and the Interfaith Alliance organized an interfaith vigil in New York City’s Columbus Circle attended by New York Bishop Matt Heyd and the Very Rev. Winnie Varghese, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, before they marched to Times Square.

During the vigil, Varghese prayed for those who didn’t participate in “No Kings” protests out of fear of being arrested, and for those who feel “defeated by the politics of today, by the real experience of their lives,” according to Religion News Service.

In San Diego, California, members of Resurrection Episcopal Church Ocean Beach joined members of nearby Westminster Presbyterian Church in protesting at the “No Kings” march at the city’s Waterfront Park. Their goal was “to speak out and stand up for justice, peace, and God’s all-inclusive love,” according to an Oct. 18 Facebook post.

Several priests in the Diocese of Pennsylvania also took time out of the diocesan convention in King of Prussia to participate in a nearby “No Kings” demonstration, according to an Oct. 18 Facebook post by the Rev. Stacey Carmody, a deacon at St. Andrews’s-in-the-Field Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and Redemption Episcopal Church in Southampton.

The Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston, Massachusetts, held an interfaith prayer service ahead of a nearby rally, where more than 100,000 protesters demonstrated on Boston Common. The service included prayer, music, readings of the Beatitudes and the Magnificat, meditation and more.

For Mark McKelvey, a parishioner at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northwest Chicago, the increase in ICE raids over the last year have been his “biggest concern.”

“ICE is separating families, and people have gotten seriously hurt by their violent raids. It’s wrong,” he said. McKelvey and 25 other parishioners also took part in the protest in downtown Chicago.

“This is an essential time for The Episcopal Church to fulfill its longtime commitment to equity, inclusion and fairness,” he added.

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

Law enforcement tapes off an area at Utah Valley University in Orem after Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot and killed Sept. 10. Photo: The Deseret News via Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Utah and Bishop Phyllis Spiegel issued a statement condemning political violence and hatred and urging prayer and compassion after the assassination of conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk at a large outdoor political event in Utah.

Kirk, 31, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking before as many as 3,000 people during the event at Utah Valley University in Orem. Federal and local authorities have launched a manhunt for the shooter, who remained at large Sept. 11. Little information has been released about the assassin’s assumed identity or motive.

Kirk was one of the most prominent and vocal supporters of President Donald Trump. He was credited with helping to elect Trump in 2024 through his leadership of the Turning Point USA organization, which focused on rallying younger voters behind Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The slain activist is survived by a wife and two children.

“Our prayers are with Mr. Kirk’s family and friends as the shock of this news settles upon them,” the Diocese of Utah said in its Sept. 10 statement on the shooting. “We hold in our prayers the victims of emotional trauma who were present at today’s event and the entire Utah Valley University community. We give thanks and ask for protection for all law enforcement and first responders.”

The diocese said Christ challenged his followers to “build a society rooted in compassion, dignity and justice,” and Spiegel said in her statement that prayer is necessary now and in other times of violence, but is not enough.

“We must guard the hatred in our hearts and on our lips; it is hatred and righteous indignation that leads to violence,” Spiegel said. “Jesus said plainly, ‘it is that which is on our lips and in our hearts that defiles us.’”

The killing of Kirk comes at a particularly volatile time in American politics, adding to a growing list of recent political violence against elected leaders and their supporters. In June, a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were assassinated in their home, and another state lawmaker and his wife were shot and injured. Trump also was targeted by assassination attempts twice on the campaign trail last year, including a July 2024 shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Earlier attacks on politicians and their families include former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, wounded in an October 2022 home invasion, and Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who was shot and injured in 2017 while practicing with a congressional baseball team. And on Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.

The Kirk shooting also comes as the United States continues to grapple with a growing number of gun deaths and mass shootings across what is the most heavily armed nation in the world. In fact, Kirk was fielding a question from the crowd about gun violence when he was hit in the neck by a single gunshot. He was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, a convener of the Bishops United Against Gun Violence network, issued a statement Sept. 10 that warned gun violence was “fast becoming our country’s greatest sin.”

“I am aghast that someone has shot and killed Mr. Charlie Kirk. At about the same time three young people were shot at Evergreen High School in Colorado,” Perry said. “We as people of faith must unite and take action. Our prayers will be our actions.

“The ready access to guns in our country is the primary reason why gun violence is the number one cause of childhood deaths. People of faith can no longer stand by hoping and wishing that this violence goes away.”

Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith also responded to the violence in a joint statement released Sept. 11.

“Yet another American public figure has been killed, one more victim of the culture of  contempt that, at its extreme, portrays those with whom we disagree as enemies to be destroyed,” Budde and Hollerith said. “Today we mourn for Charlie Kirk. He was a son, a father, a husband and now his loved ones join the grieving community of Americans that spans across geography, political party, racial, gender and economic divides. Their lives have been forever changed by the violence we inflict upon one another.”

The Washington Episcopal leaders drew a connection between this “culture of contempt” and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exactly 24 years ago. Such a mindset, then and now, “encourages us to view one another, across our differences, with suspicion and fear. It normalizes ridicule, dishonesty, and hateful rhetoric that leads some to take violent action,” they said.

“We needn’t continue to live this way. Yet addressing the culture of contempt will require us all to commit to its only antidote: acknowledging the inherent dignity of every human being, and a renewed dedication to civility, respect and decency in our personal lives and public discourse.”

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

Members of the D.C. National Guard assemble with military vehicles in front of the Washington Monument as part of President Donald Trump’s crime reduction efforts. Photo: Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith on Aug. 13 joined a group of Christian and Jewish leaders from the nation’s capitol to issue a statement opposing the Trump administration’s temporary federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement, saying, “fear is not a strategy.”

President Donald Trump has said he is deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., because he is unsatisfied with the local police force’s protection of a city he says is “overrun by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.” That move, however, comes at a time when the most recent statistics show crime rates are down in Washington, and local officials there have not asked for military assistance.

The president’s administration is able temporarily to take over law enforcement in the city of 700,000 people because of its special status under the U.S. Constitution and the Home Rule Act of 1973, a law originally intended by Congress to give the city more independence from the federal government.

“From the White House, the president sees a lawless wasteland. We beg to differ. We see fellow human beings – neighbors, workers, friends and family – each made in the image of God,” the faith leaders said in their joint statement, which is posted on the National Cathedral’s website. In addition to Budde and Hollerith, it is signed by six Washington rabbis, the region’s United Methodist bishop, and local leaders of the Presbyterian Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“Even one violent crime is one too many, and all Washingtonians deserve to live in safety,” they said. “But safety cannot be achieved through political theater and military force. It requires honesty and sustained collaboration between government, civic and private partners – work now being sidelined. Inflammatory rhetoric distracts from that work, even as the administration has cut more than $1 billion from programs proven to reduce crime, including law enforcement support, addiction and mental health treatment, youth programs, and affordable housing.”

They also noted that Trump has threatened to attempt similar military interventions in other U.S. cities.

“As religious leaders, we remain firm in our commitment to serve those in need and to work collaboratively toward solutions to our city’s most pressing problems. We call on our political and civic leaders to reject fear-based governance and work together in a spirit of dignity and respect – so that safety, justice, and compassion prevail in our city.”

Left to right: The Rev. Ramelle McCall, the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina’s canon for justice and future leaders; the Rev. Eric S.C. Manning, pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Charleston, known colloquially as Mother Emanuel; the Rev. Michael Shaffer, rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; and the Rev. Adam Shoemaker, rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. On June 17, 2025, the Episcopal church leaders participated in an ecumenical worship service at Mother Emanuel, observing 10 years since a white supremacist shot and killed nine Black parishioners during a Bible study session there on June 17, 2015. Photo: Courtesy of Michael Shaffer

[Episcopal News Service] Downtown Charleston, South Carolina’s three historically Black Episcopal churches, known collectively as the Three Churches United, will celebrate Juneteenth while also observing 10 years since the massacre at the city’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

“Even though Juneteenth is going to be a celebration, I think it’s also going to be a heavy day for a lot of people,” the Rev. Adam Shoemaker, rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, one of the Three Churches United, told Episcopal News Service. “There’s a long shadow of white supremacist history that we have in Charleston, and the shooting being motivated by white supremacy has added a double trauma for our city these past 10 years.”

St. Stephen’s, located a third of a mile from Emanuel AME Church, will host the Juneteenth worship service and celebration on Sunday, June 22. The Rev. Ricardo Bailey, rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, another of the Three Churches United, will preach. Shoemaker will preside. The event will be an opportunity to reflect, pray and honor the nine people who died in the shooting at Emanuel AME Church, known colloquially as Mother Emanuel because it’s the oldest AME church in the Southern United States.

On June 17, 2015, white supremacist and neo-Nazi Dylann Roof, then 21 years old, entered Mother Emanuel during a weekly Bible study. He shot and killed nine Black parishioners, including senior pastor and state senator the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney. Roof confessed to wanting to start a race war. He’s now on death row in an Indiana federal prison awaiting execution.

After Roof was arrested, investigators found in his car a list of Black churches, including Mother Emanuel and Calvary.

Juneteenth commemorates the date in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to ensure that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were freed. This came two-and-a-half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. Still, the order couldn’t be enforced everywhere until after the end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865.

Even though Juneteenth will have a more somber tone for the Charleston community this year, Bailey told ENS that it’s still possible to find joy amid such a tragedy.

“What people fail to realize is that the Black church is not just a church where you go to feel good, get some good music, some good preaching or whatever, but the Black church is a living testimony of the command of Jesus Christ,” Bailey said. “Look at what happened to Mother Emanuel 10 years ago, and look at what happened to the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. The shooting, the bombing – all these things were done to silence the powerful potential of the church of Jesus Christ and the Black community having a voice. People have come in to bomb churches and to annihilate the word of God, but we keep going.”

Reported hate crimes against Black people more than doubled between 2014 and 2022 and exceeded all other race and ethnically targeted hate crimes combined in 2022, according to FBI records. Most hate crime offenders were white. Hate crimes are underreported due to jurisdictions differing in how to define them, leaving law enforcement oftentimes unable to categorize incidents as hate crimes, according to the National Institute of Justice.

White nationalism, especially white Christian nationalism, has also been growing in recent years.

During the ecumenical worship service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2025 observing 10 years since a mass shooting killed nine people at the parish during a Bible study session, Gabby Giffords – a former U.S. Representative from Arizona and, since surviving an assassination attempt in 2011, a gun violence prevention activist – and her husband, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, spoke about closing the “Charleston Loophole.” It enabled white supremacist and neo-Nazi Dylann Roof to be able to legally purchase a gun despite having a prior drug charge. Photo: Courtesy of Michael Shaffer

The Rev. Michael Shaffer, rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, the last of the Three Churches United, told ENS he thinks Episcopalians should do everything they can to help combat white nationalism in their communities, which may in turn prevent future tragedies like the shooting at Mother Emanuel.

“I think The Episcopal Church has this history of being nice and following decorum all the time, but we can’t be silent anymore,” Shaffer said. “Juneteenth is a reminder that as people of God, we’re called to speak out against injustice and stand up for those whose voices need to be heard.”

In 2020, the Charleston-based Diocese of South Carolina recommitted to its racial reconciliation work by forming the Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission. This commission aimed to increase awareness of racial history and promote and enable racial justice and reconciliation throughout the diocese and in wider communities. Part of those racial reconciliation efforts includes maintaining and sustaining the diocese’s historically Black churches and working to hire additional Black clergy.

The commission, which includes clergy and laity, regularly hosts educational events throughout the year and facilitates the diocese’s Sacred Ground circles. The commission also hosts learning days to teach the history of the Diocese of South Carolina, including its complicity in slavery.

Established in 1663, South Carolina was the first British North American colony founded as a “slave society.” Charleston was the largest slave trading and auction city in the United States and had the highest number of enslaved people in the country by the 18th century.

In March, the Three Churches United led a diocesan pilgrimage to civil rights landmarks, museums and memorials in Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the three 54-mile Selma-to-Montgomery marches organized by civil rights activists to demand that voting rights be granted to Black Americans.

Shaffer and Shoemaker are founding members of Everyday People, a new social justice organization that aims to eliminate white supremacy in government through Fasting Fridays, an economic protest inspired by Moral Mondays, which calls on people to abstain from spending money on Fridays. As part of Juneteenth and Mother Emanuel observations this week, Everyday People hosted its first press conference on June 18 at Circular Congregational Church in downtown Charleston.

“We’re not only decrying the white supremacy that collectively impacted Charleston 10 years ago, but also the instances of white supremacy that we have seen since then,” Shoemaker said.

When she was elected bishop of the Diocese of South Carolina in 2021, the Rt. Rev. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley knew immediately that she wanted to prioritize racial reconciliation during her episcopate. She was rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver, Colorado, and actively involved with Denver’s local Black Lives Matter chapter when the shooting occurred at Mother Emanuel.

“I was enraged to learn that people were studying Scripture and welcoming the stranger amongst them – in other words, living the Gospel – when they were brutally murdered,” Woodliffe-Stanley told ENS in a phone interview. “As we talked about it in our circles in Denver, it recommitted me as a religious leader to the work of reckoning with our past and committing to racial justice … and I think the work the Three Churches United and the racial justice commission are doing is very powerful.”

On the day of the remembrance, June 17, Shoemaker, Schaffer and more than 60 members of the Three Churches United participated in an ecumenical worship service at Mother Emanuel. The service focused on healing, hope, reflection and renewal in honor of the deceased.

During the service, Chris Singleton, whose mother, the Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, an assistant pastor at Mother Emanuel, was killed in the shooting, spoke about resilience. Gabby Giffords – a former U.S. Representative from Arizona and, since surviving an assassination attempt in 2011, a gun violence prevention activist – and her husband, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, spoke about closing the “Charleston Loophole” that enabled Roof to be able to legally purchase a gun despite having a prior drug charge.

Shoemaker said the service was “moving but emotionally exhausting.”

Shaffer agreed.

“We were all reminded that we are called by God to turn our pain and suffering into fuel for change and a better future,” Shaffer said. “This is not the work of a day, week or month, but the work of lifetimes.”

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

A demonstrator holds a picture of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman, who was killed by a gunman hours before a “No Kings” protest at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on June 14, 2025. Photo: Steven Garcia/AP

[Episcopal News Service] Following a deadly incident early Saturday where a now-captured suspected gunman impersonating a law enforcement officer shot and killed one state Democratic legislator and her husband and injured another lawmaker and his wife, Minnesota Bishop Craig Loya asked Episcopalians not to respond to violence with violence. 

The June 14 shootings occurred just hours before nationwide anti-Trump “No Kings” protests were scheduled to take place in opposition to a parade commemorating the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary and President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday. The American Civil Liberties Union, who co-sponsored the “No Kings” protests with Indivisible and other human rights organizations, estimates that 5 million protesters rallied at more than 2,100 events nationwide.

“As followers of the Lord of immovable love, his posture in the face of the empire of his day must be ours today. We, like Jesus, cannot remain silent in the face of the multivalent attacks on basic human dignity and society we are experiencing,” Loya said in a June 14 statement. “We must continue to show up, speak up, and witness to a better way than what the American empire offers in this moment. “

In the early hours of Saturday, June 14, the suspect, Vance Boelter, allegedly shot state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, in their home in Champlin, a Minneapolis suburb, leaving them injured, before he then allegedly shot and killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their home in nearby Brooklyn Park.

Authorities arrested Boelter on June 15 following a two-day manhunt. Federal officials said he will face federal murder charges, and Minnesota officials are expected to add state murder charges as well. 

The shootings followed a tense week of protests in Los Angeles, California, where demonstrators marched against Trump administration immigration policies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on agricultural operations, restaurants and hotels. Trump called in the National Guard and the U.S. Marine Corps to silence protesters against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

On June 11, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe issued a letter to the church responding to a series of Trump administration policies on migration and immigration, including the use of the military for crowd control at protests.

Also, last week, ICE agents raided a meat-processing facility in Omaha, Nebraska. The administration later abruptly paused some of its raids on workers in the food and hospitality industries. 

“This news comes against the backdrop in recent weeks of immigration raids being carried out by militarized law enforcement, and celebrated with cruel delight by government officials, the military being deployed in Los Angeles against U.S. citizens, to stop protests in that city, and on a day when the President of the United States has threatened to meet any protestors present at a military parade in the capitol with ‘heavy force,’” Loya said in the statement. “The tensions we have lived with for many years now are boiling over to new levels.  Those inclined to the kind of murderous violence that occurred in Minnesota today are surrounded by a national climate that encourages those impulses.”

The shootings also came in the backdrop of the House’s vote in favor of and Americans’ concerns over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which reduces taxes for the rich and cuts benefits, including Medicaid and food stamps, for the poor, and stands to increase the federal deficit by $3 trillion. (The June 14 parade cost taxpayers an estimated $45 million). 

“Human communities, from congregations to countries, always take on the energy of their leaders,” Loya said. “That’s true regardless of how popular the leader might be. The President of the United States, and the senior members of his administration, have, for nearly six months now, led with a chaotic, intentionally provocative, and vindictive energy against perceived critics and enemies, and that is eroding the foundations of our common life and order, and empowering anyone inclined to that same vindictive violence.”

Thousands of people protested peacefully in St. Paul after the shootings. 

Boelter, according to friends, is a religious conservative who supports Trump and opposes abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. 

Law enforcement found a stack of “No Kings” flyers, AK-47 assault-style weapons, a manifesto and a list of some 70 other potential targets, including “abortion providers, pro-abortion rights advocates and lawmakers in Minnesota and other states,” in Boelter’s vehicle. Other Democratic lawmakers named on the list were Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and others.

The shootings are the latest act of political violence, which is increasingly common in the U.S. 

“We must also, like so many disciples before us, refuse to meet violence with violence, dehumanizing rhetoric with dehumanizing rhetoric,” Loya said. “In the months and years to come, we must stand in the face of every threat, every act of violence, every cruel or threatening word, with Jesus’ immovable love, clinging to love’s power, which raised Jesus from the death empire subjected him to, until God’s full reign of peace is fully and gloriously done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

After federal agents conducted immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles on June 6, protesters clashed with law enforcement in parts of the city over the weekend. Trump, against the wishes of California leaders, ordered the California National Guard to deploy thousands of soldiers to assist. His administration also has deployed Marines to the city to secure federal properties. California leaders have sued the Trump administration to reverse the decision to send in troops.

Rowe’s letter, titled “Acting Faithfully in Troubling Times,” calls such military deployments “a dangerous turn” in President Donald Trump’s attacks on his political opponents and his administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown. He also amplified a statement issued June 10 by the bishops of California’s six Episcopal dioceses.

Trump also has faced criticism for a separate policy, restricting travel to the United States from 19 countries. Rowe, in his letter, said he had written to Anglican leaders in those countries expressing his concern about Trump’s new travel ban.

“At its best, our church is capable of moral clarity and resolute commitment to justice. I believe we can bring those strengths to bear on this gathering storm.”

The following is the full text of Rowe’s letter.

Dear people of God in The Episcopal Church:

I am writing to you from Geneva, where I am meeting with global partners at the World Council of Churches and the United Nations Refugee Agency. As we have discussed how our institutions might act faithfully and boldly in these turbulent times, I have been reflecting on how we Episcopalians can respond to what is unfolding around us as followers of the Risen Christ whose first allegiance is to the kingdom of God, not to any nation or political party.

The events of the last several days lend urgency to this spiritual challenge. Earlier this week, President Trump’s executive order banning or restricting travel from 19 countries went into effect. This order impacts countries that are home to dioceses of The Episcopal Church and many of our Anglican Communion partners, and I have written to the bishops and primates in those countries to express our concern.

The unwarranted deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marine Corps on the streets of Los Angeles also signals a dangerous turn. As the bishops of California have written, these military deployments risk escalating the confrontations unnecessarily and set a dangerous precedent for future deployments that heighten tensions rather than resolve them. As Christians committed to strive for justice and peace among all people, we know that there is a better way.

What we are witnessing is the kind of distortion that arises when institutions like the military and the State Department are turned on the people they were meant to protect. These mainstays of the federal government, designed to safeguard civil society and promote peace and stability, are now being weaponized for political advantage.

The violence on television is not our only risk. We are also seeing federal budget proposals that would shift resources from the poor to the wealthy; due process being denied to immigrants; and the defunding of essential public health, social service, and foreign aid programs that have long fulfilled the Gospel mandate to care for the vulnerable, children, and those who are hungry and sick.

With all of this in mind, we are finding ways to respond as Christians to what we see happening around us. We are exploring options to support litigation challenging the travel ban on the ground of religious freedom; advocating for federal spending that safeguards the welfare of the most vulnerable; caring for immigrants and refugees in our congregations and communities; and standing in solidarity with other faith groups. In short, we are practicing institutional resistance rooted not in partisan allegiance, but in Christian conviction.

At its best, our church is capable of moral clarity and resolute commitment to justice. I believe we can bring those strengths to bear on this gathering storm. Churches like ours, protected by the First Amendment and practiced in galvanizing people of goodwill, may be some of the last institutions capable of resisting the injustice now being promulgated. That is not a role we sought—but it is one we are called to.

In Geneva, I have been reminded that we are part of a global communion of hope in the Risen Christ. We do not stand alone as we live by our baptismal promises: to persevere in resisting evil, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. In these troubling times, may we find courage and resilience in our identity as members of the Body of Christ.

Yours in Christ,

The Most Rev. Sean Rowe
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church

Protesters are seen in downtown Los Angeles on June 8. Photo: Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] Fourteen members of the Diocese of Los Angeles were detained, the diocese said, in immigration enforcement raids late last week that sparked a weekend of intense protests and an escalating government crackdown after the Trump administration ordered the California National Guard to respond.

The immigration raids “wreaked havoc and terror throughout Los Angeles communities, targeting working-class, immigrant families at work, school and home,” the diocese said June 8 in an email newsletter supporting the 14 Episcopalians who were detained. “These actions, and the level of militarization involved, are unconscionable and we condemn them entirely.”

An interfaith vigil initially planned for the evening of June 8 was canceled due to the still-volatile scene in downtown Los Angeles.

Federal immigration agents detained at least 44 people in the initial raids on June 6, according to CNN, and about 300 National Guard members so far have been called in to help police contain the subsequent unrest, including around a federal building in downtown Los Angeles. Dozens of protesters have been arrested in clashes with police.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell blamed some of the protesters for creating a dangerous situation with their violent tactics, including throwing Molotov cocktails and setting cars on fire, though he also differentiated those acting violently with other protesters who have objected peacefully to the immigration raids.

“When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that’s not the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue,” McDonnell said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he disagreed with Trump’s decision to deploy soldiers in response to civil unrest, accusing the federal government of inflaming the situation rather than helping. “Donald Trump has manufactured a crisis and is inflaming conditions. He clearly can’t solve this, so California will,” Newsom said.

Little is known about the diocesan members who were detained in the immigration raids. The diocese said they had been transferred to various detention centers in Southern California. The diocese, through its Sacred Resistance action group, also called for donations to help fund the detainees’ legal representation.

“Now is the time when our call to Sacred Resistance becomes clear and necessary,” the group, which advocates for immigrants’ rights, said in the diocesan email. “We stand on the side of the loving and liberating Jesus who calls us to be justice-seekers and peacemakers in the face of state violence and oppression.”

Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor condemned the raids in a Facebook post late June 6 that noted that the government appeared to have targeted immigrants working to support their families, not criminals. The raids “suggest our country is in for a dangerous escalation of the Trump regime’s cruel, nonsensical war on immigrant workers.”

In a follow-up post June 8, Taylor described the Trump administration’s actions as an “unjust use of state power against the people of God, especially immigrant workers seized from their places of honest work in our city and region.”

“Fourteen members of one of our Episcopal churches couldn’t be in church this morning on the Day of Pentecost. Their government ripped them from the arms of their families at home and the body of Christ at church,” Taylor said. “Our siblings in Christ are not criminals. They accepted offers of honest employment from United States enterprises, in defiance of a busted immigration system that politicians just won’t fix.”

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

The outcome at the court was supported by Episcopal leaders, including the church’s two presiding officers.

“While today’s ruling is certainly a line in the sand and a win for public education and true religious freedom, we must remain vigilant. This case was not about school choice; it was about power, theocratic capture, and the mainstreaming of Christian nationalism,” House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris, a deputy from the Diocese of Oklahoma, said in a written statement. “We must attend to the larger threat, which will require us to be leaders of courageous, faithful witness.”

The case centered on a Roman Catholic school in Oklahoma that was approved as a charter school by a state board in 2023. Opponents argued that the Constitution prohibits such schools from receiving public funds because it would effectively endorse a specific religion.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, sued to block the funding, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the school. That state ruling stands, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overrule it.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe had joined a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups in a legal brief opposing public funding for the school.

“The Episcopal Church has consistently supported religious freedom for all in a variety of contexts,” the brief says in summarizing Rowe’s reason for signing. “In 1994, the church urged state legislatures considering ‘moment of silence’ statues for public schools to ‘assure constitutional balance’ in their treatment of the issue by ‘carefully considering the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause as well as its Establishment Clause.’”

Early May 22 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., seen in this file photo, House Republicans advanced legislation containing a broad range of domestic policy measures favored by President Donald Trump. It now goes to the Senate. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church, through its General Convention resolutions, has long supported government programs that help alleviate economic inequality and ensure low-income individuals and families have access to food, shelter and health care.

“Dioceses, parishes and faithful Episcopalians are called to advocate changes in public policy to help poor and hungry people,” General Convention said in one of those resolutions, from 2015.

With congregational Republicans and President Donald Trump now poised to enact a fiscal plan offering tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy while slashing spending on safety net programs that benefit the most vulnerable Americans, the church’s Office of Government Relations has issued action alerts on some key provisions of the legislation.

Extending the tax cuts that were enacted in 2017 during Trump’s first term is a central goal of the Republican bill. “These benefited the wealthiest Americans and, if extended, would necessitate cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) that protect the most vulnerable,” the church said in an alert opposing what it called the “extreme tax cuts.”

“As a church, our priority is to center those at the margins of society, including by supporting a tax code that reduces economic disparities,” the alert said. Rather than extending the 2017 tax cuts, it advocates expanding tax credits for low- and middle-income households, including the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

Another church alert specifically calls on Episcopalians to speak out in support of SNAP, the federal anti-hunger program formerly known as food stamps. The legislation that House Republicans passed early May 22 would toughen work requirements for obtaining SNAP benefits while shifting more of the financial burden for the program onto the states.

SNAP currently assists more than 40 million Americans. That support could be cut by 30% under the pending legislation, which will be next considered by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

“As Episcopalians, our call is to advocate for the dignity of all people and especially the most vulnerable,” the Office of Government Relations said in its alert about SNAP. “We must take action to advocate against the irreparable harm that cuts to this program will cause to many individuals within our communities.”

The church also issued an alert warning of the legislation’s potential impact on Medicaid, the federal program that ensures health coverage for poor Americans and those with disabilities. About 72 million Americans were enrolled in Medicaid as of December 2024.

Republicans, to offset some of the trillions of dollars in tax cuts, have proposed reducing spending on Medicaid by as much as $880 million over a decade, largely by enacting what critics have called some of the strictest work requirements in the program’s history. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that more than 7 million Americans could lose their coverage under the bill.

“General Convention and Executive Council have urged the church at all levels to advocate for those living in poverty, with special attention to racial and gender justice,” the Office of Government Relations said in its alert on Medicaid.

“Of the non-elderly receiving Medicaid, six in ten are people of color and 57% are women. Medicaid also covers four in 10 children (eight in 10 children in poverty) and 41% of all births in the U.S. It is also the largest payer of services for those with mental health and substance abuse disorders.”

The alert notes that the church has affirmed health care as a human right. “When individuals face an increased risk of suffering from preventable and treatable illnesses, barriers to employment due to untreated conditions, and experience a diminished quality of life, it harms families, communities, and generations. …

“The social safety net, of which Medicaid is a vital part, is a major way we collectively care for one another, as Christ bids us to do.”

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