News

Diocesan News
Nov. 7, 2024 Beloved of God in Massachusetts, In the deluge of emotions and words after Tuesday’s election, it was a challenge to find more which might add meaning yesterday. Perhaps those of you pastoring congregations, schools, and other communities, church or otherwise, felt the same way…

Diocese and Parish News

In the News
The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, who was the first woman to be ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church of the United States — indeed, in its parent body, the worldwide Anglican Communion — an election that caused a furor among conservatives, died on Friday in Lincoln, Mass., outside Boston. She…
Diocesan News
The Rev. Gayle Pershouse’s ordination to the transitional diaconate this past November was an occasion for inspiration and redemption for many in the diocesan community and beyond, given the circumstances of her decades-long journey toward ordination.  (Read the Dec. 18 story here.) …
Diocesan News

With the wave of closures and restrictions sweeping aside daily routines and business as usual--all in the attempt to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Massachusetts--congregations are rising to the occasion in all kinds of ways, as they move worship services online, find ways to stay connected with their people, strategize about physically distanced outreach to the vulnerable in their communities and settle in for what public health authorities say will be a long haul.

In the News
The Right Rev. Barbara C. Harris, a public relations executive who marched for civil rights before finding a midlife calling in the ministry, becoming the first woman ordained as a bishop in the Episcopal Church and worldwide Anglican Communion, died March 13 at a hospice center in Lincoln, Mass…
Diocesan News
This message from Bishop Alan M. Gates and Bishop Gayle E. Harris was issued by e-mail on March 16 to clergy and wardens. March 16, 2020 Dear Colleagues in the Diocese of Massachusetts, Thank you for your faithful leadership and care for your respective congregations in these past few days.&nbsp…
In the News
The Rev. Timothy Schenck took a seat in the small chapel at St. John the Evangelist Church in Hingham a few minutes before 10 a.m. Sunday. He blinked at the bright, studio-style lights set up before him, and helped himself to one more jolt of caffeine from a large thermos. “I hope you’re in your…
In the News
Retired Bishop Barbara Harris, the first woman to be ordained and consecrated as a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, died on Friday (March 13). She was 89. Harris died at a hospice house after a recent hospitalization. “Our hearts are truly heavy at the loss of one who has been a…
In the News
Barbara C. Harris, the first woman to be ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion, died Friday in Massachusetts. She was 89. She was elected as a suffragan, or assistant, bishop in September 1988. On Feb. 11, 1989, Harris was consecrated as a bishop in the…
In the News
Along the spiritual road to her groundbreaking role in the Episcopal Church, Barbara Clementine Harris was a volunteer prison chaplain who spent so much time praying with those behind bars that she could have tallied a two-year jail sentence of her own. It wasn’t enough for her, though. “I was…
Diocesan News
This page collects Diocese of Massachusetts updates and information regarding ongoing COVID-19 response. Guidance and messages from our bishops & leadership The most recent updates and guidelines are linked below.  Find a complete list of&nbsp…