‘Font relay’ brings antique sacramental items to their new church home

Fourteen Episcopalians volunteered to transfer a baptismal font, an altar cross and a processional cross from Fryeburg, Maine, to Riverside Episcopal Church in McCalla, Alabama. The journey was dubbed the “font relay” on Facebook. Photo: Melissa Bailey [Episcopal News Service] Ten states; 1,560 miles. Eleven parishes and a seminary student; 14 adult volunteers and a…

Saint Augustine’s University loses appeal, pursues arbitration in fight to keep accreditation

[Episcopal News Service] Saint Augustine’s University, the historically Black college with Episcopal roots in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been dealt another setback in its ongoing fight for survival after its accrediting agency denied the school’s latest appeal. The accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC, is in the…

Los Angeles-area church’s ministry brings new dresses to girls, renewed energy to congregation

[Diocese of Los Angeles] Members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pomona, California, launched a ministry to help dress young girls around the world and revitalized community in their own backyard. On a recent Saturday, about a dozen women and men in the church’s Sophia room were busily laying out patterns, cutting, stitching and ironing…

Wisconsin church turns basement storage room into intimate theater hosting professional shows

Acacia Theatre Company rehearses ” An Inspector Calls” in the theater space that St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church created in a former storage room in its basement. Photo: Acacia Theatre Company [Episcopal News Service] Inside St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in River Hills, Wisconsin, a short walk down a flight of stairs gets you to a small but…

Ash Wednesday services help people mark the start of Lent churchwide

The Rev. Bryan Velez of the Diocese of Puerto Rico offers ashes to a woman on a street in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, on Ash Wednesday. Photo: Facebook [Episcopal News Service] Churches across The Episcopal Church marked Ash Wednesday with services and the imposition of ashes in churches, parks, online, on city streets and other…

Lenten effort will aid Solomon Islands and work in Jerusalem and the Middle East

[Anglican Taonga] The 2025 Anglican Missions’ Lenten Appeal offers Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia donors a chance to support climate resilience in the Solomon Islands — notably on the climate-change affected Pacific atoll of Ontong Java — and the humanitarian work of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East in Gaza and the…

Episcopal Church signs Church World Service ecumenical declaration in support of immigrants

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Church is one of 45 religious groups to initially sign Church World Service’s declaration calling on faith communities nationwide to stand against anti-immigrant policies through advocacy and prayer. Church World Service, of which The Episcopal Church is a “covenant member,” is an ecumenical organization that provides international disaster relief and…

Episcopal churches to impose ‘Ashes to Go’ on Ash Wednesday, continuing 15-year tradition

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] Episcopal…

Church transforms underprivileged English community thanks to flurry of nature grants

[Church of England] A church in the heart of one of the country’s most underprivileged areas is bringing local people together and helping them with their mental health and wellbeing, thanks to the launch of a series of environmental projects. Ten thousand people live in East Marsh in Grimsby. For many years it was home to…

Australian diocese offers gender-based violence forum ahead of International Women’s Day

[Melbourne Anglican] Melbourne Anglicans will learn about the diocese’s gender-based violence work in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, often referred to as CALD,  in the lead up to this International Women’s Day, March 8. The Preventing Violence Against Women in Multicultural and Faith-Based Communities forum, taking place at at St. Philip’s, Collingwood on March 7,…