Ecumenical and Interreligious Report (Sept 2024 – 2025)

Ecumenical and Interreligious Report (Sept 2024 – Sept 2025)

The Rev. Dr. Daniel DeForest London

It’s an honor to serve as your Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer and I am grateful to our previous Ecumenical Officer, the Rev. Bill Rontani, for his wisdom, counsel, and leadership in this role over the past several years. The purpose of the Ecumenical Officer is to encourage the search for the wider visibility of Christ’s Church and to support collegial relationships with members of other religions. I’m connected to a network called EDEIO (Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical & Interreligious Officers) and I was recently appointed as the EDEIO Coordinator for Province 8, which comprises all dioceses west of the Rockies, including Hawaii, Taiwan, Navajoland and Micronesia. In this report, I offer brief highlights of ecumenical & interreligious ministries and affairs within our diocese as well as within the wider Episcopal Church, between September 2024 and September 2025. This list is meant to be illustrative and not exhaustive.

Ecumenical and Interreligious Highlights in the Diocese

• In September 2024, I spoke on a panel alongside a rabbi and imam in a county-wide conversation in Humboldt on Israel-Palestine.

• In November 2024, the Fairfield Clergy Action Network hosted an annual Thanksgiving meal for the needy. Karen Freeman+ is an active member of the Clergy Action Network and the rector of Grace Fairfield, which rents out church-campus space to an American Baptist congregation and a non-denominational Spanish-language congregation.

• In December 2024, St. Michael and All Angels and Trinity Lutheran Fort Bragg offered an ecumenical Advent service.

• In December 2024, Grace St. Helena hosted an ecumenical Quiet Christmas service (akin to a Blue Christmas service), as they have been doing for 15 years.
• In January 2025, in celebration of the Week of Christian Unity, the North State Ecumenical Conference hosted a panel discussion on the Nicene Creed, followed by an ecumenical worship service at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Sacramento. +Megan Traquair, Bill Rontani+, Matthew Woodward+, and I were among the participants.

• In February 2025, clergy from the ELCA and the Roman Catholic Church participated in the Open House and brief Blessing Service to celebrate the Office of the Bishop’s new location.

• In March 2025, five Sacramento churches (Lutheran, Methodist, UCC, Presbyterian, Episcopal) hosted Lenten vigils that focused on mercy, unity, dignity, truth, and humility; and offered a sacred space for prayer, especially for migrants and the LGBTQ+ community.

• In March 2025, Lutheran Bishop Jeff Johnson visited Trinity Lutheran Church and St. Michael & All Angels in Fort Bragg, two congregations pastored by the Randy Knutson+.

• In March 2025, Christ Church Eureka hosted an ecumenical Lenten study on the Nicene Creed, in celebration of the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.

• In April 2025, Faith Cameron Park hosted an ecumenical Good Friday service while Grace St. Helena hosted an ecumenical Good Friday Taizé service on their labyrinth.

• In June 2025, the Fairfield Clergy Action Network, which hosts food distribution centers, held an annual Juneteenth celebration.
• In September 2025, St Martin’s Davis and Christ Church Eureka celebrated the Season of Creation, a season which was established in 1989 by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and recently endorsed by General Convention. The Season of Creation spans from September 1, the Day of Prayer for Creation, to October 4, the Feast Day of St. Francis.

• In October 2025, I will be speaking at Ensō Village, a Zen-inspired Retirement Community in Healdsburg, on “The Zen of St. Francis: An Episcobujew’s Reflections on the Poverello.”

Highlights of Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs in the Episcopal Church

• In November 2024, The Episcopal Church (TEC) participated in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan and joined dozens of other faith-based organizations in signing the “Interfaith Call to Action” stressing the moral imperative for climate justice, transition away from fossil fuels, and protection for the most vulnerable communities.
• The year 2025 marked the 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, an anniversary which inspired several commemorating events and programs among TEC and ecumenical partners around the globe.
• The theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2025 (Jan 18 – Jan 25) was “Do you believe?” (John 11:26) and focused on the 1700^th anniversary of the Nicene Creed.

• In February 2025, the Episcopal Church joined dozens of other faith-based organizations in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration and claiming that the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in and around places of worship without a juridical warrant infringe upon the first amendment right to freedom of religion (specifically the sacred obligation to welcome the stranger).

• In March 2025, EPIC (Episcopalians and Presbyterians in Conversation) met on Long Island to continue conversations about an Episcopal-Presbyterian Agreement on Local Sharing of Ministries.

• On April 20, 2025, both Eastern Orthodox and Western Christians celebrated Easter on the same day, a relatively rare coincidence, occurring once every 3 to 4 years.
• In May 2025, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe joined a 19-member Anglican delegation to attend Pope Leo XIV’s Inaugural Mass, in which the pope said that “his first great desire” was for a united church and a “unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people.”

• In May 2025, the United Methodist Church – Episcopal Church dialogue met to begin strategizing the path toward the full-communion vote at the 83^rd General Convention of TEC in 2027. The dialogue is chaired by +Betsey Monnot of Iowa.
• In June 2025, TEC and ELKB (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria) established a formal relationship of full communion, building on their existing ecumenical dialogue and the Augsburg Agreement.

• In August 2025, a group of Episcopalians engaged in ecumenical fellowship through music and art at the Wild Goose Festival in Harmony, North Carolina.