[Episcopal News Service] Natalie Whiting was an active member of her congregation, Calvary Episcopal Church in Flemington, New Jersey, for most of her 79 years. In loving her church, Whiting wasn’t afraid to offer some constructive criticism. The historic building was woefully inadequate to accommodate people with disabilities and older people who had difficulty climbing its stairs. Whiting, in life, pressed for the church to upgrade the facility for accessibility, but church leaders deemed the costs prohibitive. Whiting died in January 2025 from cancer and is now posthumously addressing the church’s accessibility issues. She left her entire estate, estimated at more than half a million dollars, to the congregation with a request that it spend the money on accessibility upgrades. “She had a passion for making our building accessible to all people,” the Rev. Kyle Cuperwich, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “The church had talked about for years doing something about it but never had the resources.” Now Calvary is in the middle of the renovation project that Whiting had long requested. Accessible restrooms are being installed in the parish hall. Related upgrades are underway in the parish hall’s kitchen. The two sets of stairs into the worship space, which have posed a challenge to some parishioners in the past, will soon be complemented by wheelchair lifts. “We had older congregation members who would practically age themselves out of the church because they couldn’t get into the building anymore,” Cuperwich said. Some of them have already expressed excitement at the thought of returning to in-person worship services once the lifts are installed. The project is expected to cost more than $600,000. Additional funding was provided by the Diocese of New Jersey through a $3,000 Commission on Ministry with the Disabled grant and a $250,000 loan from the diocese’s Venture in Mission Fund. “Together, these efforts are helping Calvary prepare not only a more accessible building, but a more accessible and welcoming future for its community,” the diocese said in a Facebook post about the project. Flemington is a borough of about 5,000 people in central New Jersey’s Hunterdon County, a few miles from the Pennsylvania state line. Whiting was born to the east of Flemington, in Somerset, and lived most of her life in Hunterdon County, where she worked as a teacher at North Hunterdon High School. Whiting and her husband, who died in 2013, had no children, though she “cultivated a profound sense of community and fellowship, deeply rooted in her Christian faith,” according to her obituary. “She felt the church was really her home,” said Cuperwich, who has served at Calvary since 2023. The congregation now is honoring her wishes by finally following through with its plans for accessibility upgrades. “She really had the church in mind.” The design phase began last fall, and demolition work in the parish hall occurred in May 2026. The congregation has been posting updates on its website and Facebook page, with photos showing the new restrooms and kitchen taking shape. The wheelchair lifts will be installed soon, and the entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year or early 2027. “It will look really nice when it’s done,” Cuperwich said. In addition to honoring Whiting’s legacy, the congregation sees the renovations as an opportunity to offer a greater welcome to the Flemington community at a time when the borough’s population is growing. “We want to be part of that growth,” Cuperwich said. Current attendance at Sunday worship services counts about 30 to 35 worshippers. “We are a small church, but we are growing slightly, and we want to keep that momentum going.” Making the church more accessible is another step in that direction. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

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[World Council of Churches] The Council of Bishops of the Zambia Anglican Council issued a pastoral statement on post-election tensions in their south-central African country. “Our concern is Zambia. Our concern is justice. Our concern is peace. Our concern is unity,” the Sept. 21 statement said. “Our concern is the dignity and well-being of every Zambian, regardless of political, ethnic or tribal affiliation.” Last month, incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development won the general elections, though his main competitor, Brian Mundubile, claims that the counting of the votes had been rigged. After the election, government authorities raided a house, resulting in an exchange of gunfire that killed former Zambian minister Mutotwe Kafwaya. Eleven people were also arrested in this raid, including senior opposition figures. They were accused of planning a coup with the help of foreign militia, which they have denied. Retired Botswana Bishop Trevor Mwamba, a Zambian national who now leads Zambia’s United National Independence Party, was among the arrested opposition figures. He remains in custody as of Sept. 18, according to a report from The Telegraph, a British news outlet. “Where prosecution is not warranted, alternative lawful resolutions should be pursued without unnecessary delay,” the statement said. “Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice must not only punish wrongdoing; justice must also protect the innocent from arbitrary treatment.” Read the full article here.

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[Episcopal News Service] A. Gary Shilling, who has influenced preaching in The Episcopal Church for nearly 40 years, announced Sept. 21 that he is retiring as head of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation. Shilling, who founded the organization in 1987, will become board chairman emeritus. Executive Director Peter Wild will continue to lead EPF’s day-to-day operations. “Few people in The Episcopal Church have given more to the enterprise of preaching than Gary Shilling,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told Episcopal News Service. “For decades, our whole church has benefitted from his passion for forming strong clergy and lay preachers and his willingness to marshal resources in the service of his vision.” Rowe was a seminarian when he participated in the Preaching Excellence Program, the foundation’s centerpiece program. “The training and mentorship I received there has been central to my formation and my ministry in the last 25 years,” he said, adding, “I will always be grateful to Gary and the Episcopal Preaching Foundation for their generous investment in me and thousands of other seminarians and new preachers.” The Very Rev. Randy Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said in the foundation’s release that Shilling “has made a unique contribution to the careers of generations of preachers and their Sunday listeners,” including himself. The Rev. Stephen Smith, who has been involved with the foundation since 2005 and now chairs its board, said in an interview that “Gary Schilling changed preaching in the church forever and for the better.” Shilling, an economist, was leading his investment advisory firm in Springfield, New Jersey, when he created, and largely funded, the foundation. He said in the release that his initial motivation was simple. “Too many lousy sermons. What gets people into church – and keeps them there – is the sermon,” he said. “Plus, I simply enjoy hearing a good sermon.” Shilling told ENS that for him one test of a good sermon is “whether you can remember on Wednesday what the preacher said on Sunday.” The sermon, he added, is for most congregants their main continuing point of contact with the church. However, while he believed that strong and vibrant preaching would attract congregants and grow The Episcopal Church, that wasn’t Shilling’s only goal. He hoped that strong preachers would also inspire people in their religious life. “A good sermon changes people in a way that improves their understanding of God and Christianity,” he said in the release. Shilling said the Book of Acts is his favorite book in the Bible because it tells the story of how Paul and others spread “this wonderful concept we call Christianity.” Shilling, 89, who attends Christ Church in Short Hills, New Jersey, decided early on that EPF should work with new preachers as they grew into their ministry. The annual Preaching Excellence Program, the foundation’s centerpiece conference known as PEP, offers seminarians and recent graduates an immersion experience in the art and practice of preaching. Seminarians, homiletics professors and rectors gather for a week of lectures, worship, workshops and small groups in which the students preach sermons for discussion and feedback. The foundation underwrites the cost of registration, travel, and accommodations, except for $375, which the student, their seminary, and their diocese pay in equal parts. Approximately 2,000 clergy have participated in the program since its founding in 1988. The Rev. Elis Hiu-Mei Lui attended Preaching in Excellence in May. She was a transitional deacon when she preached her first sermon to a congregation at St. Mary the Virgin near Times Square in New York City in late August and was ordained a priest on Sept. 12. Lui called PEP “the most retreat-like experience I’ve had in all my years of seminary.” The time she spent in personal prayer was a part of that, she said, adding that the conference also gave her and others “space for you to process and pray about what you’re learning and encountering.” PEP allows participants to “get out of our respective bubbles,” Lui said, and connect with people from other seminaries and local formation programs who will be preaching in different settings. “It was very neat to talk to and connect with peers who are being formed at this exact time, but also with the mentors who’ve been doing this for years.” The preaching foundation expanded its mission over the years with preaching intensives for deacons, including conferences for deacons in the Anglican Church of Canada; a lay preacher program (with help from a $400,000 grant from Trinity Wall Street); an association for Episcopal Church lay preachers; preaching conferences for Spanish-speaking clergy; diocesan preaching conferences; preaching weeks between seminaries’ academic year terms; and Sermon Roundtable to train clergy and lay leadership in giving meaningful sermon feedback (funded by more than $1 million from the Lilly Endowment). It offers Word & Witness, a monthly resource newsletter for preachers. The foundation, with the Seminary of the Southwest, developed the Iona Collaborative, which offers a virtual formation experience for those to be ordained outside a residential seminary. EPF’s Episcopal Lay Preaching Network, founded in 2025, will host the first national conference for lay preachers in October. – The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is a freelance writer who formerly was a senior editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.

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Three years on from the outbreak of conflict in Sudan, millions are in crisis. Anglican leaders are calling for renewed prayer, the protection of civilians and urgent humanitarian access. 

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Bishop Robert will work closely with the National Safeguarding Team, which provides specialist expertise on casework, policy development, training, evaluation and survivor participation.

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A textile installation exploring life in Britain during the Second World War will be on display at Lichfield Cathedral throughout May 2026.

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As a two-week ceasefire is agreed between Iran and the US, Anglican News shares updates on how different churches across the Middle East and beyond have been dealing with the impacts of war, and working to share hope in their setting.

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