Summary
WGN 9 Chicago – Women breaking through to top roles in Black churches – “I can’t tell you how many times people said, ‘Yes sir,’ to me,” she said. “I just remind them, ‘Yes ma’am’ is OK.”
Essex News Daily – Church increases number of parishioners – Wilcox said the pandemic was an emotional hit for the church, but worship quickly went virtual.
Episcopal News Service – Oregon parish, diocese sue city for restricting feeding ministry – St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Brookings, Oregon, and the Diocese of Oregon are suing the city of Brookings, arguing that the city’s attempt to limit the church’s ministry of feeding the homeless and hungry violates its right to religious freedom.
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Women breaking through to top roles in Black churches
WGN 9 Chicago
When an opening for bishop arose in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in 2010, Teresa Jefferson-Snorton looked around to see if any women were offering to be candidates.
None were.
She knew that since its founding 140 years earlier by Black Methodists emerging from slavery, the denomination had never elected a woman bishop.
“I was like, oh my goodness, this can’t be,” she recalled. “If no one steps forward, it gives the church a pass.”
Jefferson-Snorton, who had spent decades as a pastor, chaplain and theological educator, undertook several months of intensive prayer before discerning she was “feeling a call to this” from God. Then she put her name forward.
Church increases number of parishioners
Essex News Daily – Glen Ridge, NJ
As with every house of worship during the pandemic, Christ Episcopal Church in Glen Ridge has had a difficult time, with its members locked down and in-person services curtailed. But as with other houses of worship, there has been resilience.
“We were hit hard, like a lot of people,” said the Rev. Diana Wilcox during a telephone interview on Friday, Jan. 21. “We had to shut down our nursery school, but it is now reopened.”
Wilcox said the pandemic was an emotional hit for the church, but worship quickly went virtual. The church closed its doors to the public on March 15, 2020.
Oregon parish, diocese sue city for restricting feeding ministry
St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Brookings, Oregon, and the Diocese of Oregon are suing the city of Brookings, arguing that the city’s attempt to limit the church’s ministry of feeding the homeless and hungry violates its right to religious freedom. The parish and diocese filed the lawsuit in federal court on Jan. 28 in response to a recent city law that cuts the weekly number of meals St. Timothy’s can serve in half.
“The restrictions imposed by the city target and interfere with the congregation’s free expression of their Christian faith which calls them to serve others in need,” the diocese wrote in its announcement of the lawsuit, which asks the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and block its enforcement.
Episcopal team to launch virtual reality church services in metaverse, all avatars welcome
Episcopal News Service
Your Zoom church? It’s so 2020. This year, Episcopal liturgies are about to enter the metaverse. The metaverse is the term increasingly applied to experiences in virtual reality, or VR, in which users wear internet-connected headsets and manipulate hand controllers to immerse themselves in an entirely digital world. A team led by Episcopal clergy is developing a church space in VR called Web3 Abbey, and they plan to welcome the first worshipers to their avatar-friendly liturgy on Feb. 28.
Church, library join in citizen science project
Livingston County News – Honeoye Falls, NY
The Very Rev. Virginia Tyler Smith and her congregation at St. John’s Episcopal Church wanted to reach out beyond the congregation and do something with the broader community. After much discussion, they established a relationship with Mendon Public Library, 22 North Main St., and decided to move forward on a project that would connect the church, community and the natural world.