Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and House of Deputies President Julia Ayala Harris, The Episcopal Church’s two presiding officers, signed documentation on April 17 to create the new Episcopal Coalition for Racial Equity and Justice as an independent nonprofit incorporated in New York.

The signing, which took place in Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of Executive Council’s April 18-20 meeting there, is the culmination of a three-year effort by churchwide leaders to establish long-term and lasting commitments to the church’s ongoing racial healing framework. The goal, first identified by Curry and Ayala Harris’ predecessor, the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings, is to address the harms of the church’s complicity with white supremacy, colonialism and the racism that still is found embedded in the church and other American institutions...

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Join us for UBE’s forty-five-minute video teleconferencing event plus Q & A that promises to inform, equip and inspire.

When: Sunday, April 21, 2024

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Pacific Standard Time

Topic: Preserving an Inclusive Narrative for Younger Generations 

UBE members and others interested in UBE’s support of younger generations and the marginalized of all ages through General Convention resolutions will not want to miss this month’s offering of Talk2Talk.

On March 14, 2024, the American Library Association released data and statistics about book bans in the United States. In 2023 alone, 4,240 book titles were censored, representing a 128% increase since 2021. This dramatic increase in book banning continues to accelerate and has been expanding beyond schools and libraries, with alarming new efforts emerging to use state and federal legislation to further restrict the public’s access to reading materials.  

The books most frequently targeted for removal are those by and about members of historically marginalized communities, particularly Black and LGBTQIA+ communities. Works of fiction as well as those describing historical realities are challenged in the name of protecting readers. But book bans, revisionist history, and censorship shut out members of our communities. We are called to thoughtfully and faithfully engage with materials that feel challenging, not allow our stories or histories to be silenced or rewritten.

Join us this Sunday as Talk2Talk explores the censorship of information and how book bans pose a threat to Beloved Community, what role we can play in ensuring the preservation and honoring of the stories of the marginalized, and how UBE hopes to have General Convention engage the topic.  Registration required. Info on how to register follows. 

This Talk2Talk session serves as a preface to an emergency UBE Membership meeting called for on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at 11:00 am, to receive and discuss a proposed resolution to General Convention, “Addressing the Censorship of Information.”
Registration required. Info on how to register follows.

Guest Panelists include:

The Rev. Qiana Johnson is a librarian and a vocational deacon in the Episcopal Church. She graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s in English Language and Literature and with a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Dominican University.  Her professional and ministry interests involve policy advocacy, particularly related to access to information, economic justice, and racial reconciliation. She is a member of the Board of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church and her recent research interests include Black women’s ordination in the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. Kim L. Coleman has served as Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia since 2002. As Rector she oversees Trinity’s dynamic justice and outreach ministries including an Anti-Human Trafficking Mission and Ministry Group, a Congregational Mental Health Initiative, TNT (an ecumenical racial justice and healing partnership between Trinity and NOVA Catholic Community), Trinity’s international Mothers’ Union affiliate, as well as the Columbia Pike Thrift Shop. A May 2001 cum laude graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), Mother Kim’s prior involvements beyond the parish have included serving as Diocesan Standing Committee and Executive Board member, Deputy to General Convention, Diocesan Chaplain for Episcopal Church Women, Diocesan Archdean (and Dean for the Arlington Region), Adjunct Professor at Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS) and VTS Alumnae Association Vice President. Rev. Kim has been serving as UBE National President since 2019.

Gabrie’l J. Atchison (Moderator) served for two years as the Missioner for Administration for the Episcopal Dioceses of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Atchison is the President of the Bishop Holly Chapter of UBE. She is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and has written about issues of race, gender, and sexuality in the black church. She is the author of Are You the Unchurched?: How to Develop and Authentic Relationship with God inside or outside of Church. Gabrie’l is the Convenor for the UBE Talk2Talk and We’re Talking Now series. Visit www.gabrieljatchison.com for more information.

How to access the meeting:
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkcuitrDgtGtUtvtaFCwYgv-EaCOF0YeNW

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Receipt of the confirmation email can take up to 24 hours. The meeting is powered by Zoom.

“Talk 2 Talk” takes place every third Sunday at 4:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. Starting time subject to change. For information on upcoming topics or to suggest a topic and/or speaker, contact the UBE headquarters by emailing leadership@theube.org. We ask that you please not post or publish this flyer with meeting password information to social media or on websites for the sake of security.

The Episcopal Church’s next presiding bishop will be chosen this June from a slate of four nominees, whose names were released April 2: Nebraska Bishop J. Scott Barker, Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez, Northwestern Pennsylvania Bishop Sean Rowe and Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright.

Those four bishops – and any additional candidates nominated by petition – will be presented for election at the 8st General Convention, which convenes June 23-28 in Louisville, Kentucky. The nominees’ names will be formally submitted June 25 during a joint session of the House of Bishops and House of Deputies. On June 26, the bishops will elect, and deputies will be asked to confirm, the church’s 28th presiding bishop, who will succeed Presiding Bishop Michael Curry beginning Nov. 1...

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UBE FOUNDING MEMBER AND JUSTICE PIONEER

THE REV. CANON EDWARD WILLIS RODMAN PASSES AWAY

Dear UBE Family and Supporters:

We regret to inform you that one of UBE’s remaining founding members, the Rev. Canon Edward “Ed” Willis Rodman, passed from this life into everlasting glory this past Monday.

In its Leadership Gallery, The Episcopal Church Archives provides a biography of Canon Rodman’s background and active engagement in the struggle to end racism in the Church and beyond. You may access the full article here: https://episcopalarchives.org/church-awakens/exhibits/show/leadership/clergy/rodman. 

According to a press release by Episcopal Journal and Café, recently two new films, “Canon Ed Rodman” and “Prophets Among Us: Conversations with Justice Pioneers featuring Canon Ed Rodman,” were produced by the Committee to Celebrate the Legacy and Wisdom of Canon Ed Rodman, through partnership with the Episcopal Church’s Office of Communication and Office of Social Justice and Engagement, along with Episcopal Divinity School and the Diocese of Massachusetts.“ Access the full release here: https://www.episcopaljournal.org/new-resources-feature-justice-pioneer-canon-ed-rodman/. UBE premiered pieces of these films at its 55th Annual Business Meeting and Conference in Baltimore, 

These resources chronicle Canon Rodman’s 50+ years of experience pursuing racial, economic, and social justice, “from his teen years as a civil rights activist featured on the cover of Life magazine, to his tenure as a board member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, to his role as a founder of the Union of Black Episcopalians and as primary author of the Episcopal Church’s anti-racism training.”

While a founding member of the Union of Black Episcopalians, Canon Rodman authored “Let There Be Peace Among Us: A Story of the Union of Black Episcopalians” and mentored many black Episcopalians through the process of ordination as well as during their tenures in ordained ministry. Many remember well the charge he often issued: “Let there be peace among us and let us not be instruments of our own or other's oppression.”

When information regarding the celebration of the life of the Rev. Canon Ed Willis Rodman becomes available, we will share that information with you. Meanwhile, let us pray for Canon Rodman, his family and friends, and all others who mourn. May he and all the faithful departed rest in peace and rise in everlasting glory.

Dear UBE Family,

Dr. Ora Houston, a lifetime member of UBE and member of the Myra McDaniel UBE Chapter in Austin, Texas, is featured this month in Profiles in Generosity, produced by the Episcopal Church Foundation. The video tells the story of Dr. Houston’s amazing Episcopal faith journey as a woman of color who grew up during the segregation era in Texas and went on to become a leading lay woman in The Episcopal Church and a leading contributor to the welfare of her community.

We are proud of the contributions Dr. Houston has made and the work she continues to do to further Christ’s mission to reconcile all people to God and to rid our church and world of the divisions that separate us.

To access Profiles in Generosity, click here.