[World Council of Churches] In an address before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Jan. 27, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew spoke of how religion can provide a unique perspective in the objective to eradicate poverty and hunger, to address fundamentalism and racism, and to advance tolerance and dialogue.
“Churches and religious communities are not only pivotal in people’s personal or spiritual lives,” he said. “They also reserve a critical role in mobilizing institutions and societies on manifold levels.”
He also emphasized the urgency of protecting our planet. “We are convinced that what we do for the earth is intimately related to what we do for people, whether in the context of human rights, international politics, or world peace,” the ecumenical patriarch said. “In other words, the way we respond to climate change is intimately connected to the way we respond to human challenges.”
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew serves as the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
Episcopal News Service (ENS) offers in-depth reporting of local, regional, national and international news for Episcopalians and others interested in the church’s mission and ministry. Episcopal News Service is the official news source of the Episcopal Church.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
[Episcopal News Service] Faith-based and humanitarian groups across the world were setting in motion appeals for aid and prayers as response expands in the wake of the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey on February 6, 2023, according to the World Council of Churches.
Episcopal Relief & Development mobilizing with partners
Churches in Syria are cooperating with the Middle East Council of Churches. They continue to call on the international community and the international ecumenical family to provide urgent emergency aid to the region.
The Middle East Council of Churches is also urging the immediate lifting of sanctions on Syria to allow access to all materials. This is according to Episcopal Relief & Development, the organization that coordinates The Episcopal Church’s response to human suffering in the world. Episcopal Relief & Development is mobilizing with its long-term partners in the region to respond. For more information or to support the effort, visit Urgent: Please Help Earthquake Relief Efforts.
“The reports from Turkey and Syria are heart-wrenching,” said Abagail Nelson, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Episcopal Relief & Development. “We have worked closely with ACT Alliance in our response to the crisis in Ukraine and we will continue to partner to meet the immediate needs of the affected communities in Turkey and Syria.”
Working through Action by Churches Together Alliance (ACT Alliance), Episcopal Relief & Development will rapidly respond to the disaster through existing networks by providing supplies. This includes the following items:
Winterization kits
Hot meals and other food
Medicine
Emergency support
ACT Alliance is also in contact with other local partners as they assess the needs of their communities.
Churches in Syria have started to provide direct relief to the affected people. Following the instructions of the Head of the Holy Land John X, patriarch of Antioch and the rest of Al-Mashriq, the Department of Housing Relations and Development continues its relief and emergency response work in the areas affected by the earthquake, the WCC reported.
Harma
In Hama, the department’s team visited both the National Hospital and the affected area in the Arbaeen district. They provided meals to civil defense personnel and rubble removal workers, as well as to the injured, their families, and the medical staff at the hospital.
The team conducted a needs survey of displaced people from Aleppo and Latakia arriving in Kafarbo region in Hama. There they are providing food, drink, blankets, and clothes, as well as distributing food baskets to affected families in Al-Sqilbia and its countryside.
Lattakia
In Lattakia, the patriarchate team provided the following:
A large collection of medicines to the Tishrin University Hospital to treat the injured
Food rations to the injured families arriving at the National Hospital
Sets of winter clothing to the injured arriving at Assad University Hospital
Food rations at Al-Basil Shelter Center
The team in Latakia also provided food rations to these people:
The arrivals to the halls of churches that opened their doors to receive those who lost their homes
Children’s rations in the hall of Yassin Mosque
They also provided a large number of blankets and meals to civil defense workers.
The team also provided Jabla Hospital The Patriotic with blankets, sheets, sprayers, and emergency medicines.
Aleppo
In Aleppo, the team secured basic daily necessities to receive the affected families—an estimated 1,000 people—in the halls of Mar Elias Orthodox Church. This is in addition to securing relief supplies for the displaced people.
An engineering team in Aleppo began field visits to dozens of homes of affected families to provide assistance by repairing the cracks caused by the earthquake.
ACT Alliance calling for donations
The ACT Alliance has issued an alert, calling for donations to support people in need.
As the scale of the disaster continues to be discovered, ACT members are checking in with their own staff teams, conducting rapid needs assessments, and already working to provide life-saving supplies to impacted people.
Plans are underway from other ACT members—in addition to those mentioned above—to supply the following:
Winterization materials
Ambulances
Other needed supplies as the extent of the need is known
Lutheran World Federation earthquake relief efforts
The number of victims continues to rise as work is undertaken to rescue survivors trapped under rubble. Many buildings collapsed completely, including hospitals and other public facilities.
“What is being reported at this point may only be the tip of the iceberg,” said Allan Calma, Lutheran World Federation global humanitarian coordinator.
Search and rescue operations have started in the affected areas. It is a race against time as the temperatures in the region are below zero. There is a need for medical supplies, food, water, shelter and sanitation.
“Temperatures are dropping and it is snowing in much of the region, with freezing temperatures expected in the coming days,” Calma added. “Urgent access to shelter is a priority with many people fearing to shelter inside due to aftershocks. Reportedly, a lot of people are sleeping in cars and car parks.”
The situation is especially challenging in Northern Syria, a war-torn area that is not controlled by the government. It is cut off from the usual aid mechanisms. The region has called for international help. Many aid organizations are affected as well, with staff and their families killed or missing.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal leaders joined those from other Christian denominations at a service led by Pope Francis in Rome on January 25, 2023, as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Bishop Mark Edington and others from the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, as well as staff from the presiding bishop’s office, represented The Episcopal Church at the vespers service.
The papal service, held at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, marks the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. It is a chance for Christians from different traditions to unite in common worship, said the Rev. Austin Rios. Rios is rector of St. Paul’s Within the Walls, a convocation church named for its status as the first Protestant church built within the walls of Rome.
“All of the different churches are connecting in this place, kind of like the roads that lead to Rome,” Rios told Episcopal News Service.
This was his 10th time attending the papal service, traditionally held on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, in the church believed to be built over the tomb of St. Paul. Usually, Rios said, the pope greets the representatives from Protestant and Orthodox churches before and after the service, but because of the pope’s poor health, greetings were limited this year.
“But he did greet us after the service, so we were able to pass on the good wishes of The Episcopal Church to him and also to congratulate him on Argentina’s victory in the World Cup,” Rios told ENS.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was started in 1908 by Episcopalians with the specific goal of reuniting with the Roman Catholic Church. It has since become an annual ecumenical observance sponsored by the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity.
The Episcopal Church in Rome
By chance, the January 25 vespers service happened to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of St. Paul’s Within the Walls, though that celebration isn’t being held until January 29, Rios said. The Rev. Stephanie Spellers, canon to the presiding bishop for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care, was also in Rome to meet with convocation leaders and prepare for a revival in Europe in March.
“There’s a vibrant ecumenical life here, and we’re trying to help move it from surface niceties to a deeper connection and ministry. I think that begins by friendship, and I appreciated that Stephanie and the team and the visitors got to experience a little bit of that, and hopefully we can do more of that in the future,” Rios said.
“I had no concept of what it would mean or feel like to attend evening vespers led by Pope Francis, with the voices of Christians of every kind from so many nations,” Spellers told ENS. “These moments of unity and hope feel like a glimpse of the dream of God on this Earth.”
—Egan Millard is an assistant editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at emillard@episcopalchurch.org.
Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us.
We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
[Episcopal News Service] The World Council of Churches’ 11th Assembly, described as “the most diverse Christian gathering of its size in the world,” opened August 31, 2022, in Karlsruhe, Germany, with leaders expressing a desire for a new era of Christian unity to counter the proliferation of global crises in the 21st century.
At an opening press conference, Acting General Secretary the Rev. Ioan Sauca noted that since the 2013 Assembly, the world has seen massive changes, many of them arising from political and cultural divisions. The Assembly’s theme – “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity” – is more relevant than ever, he said.
“Karlsruhe will be a new beginning,” Sauca said. “We have to come together as Christians, more united in addressing the challenges of the world. Because Christian unity is linked to the unity of all creation.”
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Assembly opening address
WCC Moderator Agnes Abuom, in her opening address, added a tone of urgency to the Assembly, telling delegates that unity is the only way to address the existential crisis of climate change.
“Listen carefully to youth among us,” Abuom said. “They are the generation that is experiencing the first catastrophes of [the] climate crisis and the last generation that can take any action to stop global warming.”
She also expressed hope that the Assembly would rise to the challenge.
“At its best,” Aboum said, “the Assembly is a spiritual celebration of the power of God’s love to renew our minds and hearts so that we may become a countercultural force driven by solidarity with the most vulnerable people and God’s creation.”
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures, and therefore seek to fulfil together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is a community of churches on the way to visible unity in one faith and one eucharistic fellowship, expressed in worship and in common life in Christ. It seeks to advance towards this unity, as Jesus prayed for his followers, “so that the world may believe.” (John 17:21)
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is the broadest and most inclusive among the many organized expressions of the modern ecumenical movement, a movement whose goal is Christian unity.
Church of the Redeemer
Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.
Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.
Spring forward this Sunday, March 8, 2026. Daylight saving time starts.
Stop by The Hangar at Kenmore Town Square anytime between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm for Ashes to Go on Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025.
3rd Sunday in Lent (Year A), March 8, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music). Christian education for children and adults at 9:15 am. Spring forward one hour for the start of Daylight Saving Time.
