On Pentecost Sunday, six days after George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis, 47 people at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Chicago attended an online evening prayer service to mourn him and other Black people killed by racist violence. “We reflected on how people felt powerless in this moment,” said Elizabeth Moriarty, a…
With infection and death rates in the COVID-19 pandemic surging in communities of color, the diocese’s Antiracism Commission sponsored a Tuesday evening teleconference on “COVID-19, Health Disparities and Systemic Racism: How do we respond as people of faith?” Almost 150 participants joined Bishop Jeff Lee and other diocesan leaders to hear a four-person panel discuss…
Dear friends, After consultation with the Standing Committee, we decided today to delay the election of my successor as your bishop due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We now plan to elect the next bishop of Chicago at our annual diocesan convention, currently scheduled for November 20-21 at the Westin Hotel in Lombard. Due to this…
At diocesan convention in November, the Rev. Raymond Massenburg and the Rev. Isaac Bonney co-sponsored resolutions that address the clean water crisis facing the west African country of Ghana and the trafficking of children in both Accra, Ghana’s capital city, and Chicago. Both measures, which passed unanimously, got their start in a journey the two…
At the church where I serve, we have been debating whether the native flowers planted in our memorial garden should be deadheaded as the summer growing season gives way to fall and winter. If we leave the spent blooms intact over the winter, people may assume we’re neglecting to care for our garden – and…
In the season in which Christians remember their dead, Bishop Jeff Lee and the founders of Sacred Design Lab convened a two-day gathering at the Nicholas Center to explore the rituals in which people seek meaning, transformation and a sense of belonging. Not quite half of those who gathered were Episcopal liturgists or musicians. The…
