Supporters of Venezuelan leader Nicholás Maduro gather Jan. 24 in Caracas, Venezuela’s city center to protest after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the Venezuelan president had been captured and flown out of the country. Many Venezuelans are also celebrating Maduro’s removal from office. Photo: Jeampier Arguinzones/AP

[Episcopal News Service] Following last weekend’s U.S. military attack on Venezuela and the removal of President Nicholás Maduro from office, Episcopal leaders have released statements calling for prayers and peace in the South American country. They expressed both support for Venezuelans celebrating Maduro’s removal and concern over the legality of the attack. 

“The Episcopal Church’s General Convention has a long-standing policy that ‘condemn[s] in any nation the first use of armed force in the form of a preventive or pre-emptive strike that is aimed at disrupting a non-imminent, uncertain military threat,’” The Episcopal Church said in a Jan. 3 Action Alert released by the Episcopal Public Policy Network. “Even as we recognize that intervention in sovereign states can sometimes be necessary to prevent atrocities, we discourage ‘the abuse of this norm to rationalize military actions in sovereign states for political ends.’”

In the early hours of Jan. 3, the U.S. military attacked Venezuela, taking Maduro and his wife into custody. The attack followed months of strikes against so-called drug-carrying boats, the seizure of two oil tankers and a massive buildup of U.S. forces off Venezuela’s coast.

Before the attack, the Trump administration did not seek congressional approval, as required by the U.S. Constitution; legal experts suggest the strike also violated international law.

Maduro, an authoritarian ruler who has been accused of human rights abuses and other violations, has led Venezuela since the death of Hugo Chavez in 2013. In 2024, Maduro was declared the winner of an election declared fraudulent by independent monitors. He and his wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, have been charged by the United States with narco-terrorism and drug trafficking. They both pleaded not guilty during their federal court appearance on Jan. 5 in New York.

The Episcopal Diocese of Venezuela, based in the capital, Caracas, has 10 parishes, 14 missions and four preaching stations. Ecuador Litoral Bishop Cristóbal Olmedo León Lozana is the provisional bishop of the diocese, which is part of the church’s Province IX.

“Episcopalians in Venezuela carry out vital ministries in increasingly challenging conditions, and we fear for their well-being and their church community if these military interventions, and any form of U.S. occupation, lead to more instability and violence,” The Episcopal Church’s statement said.

Church leaders have been communicating with Lozano, standing committee leadership and Honduras Bishop Lloyd Allen, who serves as president of Province IX, according to the statement.

Los Angeles Bishop-elect Antonio Gallardo, who continues to serve as rector of St. Luke’s/San Lucas Episcopal Church in Long Beach, California, is from Venezuela and has family living there, including his mother, siblings and cousins. He said in a Jan. 3 Facebook post in English and Spanish that his “heart is experiencing mixed emotions” after Maduro’s capture.

“When the Venezuelan people celebrate the extraction of Maduro, they get a renewed sense of hope, a sense that they almost lost after these many years of trying to elect other leaders in elections that [were] very likely rigged,” Gallardo said in his Facebook post.

While Gallardo’s “heart is full of joy” for Venezuelans, his “heart is also afraid of what may come to them.” After Maduro’s capture, U.S. President Donald Trump said during a Jan. 3 news conference that the United States will “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” to new leadership. Venezuela Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who has served since 2018, was sworn in Jan. 5 as the country’s interim president.

“When the U.S. government says within a few hours of the operations, words like ‘We are going to run the country,’ and ‘We will rebuild the oil infrastructure before a transition,’ it makes me fear that the Venezuelan people may have shifted from one form of oppression to another,” Gallardo said. “I don’t think this military operation was about the people in Venezuela, when here in the U.S., we treat Venezuelans and other immigrants of color with cruelty.”

In its statement, The Episcopal Church urges Congress to call for an investigation of recent U.S. military operations in Venezuela, and for support of a “peaceful transition that respects the rule of law and the will of the Venezuelan people.”

El Camino Real Bishop Lucinda Ashby concurred. “As a church that spans many nations and cultures, we are mindful that decisions made by governments can have profound consequences far beyond their borders,” Ashby said in a Jan. 3 statement to the Salinas, California-based diocese. “Our faith calls us to witness to the dignity of every person and to seek paths that lead toward peace rather than further harm.”

When former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry was primate of The Episcopal Church from 2015-2024, he visited every diocese except Venezuela over safety concerns due to violence and civil unrest under the Maduro regime.

Following U.S. military operations and Maduro’s removal, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona, hosted a prayer vigil for Venezuela on Jan. 3.

“I bid your prayers for our nation, for the people of Venezuela, for the members of our military, for those who were killed or captured, for the Congress and for the uncertain future before us,” Arizona Bishop Jennifer Reddall said in a Facebook statement announcing the prayer vigil. “We pray for those good things which Jesus has taught us to pray for: for peace, for justice, for righteousness and mercy and for the healing of the world and the children of God.”

New York Bishop Matthew Heyd, in his Jan. 5 email newsletter, also called for prayers for Venezuela and for Venezuelans living in the Diocese of New York, as well as for members of the U.S. armed forces.

“As Christians, we proclaim an incarnational faith. We believe in human dignity and human possibility,” he said. “That’s the bright thread that we follow through disorienting times. We can at once denounce despots and affirm the rule of law.”

As of June 2025, roughly 1.1 million of the nearly 8 million forcibly displaced Venezuelan migrants have fled to the United States. About 600,000 of them legally entered the United States through a humanitarian program known as Temporary Protected Status. Tens of thousands of them have settled in New York, according to New York Times analysis.

Indianapolis Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows has been communicating with several diocesan members with family living in Venezuela, she said in a Jan. 4 statement.

“There is no question that we are living in turbulent times that will demand much of us as people of faith,” Baskerville-Burrows said. Regarding Venezuela, “there is a sense of both optimism and fear for the future.”

Gallardo, who is scheduled to be ordained and consecrated as Los Angeles bishop diocesan on July 11 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, expressed gratitude for the support and prayers offered to Venezuelans after Maduro’s removal.

“I give thanks to God for giving me a heart capable of holding multiple, and at times conflicting, feelings, and more than anything, I give thanks for all the prayers that the people are offering to sustain the people of Venezuela during this time of transition,” Gallardo said.

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

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.

Western North Carolina Bishop José McLoughlin (center) raises a chalice during the Sept. 27 “Bearing Witness” service that marked one year ater the diocese was hit by Hurricane Helene. Standing with McLoughlin are (from left) the Rev. Kelsey Davis, bishop’s deputy for disaster response; Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe; Western North Carolina Archdeacon Brenda Gilbert; the Rev. Augusta Anderson, canon to the ordinary; and the Rev. Michael Ashmore, deacon at the Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville. Photo: Katie Knowles

[Episcopal News Service] On Sept, 27 the Asheville-based Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina hosted a service to remember the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, which after plowing through Florida and Georgia damaged homes and 23 churches across the diocese.

More than 350 people gathered under a tent in a field at the diocese’s Lake Logan Conference Center for a service of Holy Eucharist. Western North Carolina Bishop José McLoughlin was the celebrant, and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe preached.

The service, along with a lunch afterward, formed an event titled “Bearing Witness,” which was described as part of the diocese’s effort to continue to heal and rebuild together.

Ahead of time, the diocese had asked people to share their stories about the storm, from how churches helped their neighbors to how individuals dealt with the aftermath. Fourteen of those stories, with photos, were shared on large posters inside the tent, forming what the diocese called “stations of remembrance.”

Katie Knowles, the diocesan missioner for communications, told Episcopal News Service the stations represented the evolution of the diocese’s recovery, including a home lit by candles as the area was without power, the distribution of food and bottles of water at supply stations, and examples of pastoral care.

In his sermon, based on Luke 24:13-34, in which disciples encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, Rowe likened the people of Western North Carolina to the disciples after their eyes were opened by meeting him. “One year ago, you experienced your own Good Friday, your own walk,” he said. “You’ve come together in extraordinary ways to bear witness to the promise of the risen Christ.”

A woman looks at two of the 14 “stations of remembrance” that describe and illustrate some of the experiences of people across the Diocese of Western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene hit one year ago. Photo: Katie Knowles

Saying the term “the hands and feet of Jesus” is an overused phrase, he noted, “For real this time, you’ve been the hands and feet of Jesus. You provided housing support, household goods, food, medical expenses, relief from rental debt, home repairs, helping people return to work.”

McLoughlin thanked the diocesan staff for their work over the past year, especially noting the work of the Rev. Kelsey Davis, bishop’s deputy for disaster response, and for the staff’s help organizing the day’s events. He hoped the anniversary service would be “a bold reminder that even in the midst of disaster, God’s creation is still here, and we are still committed to the work.”

Addressing the struggles of the past year, he told those assembled, “Thank you for your courage. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for staying together.”

He added, “This year, as I’ve traveled and spent time with you, I know the stories, I know the struggles, I know the challenges, and as I said some weeks ago to the cathedral community, sometimes what I’ve learned is simply the greatest act of faith is showing up.”

The service featured four sets of ceramic communion vessels made by Joan Kennedy, an Asheville potter and member of the city’s Cathedral of All Souls, who lost her home and studio in the flooding caused by Helene. Afterward, a set of vessels was given to each of two diocesan churches; the cathedral and the Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave. Another set was given to Rowe, and McLoughlin said the fourth would be used in the diocesan office’s chapel.

The field at Lake Logan where the service took place is itself an example of recovery, Knowles told ENS. One year before, it was covered with fallen trees, silt, sand and boulders that were left after floodwater from the swollen West Fork of the Pigeon River receded.

Kanuga, a conference center about 30 miles south of Asheville, saw damage to some buildings as well as trees across its 1,400-acre campus, but it was able to open for summer camps that served a variety of ages. It also will host the Oct. 20-21 meeting of The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council.

In June ENS reported on the differing levels of recovery of churches across the diocese. Bat Cave’s Church of the Transfiguration was able to open five months after the storm, even though its surrounding area was still largely inaccessible. Even as Asheville, the area’s largest city, is seeing the reopening of many of the businesses and restaurants that were closed by flooding, the Cathedral of All Souls still is working to get its building fully repaired and restored.

It faces difficulties not only because of the scale of the work and delays in getting necessary items, but also because of its historic nature at the center of the city’s Biltmore Village. It hopes to reopen in December 2026.

The challenges of rebuilding are being felt not only in churches but also in communities across Western North Carolina. Homeowners have reported difficulty in getting housing assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some of them still have mortgages on houses that were washed away by the massive rainfall that cascaded down the area’s hills and mountains.

And for the state’s most medically fragile residents, a cut in federal funding is leaving them without a state program that has provided nutritious food, safe housing and transportation for doctors’ visits to help them stay out of the hospital. Earlier this fall, state lawmakers chose not to renew the program because of the Oct. 1 reductions in federal health care spending as a result of legislation known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

Conferring before the ordination service in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7, 1975, were (from left) the Rev. Lee McGee, Bishop George W. Barrett, the Rev. Alison Palmer, the Rev. Diane Tickell and the Rev. Betty Rosenberg. Photo: Carolyn Aniba/Archives of The Episcopal Church

[Episcopal News Service] On Sept. 7, St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., will mark the 50th anniversary of the ordination of four women priests with a special observance.

That ordination service took place on Sept. 7, 1975, 13 months after the first women were “irregularly” ordained in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 29, 1974.

Known as the Washington 4, the group included parishioner Eleanor Lee McGee, along with Alison Palmer and Elizabeth Rosenberg from the Diocese of Washington, and Diane Tickell from Anchorage, Alaska.

The ordination of these women, as well as that of the Philadelphia 11 the year before, took place before church canons officially permitted women to be ordained to the priesthood, although women had been able since 1970 to be ordained as deacons.

The special observance at St. Stephen and the Incarnation will begin with a service at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and will be followed at noon by a screening of “The Philadelphia Eleven,” a documentary that reflects on the history and legacy of the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church.

It provides an opportunity, the church’s rector, the Rev. Yoimel Gonzalez Hernandez, told Episcopal News Service, to acknowledge “those prophets and prophetesses in our midst that put their lives, vocations and calls at the forefront, no matter the obstacles they faced in the path for radical inclusion.”

Noting the church’s advocacy for civil rights, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights since the 1960s, the service also “is an opportunity to celebrate and to give thanks to God for these special moments in which our parish has been at the forefront of inclusion, welcoming and justice in The Episcopal Church.”

Gonzalez Hernandez said speakers will include the Rev. Elizabeth “Betty” Rosenberg Powell, who will give the final blessing, and Kyle McGee, son of the Rev. Eleanor Lee McGee Street, who died in 2022.

The lessons that day, as well as much of the music, will be those used at the 1975 service, he added. The preacher will be the Rev. Katherine Grieb, who was a member of St. Stephen’s before attending seminary and now is director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary in nearby Alexandria.

The other surviving member of the Washington 4, the Rev. Alison Palmer, wasn’t able to attend, Gonzalez Hernandez said. The Rev. Diane Tickell died in 2002.

Powell has offered a short video statement marking the anniversary. In it she said she wanted people to remember “that as we bond together in community, we are so much stronger than we are alone, and when we are on a mission together, we are so powerful.”

She added, “The world needs us to join together and make so much change. Let these anniversaries – last year, the 50th anniversary of the Philadelphia 11, and this year, the 50th anniversary of the Washington 4 – let our stories be a reminder.”

Washington service also caused ecclesiastical controversy

Like the ordination of the 11 women priests in Philadelphia – which then-Presiding Bishop John M. Allin said were “irregular and may be found invalid” – the ordination of the Washington 4 caused controversy across The Episcopal Church.

The ordinations were performed by the retired bishop of Pittsburgh, the Rt. Rev. George W. Barrett, despite the demand from Washington Bishop William F. Creighton that he not. On the morning of the service, Creighton had a pastoral letter read in all diocesan churches asking parishioners and clergy to stay away.

Nonetheless, the service drew more than 1,000 people of all ages, according to a Diocesan Press Service news story. It said that the procession of about 50 people included “three or four parish clergy from the Diocese of Washington, several of the women ordained in Philadelphia last year and the Rt. Rev. Robert DeWitt, one of the bishops who had ordained the earlier group of 11 women.” About 50 clergy participated in the laying-on-of-hands.

Before the service, Barrett recognized that while Creighton was an advocate for the ordination of women, “… we are faced with strong and tragic differences on how to accomplish the end we seek.” But, he added, “I am convinced, in conscience, that I cannot refuse to act in this instance.”

Allin called the Washington ordinations “distressing and divisive acts” and said that any such services “done in good conscience for the sake of renewal can so frequently prevent that needed renewal.”

While the Washington 4 were less well-known than the Philadelphia 11, the women played a key role in the decision by The Episcopal Church’s 1976 General Convention to change church canons to permit women to be ordained as priests and bishops, according to Darlene O’Dell, author of “The Story of the Philadelphia Eleven,” in a September 2015 Sojourners article.

“The institutional church needed to see that these women weren’t going to go away,” she said.

In an obituary for Barrett, who died in 2000, the New York Times reported that the Rev. Suzanne R. Hiatt, one of the Philadelphia 11, agreed with O’Dell, calling the Washington 4 ordinations ”critically important,” because they showed that such ordinations would continue until the church acted.

McGee Street was quoted as saying her ordination and that of the other three women were ”absolutely pivotal in moving the leadership of The Episcopal Church to change its canon law” to permit ordaining women, and that ”this was borne out in the rapid action of the church in 1976.”

Central Pennsylvania Bishop Michael W. Creighton, who served from 1996 to 2006 and was the son of the Washington bishop who opposed the service, disagreed, saying “My hunch is that it did not in a sense force the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. I think that was going to happen anyway. It was moving in that direction.”

St. Stephen and the Incarnation also caused controversy the year before when it invited the Rev. Alison Cheek to preside at a service on Nov. 10, 1974, just a few months after she was ordained as one of the Philadelphia 11. It was the first time a woman publicly had celebrated the Eucharist in an Episcopal church.

Its rector, the Rev. Wiliam Wendt, was found guilty by an ecclesiastical court of disobeying his bishop in allowing Cheek to officiate. As a result he was admonished by Creighton and was forbidden to allow anyone to provide ministry at the church whose ordination didn’t conform to church canons.

Once he could, Wendt hired Cheek to be an assistant at the church, where she served until 1979.

The canonical changes to permit women to be ordained took effect on Jan. 1, 1977. On Jan. 8, Washington National Cathedral hosted an ordination service that included three women. Among them was the Rev. Pauli Murray, the first Black woman to be ordained a priest.

McGee Street and Rosenberg Powell also had their 1975 ordinations recognized at that service and were welcomed by the Diocese of Washington bishop into the ranks of clergy.

Additional information about the history of the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church is available in a special online exhibit from the Archives of The Episcopal Church, as well as a timeline, with photos, from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry preached during the Aug. 9, 2025, pilgrimage in Hayneville, Alabama, marking 60 years since Jonathan Daniels was killed on Aug. 20, 1965, while trying to protect a Black teenager from gunfire during the Civil Rights Movement. Daniels was a 26-year-old white seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His feast day is Aug. 14 in The Episcopal Church. Photo: Shireen Korkzan

[Episcopal News Service — Hayneville, Alabama] This month marks 60 years since Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels was killed while trying to protect a Black teenager from gunfire during the Civil Rights Movement. Remembering Daniels and his sacrifice has become a focal point of the Diocese of Alabama’s racial justice efforts, and over the weekend, former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry joined the diocese’s annual pilgrimage honoring Daniels.

“We remember the martyrs and Jonathan [Daniels] … what they stood for in our lives and to help change this world,” Curry told hundreds of pilgrims Aug. 9 while preaching inside the Lowndes County Courthouse in Hayneville, Alabama.

Systemic racism today is commonly understood as the often unacknowledged and historically rooted bias and discrimination found in the U.S. criminal justice system, employment, housing, education access, health care and other areas. During the 20th century, activists like Daniels fought against the legacy of racism in those systems and for basic liberties like Black Americans’ right to vote.

“No question, [civil rights] is a long-distance run – it’s a marathon,” Curry said during a press conference ahead of the Alabama pilgrimage.

Since 1998, the Birmingham-based diocese has honored Daniels and the 13 other known Alabama martyrs by organizing an annual pilgrimage to Hayneville with support from the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, which includes the southern half of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The pilgrimage usually takes place on or around Daniels’ Episcopal feast day, Aug. 14. More than 300 Episcopalians and civil rights activists registered to take part in this year’s pilgrimage, including Episcopal clergy, seminarians and lay people, as well as civil rights activists.

Daniels was a white seminarian at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts – today the New York City-based Episcopal Divinity School – who hailed from Keene, New Hampshire. On Aug. 20, 1965, he was shot and killed by Tom Coleman, a white part-time special deputy sheriff, while Daniels was trying to protect Ruby Sales, a Black teenage civil rights activist, from gunfire. He was 26 years old.

“Jonathan Daniels gave his life to protect another person, but he really, like all of the martyrs in our history, was someone who gave his life for the cause of others to make our nation truly reflect the founding ideals … a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men – all people – are created equal,” Curry said during the press conference.

The evening before the pilgrimage, on Aug. 8, a group of youth pilgrims gathered at Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Montgomery for fellowship and to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement.

Episcopal Divinity School also hosted the livestreamed “Walk With Me” vigil at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montgomery.  The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian of Washington National Cathedral, and Ashley M. Jones, Alabama’s poet laureate, spoke during the vigil, which honored Daniels and other martyrs who were killed in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement.

“Jonathan Daniels wasn’t afraid of failure. He failed forward, towards the cross,” Douglas said during the vigil.

Daniels was actively involved in civil rights work while in seminary. In the days before his death, while attending the ninth annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Birmingham, he met Richard Morrisroe, a white Catholic priest who had marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Chicago, Illinois, and Selma, Alabama. After the conference, on Aug. 14, Daniels and Morrisroe joined a group of protesters in Fort Deposit, Alabama, to picket whites-only stores. All of the protesters were arrested and jailed in Hayneville.

When they were released from jail on Aug. 20, Daniels and Morrisroe accompanied two Black teenage protesters, Sales and Joyce Bailey, to nearby Varner’s Cash Store to purchase beverages. As they neared the store, Coleman blocked the doorway and attempted to shoot the teenagers. Daniels shielded Sales from Coleman’s shotgun blast, taking the fatal blow himself. Morrisroe grabbed Bailey and they ran off together. Morrisroe was shot in the back but survived.

Like previous years, this year’s pilgrimage began with prayer at the Lowndes County Courthouse square before the pilgrims marched to the old county jail where Daniels was detained. The procession continued to the site of the old Varner’s Cash Store site – now an insurance agency office – and ended back at the courthouse, where an all-white jury had tried and acquitted Coleman of manslaughter charges. The pilgrims sang, prayed and reflected throughout the march. Some people read passages from Scripture and Charles W. Eagles’ book, “Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama.”

While in front of the site of the old Varner’s Cash Store – where a memorial marker detailing Daniels’ martyrdom now stands – the pilgrims were invited to kneel while praying and reflecting.

Many of the pilgrims entered the courthouse for worship, while others watched a livestream of the service from outside. Curry preached and celebrated. Alabama Bishop Glenda S. Curry and Central Gulf Coast Bishop Russell Kendrick assisted. During the service, several of the youth pilgrims sat in front of the pews holding large posters with photos and names of the 14 martyrs; they stood during a reading of the martyrs’ names.

The offering received during the service was designated to support the Lowndes County Board of Education Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarship opportunities to graduating students at Lowndes County High School.

Also during the service, Lowndes County District Judge Adrian Johnson welcomed the pilgrims, acknowledging that “this is the site of many injustices.” He noted that most Hayneville residents today are Black, and juries today reflect the demographics.

“But it was only because of the struggles – the efforts of those who had to persevere,” Johnson said. “I hope the experience that you have taken away from here, you take back to your community and understand that … we love one another.”

Michael Curry and Glenda Curry both said Episcopalians need to continue to advocate for civil rights and systemic change in their communities, continuing Daniels’ legacy.

“If all of us could follow [Daniels’] example, maybe we would follow Jesus and then follow something life-giving and then find on the other side of it work we never thought about doing,” Glenda Curry said.

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

White South Africans demonstrate in support of U.S. President Donald Trump in front of the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, on Feb. 15, 2025. Photo: Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] When a small group of white South Africans, whom the Trump administration has deemed refugees, arrive in the United States this week, they will be assisted by some nonprofit agencies that historically have contracted with the U.S. government to do that resettlement work.

Episcopal Migration Ministries will not be one of them.

The Episcopal Church, according to a letter issued May 12 by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, has declined the Trump administration’s request to participate in the fast-tracked immigration of Afrikaners, part of the white minority in South Africa that formerly governed the country until the end of the extreme racial segregation of apartheid in 1994. EMM has not assisted any new arrivals since early this year, when the Trump administration halted the broader federal resettlement program indefinitely.

Millions of people worldwide are identified by the United Nations as refugees escaping war, famine or religious persecution in their home countries. EMM has resettled nearly 110,000 such refugees over nearly 40 years, but “in light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step” of assisting the Trump administration in resettling Afrikaners, Rowe said after consulting with Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town.

Instead, The Episcopal Church will formally end all federal resettlement work when its contract expires at the end of this fiscal year, on Sept. 30. EMM, after further reducing its staff, will continuing operating as a church-based ministry to serve the needs of refugees already in the U.S., as well as asylum-seekers and other migrants.

EMM had been one of 10 nongovernmental agencies, many of them associated with religious denominations, that facilitated refugee resettlement through the federal program created in 1980. Refugees traditionally have been among the most thoroughly vetted of all immigrants and often waited for years overseas for their opportunity to start new lives in the United States.

The Afrikaners, about 50 of whom were scheduled to begin arriving in the United States as early as May 12, were screened and cleared for travel in the three months since Trump signed a Feb. 7 executive order accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against the white minority group. Afrikaners number about 3 million in a country of 63 million people.

“It has been painful to watch one group of refugees [the Afrikaners], selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years,” Rowe said in his letter.

When Trump took office, some refugees who had waited their turn to be resettled and received clearance to travel to the United States had their travel plans revoked after the president signed his executive order halting the resettlement program. Trump said the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities” despite successful efforts by EMM and the other resettlement agencies to ramp up their resettlement operations during the Biden administration.

Until the program was suspended, the United States had opened its doors to up to 125,000 refugees a year, with the largest numbers originating from the Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela and Burma. Many had fled war-torn regions like Sudan, while others came from countries where citizens now face persecution for their past support of the United States military.

“I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country,” Rowe said. “I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.”

The federal refugee resettlement program has long had bipartisan support. EMM and the other contracted agencies have provided a range of federally funded services for the first months after the refugees’ arrivals, including English language and cultural orientation classes, employment services and school enrollment, and they helped covered costs such as food and rent as the refugees began to establish new lives and contribute to their adopted communities.

Trump’s executive order suspending the program was one of the first actions he took after returning to office on Jan. 20. In the order, he claimed without evidence that refugees had become a costly burden on American communities.

On Jan. 31, EMM responded by announcing plans to wind down its core resettlement operations and lay off 22 employees while shifting its focus to other efforts. “While we do not know exactly how this ministry will evolve in our church’s future, we remain steadfast in our commitment to stand with migrants and with our congregations who serve them,” the Rev. Sarah Shipman, EMM’s director, said at the time.

Trump’s order gave no indication when, if ever, the congressionally enacted program would resume, other than “such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

Less than three weeks later, the president’s executive order on South Africa pledged “humanitarian relief” to Afrikaners but it did not specify how the interests of the United States would be served by granting refugee status to white South Africans and expediting their resettlement in the United States.

The executive order accuses the South African government of “rights violations” toward Afrikaners, specifically a law allowing the seizure of property without compensation in certain circumstances. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected such claims.

“We should challenge the completely false narrative that our country is a place in which people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution,” Ramaphosa said in a March message.

Global resettlement needs have only increased in recent years. The refugees who are resettled in the United States typically are fleeing war, persecution and other hardships in their home countries. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are more than 32 million such refugees worldwide, and tens of millions more have been displaced within their home countries.

While invoking civil rights to justify Afrikaners’ resettlement in the United States, the Trump administration’s continued suspension of all other refugee resettlement has effectively ended what previously had been a lifeline for millions of people deprived of civil rights in other nations, often due to religious persecution. Many Vietnamese refugees, for example, are members of that country’s minority Christian community and have fled to refugee camps rather than face threats of imprisonment or execution for their faith.

“As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries, but by the sure and certain knowledge that the kingdom of God is revealed to us in the struggles of those on the margins,” Rowe said in his May 12 letter. “Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command. Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program and investing our resources in serving migrants in other ways.”

Rowe added that EMM will continue to serve migrants through diocesan partnerships, collaboration with other Anglican provinces around the world, and through local outreach to refugees who are continuing to get settled in American communities. “You can contribute to this new work by making a donation on the Episcopal Migration Ministries website,” Rowe said.

Other refugee resettlement agencies, while agreeing to help receive the Afrikaners, have criticized the Trump administration for its selective resettlement polices.

“We are concerned that the U.S. government has chosen to fast-track the admission of Afrikaners, while actively fighting court orders to provide life-saving resettlement to other refugee populations who are in desperate need of resettlement,” Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, said in a May 9 statement.

“By resettling this population, the government is demonstrating that it still has the capacity to quickly screen, process and depart refugees to the United States,” Santos said. “It’s time for the administration to honor our nation’s commitment to the thousands of refugee families it abandoned with its cruel and illegal executive order.”

Shipman, the EMM director, issued a statement later May 12 amplifying Rowe’s letter and expressing “our grief at these developments.”

“At the same time, we want to acknowledge the profound legacy of this ministry,” Shipman said. “Looking ahead, we will continue to support dioceses and ministry networks around the church in responding to global migration and protecting the rights of all migrants. Though our work will take new forms, we will persist in our efforts to serve the most vulnerable.”

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

Willie Madl (left) and Ann Palmer point out rhubarb and strawberries growing at Bethany House and Gardens in Topeka, Kansas, on April 25 to some of the people attending the Grasslands Eco-region Network gathering. Madl is groundskeeper for the gardens, and Palmer helped design them. Photo: Melodie Woerman/ENS

[Episcopal News Service – Topeka, Kansas] A gathering for people interested in creation care issues took place April 25-26 in Topeka, Kansas, and was sponsored by the Episcopal Grasslands Network, the first eco-region created by legislation passed during the 2024 General Convention.

The event drew 134 registrants from 35 dioceses across The Episcopal Church, and about half of them – representing 10 dioceses – attended in person. It also attracted 22 people who indicated they were not Episcopalians, including some who had no religious affiliation.

The Grasslands Network currently includes 12 dioceses in the central and western United States – North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Western Kansas, Northwest Texas, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Rio Grande and Navajoland.

The creation of a second eco-region, named the East Coast Network, including the dioceses of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, was announced during the event.

Kansas Bishop Cathleen Bascom told Episcopal News Service in an interview that she had the idea for these eco-region networks years ago. “For some decades, I’ve been intrigued by the church organizing itself along watersheds or in eco-regions,” she said. That concept was strengthened by her work while dean of the Cathedral of St. Paul in Des Moines, Iowa, when major flooding in the Midwest in 2008 prompted the congregation to plant native plants and grasses on cathedral grounds to help absorb rainwater before it ran off into the storm sewer system.

Resolution B002, which was adopted in 2024 by the 81st General Convention, defined the creation of eco-regions. It said that eco-region creation networks can be created when bishops of at least three dioceses describe to the presiding bishop their intention to form a network, designating one diocese to be the administrative center for the region.

Bascom said that while the process of how these networks is established is very bishop-centered, it does ensure there will be significant diocesan support for the effort. But, she added, creation care leaders in the region will play a major role in determining projects and identifying people in the region with expertise in the types of work the network wants to undertake.

Kansas Bishop Cathleen Bascom addresses the Episcopal Grasslands Network gathering April 26 in Topeka. Bascom helped write the General Convention resolution that authorized creation of eco-regions in The Episcopal Church. Photo: Melodie Woerman/ENS

The Center for Religion and Environment at the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, also will provide resources to help bishops and dioceses both create networks and implement nature-based climate solutions in their areas.

Group session during the Topeka event highlighted some of the ecological issues of concern to the Grasslands Network, including how people are adapting ranching practices to allow cattle to graze in a way that better mimics the way bison grazed on the tallgrass prairie before settlers moved west in the 19th century. Sessions also looked at how people in urban areas are creating green spaces on their property and how churches are using the land on which they sit to serve their neighbors through nature and sometimes through gardens producing food.

In a response to one of the group sessions, Ethan Winstead, who is active in the Diocese of Wyoming’s Canterbury Club at the University of Wyoming, said that students have noticed the way The Episcopal Church approaches care for creation and others. “I found that most people I meet that come into The Episcopal Church are attracted to us because of our creation theology,” he said. “They can spend time in the outdoors, see the beauty, and then they want to go deeper.”

David O’Hara and Raghav Sriram Yogeeswari from the Diocese of South Dakota told ENS they came to Topeka to see how other churches are caring for the lands they steward. Both are members of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Sioux Falls, where O’Hara’s wife is the rector. O’Hara also serves as the diocese’s canon for creation.

He also is a professor at Augustana University, also in Sioux Falls, and Yogeeswari is a student there. O’Hara said Yogeeswari and some other students, as well as faculty of the university, in recent years have been converting the campus into a food forest and a living laboratory that includes fruit trees, bee hives and enough food to provide 40,000 meals a year.

O’Hara also is helping other South Dakota churches convert their grass lawns into vegetable gardens and a place to grow other food. “If you want people to come in for bread and wine, give them food outside first,” he said. “Use the land to raise food and restore the soil rather than worship grass that’s non-native and that depletes our resources.”

As the new diocesan missioner for the Diocese of North Dakota, Ashley Hubbard said she came not only to learn what other churches and dioceses are doing but also to connect with them, as her diocese works to revive its creation care efforts. Many people in North Dakota are ranchers and farmers and couldn’t get away to attend in-person – it’s calving season and wheat-planting time, she said – so several were registered to attend online.

This event felt different from other creation-care gatherings she has attended, the Rev. Rachel Field of An Episcopal Path for Creation Justice for parishes in Province I, told ENS.

“There seems to be more of an emphasis on the ecology and building relationship with the ecosystem that our churches are a part of and less of a focus on things like greening our church building and greening the grounds,” she said. “It’s outside the building, and I think that’s where the key is.”

Phoebe Chatfield, associate for creation care and justice for The Episcopal Church, applauded the “fantastic mix of practitioners” who took part in the inaugural Grasslands Network event. “They really have their hands in the dirt in a number of different ways, whether this is actively managing and transforming church lands, people who are directly engaged with ranching and sustainable agriculture, or people who are really hands-on in the work of creation care in other ways.”

She added, “It’s also a pretty remarkable collaborative effort between people from 12 different Episcopal dioceses, and it’s pretty remarkable to see so many dioceses collaborating in that way.”

In addition to the group sessions at Grace Cathedral, in-person participants also broke into affinity groups for discussions with people with similar concerns: church lands and urban gardens; nature restoration, preservation and wildlife; smaller farmers and ranchers; and larger farmers and ranchers.

They also had the opportunity to tour Bethany House and Gardens, an initiative of Bascom’s that created spaces on diocesan grounds for pollinator and culinary gardens, native prairie grasses, and an outdoor chapel dedicated to an historically Black church in Topeka, St. Simon’s, that was closed in 1964. The event’s closing Eucharist took place there.

Videos of the event also will be posted on The Episcopal Church website as they are available.

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.

Pallbearers carry the coffin at the end of the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square. Vatican city, April 26th, 2025. Photo: Rocco Spaziani/AP

[Episcopal News Service] An Anglican Communion delegation – representing Anglicans worldwide and offering their prayers and condolences – were among the more than 250,000 mourners from over 160 nations who attended the April 26 funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

The pope, who led the Roman Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion members worldwide since 2013, died the morning of April 21, Easter Monday, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta after suffering a cerebral stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible heart failure. He was 88.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, one of the 10 Anglican delegates, wrote on his X account, formerly known as Twitter, that it was a “privilege” to attend Francis’ funeral “as we commend his spirit into the hands of our loving & merciful God.”

“As we mourn with our Roman Catholic sisters & brothers, we give thanks for the life of this faithful servant of Jesus Christ,” said Cottrell, who also currently serves as primate of England.

Archbishop of Brazil Marinez Bassotto, regional primate for the Americas, led the delegation, which consisted of senior clergy and lay leaders, including those who lead ecumenical work between Anglicans and Catholics. Anglicans in Italy, including those who lead the two Anglican parishes in Rome – All Saints’ Anglican Church and St. Paul’s Within-the-Walls Episcopal Church – were also in attendance.

On April 25, the delegation prayed beside the late pontiff as his body lay in state at St. Peter’s.

“We were in prayer for his life because he is a symbol of the unity, the peace and the compassion of God with the people,” said Bassotto, who serves on the Anglican Communion’s five-person Primates’ Standing Committee, in a video reflection on the Anglican Communion’s Facebook page.

Bassotto is also involved with the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which is co-chaired by former Archbishop of Melbourne Philip Freier and Europe Bishop Robert Innes. Freire and Innes were both among the Anglican Communion delegates at Francis’ funeral.

It was a “deeply moving experience to see so many people from all over the world paying their respects,” Innes said in a video reflection shared on the communion’s Facebook page. “I was struck by the degree to which one man could be the focus of so much hope and could be the bearer of so much good.”

Francis, a Jesuit born Dec. 17, 1936, as Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was known for his humility and for standing with people living outside the mainstream – those excluded from social, economic and political systems, including the poor and migrants – as well as for his steadfast commitment to the environment. When Bergoglio was elected to the papacy on March 13, 2013, he chose to be called Francis, the first pontiff to take his papal name from St. Francis of Assisi, who dedicated his life to piety, the poor and rebuilding the church. 

Throughout his papacy, Francis decried the conditions migrants flee and their suffering, and he criticized the world’s lack of response and indifference. He also increased leadership roles for Catholic women in the Roman Curia and worked to normalize the acceptance of LGBTQ+ Catholics.

“What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of our world,” Francis wrote in his final Urbi et Orbi (“to the city and to the world”) message. Archbishop Diego Ravelli, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations and head of the Pontifical Sistine Chapel Choir, read the speech out loud on Easter Sunday, April 20, as the pope sat on the balcony of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter in what would be his final public appearance. “How much violence we see, often even within families, directed at women and children! How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!”

After the funeral Mass, 40 people from marginalized communities – including people who are migrants, homeless, incarcerated, transgender and children – greeted the beloved late pope with white roses on the steps of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, where he was buried. The symbolic gesture, that the “last” of society would be the last to say goodbye to Francis before his burial, aligned with his commitment to advocate for the poor and the marginalized.

“[Pope Francis] clearly was a man that has impacted people so significantly at the marginalized for the dispossessed,” London Bishop Sarah Mullally said in a video reflection posted to the communion’s Facebook page. Mullally, who also serves as dean of the province of Canterbury, said she was “struck by the solemnity that was there and peace” when she and fellow Anglican delegates prayed for the pope as he laid in state.

The Rt. Rev. Anthony Poggo, secretary general of the Anglican Communion and a delegate, said in a video reflection that praying for Francis and the Catholic Church was “a significant moment showing to us, as Anglicans, that we are indeed brothers and sisters in Christ … to stand in solidarity with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters.” He also said that seeing the pope’s body lying in state was a reminder that “as human beings, death is inevitable.”

“It was a reminder of the importance of us doing what we can to serve God during our time,” Poggo said. “Pope Francis, during his time, served God faithfully to place an emphasis on the importance of the poor, the marginalized and also the importance of working together.”

Other Anglican delegates at Francis’ funeral included Archbishop Hosam Naoum, who leads the Anglican province known as the Episcopal Church in the Middle East and Jerusalem, which includes the Diocese of Jerusalem; the Rt. Rev. Anthony Ball, director of the Anglican Centre in Rome and the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See; Maggie Swinson, chair of the Anglican Consultative Council; and Christopher Wells, the Anglican Communion Office’s director of unity, faith and order.

A papal conclave will convene on May 7 in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City to elect the next pope to succeed Francis.

Palestinians inspect damage to the Ahli Arab Hospital after an overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on April 13. Photo: Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] Anglicans and other global faith leaders have condemned Israeli airstrikes over the weekend that struck an Anglican hospital in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza, destroying or damaging several of the hospital’s departments.

Al Ahli Arab Hospital, a ministry of the Diocese of Jerusalem, had been struck several times previously by blasts in the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas since Hamas attacked Israeli communities and massacred hundreds on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel responded to that Hamas attack with an intense and prolonged aerial bombardment and ground invasion of the densely populated territory – strikes that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left much of Gaza in ruins.

The latest blasts at Ahli Hospital involved two airstrikes early April 13, according to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, AFEDJ. The attack destroyed a two-story genetic laboratory and severely damaged the pharmacy, the emergency department and nearby buildings, including St. Phillip’s Church.

The hospital has been described in international news reports as the last fully functioning hospital in northern Gaza. No casualties were reported from the blasts at the hospital, though the diocese reported that during the evacuation of the hospital, a child died while suffering from a previous head injury.

“The Diocese of Jerusalem condemns in the strongest terms today’s missile attacks on the Ahli Arab Hospital,” the diocese said in a written statement, adding that it was “appalled at the bombing of the hospital now for the fifth time since the beginning of the war in 2023 – and this time on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.”

“We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions. We pray and call for the end of this horrific war and the suffering of so many.”

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell released a statement lamenting the “unimaginable suffering” endured by the Palestinians who have been forced to seek treatment at Ahli Hospital. “For the only Christian hospital in Gaza to be attacked on Palm Sunday is especially appalling,” Cottrell said.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem also condemned the attack. “Sorrow grips us this Palm Sunday: A refuge of healing is struck in the land of the heavenly physician of souls and bodies,” the Patriarchate said.

Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire in January, which included the release of some of the hostages taken by Hamas during its initial attack on Israel. That ceasefire, however, fell apart in March, and Israel resumed airstrikes. U.S. officials have since been working with Arab leaders to restart ceasefire talks to again halt hostilities.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe released a statement after the attack, asking for prayers for the hospital staff and their patients.

“No matter how we understand the causes of violence in the Holy Land, we can surely agree that we must support our fellow Anglicans in alleviating the devastating humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Gaza,” Rowe said.

Rowe also encouraged Episcopalians to give generously to the Good Friday Offering, the church’s annual collection in support of the Diocese of Jerusalem and the other dioceses that make up the Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Gifts can be made online or in congregations’ collection plates on April 18.

Episcopalians also can write to their representatives in Congress, asking them to support a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian aid for Gaza and a just and sustained peace in the Holy Land, Rowe said. He shared resources provided by the church’s Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations.

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