Winter storm prompts cancellations, online services as it brings precipitation to over half the country

Snow blankets the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Baltimore, Maryland, on Jan. 25, 2026. In-person services were cancelled here and at many other churches in the path of the winter storm that dropped precipitation on 29 states and the District of Columbia. Photo: Facebook

[Episcopal News Service] A winter storm that spread snow, freezing rain and sleet across the United States from New Mexico to Maine prompted the cancellation of Sunday services, events and annual meetings for Episcopal churches in its path.

In all, 29 states and the District of Columbia were affected, according to precipitation totals from the National Weather Service. Those impacted stretched deep into the South, including in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia.

At Washington National Cathedral, as was the case for many other churches in the path of what was called Winter Storm Fern, in-person worship on Sunday, Jan. 25 was replaced by an online service. In their case, cathedral dean the Very Rev. Randy Hollerith, other clergy and musicians recorded a service on Saturday morning ahead of the storm for broadcast on Sunday morning. The church and its offices remained closed on Jan. 26.

A staff member of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City shovels snow off the steps on Jan. 26, 2026, so the building could open. The city saw more than 11 inches of snow. Photo: Facebook

St. Peter’s in Lebanon, Indiana, offered an online service of Morning Prayer, while the Episcopal Church of the Advent and St. Thomas Deaf Church, which worship in the same building in Crestwood, Missouri, joined for a service on Zoom.

St. Andrew’s in Lexington, Kentucky, directed its members to a prerecorded “snow service” provided by St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Snow arrived a bit later in New York City, allowing St. Bartholomew’s to be open for services on Jan. 25, but its building was closed the next day. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine was open on Monday, thanks to the efforts of cathedral staff to remove from the cathedral steps some of the 11 inches of snow that fell on the city.

Kanuga Conference Center near Hendersonville, North Carolina, posted icy photos of its campus on Facebook and indicated it had only a few downed trees on its property after receiving half an inch of freezing rain.

Parts of Mississippi suffered severe damage from freezing rain that brought down trees and power lines. A photo of a damaged church sign and broken tree branches encased in ice on the grounds of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, Mississippi, were shared on Facebook by Oxford meteorologist Eric Graves, along with other scenes of damage across the city. The weather service said the city received an inch of freezing rain.

Graves said the level of damage he saw was the equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane.

The Rev. Don Chancellor, rector of Church of the Nativity in Greenwood, Mississippi – 80 miles southwest of Oxford – said in a Jan. 25 Facebook post that he saw “significant amounts of trees, limbs and lines down” in the city as he drove to the church. While many homes and businesses were without power, the church had lights and heat, and he invited anyone needing a place to get warm or to recharge their phone to stop in.

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