Week Ending 7/19/21

 Episcopal Church speaks Out on Caribbean Crises

The international nature of The Episcopal Church was clear this last week as church leaders responded to the  ongoing demonstrations in Cuba and the assassination of the President of Haiti. Cuba was readmitted as a diocese in The Episcopal Church at the last General Convention, and the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti is has the largest number of members of any Episcopal Diocese.  The Episcopal News Service had stories on both places.  In Cuba, Bishop Griselda Delgado del Carpio released a statement supporting demonstrations for peace and life, stressing the hardships that the people had been facing and their right to peacefully protest their grievances.  Presiding Bishop Michael Curry offered his support in a July 13 statement, noting in part “I stand in solidarity with you during this time of sickness, food insecurity, economic suffering and civil unrest. I am praying for you, and I stand for the human rights of all peaceful protesters.” The ENS story on Haiti stressed the way the church was a center of relief for the hardships Haitians faced and the way that the churches have been hindered by the endemic violence and the pandemic, losing three key church leaders in June.  The assassination of the president has placed church members in an even more difficult position. 

Continuing Stories

News Services Highlight Church Prayer Responses to Mass Shootings

Update has regularly covered activities of the Episcopal Bishops Against Gun Violence and has had stories on the litany for victims of mass shootings first written in 2018 and updated multiple times since then.  The Washington Post just had a feature article covering the latest version of the litany and similar kinds of prayer actions taken by other religious groups including Roman Catholic Jewish traditions.  It cites some of the prayers and notes that the Episcopal litany keeps getting longer as new shootings occur.    For previous update stories on the litany go here, here, and here.

Episcopal Church Statement on Involvement in Indigenous Boarding Schools

Following the announcements of large numbers of graves at Canadian boarding schools for Indigenous tribe children, and the anger in Canada that sparked several church arsons, The Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies have issued a statement acknowledging The Episcopal Church's own involvement in similar boarding schools in the United States.  The statements stressed the Church's desire to work with indigenous communities,  called on Executive Council to have proposals fro further action ready to present at General Convention 2022, and the need for the church to honestly face its own past failings in treatment of native peoples.