By the Rev. Bude VanDyke Te-Lah-Nay was 15 in 1838. She was from a small band of Yuchi who lived near the Florence and Muscle Shoals area of North Alabama. As a little girl, she spent her spare time sitting on the banks of Nu-Nah-Say, the Tennessee River, to listen to the river’s songs. At…

By Seth Bonvouloir On Saturday, Oct. 26, the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire made a powerful statement in voting unanimously at the annual diocesan convention in favor of a reparations resolution.  For the past year, the Reparations Task Force, composed of lay people and clergy, has met to carry out prayerful work and examine what…

By Greg Farr At the 2020 annual convention of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT), Resolution No. 7 was passed with the intent to recognize and confront systemic racism, white supremacy, and anti-Black bias in our nation and in our diocese. This resolution directed each parish, worshipping community, and/or intentional Episcopal community to take steps…

By Mary Crist This is the time for us to hear the voices of Indigenous Episcopalians in order to heal the Mother Earth and her people. Indigenous peoples and Episcopalians have a long history together. Our sacred ways are related.  The relationship between The Episcopal Church and Indigenous people in North America began over 400…

By Stephanie Spellers I have not watched the film of five Black Memphis police officers beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols to a pulp. I have not seen the EMTs who did so little while a beloved child made in God’s image lay dying at their feet.   I have not looked, yet it is all I…

By Chanta Bhan and Melina Dezhbod Melina and I met when we were at Virginia Theological Seminary. Melina was entering her Middler Year and I was completing an Anglican Year in preparation for ordination to the priesthood. In some ways, Melina felt more like family to me. I liked to think of her as my…

by Rachel Taber-Hamilton, Shackan First Nation  “What have you done?” asked my mother in weighty staccato, stressing each word individually. The sharp glare from her eyes pinned me like a bug to the place where I stood. The tone in her voice conveyed a gravitas as though I had robbed a bank, assassinated someone, or kicked her…

By Gabrie’l Atchinson On a snowy morning in 2019, I drove to the southern campus of Erie Community College to teach the environment segment for my section of Introduction to Sociology. We discussed the activism of young environmentalists Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier, and Leah Thomas. During my lecture, I pointed out that in a place…