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The three residential huts in the parking lot of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Springfield, Oregon, are shaped like the Conestoga wagons used on the Oregon Trail. Photo: Episcopal Church in Western Oregon, via YouTube

[Episcopal News Service] The parking lot at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Springfield, Oregon, has about 50 parking spaces, but with an average Sunday attendance of about 30, the congregation never fills the lot with cars.

“I wish we did,” the Rev. Nancy Gallagher, the rector, told Episcopal News Service. “Everything about us is small.”

Instead, the Western Oregon congregation fills the parking lot with hospitality. For the past decade, it has opened the lot to people who are temporarily unhoused and need a place to stay, often camping there in cars or RVs. In recent years, St. John the Divine has partnered with a local service agency to add semi-permanent housing in three residential huts set up in the parking lot.

Gallagher describes the huts as “shaped like the Conestoga wagons that came across the Oregon Trail.” The huts, in a small way, are helping to alleviate a problem that has intensified in recent years, in Springfield and other Oregon communities. The state reportedly has the fourth highest rate of homelessness in the country, with an estimated 18,000 people experiencing homelessness as of 2022.

The pervasiveness of homelessness reflects an underlying problem in Oregon, which is said to have one of the worst housing shortages in the United States. The think tank Up for Growth estimates that the state is 87,000 housing units short of what is needed, according to a 2023 report, while rising prices are making it harder for lower income residents to afford the homes currently available.

The city of Springfield maintains an overnight parking program, which authorizes faith groups and other organizations to offer space on their properties for a limited number of people to camp in vehicles as a temporary housing alternative.  The county government also helps direct people to local shelters for temporary stays, while connecting them with other services and assistance.

St. John the Divine has embraced the parking lot ministry as a way to serve its community, Gallagher said. “We feel very strongly that we should not be admirers of Jesus, but actual followers. When Jesus said feed my sheep, we think he meant actually take care of people.”

Through the residential huts, the congregation can effectively end homeless for three people at a time – living as residents at the church until they decide to move into longer-term, permanent accommodations. David England, a former resident, saw firsthand the ministry’s success in helping people in need.

“If you get them off the street and lead them in the right direction, you’d be surprised,” England said in a diocesan video about the ministry. “I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen it happen here.”

England moved into one of the huts in 2017 and lived there for more than six years, until he left in November 2023 to relocate to Cincinnati, Ohio. The residents of the other two huts at St. John the Divine have moved in within the last two years, Gallagher said.

Over the years, the congregation has upgraded the amenities for its parking lot residents, first by extending electricity to the huts and offering the residents access to the church, for cooking and use of the restrooms. The congregation also installed a shower and a washer and dryer for residents’ use. They help keep an eye on the property when church officials and parishioners aren’t there.

“We’ve become a community. We take care of each other,” Gallagher said.

The ministry’s partners are St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County and Community Supported Shelters, both based in the neighboring city of Eugene. The agencies refer people who need a place to car camp to St. John the Divine, and Community Supported Shelters provided the three huts.

“Conestoga huts are cheaper and easier to assemble than other individual shelters and tiny homes,” the agency says on its website. “These resilient structures emphasize keeping unhoused people dry and safe. Security is a crucial asset; too many people on the street lose their belongings.”

The three huts at St. John the Divine are among 252 set up around Lane County. The 6-by-10 huts each cost about $3,500. With 60 square feet of interior space, they can accommodate one twin bed and a lockable storage bin. The walls are insulated, so residents can live in them year-round. The curved roof rises to a peak ceiling height of 6 feet. Residents also have another 20 square feet of space on an outdoor porch.

The 6-by-10 huts are large enough to accommodate a twin bed and a lockable storage bin, along with the resident’s personal belongings. Photo: Episcopal Church in Western Oregon, via YouTube

It is no mansion. “You don’t have a whole lot of room for anything. It’s kind of hard to call your own,” England said in the video produced by the Episcopal Church in Western Oregon. Even so, “it’s a place to lay your head at night. … This is a start for a lot of people.”

Residents of the huts, after being referred by Community Supported Shelters, can stay as long as they like, while car campers typically stay at St. John the Divine for a few days or up to a month.

In the early years of the ministry, the congregation kept a long list of rules for people camping or living in the parking lot. For example, drugs and alcohol were forbidden. Church leaders soon realized that some of those rules were patronizing and unnecessary, Gallagher said. Now, residents who don’t misbehave, cause disturbances or draw complaints from the church’s neighbors are welcomed to remain.

“They’ve helped us live out a gospel life,” Gallagher said. “We’re really grateful to them.”

The congregation still has rules, but the current list is much shorter: Treat other people with respect. Never lay hands on another resident. Leave the space cleaner than you found it.

The fourth and final rule is no less important: “You must never, ever drink the last Diet Pepsi,” Gallagher said, “because that belongs to me.”

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

[Religion News Service — Terni, Italy] This Wednesday marked a peculiar challenge for practicing Catholics. Valentine’s Day, characterized by candlelit dinners and boxed chocolates, and Ash Wednesday, the start of Lenten privations, collide on Feb. 14 this year, for an odd mashup of romance and abstinence.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had made it clear there will be no dispensation from the requirement to fast and abstain from meat on lovers’ day. Many bishops recommended that faithful have their romantic dates a day earlier, which also happened to coincide with the excesses and celebrations of Mardi Gras.

That is what they decided to do in the city of Terni, where Valentine’s Day is more important than Christmas. It’s here, in the Umbria region not far from Rome, that the remains of St. Valentine, the third-century saint whose feast inspired the international day for love, is buried in the Basilica of St. Valentine.

The city is adorned with hearts and cherubs for the feast, and couples from all over the world gather to walk its streets and indulge in romance-themed celebrations. Posters of the saint, depicted with scarlet gloves and golden robes, are plastered on every corner.

The local church learned from the mistakes of 2018, the last time Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day occurred on the same day. That year, the basilica celebrated Mass for the feast of St. Valentine instead of the usual Mass for Ash Wednesday, and it caused quite a stir among faithful, according to the current parish priest, the Rev. George Johnson Perumittath.

“Those who regularly come to Mass know that Ash Wednesday is more important because it’s the beginning of a journey for the entire church and not just a local church here in a corner of the Earth in Terni,” he told Religion News Service after the St. Valentine’s Day Mass on Tuesday (Feb. 13).

After the Mass, a couple renewed their vows before the congregation and the town elected its St. Valentine ambassador to the world.

Arnaldo Casali, who works as a cultural manager for the parish and is an expert on the life and works of St. Valentine, told RNS that changing the date of the celebration diluted the number of people present at Mass. “Usually, the church is so packed that people listen to the service from the steps outside,” he said.

Casali, who is also a member of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, has written two books on St. Valentine. Ten years ago, on Valentine’s Day, he presented his book “Valentine: The Secret of the Saint in Love,” to Pope Francis at the Vatican, only to be surprised by the fact that the Argentine pontiff had no idea the international day for love and relationships was inspired by an ancient Catholic saint.

This is not surprising, Casali said, since in the Americas the feast of the Italian saint has been widely substituted with a day for heart-shaped boxes and romantic dates. The connection between St. Valentine and love comes from a legend recounting how the saint helped a bickering couple make peace by gifting them a red rose.

The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer was the first known to make the connection, when in the 1380s he wrote about doves finding their spouse on the feast of St. Valentine. In 1969, the saint of love was removed from the General Roman Calendar and Feb. 14 became the feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, but the connection with love remained.

On the façade of the basilica in Terni, a glass window shows the saint between two lovers, and couples today flock here for the Mass in his honor. One couple, who met on St. Valentine’s Day 45 years ago, came to pay their respects for the saint who brought them together. Another couple, married for 62 years, has decided to postpone their Valentine’s date in exchange for fasting and abstinence.

A family hailing from the southern region of Calabria found out last minute that their plans to celebrate Valentine’s Day by eating a plate of carbonara pasta, which is made with eggs and bacon, clashed with the requirement to fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday.

“There will be no carbonara this year, I guess,” one family member said. “We might have to do something different. Fish, I guess.”

[World Council of Churches] Member churches, religious leaders and local Christian groups in Palestine and Israel — as well as Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli president Isaac Herzog — will meet with World Council of Churches general secretary the Rev. Jerry Pillay as he visits the area beginning Feb. 16.

Pillay’s visit, his first to Palestine and Israel as the WCC general secretary, comes amid war and the ongoing occupation. 

Pillay will attend Sunday service at a local church, sharing in the life and ministry of WCC member churches in the region. He will meet with various religious, social and political leaders, and also visit the WCC Jerusalem Liaison Office.

Read the entire article here.

Fans leave the area after shots were fired on Feb. 14 following the celebration in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, of the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowl LVIII. Photo: USA TODAY Sports via Associated Press

[Episcopal News Service] Missouri and Kansas bishops responded with statements in the aftermath of a Feb. 14 shooting in which one person was killed and 21 were injured, following a parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Sunday Super Bowl win.

“In the wake of these tragedies, we know one thing for certain — we need to come together to pray,” West Missouri Bishop Provisional Diane Jardine Bruce said. She asked people to pray for the victims and first responders, as well as for the perpetrators.

West Missouri’s diocesan office in downtown Kansas City is about two miles from the scene of the shooting near Union Station. The metropolitan Kansas City area also includes portions of Kansas, including suburban Johnson County, as well as Kansas City, Kansas.

“We also hold children and families in our hearts who experienced the chaos of separation and trauma during the day’s events,” Kansas Bishop Cathleen Bascom wrote in asking people to pray. The bishop said she was heartbroken by news of the shootings, with special concern for some of the youngest fans. Many families attended the parade, as school districts on both sides of the state line canceled classes. “May we open our hearts to comfort those in need and work together to end this sort of violence,” she said.

West Missouri Bishop Provisional Diane Jardine Bruce (far right) speaks during a Feb. 14 prayer vigil at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, Missouri, for victims of the shooting after the Kansas City Chiefs victory celebration. With her are (from left) the Very Rev. Andrew C. Keyse, the cathedral’s dean; the Rev. W. James Yazell, the cathedral’s associate; the Rev. Barbara Wegener, a deacon at the cathedral. Photo: Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, via YouTube

Some Episcopal churches in Missouri and Kansas offered special prayers and held vigils alongside Ash Wednesday services.

Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, Missouri, offered a prayer vigil in advance of the parish’s evening Ash Wednesday service, with Bruce attending. She told worshippers they had all come together “because tragedy has struck Kansas City,” and she urged continued prayers for those injured and killed, as well as for those who “committed this horrible act of violence.”

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, also near downtown Kansas City, offered a prayer vigil after its evening service, and St. Thomas’ in Overland Park, Kansas, added vigil prayers during its evening service as well.

Fans had been celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ defeat of the San Francisco 49ers, 25-22, in Super Bowl LVIII. The game was played Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings, the one in Kansas City was the 49th to take place this year in the United States, and one of three to occur on Feb. 14 – the other two took place at a hotel and a school in Georgia.

The Kansas City shooting also took place on the sixth anniversary of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida, in which 17 people were killed and 17 others injured.

The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are injured or killed in one location, excluding the suspects or perpetrators.

–Melodie Woerman is a freelance reporter based in Kansas.

The Rev. Cathy Carpenter, priest-in-charge at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Valparaiso, Indiana, imposes ashes on a driver on Feb. 14, 2024. The church offers Ashes to Go as a convenience for people who are unable to attend full Ash Wednesday services in the middle of the week. Photo: Shireen Korkzan/ENS

[Episcopal News Service — Valparaiso, Indiana] In this suburb of Chicago, Illinois, the Rev. Cathy Carpenter, priest-in-charge at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, spent the early morning of Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, imposing ashes on drivers and their passengers following the circular drive to the parish entrance.

“There are all kinds of people who, for whatever reason, can’t come to a full Ash Wednesday service. It could be because of work, kids’ schedules, all kinds of reasons,” Carpenter told Episcopal News Service in person. “Somebody came with their junior high or high school kids first thing at 7 o’clock sharp before going to school.”

Episcopal congregations churchwide offer Ashes to Go as a convenience for people who are unable to attend worship services in the middle of the week. Carpenter said the quick option is especially popular for people with busy schedules, and imposing ashes outside of church property is not unheard of. In 2010, Chicago and Missouri-area clergy and lay Episcopalians began imposing ashes to people in public areas, including suburban train platforms, coffee shops and outside grocery stores and laundromats. The movement, called Ashes to Go, is open to all branches of Christianity and “creates opportunities for people to take a fresh look at the church and the gospel.”

“Getting ashes in this way really started in places like train stations, subway stations, mass transit, where people would be going to work and shopping — shopping malls, city centers,” Carpenter said. “Sometimes places even in the edges of good-sized towns like Valparaiso are ideal.”

This year, 29 people got their ashes via St. Andrew’s “drive-thru.” Carpenter also distributed brochures with Ash Wednesday prayers and Lenten resources to the drivers and crayons to children. She said she didn’t know most of the people who drove in for ashes, but she didn’t mind because “everyone’s welcome.”

“A gentleman told me he’s Catholic, but he comes to our drive-thru for ashes every year because a few years ago he was undergoing treatment for cancer,” Carpenter said. “His cancer has gone into remission, but he still comes every year to get ashes from us.”

Even though pandemic measures have lifted, drive-thru options remain popular, and many other Episcopal churches have continued the tradition.

In Ponce, Puerto Rico, the Rev. Edgar Giraldo Orozco, rector of Parroquia Ayudada Santa María Virgen, imposed ashes on shoppers as a local grocery store:

In Toano, Virginia, Hickory Neck Episcopal Church advertised its Ashes to Go service on Facebook:

In Huntsville, Alabama, the Rev. Rose Veal Eby, priest associate of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, went to a homeless camp and shelter in the city to impose ashes and distribute Narcan and information pamphlets on how to use it, as well as prayer cards.

In Austin, Texas, Jubilee Episcopal Church advertised imposing Ashes to Go on its Instagram page with a photo saying “Ash Wednesday is for lovers,” acknowledging the fact that Ash Wednesday 2024 falls on Valentine’s Day:

A post shared by Jubilee Episcopal Church (@jubileeatx)

On Facebook, the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, advertised its offering of Ashes to Go on Facebook:

“You could call getting Ashes to Go ‘Ash Wednesday light,’” Carpenter said. “It’s a very brief encounter, but the people who come here are very grateful to have the opportunity to get ashes at all, because it’s just not going to work in their life otherwise.” 

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

[World Council of Churches] “Love heals. It never hurts.” That’s just one of many messages—accompanied by beautiful images—shared by the World Council of Churches Thursdays in Black campaign for Valentine’s Day.

Thursdays in Black stands for a world free from rape and violence, and the Valentine’s Day messages help define what love is—and what it isn’t. “Love is kind,” reads one. “Love does not insist on its own way,” reads another. Images of flowers, clasped hands and snow-covered forests draw people into what love should bring: feelings of peace, belonging, and safety.

“Let us celebrate loving relationships that affirm, respect, and care for the other,” said Sara Speicher, WCC communication officer. “And let us raise awareness that abuse—from coercive control to physical violence—have no place in love.”

Read the entire article here.

The Rev. Rose Veal Eby, priest associate at the Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, imposes ashes to homeless people every Ash Wednesday. Photo: Courtesy of Rose Veal Eby

[Episcopal News Service] Every Ash Wednesday, the Rev. Rose Veal Eby, priest associate of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama, goes to the homeless camp in the city, known locally as “The Slab,” and the First Stop daytime homeless shelter downtown to distribute ashes to the community and pray with them. This year, Eby, who volunteers at First Stop, will also distribute the drug Narcan along with information on how to use it to revive people suffering from opioid overdoses.

“On Ash Wednesday, we say, ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ It reminds us that this life is not forever, but it also reminds us that we got this chance to be in relationship with God,” Eby told Episcopal News Service. “We’ve got to have a good relationship with ourselves, and substances can keep you from having that relationship.”

In 2021, 106,600 people died from drug overdoses in the United States, a 14% increase from 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than one million people have died from drug overdoses since 1999. Worldwide, approximately 600,000 people died from drug use, about 25% of which were attributed to opioid overdoses, according to the World Health Organization. Opioids — such as Percocet, fentanyl and morphine — are a class of prescription drugs used to treat moderate to severe pain, and they come with serious risks and side effects, including addiction and dependence.

Narcan — the nasal spray version of the drug naloxone —has been proven to save many lives because it can quickly reverse an opioid overdose when immediately administered. Still, like drug addiction in general, the use of Narcan is stigmatized, partly due to the persistent myth that having the antidote readily available enables drug use, even though studies have proven otherwise.

“Narcan is a safe drug, and by the way the drug is distributed, there’s really not enough to get an overdose,” the Rev. Robert Serio, deacon at Church of the Nativity, told ENS. Serio is also a retired pulmonologist and sleep physician.

Eby said she and Serio will impose ashes while accompanied by a case worker who specializes in opioid addiction, a community development representative, a peer specialist from the Recovery Organization of Support Specialists and two community resource police officers. They also will distribute the Narcan and information pamphlets on how to use it, as well as prayer cards to remind the unhoused “that we’re thinking about them and they have another resource to turn to.”

Serio said that even though he’ll wear his clerical collar to represent the Church of the Nativity while at the homeless camp and shelter, he’ll primarily be there as a doctor.

“We’re not going out there to evangelize. We’re primarily approaching this from a medical point of view,” Serio said. “But if being there leads the people to being aware of our presence, great.”

In Alabama, an estimated 3,434 people are unhoused on any given night, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In Huntsville, the state’s most populous city with almost 222,000 people, the homeless population is estimated to be about 600, though the number is likely higher.

Nationwide, at least 580,000 people are experiencing homelessness. Substance abuse is often a factor in homelessness, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, a network of individuals and organizations dedicated to ending homelessness.

Eby said she recently had to personally administer Narcan and rescue breaths to a homeless woman who had overdosed. The woman survived.

“It’s something that I never want people to have to do, but I want them to be prepared for it,” said Eby, who also distributed Narcan to attendees at the Diocese of Alabama’s convention Feb. 8-10 in Montgomery in case parishes need to use it.

“How is somebody going to get to the point of going to rehab if they die before they get there? Being passionately present and giving people struggling with addiction things that will save their life is what we’re called to do. We’re not supposed to judge.”

Eby said she hopes other congregations will learn about how Narcan can save lives and consider distributing it among their communities.

“I’m a big fan of harm reduction,” she said. “I don’t think you’re encouraging people to use substances as much as you are encouraging them to live.”

Anyone struggling with drug addiction can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free and confidential helpline at any time at 1-800-662-4357, or they can text 435748 for support and resource information. Having health insurance isn’t required.

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

Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry calls for action to end gun violence in a Feb. 13, 2024 video statement, the same day three new gun safety laws took effect in the state and one year after a mass shooting killed three students and injured five others at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Photo: Screenshot

[Episcopal News Service] One year after a gunman shot and killed three students and injured five others on Feb. 13 at Michigan State University in East Lansing, three new gun safety laws take effect in the state.

“I am so, so sorry that all of the students at Michigan State University and students elsewhere live with this fear and experienced that trauma,” Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry said in a video statement. “I offer my prayers and invite you to join with me in offering prayers to our God that we may have the courage and the compassion to use the gifts God has given us to make differences — to change our world.”

One of the new laws includes requiring universal background checks for gun purchases. The same law also requires that guns be locked in storage. Michigan also established a red flag law — also known as an extreme risk law or temporary transfer law — which gives law enforcement agencies the authority to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who “could be dangerous.” Currently, 21 states have implemented some sort of red flag law.

“I ask you to link your prayers with tangible actions, using the gifts God has given us to make changes in our country so that these senseless tragedies may end,” the bishop said in the video statement.

Perry — a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, a network of more than 100 Episcopal bishops working to curtail gun violence — was instrumental in helping to launch End Gun Violence Michigan, a grassroots group credited with helping the gun safety laws pass. The group is credited with helping two of the anti-gun violence legislation packages pass in Michigan.

One year after a mass shooting killed three students and injured five others at Michigan State University on Feb. 13, 2023, “The Rock,” a boulder on Michigan State’s campus that serves as a community landmark, is painted with a tribute to the deceased: Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner. Photo: Michigan State University/Facebook

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the gun safety measures into law in response to two mass shootings that have occurred in schools since she became governor in 2019, the one at Michigan State and another in 2021 at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, north of Detroit.

At Oxford High School, a student murdered four students and injured seven other people, including a teacher. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus an additional 24 years in December 2023. The shooter’s parents have both been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. A week ago, a jury found Jennifer Crumbley guilty on all four counts, one for each of the victims. James Crumbley will be tried in March. 

On average, 1,187 Michiganders die annually from gun violence, according to data compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Feb. 13, nationwide 4,778 people have died from gun violence this year, including 44 from mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an American nonprofit that catalogs every gun-related death in the United States. A mass shooting is any shooting in which at least four people are shot. Still, most U.S. gun deaths are suicides.

End Gun Violence Michigan’s website includes fact sheets and resources about the state’s new gun safety laws.

Episcopalians can learn more about the church’s gun safety legislation dating to 1976 here.

Voters fill out ballots at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts, on Nov. 8, 2022. Photo: Egan Millard/Episcopal News Service

[Episcopal News Service] Kim Hayes was part of the inaugural 2022 cohort of Episcopal Election Activators, a program launched by The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations to encourage voter engagement during that year’s elections. Hayes, now 71, renewed her commitment to the program again for 2024 because she still feels a “sense of urgency” in this work, especially in a presidential election year.

“It’s just really important for people to get out and vote and take responsibility for [electing] who is representing us,” Hayes, a member of the Diocese of Western North Carolina who lives near Asheville, told Episcopal News Service.

She is one of 55 Episcopalians signed up so far with Episcopal Election Activators, and the Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations is encouraging more to participate. As Election Activators, they receive training in voter registration and other engagement strategies while benefiting from the support of their peers in the network and the office’s staff.

The Episcopal Church does not endorse individual political candidates but rather encourages nonpartisan advocacy and political engagement by Episcopalians as a way of witnessing to Jesus’ gospel message in today’s world. The Office of Government Relations, following public policy positions endorsed by General Convention, regularly meets with federal officeholders to discuss the church’s stances on the issues of the day. It also promotes churchwide engagement through its Episcopal Public Policy Network.

It launched Election Activators two years ago as another way to motivate Episcopalians to participate in the democratic process. Alan Yarborough, the office’s church relations officer, said cohort members like Hayes are already active in encouraging people to vote in their communities.

“It’s critical that Episcopalians not only vote but understand the important role our churches can play in supporting free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power,” Yarborough said in a written statement to ENS. He invited more Episcopalians to sign up online “if you are at all interested in this work, or even already doing election engagement now.”

Emily Hopkins, of the Diocese of California, is another returning member of Episcopal Activators. At age 69, Hopkins, a retired Navy captain, also is active in the League of Women Voters and regularly serves as a poll worker on Election Day.

“I do what I can in a nonpartisan way to strengthen our democracy,” Hopkins told ENS. Much of her work centers on registering people to vote – in elections from U.S. president on down to local offices and ballot measures.

Hopkins lives east of Oakland in Walnut Creek. This year, she plans to spend some of her time with a local social service agency that provides day services for people who are homeless, helping them register to vote if they choose. In 2022, she partnered with St. Anna’s Episcopal Church in Antioch, inviting parents to register to vote when they came to the church to receive the school uniforms the congregation was giving to families.

“As Episcopalians, I think we’re supposed to be the hands and feet in our community and our daily lives, so this is a way we can make a difference,” Hopkins said. “It empowers people.”

Voters in October 2022 take advantage of early-voting stations set up in the “mural room” at Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo: Lauren Reisman

The Episcopal Election Activators program builds on the Office of Government Relations’ growing collection of online resources available to Episcopalians and others interested in election engagement. Its “Vote Faithfully” toolkit specifically highlights a resolution passed by General Convention in 2012 that notes, “the United States has been a vigorous human rights advocate for many years, opposing arbitrary restrictions on the right to vote and insisting on fairly conducted elections for legislative representatives.”

Recent General Convention resolutions have opposed voter suppression efforts and promoted expansion of voter eligibility, as outlined in this resolution passed in July 2022. Another resolution from that year backed changes to the Electoral Count Act of 1887 intended to prevent threats to democracy like the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election as president.

Like Hopkins, Hayes, a retired marketing professional, emphasized that the church’s engagement is nonpartisan. At the same time, “our church makes some strong statements about justice and things of that nature,” Hayes said, including the issues relevant to voters when they go to the polls.

Hayes senses that one of the biggest challenges in 2024 is combatting the “lethargy” she has noticed among voters, who may be frustrated with politics and elected officials’ inability to get their work done.

“I worry that there will be more people who stay home and just don’t vote at all, which just would be a tragedy,” she said.

This year, she and other Election Activators will be working in their congregations and communities to counteract that lethargy, reminding people of the importance of making their voices heard through their votes.

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

[Church of England] Racial Justice Sunday was marked in services across England the weekend of Feb. 11.

The archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, joined members of the Archbishops’ Racial Justice Commission and Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns at a special Sung Eucharist in Westminster Abbey.

In Lancashire, the archbishop of York, the Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, commissioned a diocesan racial justice group with the Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt. Rev. Philip North. Before this, he preached in St. Peter’s Church in Burnley.

The Rev. Mark Nam, founder of the Teahouse Group of Chinese heritage clergy, and an assistant curate in the Diocese of Bristol, led the Church of England’s online service.

Read the entire article here.

[Scottish Episcopal Church] A 20-year-old former chorister at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, Scotland, has won a Grammy Award for his work on a winning track.

Blair Ferguson contributed to the track “Snooze” by American singer-songwriter SZA. The record won the award for Best R&B Song at the ceremony in Los Angeles. Under the name BLK Beats, Ferguson wrote the initial demo for the song, which hit number two on the U.S. Billboard charts in July and reached number 18 in the U.K.

His father, Stephen Ferguson, was in Los Angeles during the awards ceremony and said, “Seeing Blair being awarded his Grammy gives me such a special feeling. I genuinely believe that being a part of the choir and the community at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow, has been important to his development. We’re looking forward to dropping into the cathedral when we get back from L.A.”

Read the entire article here.

The Episcopal Church’s Province II on Ash Wednesday will debut a liturgical lament and repentance for the transatlantic slave trade modeled on the Way of the Cross, show here in images from some of those video reflections. Photo: Courtesy of Province II

[Episcopal News Service] On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 14, the dioceses of Province II will begin the season of Lent by debuting a liturgical lament and repentance for the transatlantic slave trade modeled on the Way of the Cross.

“The slave trade was an act of refusing and failing to love God – the God who the Bible says is love – and to love our neighbor,” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in a video introduction. “To lament and to repent is to take that sin seriously – not to beat up on ourselves, but to learn from the past and then to turn and join hands with each other to build a new society and a new world based on the value of love and justice and compassion and goodness.”

In 2017, Curry led a reconciliation pilgrimage to Ghana for bishops and Episcopal Relief & Development’s friends and supporters. The pilgrims visited cities and sites critical to understanding the transatlantic slave trade.

The new repentance and lament is modeled on the Way of the Cross, or Stations of the Cross, in The Book of Occasional Services. Each of the 14 stations will include video reflections, laments and prayers written by members of each of the province’s dioceses: Albany, Central New York, the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, Cuba, Haiti, Long Island, Newark, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Rochester, the Virgin Islands, and the Episcopal Dioceses of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania.

The legacy of slavery continues to this day, Central New York Bishop DeDe Duncan-Probe, the Province II president, told Episcopal News Service, in persistent racial injustice, the disproportionate number of Black men in prisons and jails, and in human trafficking for labor and sex. The church needs to acknowledge both the history of slavery and its present-day manifestations, she said. “I don’t think we have words for how horrific chattel slavery was, and it’s easy to distance ourselves from the suffering of others.”

The series of laments and prayers will be available on Feb. 14 beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern on the province’s website. Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a time when Christians prepare for Easter by acts of special devotion, prayers, fasting and repentance. Stations of the Cross is a spiritual practice offered by many Episcopal churches especially during Lent. It is based on the practice of pilgrims who traveled to Jerusalem to walk Jesus’ path to the cross. Today it ceremonially marks some of his actions along that path, including picking up his cross, meeting his mother and being stripped of his garments.

The idea for this Lenten offering, Duncan-Probe said, came shortly after she became president of the province and realized that geographically it encompassed “a rather large swath of what has been called the slave trade triangle.” In that transatlantic triangle, manufactured goods from Europe were transported for sale or trade in Africa, and Africans were kidnapped and sent to the Americas, where they were sold into slavery to work on plantations that produced sugar, cotton and other raw materials that were then sold back to Europe.

From the 1500s to the 1800s, 12.5 million Africans were sent as cargo across the Atlantic Ocean, and almost two million of them died in route. More than 4 million of them were sent to Brazil, most of the others went to the Caribbean, and the remaining 400,000 were brought to what today is the United States. By 1860, nearly 4 million men, women and children were enslaved in the United States.

Province II is particularly suited to offer these reflections because it is “multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual,” the Rev. Yamily Bass-Choate, who chaired the task force that helped produce the series, told ENS. It “brings a rich flavor of diversity,” including the five languages that are spoken in the province. Bass-Choate serves as the liaison for global mission for the Diocese of New York.

The first step in dealing with this legacy of pain and suffering is repentance, Duncan-Probe said, and for people of faith, change begins through prayer and liturgy. Using the form of the Way of the Cross will allow participants to “be part of the ongoing journey of Jesus both to the cross and then through resurrection,” she said.

But, she acknowledged, “there are profound, incomprehensible wounds that can never be healed through a liturgy.” This Lenten offering isn’t sufficient for that, she said, “but we have to start somewhere, with a faithful step, and continue.”

Duncan-Probe said she hopes that using these prayers and lamentations to seek God’s forgiveness for “our continued participation in an inhuman system” will be useful to others, too. Neva Rae Fox, provincial coordinator, told ENS that the service can serve “as a Lenten resource for private reflection and congregational discussion and as a teaching tool” for people across The Episcopal Church.

Technological assistance for the series was provided by Rachel Ravellette, communications director of the Diocese of Central New York, and Steve Welch, canon for communications of the Diocese of New Jersey. All but one set of reflections will be pre-recorded, and after Lent, all of them will be combined into one video for future use.

–Melodie Woerman is a freelance writer and former director of communications for the Diocese of Kansas.

[The Church of England] The General Synod of the Church of England will meet later this month in London to discuss the biodiversity agenda of the church’s overall environment program, racial justice, and Prayers of Love and Faith that ask for God’s blessing for same-sex couples.

General Synod will meet Feb. 23-27, and papers on Synod sessions have recently been published.

A Land and Nature motion will seek to give biodiversity equal consideration with net zero carbon, recognizing the need to respond urgently to the ecological crisis. The motion also addresses land and property owned by the church, at parish, diocese and national level.

Synod will be invited to discuss and endorse the process for engaging with two reports on safeguarding in the church: first, a report on lessons learned by the barrister Sarah Wilkinson, published in December, and second, recommendations from the forthcoming review from Alexis Jay into the Future of Church Safeguarding. The Archbishops’ Council has set up a group to advise it on how to respond to the reviews.

There also will be a report on progress on the work on Living in Love and Faith, resources on teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.

Read the entire article here.

[World Council of Churches] Commemorating the 1700th anniversary in 2025 of the Council of Nicaea is an inspiration to Christians today to work for the unity of the church, according to the Rev. Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches. At the Council of Nicaea, bishops representing the whole of Christendom gathered together for the first time to discuss the faith and witness of the church.

“Recalling the significance of the Council of Nicaea renews our call for full visible unity, the cornerstone of the ecumenical movement,” Pillay said in a greeting to a Feb. 8 webinar, “From Nicaea, Walking Together to Unity: The Beginning of a New Beginning.”

The WCC’s activities to commemorate Nicaea in 2025 will culminate in the Sixth World Conference on Faith and Order, to be held near Alexandra, Egypt, in October 2025, Pillay said.

Read the entire article here.

[Anglican Church of Canada] This month, the Anglican Church of Canada marks the 30th anniversary of the day it first consecrated a woman as bishop. The Rt. Rev. Victoria Matthews was consecrated as bishop on Feb. 12, 1994. She is currently the episcopal administrator of the Anglican Diocese of Moosonee and bishop in residence for St. Matthew’s Anglican Cathedral in Timmins.

Matthews was only the fifth woman to be consecrated as bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris of The Episcopal Church had been the first, in 1989.

In the 30 years since Matthews’ consecration, 21 more women have been elected as bishops in Canada. The Anglican Church of Canada will honor Matthews and celebrate women bishops with an online panel discussion on Feb.26.

Read the entire article here.

The Rev. Andrew Terry, the Diocese of Texas’ area missioner, explained how Episcopal churches can build community partnerships in rural America in a Feb. 9 webinar. The webinar was part of The Episcopal Church’s free monthly Festival Thursdays educational series, which serves as a continuation of the churchwide “It’s All About Love” festival held in June 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Screenshot

[Episcopal News Service] Seven months after hundreds of Episcopalians participated in “It’s All About Love,” a churchwide festival of learning, fellowship and worship held in Baltimore, Maryland, the church continues to provide learning opportunities through its free monthly Festival Thursdays webinars, held every second Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. Eastern.

The latest webinar, “Revival in Rural America,” took place Feb. 8 via Zoom. About 75 people participated.

“We are defining, discovering, dreaming, designing our way into our church that looks more like the love of Jesus,” said the Rev. Melanie Mullen, director of reconciliation, justice and creation care for The Episcopal Church, who hosted the webinar and moderated the Q&A discussion.

The Rev. Andrew Terry, the Diocese of Texas’ area missioner, presented how lay leaders from 14 congregations used a collaborative approach similar to Asset-Based Community Development to develop a “learning” community that launched four new missional initiatives and three new missional communities in the last two years.

“Area mission vitalizes congregations and their local communities by helping them build relationships and partnerships with their neighbors,” Terry said during the webinar. “Partnerships are organization to organization, like a church partnering with a public school.”

In The Episcopal Church, an area mission is a geographical location designated by a diocese for evangelization, congregational development and ministry development. Area missions sometimes can be established outside the boundaries of a diocese.

One of the partnerships Terry described was the rainbow room at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Navasota, a city with a population of about 8,000 an hour northwest of Houston. In Texas, rainbow rooms serve as statewide emergency resource for children and their families by providing necessities, such as clothing, baby formula, diapers, school supplies, hygiene items, cleaning supplies and nonperishable food. Child Protective Services caseworkers have unrestricted access to St. Paul’s rainbow room, where they can collect new items for children who’ve been removed from their homes. Most rainbow rooms are housed in government buildings and operated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. However, St. Paul’s rainbow room is the only one in Grimes County due to a lack of space in the county’s government buildings. Before St. Paul’s opened its rainbow room, caseworkers had to drive to the nearest rainbow rooms in neighboring Brazos and Washington counties.

“We weren’t starting anything new, on our own. We were listening to partner agencies and responding to what they expressed as a need,” Terry said. “I think what has emerged through this work is the congregation is beginning to think creatively about how they can build on this commitment to children and young people here locally in our area.”

The Diocese of Texas’ mission amplification team developed a five-step process to help congregations reimagine their approaches to serving local communities: Define, Discover, Dream, Design and Deploy. Photo: Screenshot

Terry said the diocese’s mission amplification team helps churches “live fully into the body of Christ by forming individuals into the image of Christ.” It developed a five-step process to help congregations reimagine their approaches to serving local communities:

Define: Acquire a clear picture of the community in question.

Discover: Share your story and observe what the local community needs. Consider issues within a local context.

Dream: Consider what God is calling you to do.

Design: Use your assets and strengths to maximize impact.

Deploy: Act and measure results.

Participants were divided into breakout rooms for a few minutes to practice using some of the processes to descriptively share when they witnessed an Episcopal congregation at its best when connecting with a local community. Listeners took notes and listed the theme of the stories, as well as any keywords or phrases that encapsulated the overall subject matter. When they returned from the breakout rooms, participants shared the keywords and phrases they wrote down and looked for themes across all the stories. “Need,” “service” and “community” were common keywords. Terry then recited 2 Timothy 1:3-7 and asked participants to write down keywords and phrases, as well as to reflect on how that portion of scripture relates to the revival in rural America theme.

“I want you to listen with that theme of reviving a rekindling in a congregation. … Where we found revival happening in rural America — in rural Texas — is where two or three lay leaders, to use Jesus’s phrase, ‘gather around a single spark of possibility,’” Terry said. “The way that we get there is by discerning.”

The webinar concluded with Terry answering questions, and comments from participants. Several people brainstormed how they can best apply the five-step process to address the immediate concerns of their congregations, from providing a grief group to providing transportation in rural communities, to finding ways to help elderly parishioners remain active in their church communities. Terry mentioned as an example that St. Paul’s established a gardeners’ guild for retired parishioners who are master gardeners to teach gardening skills to younger people.

“We’re trying to help congregations discover their unique spiritual charism and, in my opinion, God has placed spiritual gifts into every congregation specifically for their context,” Terry said. “I believe that charism carries over time, carries even over generations. But it doesn’t mean that we do the same activities across generations. The charism remains in continuity, but the practices and activities change with context.”

A recording of the “Revival in Rural America” webinar is available here. The next Festival Thursdays webinar, taking place March 14, will focus on racial reconciliation.

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

[Diocese of North Dakota] Bishop Brian Thom, who led the Diocese of Idaho until resigning in 2022, has been elected by the Diocese of North Dakota to serve part time as bishop provisional.

A Special Convention for the election of a bishop provisional took place on Jan. 7.  Thom succeeds Bishop Tom Ely, who had served as bishop provisional since January 2021. Ely led the Diocese of Vermont until he resigned in 2019.

Bishop Keith Whitmore, who resigned as the Diocese of Eau Claire’s bishop in 2008 to become assistant bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, served as assisting bishop in North Dakota from 2019 to 2021.

Bishop Michael G. Smith resigned from the Diocese of North Dakota in 2019 and went on to serve as a part-time assistant bishop in the Diocese of Dallas before becoming an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Albany.

[The Church of England] Attendance at Church of England cathedrals continued to bounce back following the pandemic, new statistics for 2022 published on Feb. 8 show.

Figures show that adult usual Sunday attendance rose 60% between 2021 and 2022 for the 42 Church of England mainland cathedrals, to 12,300 adults. A total of 28,200 people, including children, attended services every week, according to Cathedral Statistics 2022.

Over the year there were 584,000 attendances at specially arranged services – not included in average weekly attendance – such as school services. The number of special services stood at 2,100. The total reported attendance at Christmas services stood at 104,000.

However the figures had not yet reached pre-pandemic levels of attendance.

Read the entire article here.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Rt. Rev. Jo Bailey Wells, the Anglican Communion’s deputy secretary general and bishop for episcopal ministry, attended a meeting with Pope Francis and his international Council of Cardinals on Feb. 5 at the Vatican in Rome.

Two other women also were invited to address the meeting: Linda Pocher, a Salesian sister and professor at the Pontifical Auxilium; and Giuliva Di Beradino, a consecrated sister and teacher from the Diocese of Verona in Italy.

According to the Vatican Press Office, Pope Francis and the cardinals are continuing to deepen “their reflection, begun last December, on the role of women in the church.” This meeting was part of a series of four seminars, during which they are seeking to listen to diverse voices and issues on the subject.

Wells said, “Many have suggested this was an historic moment. Certainly, I was honored to be invited to describe the Anglican journey in regard to the ordination of women, both in the Church of England and across the [Anglican] Communion. There was deep engagement and some good discussion. And in the aftermath, I am just amazed at the interest from Catholics all around the world. I hope and pray it will serve to enable more women to explore and fulfill the calling God gives to each one of us.”

A man and a toddler are silhouetted as they pose for a souvenir photo with a giant dragon lantern decorated near the popular Houhai Lake in Beijing, China, Feb. 8, 2024. The 2024 Lunar New Year — widely celebrated in China, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries with significant Chinese populations — will take place on Feb. 10, which marks the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac. Photo: Andy Wong/AP

[Episcopal News Service] The Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel, California, will host a public Lunar New Year celebration Feb. 11 with a special Eucharist reflecting its congregation’s Chinese heritage.

“[The Lunar New Year celebration] is an opportunity to bring awareness and also an opportunity to connect people to the church with so many new immigrants coming into our communities, especially from mainland China,” the Rev. Thomas Ni, associate for Chinese ministry for the Church of Our Savior, told Episcopal News Service. 

The Lunar New Year is the beginning of the new year based on the lunisolar calendar. It falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. This year, it falls on Feb. 10, marking the start of the year 4721 on the Chinese calendar. Lunar New Year is widely celebrated in China, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries with significant Chinese populations. In China, the Lunar New Year is known as the Spring Festival; in South Korea, it’s known as Seollal; in Vietnam, it’s known as Tết.

Family-oriented celebrations last for 15 days and include various traditions, such as giving red envelopes with money to children, serving a whole fish at dinner, cleaning homes in the days leading up to Lunar New Year’s Eve and decorating doorways with red banners bearing auspicious phrases. In China, Lunar New Year celebrations conclude with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day. During the festival, people light lanterns and carry them around their neighborhoods as a symbol of driving out darkness and bringing hope in the coming year.

Each new year is named after an animal in an established order following the Chinese zodiac and repeated every 12 years: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. Unlike the Western zodiac, the animals of the Chinese zodiac are unaffiliated with constellations, and not all Lunar New Year celebrants observe the Chinese zodiac.

“Your year gives you some attributes, the same as when you look at the horoscope,” the Rev. Pamela Tang, The Episcopal Church’s interim missioner for Asiamerica Ministries and a deacon at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City, told ENS. “You can look at your Chinese zodiac and say, ‘OK, this is who I am, and it explains my strengths and weaknesses.’”

Ni told ENS that teaching and learning about Lunar New Year has been beneficial for both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking congregants. Ni also serves as executive director of the Li Tim-Oi Center, which is housed at the Church of Our Savior. Named for the Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi, the center has been providing lay leadership training for Chinese ministry since its inception in 2014.

The Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel, California, is home of the Li Tim-Oi Center, which has been providing lay leadership training for Chinese ministry since its inception in 2014. The center is named after the Rev. Florence Li Tim-Oi, the first woman ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion and a native of Hong Kong. Photo: Courtesy of the Church of Our Savior

Li Tim-Oi, a native of Hong Kong, became the first woman ordained a priest in the Anglican Communion on Jan. 25, 1944. The Episcopal Church celebrates her feast day on Jan. 24. This year’s Lunar New Year celebration at Church of Our Savior will honor the 80th anniversary of Li Tim-Oi’s ordination with a panel discussion on women in ministry on Feb. 10 in the church’s sanctuary. Panelists will include the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, The Episcopal Church’s 26th and first female presiding bishop; the Rev. Fennie Chang, vicar of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hacienda Heights, California; the Rev. Melissa McCarthy, canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of Los Angeles; and the Rev. Mary Tororeiy, vicar of St. Paul’s Episcopal and Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran churches in Barstow, California. The Rev. Susan Russell, canon for engagement across difference in the Diocese of Los Angeles and a part-time member of the pastoral and preaching staff at All Saints Church in Pasadena, will serve as the moderator.

“I think the celebration, especially the panel discussion, will deepen understanding about the ordination and ministry of people of color,” Ni told ENS.

The Church of Our Savior will also feature an art exhibit featuring paintings depicting women in the Bible by James He Qi, artist-in-residence at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and distinguished visiting professor at the Art Institute of Renmin University of China in Beijing.

The Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel, California, has a growing Chinese congregation. Currently, the church’s congregation averages between 125 and 150 parishioners for Sunday worship services, at least 50 of whom are of Chinese descent. Worship services are available in both English and Mandarin. Photo: Courtesy of the Church of Our Savior

The Church of Our Savior’s congregation averages between 125 and 150 parishioners for Sunday worship services, at least 50 of whom are of Chinese descent. Worship services are available in both English and Mandarin.

The Church of Our Savior doesn’t host Lunar New Year celebrations every year. Instead, it rotates celebrations with two other Los Angeles-area parishes with Chinese congregations: St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Monterey Park and St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hacienda Heights.

This year’s celebration will include live music featuring Chinese instruments and a traditional lion dance. In a lion dance, performers dress in lion costumes and dance to mimic a lion’s movements. Each costume is controlled by two performers — one performer controls the head’s movements while the other controls the rear end. Volunteers will also walk the parish hall in a large dragon costume during Eucharist in honor of the Year of the Dragon. The altar guild will play a Chinese gong throughout the liturgy. 

“I see celebrating the Lunar New Year as a wonderful, outward and visible sign of the breadth, depth, and hope of our church as we get more multicultural and less homogeneous; that the Holy Spirit is at work in our church; and that there are wonderful things happening that we can embrace and celebrate going forward,” said the Rev. Jeff Thornberg, rector of the Church of Our Savior. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to focus on our unity and our future together.”

A year ago, a mass shooting occurred during a Lunar New Year’s Eve celebration in Monterey Park, killing 11 people and injuring nine others. The shooting occurred down the street from St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, a parish that holds worship services in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. No one affiliated with the Church of Our Savior was directly harmed, but some parishioners knew the victims.

“Last year’s Lunar New Year celebrations were darkened by that event, but this year we’re going to have a wonderful celebration that isn’t darkened by the violence that happened last year,” said Hannah Riley, associate for congregational life for the Church of Our Savior.

Although the perpetrator was Asian and the motive remains unknown, the shooting has exacerbated ongoing fears of violence against Asian Americans, who’ve experienced an uptick in hate crimes, xenophobia and racial discrimination in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

“It’s been a big challenge for the Chinese community,” Ni said. “[At the Church of Our Savior] we try to comfort the people. We give them the love of God and educate the public.”

Ni said that the Li Tim-Oi Center hosted a leadership training class on social justice, racial inequality and community building in response to the increased discrimination against Asian people in recent years. The center also produced eight short videos on those topics that have been distributed among Chinese parishioners in Mandarin through WeChat, a Chinese social media platform. The videos will soon be available in English as well.

Tang also said that sharing cultures helps build understanding among communities, citing the story of St. Brigid of Kildare tending a perpetual flame that was sacred to the community in pre-Christian Ireland.

“We need to incorporate cultures into Christianity because we can embrace people who know who they are,” she said. “It’s in the places where the missionaries embraced the local cultures where Christianity flourished.”

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