Amy Spagna is a priest from the Diocese of Virginia. She has served parishes in Bethlehem and Rhode Island, where she focused primarily on formation, pastoral care, and communications. She will be spending the upcoming academic year as an STM student at the School of Theology at Sewanee. Amy’s secular interests include singing, cooking, coffee, ice hockey, and learning to play the piano.
In an interview this morning with the NPR station in Vermont, Bishop MacVean-Brown shared her reflections on her new ministry.
“If the church is going to really, truly be inclusive, like we dream, people that have been excluded are actually the ones that are experts on how that can happen,” MacVean-Brown said. “Once I grabbed onto that, I realized, ‘Okay, I can’t remain a priest just for black people.’ And that’s where I was. I was the rector of […]
From the Episcopal Church Public Affairs Office:
The Episcopal Church condemns the administration’s decision to reduce the number of refugees and further dismantle the refugee resettlement program. We also strongly condemn the decision to allow states and localities to reject refugees. The historic average for annual refugee admissions has been 95,000. The FY2020 determination of 18,000 refugees is the lowest in the forty year history of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us […]
Via the Episcopal Church Office for Public Affairs:
A Message of Love and Solidarity from the Bishops and Spouses to The Episcopal Church
For many bishops and bishops’ spouses of The Episcopal Church, next summer’s Lambeth Conference has become the occasion for a mixture of joy and sorrow, hope and disappointment. We cherish the bonds of affection that we enjoy with our Anglican siblings around the world. Gathering in prayer, study, and fellowship with our spiritual family is a gift for which […]
According to a press release from ENS, members of the House of Bishops stepped out of their meetings this afternoon in Minneapolis to participate in the climate strike. Bishops Marc Andrus of California and Douglas Fisher of Western Massachusetts authored the following statement:
Tens of thousands of young people are mobilizing at this moment in New York and across the United States, standing up for climate action and climate justice. Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist who electrified […]
The Baltimore Sun reported yesterday on a congregation in Baltimore which is actively working to understand its role in promoting slavery in the 19th century.
The Rev. Natalie Conway’s tenure as the new deacon of Memorial Episcopal Church in Baltimore’s Bolton Hill was by all accounts going well last year when she received news that sparked a personal crisis and sent shock waves through the congregation.
One of Conway’s siblings, who was conducting genealogical research on their […]
From the seminary’s press release:
Virginia Theological Seminary recognizes that enslaved persons worked on the campus, and that even after slavery ended, VTS participated in segregation. VTS recognizes that we must start to repair the material consequences of our sin in the past.
The income from the endowment will be allocated annually in conversation with key stakeholders for the following purposes:
the needs emerging from local congregations linked with VTS;
the particular needs of any descendants of enslaved persons that worked at the Seminary;
the […]
The Rev. Peter Munson, a recently retired priest from Colorado, is walking across the U.S. to raise awareness and raise money on behalf of four nonprofits which work directly with children (the REMAR Children’s Home and School in El Salvador, the Denver-based Street Fraternity, Episcopal Relief and Development, and the Episcopal Church in Colorado). Munson calculated it would take nearly 6 million steps to walk from Charleston, South Carolina to San Francisco. So far, he’s trekked through locales such as […]
For a bit of whimsy on a Friday afternoon, we have two reports from England of unusually creative ways to highlight the space of cathedrals. Following last week’s news that Rochester Cathedral had installed a miniature golf course in its nave, Norwich Cathedral followed suit by installing a helter skelter:
A cathedral has installed a 55ft-tall helter skelter in its nave so that visitors can enjoy a better view of its ornate roof.
The Rev Canon Andy Bryant, […]
In the latest court filing involving the Church in South Carolina (TECSC)’s property disputes with the ACNA diocese, TECSC has filed motions to dismiss.
Late yesterday, on Thursday, July 18, 2019, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina (TECSC) filed multiple motions with the U.S. District Court in Charleston asking the federal court to dismiss motions and counterclaims filed by the Church Insurance Company of Vermont (CIC-VT). In the initial filing on June 11, 2019, TECSC argued that CIC-VT acted […]
This very question is the subject of two essays published this week. The first, “Christ and Care for the Marginalized” by Peter Robinson, is located on The Living Church’s Covenant blog, and is part of an ongoing series prepared as part of the preparation for the Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod. The second, “Jesus and the Theological Priority of the Marginalized” by Brian Walsh, is available here. Both essays explore the underpinnings of the practice of pastoral care for […]
