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The Episcopal Dioceses of Western Massachusetts
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Click here to register for the Young Adult Ministry Network's Fall Retreat at the Barbara C. Harris Camp in Greenfield, NH on September 10-12.
Click here for more information on the Diocese's "Loving the Questions" discernment program. [Applications are due by September 10, 2021.]
Click here for more information on the Young Adult Ministry Network sponsored Evening Prayer at 7 PM on August 21st.
Click here for more information on the Prayer Vigil to honor refugees on June 20th - World Refugee Day.
Click here for more information on the Diocesan Observance of Juneteenth: Morning Prayer at 10 AM on June 19th on the Diocesan YouTube channel.
This online retreat is co-sponsored by The Episcopal Diocese of
Massachusetts and The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts.
Open to all at no cost.
Massachusetts and The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts.
Open to all at no cost.
Jesus calls us to fullness of life (John 10:10), yet many of us feel anything but fully alive – we may feel melancholy, distracted, anxious, or numb. In this morning retreat we will explore ways of prayer that make us available to the healing and enlivening power of the Spirit. The first part of the retreat will focus on our inner lives; the second part will focus on how our outer lives can create the conditions for experiencing what Joseph Campbell called “the rapture of being alive.” Our time together will include presentations and guided meditation, with options for solitary reflection and small group conversation. If possible, please bring a candle, Bible, and Book of Common Prayer.
The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas serves as Missioner for Creation Care in the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and Southern New England Conference, United Church of Christ. Her latest book (co-edited) is Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis. Her collection of daily meditations for Advent and Christmas, Joy of Heaven, to Earth Come Down, calls us to a practice of prayer grounded in reverence for the earth and to intentional living in harmony with the natural world. Her Website: RevivingCreation.org.
(Photo: Robert A, Jonas)
The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas serves as Missioner for Creation Care in the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and Southern New England Conference, United Church of Christ. Her latest book (co-edited) is Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis. Her collection of daily meditations for Advent and Christmas, Joy of Heaven, to Earth Come Down, calls us to a practice of prayer grounded in reverence for the earth and to intentional living in harmony with the natural world. Her Website: RevivingCreation.org.
(Photo: Robert A, Jonas)
It's Earth Day. Take Action.
On March 23, 2021, the bishops of the Episcopal dioceses of Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts declared a climate emergency. From their declaration:
“We believe that God is calling us all to embrace brave and difficult change. Everything we do as faithful individuals and as a church must reckon with the unprecedented emergency in which humanity now finds itself.
“We strongly urge congregations across Massachusetts to pray, learn, act, and advocate as we build a bold and faith-filled response to the greatest moral challenge of our time.”
In May, the Creation Care Justice Network of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas will host four webinars on the climate emergency and how to respond to it: Pray, Learn, Act and Advocate.
These will be held on Wednesdays, May 5, 12, 19 and 26 at 7 p.m.
Register for Webinars in May
“We believe that God is calling us all to embrace brave and difficult change. Everything we do as faithful individuals and as a church must reckon with the unprecedented emergency in which humanity now finds itself.
“We strongly urge congregations across Massachusetts to pray, learn, act, and advocate as we build a bold and faith-filled response to the greatest moral challenge of our time.”
In May, the Creation Care Justice Network of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas will host four webinars on the climate emergency and how to respond to it: Pray, Learn, Act and Advocate.
These will be held on Wednesdays, May 5, 12, 19 and 26 at 7 p.m.
Register for Webinars in May
"Pray, learn, act, advocate": MA bishops declare climate emergency
March 23, 2021
Dear People of the Dioceses of Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts,
With the advent of spring, our thoughts turn with renewed gratitude to the great gift of God’s creation. “For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”
(Song of Solomon 2:11-12)
Our thoughts turn also to the devastation of that created order which continues to unfold around us. With the prophet we ask, “How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who live in it the animals and the birds are swept away.”
(Jeremiah 12:4)
Each year on Ash Wednesday we offer the Litany of Penitence, decrying “our self-indulgent appetites and ways, … our waste and pollution of (God’s) creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us.” (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 268) In our stewardship of God’s creation, we are thus called into the fullness of gratitude, repentance, and amendment of our lives.
What follows is a Declaration of Climate Emergency by your bishops. We urge you to read it thoroughly, thoughtfully, and prayerfully, receiving it as both challenge and invitation, and responding with commitment, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Western Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Massachusetts
Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
www.diocesewma.org www.diomass.org
Declaration of Climate Emergency
We, the bishops of the Episcopal dioceses in Massachusetts, declare a climate emergency.
We honor the call of our church’s presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, to care for God’s beloved world. We recognize that accelerating global warming and mass extinctions are destroying God’s creation, threatening to make our planet uninhabitable. We likewise recognize that the climate crisis affects low-income communities and communities of color first and hardest. We confess that we, and our churches, have not yet responded with adequate seriousness or urgency to the ongoing, intensifying effects of climate change, and to its underlying causes.
According to Scripture, God created the physical world and all its creatures as inherently “good” (Genesis 1). The very first task that God entrusted to human beings was responsibility to care for the earth (Genesis 2:15). As Christians, we honor the goodness and sacredness of the created world, recognizing that the earth does not belong to us, but to God (Psalm 24:1). The scope of God’s love embraces not only humanity but also the rest of creation (Genesis 9:8-17), and we recognize that Jesus gave his life for the whole world, so that all things could be reconciled (Colossians 1:15-20; Ephesians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 2:19). As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, the “supreme work” of Jesus Christ is to reconcile us to God, each other, and all of God’s creation.
As a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, The Episcopal Church upholds the Five Marks of Mission as our understanding of God’s mission. The fifth mark establishes as an essential dimension of Christian mission and ethics the commitment “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and [to] sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Because caring for God’s creation is central to our moral and spiritual concern, General Convention, the church’s triennial legislative governing body, has adopted scores of resolutions addressing the environment, environmental justice, and climate change. At the 79th General Convention in 2018, 19 resolutions that relate to care for God’s creation were adopted. One of them (2018-A018) adopted The House of Bishops’ 2011 Pastoral Teaching on the Environment as an official position of our church, a document that urges every Episcopalian “to acknowledge the urgency of the planetary crisis in which we find ourselves.” In 2019, the Anglican Consultative Council recognized a global climate emergency, and the General Synod of the Church of England recognized a climate emergency in 2020.
Other denominations are also responding. Pope Francis declared a climate emergency in 2019. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has spoken repeatedly about the ecological crisis. The Methodist Conference (UK) recognized a climate emergency in 2019.
Standing with our siblings in Christ, including St. Paul, we hear the groaning of creation as it waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (Romans 8:19-23). We believe that God is calling us all to embrace brave and difficult change. Everything we do as faithful individuals and as a church must reckon with the unprecedented emergency in which humanity now finds itself.
We therefore encourage all Episcopalians to explore The Episcopal Church’s Covenant for the Care of Creation, a commitment to practice loving formation, liberating advocacy, and life-giving conversation as individuals, congregations, ministries, and dioceses.
We strongly urge congregations across Massachusetts to pray, learn, act, and advocate as we build a bold and faith-filled response to the greatest moral challenge of our time. We urge members of our two dioceses to explore the resources of both dioceses, including the Creation Care Justice Network in the Diocese of Massachusetts, and in Western Massachusetts, resources in all four areas of engagement. Sign up for the monthly Creation Care Network e-newsletter produced by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, who is assisting both dioceses in developing a robust response to the climate emergency, and for monthly e-mail updates from the Creation Care Justice Network in the Diocese of Massachusetts.
Reflecting the four areas of engagement, we urge members of our two dioceses to:
Pray
• We ask all preachers in our dioceses, lay and ordained, to take up the mantle of moral leadership and preach regularly about our moral obligation to protect God’s creation.
• We encourage use of the Liturgical Materials for Honoring God in Creation, from our church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. Our worship services should regularly include prayers that lift up the urgent needs of God’s creation (e.g., to keep fossil fuels in the ground; to protect and restore forests), and prayers for our own transformation (e.g., repentance for the role humans have played in creating, denying, and accelerating the emergency).
• We encourage observance of the Season of Creation (Sept. 1 to Oct. 4) as a time for renewing, repairing, and restoring our relationship to God, one another, and all of creation.
• We encourage outdoor services (which might be ecumenical or interfaith) that express reverence for God’s creation, lament and repentance for humanity’s assault on Earth, and renewed resolve to protect the web of life entrusted to our care.
• We encourage retreats and educational events that teach emotional and spiritual resilience, including ways of prayer that quiet our minds, calm our nerves, steel our spines, and open our hearts to the still, small voice of God.
Learn
• We encourage deaneries and congregations to convene conversations and educational events around such topics as: how tackling the climate crisis connects with efforts to alleviate poverty, fight racial and social injustice, and defend human life; how eco-theology and eco-spirituality can guide us in the days ahead; how to cultivate the values and practices that liberate us from the consumerism, hyper-individualism, and violence of the dominant culture.
• We encourage everyone to read and reflect on the 2011 House of Bishops Pastoral Teaching on the Environment, which was adopted at the 79th General Convention in 2018 as an official teaching.
Act
• We urge high-consuming people to cut back sharply on their use of fossil fuels and to support each other in changing their patterns of consumption and waste. We commend the carbon tracker, Sustaining Earth, Our Island Home, as a free educational tool for cutting carbon use in our households. We urge houses of worship to work with Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light to complete energy audits and implement the findings.
• We welcome the Good News Gardens movement – a Gospel-centered initiative to grow and share food – into our dioceses. We likewise support efforts to restore ecosystems, soil, habitat, and biodiversity – such as making space for wildlife near our homes, a practice that has been called “reconciliation ecology.”
• We encourage congregations to identify and find ways to assist those in our communities who are most vulnerable to climate disasters. We encourage working with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) to make our churches “resilience hubs.”
• We further encourage collaborations between diocesan groups at work on interrelated justice concerns, such as racial justice, food security, and creation care, among others. Episcopal City Mission’s Justice Network brings together Episcopalians and grassroots and faith-rooted leaders for monthly conversations around opportunities to act, both collectively and individually.
Advocate
• Because the scale and pace of the climate crisis require systemic change, we urge members of our two dioceses to become informed about – and participate in – local, statewide, and national efforts to make a swift and just transition to clean, renewable energy and to support vulnerable communities. We encourage learning about and joining the advocacy efforts of such groups as Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light, 350MA for a Better Future, and Climate Action Now in Western Massachusetts, as well as creation care initiatives of the Episcopal Public Policy Network, the ecumenical Creation Justice Ministries, and environmental groups.
• We also urge connecting with local organizers in environmental justice communities and supporting their priorities and efforts in appropriate ways. In our advocacy work, we have the opportunity draw upon our faith to make a prayerful and prophetic public witness for creation and its most vulnerable people and creatures, to envision a new world, and to call upon the God of life and resurrection to assist us.
Our efforts to revive God’s creation, to build a just and sustainable society, and to restore a safe climate will require communication and collaboration. We encourage everyone to sign up for the monthly Creation Care Network e-newsletter and Creation Care Justice Network e-mails referenced above, and again commend engagement with our respective online diocesan resources in the western and eastern dioceses.
We give thanks to the God who makes all things new (Isaiah 43:18-19; Isaiah 65:17; Rev. 21:5) and who came among us to bring us life, and life abundant (John 10:10).
Dear People of the Dioceses of Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts,
With the advent of spring, our thoughts turn with renewed gratitude to the great gift of God’s creation. “For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”
(Song of Solomon 2:11-12)
Our thoughts turn also to the devastation of that created order which continues to unfold around us. With the prophet we ask, “How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who live in it the animals and the birds are swept away.”
(Jeremiah 12:4)
Each year on Ash Wednesday we offer the Litany of Penitence, decrying “our self-indulgent appetites and ways, … our waste and pollution of (God’s) creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us.” (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 268) In our stewardship of God’s creation, we are thus called into the fullness of gratitude, repentance, and amendment of our lives.
What follows is a Declaration of Climate Emergency by your bishops. We urge you to read it thoroughly, thoughtfully, and prayerfully, receiving it as both challenge and invitation, and responding with commitment, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Faithfully,
The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Western Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Massachusetts
Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
www.diocesewma.org www.diomass.org
Declaration of Climate Emergency
We, the bishops of the Episcopal dioceses in Massachusetts, declare a climate emergency.
We honor the call of our church’s presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, to care for God’s beloved world. We recognize that accelerating global warming and mass extinctions are destroying God’s creation, threatening to make our planet uninhabitable. We likewise recognize that the climate crisis affects low-income communities and communities of color first and hardest. We confess that we, and our churches, have not yet responded with adequate seriousness or urgency to the ongoing, intensifying effects of climate change, and to its underlying causes.
According to Scripture, God created the physical world and all its creatures as inherently “good” (Genesis 1). The very first task that God entrusted to human beings was responsibility to care for the earth (Genesis 2:15). As Christians, we honor the goodness and sacredness of the created world, recognizing that the earth does not belong to us, but to God (Psalm 24:1). The scope of God’s love embraces not only humanity but also the rest of creation (Genesis 9:8-17), and we recognize that Jesus gave his life for the whole world, so that all things could be reconciled (Colossians 1:15-20; Ephesians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 2:19). As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, the “supreme work” of Jesus Christ is to reconcile us to God, each other, and all of God’s creation.
As a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, The Episcopal Church upholds the Five Marks of Mission as our understanding of God’s mission. The fifth mark establishes as an essential dimension of Christian mission and ethics the commitment “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and [to] sustain and renew the life of the earth.” Because caring for God’s creation is central to our moral and spiritual concern, General Convention, the church’s triennial legislative governing body, has adopted scores of resolutions addressing the environment, environmental justice, and climate change. At the 79th General Convention in 2018, 19 resolutions that relate to care for God’s creation were adopted. One of them (2018-A018) adopted The House of Bishops’ 2011 Pastoral Teaching on the Environment as an official position of our church, a document that urges every Episcopalian “to acknowledge the urgency of the planetary crisis in which we find ourselves.” In 2019, the Anglican Consultative Council recognized a global climate emergency, and the General Synod of the Church of England recognized a climate emergency in 2020.
Other denominations are also responding. Pope Francis declared a climate emergency in 2019. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has spoken repeatedly about the ecological crisis. The Methodist Conference (UK) recognized a climate emergency in 2019.
Standing with our siblings in Christ, including St. Paul, we hear the groaning of creation as it waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (Romans 8:19-23). We believe that God is calling us all to embrace brave and difficult change. Everything we do as faithful individuals and as a church must reckon with the unprecedented emergency in which humanity now finds itself.
We therefore encourage all Episcopalians to explore The Episcopal Church’s Covenant for the Care of Creation, a commitment to practice loving formation, liberating advocacy, and life-giving conversation as individuals, congregations, ministries, and dioceses.
We strongly urge congregations across Massachusetts to pray, learn, act, and advocate as we build a bold and faith-filled response to the greatest moral challenge of our time. We urge members of our two dioceses to explore the resources of both dioceses, including the Creation Care Justice Network in the Diocese of Massachusetts, and in Western Massachusetts, resources in all four areas of engagement. Sign up for the monthly Creation Care Network e-newsletter produced by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, who is assisting both dioceses in developing a robust response to the climate emergency, and for monthly e-mail updates from the Creation Care Justice Network in the Diocese of Massachusetts.
Reflecting the four areas of engagement, we urge members of our two dioceses to:
Pray
• We ask all preachers in our dioceses, lay and ordained, to take up the mantle of moral leadership and preach regularly about our moral obligation to protect God’s creation.
• We encourage use of the Liturgical Materials for Honoring God in Creation, from our church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. Our worship services should regularly include prayers that lift up the urgent needs of God’s creation (e.g., to keep fossil fuels in the ground; to protect and restore forests), and prayers for our own transformation (e.g., repentance for the role humans have played in creating, denying, and accelerating the emergency).
• We encourage observance of the Season of Creation (Sept. 1 to Oct. 4) as a time for renewing, repairing, and restoring our relationship to God, one another, and all of creation.
• We encourage outdoor services (which might be ecumenical or interfaith) that express reverence for God’s creation, lament and repentance for humanity’s assault on Earth, and renewed resolve to protect the web of life entrusted to our care.
• We encourage retreats and educational events that teach emotional and spiritual resilience, including ways of prayer that quiet our minds, calm our nerves, steel our spines, and open our hearts to the still, small voice of God.
Learn
• We encourage deaneries and congregations to convene conversations and educational events around such topics as: how tackling the climate crisis connects with efforts to alleviate poverty, fight racial and social injustice, and defend human life; how eco-theology and eco-spirituality can guide us in the days ahead; how to cultivate the values and practices that liberate us from the consumerism, hyper-individualism, and violence of the dominant culture.
• We encourage everyone to read and reflect on the 2011 House of Bishops Pastoral Teaching on the Environment, which was adopted at the 79th General Convention in 2018 as an official teaching.
Act
• We urge high-consuming people to cut back sharply on their use of fossil fuels and to support each other in changing their patterns of consumption and waste. We commend the carbon tracker, Sustaining Earth, Our Island Home, as a free educational tool for cutting carbon use in our households. We urge houses of worship to work with Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light to complete energy audits and implement the findings.
• We welcome the Good News Gardens movement – a Gospel-centered initiative to grow and share food – into our dioceses. We likewise support efforts to restore ecosystems, soil, habitat, and biodiversity – such as making space for wildlife near our homes, a practice that has been called “reconciliation ecology.”
• We encourage congregations to identify and find ways to assist those in our communities who are most vulnerable to climate disasters. We encourage working with Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) to make our churches “resilience hubs.”
• We further encourage collaborations between diocesan groups at work on interrelated justice concerns, such as racial justice, food security, and creation care, among others. Episcopal City Mission’s Justice Network brings together Episcopalians and grassroots and faith-rooted leaders for monthly conversations around opportunities to act, both collectively and individually.
Advocate
• Because the scale and pace of the climate crisis require systemic change, we urge members of our two dioceses to become informed about – and participate in – local, statewide, and national efforts to make a swift and just transition to clean, renewable energy and to support vulnerable communities. We encourage learning about and joining the advocacy efforts of such groups as Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light, 350MA for a Better Future, and Climate Action Now in Western Massachusetts, as well as creation care initiatives of the Episcopal Public Policy Network, the ecumenical Creation Justice Ministries, and environmental groups.
• We also urge connecting with local organizers in environmental justice communities and supporting their priorities and efforts in appropriate ways. In our advocacy work, we have the opportunity draw upon our faith to make a prayerful and prophetic public witness for creation and its most vulnerable people and creatures, to envision a new world, and to call upon the God of life and resurrection to assist us.
Our efforts to revive God’s creation, to build a just and sustainable society, and to restore a safe climate will require communication and collaboration. We encourage everyone to sign up for the monthly Creation Care Network e-newsletter and Creation Care Justice Network e-mails referenced above, and again commend engagement with our respective online diocesan resources in the western and eastern dioceses.
We give thanks to the God who makes all things new (Isaiah 43:18-19; Isaiah 65:17; Rev. 21:5) and who came among us to bring us life, and life abundant (John 10:10).
Bishops United Statement on the Atlanta Spa Shootings
March 20, 2021
As a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence (BUAGV), a network of over 100 Episcopal Bishops dedicated to overcoming gun violence in our nation, I want to share with you our statement on the shootings in Atlanta. I also refer you to the recent statement of our Presiding Bishop. I encourage us to include in our prayer this Sunday those lost in this horrific incident. Our mission is God's dream and gun violence is part of the nightmare. We must end gun violence. We must uphold the dignity of every human being.
As a member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence (BUAGV), a network of over 100 Episcopal Bishops dedicated to overcoming gun violence in our nation, I want to share with you our statement on the shootings in Atlanta. I also refer you to the recent statement of our Presiding Bishop. I encourage us to include in our prayer this Sunday those lost in this horrific incident. Our mission is God's dream and gun violence is part of the nightmare. We must end gun violence. We must uphold the dignity of every human being.
The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher
Bishop of Western Massachusetts
Bishop of Western Massachusetts
Bishops United Against Gun Violence
Statement on the Atlanta Spa Shootings
March 18, 2021
On Tuesday, another white man who should not have had a gun shot and killed seven women and one man at massage spas in the Atlanta area. Six of his victims, all women, were of Asian descent. The gunman had been a patron of at least two of the spas where the massacre took place; and in the aftermath of the shootings, he confessed, saying that he considered the women at the spas to be a sexual temptation he needed to eliminate because of his Christian faith.
It is hard to know what to decry first in the toxic stew of racism, misogyny, religious violence, and gun culture. Most basic, perhaps, is the fact that the alleged killer bought his weapon just hours before the attacks began. The sale was entirely legal, showing yet again that standards for gun purchasing and ownership across our nation are far too lenient. Day after day, innocent people pay the price.
In addition to the need to enact sane gun legislation, we must eradicate from our culture the racist, misogynist ideas that lead white men to perceive Asian women as sexual objects. Such demeaning stereotypes that turned deadly in Atlanta on Tuesday are rooted in this country’s centuries-long history of anti-Asian laws and policies. In the past year, these old hatreds have been revived by mendacious politicians and misguided people who have attempted to exact retribution from Asians and Asian Americans for the origin and spread of the COVID-19 virus. Women have borne the brunt of these lies: Stop AAPI Hate reports that in the last year, Asian women have reported hate incidents 2.3 times more often than Asian men.
As Christian leaders and bishops, we are particularly disturbed that the alleged shooter’s Christian faith is reported to have fueled his desire to murder the women in massage spas whom he believed were sexual temptations. It grieves us that the Christian faith we profess can be twisted and deformed in ways that give rise to violence, particularly to gun violence, by white Christian men against women and people of color. Christian churches, regardless of theology or denomination, must explicitly reject the idea that God wants Christian men to dominate or kill other human beings. Such is not the way of Jesus. Such is not the way of love.
We extend our profound sympathies to the families of the victims of this shooting, and we are praying for everyone who has been touched by this brutality. As we have repeatedly emphasized, we pray not to avoid taking action, but to prepare for it. Please join with us in reaching out to the Asian American people in your congregations and communities. Join us too in helping to raise awareness of the ways in which men in this country objectify women, particularly Asian women, and leave them vulnerable to trafficking and gender-based violence. And join us in advocating with your United States Senators to pass these essential pieces of legislation now before them that can help prevent gun violence and save lives:
HR 1620, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021
HR8 Comprehensive Background Checks Bill
HR1446 Charleston Loophole Bill
Download PDF of this statement
Statement on the Atlanta Spa Shootings
March 18, 2021
On Tuesday, another white man who should not have had a gun shot and killed seven women and one man at massage spas in the Atlanta area. Six of his victims, all women, were of Asian descent. The gunman had been a patron of at least two of the spas where the massacre took place; and in the aftermath of the shootings, he confessed, saying that he considered the women at the spas to be a sexual temptation he needed to eliminate because of his Christian faith.
It is hard to know what to decry first in the toxic stew of racism, misogyny, religious violence, and gun culture. Most basic, perhaps, is the fact that the alleged killer bought his weapon just hours before the attacks began. The sale was entirely legal, showing yet again that standards for gun purchasing and ownership across our nation are far too lenient. Day after day, innocent people pay the price.
In addition to the need to enact sane gun legislation, we must eradicate from our culture the racist, misogynist ideas that lead white men to perceive Asian women as sexual objects. Such demeaning stereotypes that turned deadly in Atlanta on Tuesday are rooted in this country’s centuries-long history of anti-Asian laws and policies. In the past year, these old hatreds have been revived by mendacious politicians and misguided people who have attempted to exact retribution from Asians and Asian Americans for the origin and spread of the COVID-19 virus. Women have borne the brunt of these lies: Stop AAPI Hate reports that in the last year, Asian women have reported hate incidents 2.3 times more often than Asian men.
As Christian leaders and bishops, we are particularly disturbed that the alleged shooter’s Christian faith is reported to have fueled his desire to murder the women in massage spas whom he believed were sexual temptations. It grieves us that the Christian faith we profess can be twisted and deformed in ways that give rise to violence, particularly to gun violence, by white Christian men against women and people of color. Christian churches, regardless of theology or denomination, must explicitly reject the idea that God wants Christian men to dominate or kill other human beings. Such is not the way of Jesus. Such is not the way of love.
We extend our profound sympathies to the families of the victims of this shooting, and we are praying for everyone who has been touched by this brutality. As we have repeatedly emphasized, we pray not to avoid taking action, but to prepare for it. Please join with us in reaching out to the Asian American people in your congregations and communities. Join us too in helping to raise awareness of the ways in which men in this country objectify women, particularly Asian women, and leave them vulnerable to trafficking and gender-based violence. And join us in advocating with your United States Senators to pass these essential pieces of legislation now before them that can help prevent gun violence and save lives:
HR 1620, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021
HR8 Comprehensive Background Checks Bill
HR1446 Charleston Loophole Bill
Download PDF of this statement
A Pastoral Word from the Episcopal Bishops in Massachusetts
with Updated Pandemic Guidance
with Updated Pandemic Guidance
November 19, 2020
Dear people of the Dioceses of Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts,
Our first word to you is one of deep gratitude. In the past eight months our churches have responded to the challenges of this pandemic with commitment and creativity. You have found new ways to worship, continued to provide life-sustaining ministry in your communities, and remained in supportive fellowship with one another. Despite widely shared anxiety and fatigue, you have nonetheless remained faithful to the core identity of the church. We are grateful beyond measure. God bless you.
Our second word to you is one of grave concern and utmost caution. Over the past several weeks, the spread of the coronavirus has increased dramatically in the Commonwealth. Infection levels have returned to levels not seen since spring. On November 2, Governor Baker issued revised measures, imposing stricter controls on gatherings in both private and public settings. As we move into colder weather and flu season, we believe that clear and present risks in our communities demand a similar response from people of faith to help protect ourselves and one another. Jesus’s Law of Love simply must be our foremost and abiding concern.
While religious and political organizations are exempt from many state guidelines, such exemptions place concern for First Amendment legal challenges ahead of concern for the health and well-being of God’s people. As your bishops, we are convinced that Jesus’s commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) must be the overriding factor in our decisions, even when this requires accepting limits to our own freedoms. Indeed, St. Paul insisted upon this priority. “’All things are lawful,’ but not all things are beneficial …. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.” (I Corinthians 10:23-24) For this reason, where state standards for places of worship are more permissive than those for other gathering places, we expect our churches to adhere to the more limited standards provided for other public venues.
One of our consulting medical professionals has observed poignantly, “The infectious disease epidemiologist in me wants everyone to just stay home. The harm reductionist in me wants to meet people where they are and make them as safe as they can be. The Christian in me sees suffering from these practices and wants to comfort them. I don't know how to be all three at the same time.” As your bishops, we share that tension, desiring to care for the health of all our people and our neighbors, even while providing the spiritual and pastoral care which nurtures and sustains us. We know that our clergy, lay leaders, and all faithful Episcopalians share these same concerns.
The guidelines below represent our hope that renewed restrictions, while causing short-term disappointment, will help us all traverse the coming months in greater health and with genuine care for one another, as Jesus has commanded.
We know and grieve that the timing of these restrictions means that Advent and Christmas simply will not be observed with many of our cherished traditions this year. Instead it will be a year for small, quiet, contemplative possibilities – perhaps not unlike the lonely stable in Bethlehem shared by that little family at the Incarnation, where Christ first came to meet all our hopes and fears.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Western Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Massachusetts
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WORSHIP GUIDELINES:
CARING FOR ONE ANOTHER:
Dear people of the Dioceses of Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts,
Our first word to you is one of deep gratitude. In the past eight months our churches have responded to the challenges of this pandemic with commitment and creativity. You have found new ways to worship, continued to provide life-sustaining ministry in your communities, and remained in supportive fellowship with one another. Despite widely shared anxiety and fatigue, you have nonetheless remained faithful to the core identity of the church. We are grateful beyond measure. God bless you.
Our second word to you is one of grave concern and utmost caution. Over the past several weeks, the spread of the coronavirus has increased dramatically in the Commonwealth. Infection levels have returned to levels not seen since spring. On November 2, Governor Baker issued revised measures, imposing stricter controls on gatherings in both private and public settings. As we move into colder weather and flu season, we believe that clear and present risks in our communities demand a similar response from people of faith to help protect ourselves and one another. Jesus’s Law of Love simply must be our foremost and abiding concern.
While religious and political organizations are exempt from many state guidelines, such exemptions place concern for First Amendment legal challenges ahead of concern for the health and well-being of God’s people. As your bishops, we are convinced that Jesus’s commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) must be the overriding factor in our decisions, even when this requires accepting limits to our own freedoms. Indeed, St. Paul insisted upon this priority. “’All things are lawful,’ but not all things are beneficial …. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.” (I Corinthians 10:23-24) For this reason, where state standards for places of worship are more permissive than those for other gathering places, we expect our churches to adhere to the more limited standards provided for other public venues.
One of our consulting medical professionals has observed poignantly, “The infectious disease epidemiologist in me wants everyone to just stay home. The harm reductionist in me wants to meet people where they are and make them as safe as they can be. The Christian in me sees suffering from these practices and wants to comfort them. I don't know how to be all three at the same time.” As your bishops, we share that tension, desiring to care for the health of all our people and our neighbors, even while providing the spiritual and pastoral care which nurtures and sustains us. We know that our clergy, lay leaders, and all faithful Episcopalians share these same concerns.
The guidelines below represent our hope that renewed restrictions, while causing short-term disappointment, will help us all traverse the coming months in greater health and with genuine care for one another, as Jesus has commanded.
We know and grieve that the timing of these restrictions means that Advent and Christmas simply will not be observed with many of our cherished traditions this year. Instead it will be a year for small, quiet, contemplative possibilities – perhaps not unlike the lonely stable in Bethlehem shared by that little family at the Incarnation, where Christ first came to meet all our hopes and fears.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Western Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Alan M. Gates, Bishop Diocesan, Diocese of Massachusetts
The Rt. Rev. Gayle E. Harris, Bishop Suffragan, Diocese of Massachusetts
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WORSHIP GUIDELINES:
- All churches are now urged in the strongest possible terms to suspend in-person, indoor worship. This expectation is in effect for the foreseeable future, as steps continue to be taken across the country to curtail the dramatic rise of coronavirus infections.
- Outdoor services are limited to a maximum of 50 persons, while maintaining appropriate physical distancing and other safety practices. This accords with the state guidelines for outdoor gatherings.
- In any congregation where in-person, indoor worship will continue despite our strong counsel, maximum attendance is determined by the physical-distancing protocols applied within the church’s particular worship space (see A Journey By Stages), and in any case is limited to a maximum of 25 persons. This limitation is in accordance with state guidelines for indoor venues. All persons in higher-risk groups should participate in worship virtually.
- All worship must continue to follow the safety protocols outlined in A Journey By Stages and Expanded Guidelines for Stage Two, such as physical distancing, mask wearing, and cleaning and disinfecting.
- Due to the dramatic risk of airborne viral transmission, cantors or soloists must observe 20-foot physical distancing, whether for live-streamed or in-person services, indoors or outdoors. The use of pre-recorded or remotely performed music is encouraged. Congregational singing is prohibited both indoors and outdoors.
- The sacrament of Holy Communion may be made available to the people, as indicated in prior guidelines, through the distribution of previously-consecrated wafers in advance of live-streamed or recorded services. Such distribution should be made by clergy, lay eucharistic visitors, or pastoral caregivers via brief pastoral visits to the home, or during specified hours at the church. Any such method must abide by the protocols for safe distribution of the Sacrament as described in Expanded Guidelines for Stage Two.
CARING FOR ONE ANOTHER:
- We commend the efforts of congregations which have opened their churches for times of private prayer and reflection while following practices to do so safely.
- We applaud such pastoral tools as ‘buddy systems’ and virtual small groups which connect individuals and households with one another. We encourage all people to respond to the isolation felt by so many by reaching out with phone calls, notes, virtual check-ins, and – where safely possible – brief pastoral visits.
- We encourage those who are in lower-risk groups to support those in greater danger of COVID-19 infection by assisting with grocery shopping and other errands, thus helping them remain safer at home.