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By Shaneequa Brokenleg As many of you know, November is Native American Heritage Month. As an Indigenous person and an enrolled citizen in my tribe, the fact that Native American Heritage Month happens in the same month as Thanksgiving is not lost on me. It’s a time when many people like to harken back to…

By Melissa Bird What a journey this life is. A few weeks ago, I was in Texas for the annual Winter Talk meeting. Truth be told, I was so nervous to be there. This would be the first time in my life (except for Powwow) that I would be around this many Indigenous people. And…

By Willis Foster Sr. and Edna Johnston Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when U.S. General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3 to the people of Galveston, Texas. He announced: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” With this…

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 Bude VanDyke  My core belief is that the economy of God pays both directions. That means that if I do something for someone, and I am not willing to receive their gift, the action is not God-centered; it is something else, something not healthy. For that reason, I struggle with the notion of “mission”…

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…