News

Following the Racial Justice Commission's annual work retreat in February, its co-chairs report progress on two key projects adopted at recent Diocesan Conventions, and they commend the commission's five subcommittees for undertaking an evaluation of the mandates that have guided their work since their formation four years ago--with an eye toward updating those mandates to meet the moment.

In 2019, the Rev. Cristina Rathbone decided to leave MANNA, her Cathedral Church of St. Paul-based ministry among unhoused people in Boston, in order to spend a season on the U.S.-Mexico border at a time when migrant families, including asylum seekers, were being apprehended and separated under the first Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. The Asylum Seekers: A Chronicle of Life, Death and Community at the Border, her new book about that experience and the people she encountered, is just out from Broadleaf Books, along with a reader's guide from Episcopal Migration Ministries.

The Bishop John M. Burgess Massachusetts Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians, together with the diocesan Office of Immigration and Multicultural Ministries, offered on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, a festival service for the diocesan community that celebrated the life and ministry of the Rev. Absalom Jones--the Episcopal Church's first African American priest.

Listen to this audio recording of the sermon given by the Rev. Will Mebane of St. Barnabas's Church in Falmouth at the Feb. 15, 2025, Absalom Jones Service, offered for the diocesan community by the Bishop John M. Burgess Massachusetts Chapter of the Union of Black Episcopalians, together with the diocesan Office of Immigration and Multicultural Ministries.

The Office of the Bishop has issued the following pastoral announcement: