St. Pierre's Episcopal Church Gautier, MS

[Episcopal News Service] This is no ordinary canoe. The boat, formerly a large cottonwood tree, is known as a “dugout,” and over the past year its carving has been the project of the Indigenous cultural organization Naknuwithlama Tiichamna, or Caretakers of the Land, with financial support from the Diocese of Eastern Oregon. The Caretakers of the Land’s laborers turned the tree into a hand-carved dugout canoe to raise awareness of ongoing threats to Indigenous cultural knowledge while preserving some of the traditional ways of the region’s Native American tribes and promoting intergenerational healing. Over the summer, Caretakers of the Land tested the newly carved dugout on the Lower Snake River and Wallowa Lake, near where the original cottonwood was felled. In a project update shared last week by the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, Bobby Fossek, co-director of Caretakers of the Land, said the canoe had been given the name Sapalaxsimithla, which translates to “One Who Causes Oneness/Togetherness.” “This is an effort that began many generations before us, and the ripple it makes will be felt many generations from now,” Fossek said. “Displacement, violence, manipulation of waterways, declining fish runs and the forced assimilation into extractive and industrialized ways of living nearly severed our ties to much of our land base, waterways [and] each other.” Caretakers of the Land’s partnership with the diocese goes beyond the canoe project. The organization also manages a habitat restoration project at the diocese’s Ascension School Camp and Conference Center and advises the diocese on anti-racism and environmental stewardship issues. The camp hosts cultural immersion camps organized by Caretakers of the Land, and the diocese gives about $20,000 a year to the organization and provides additional support with administrative and financial management, the Rev. Amy Jayne, the Ascension School executive director, told Episcopal News Service by email. “Our repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery is central to our work with Caretakers of the Land,” Jayne said. She referred to a 2022 diocesan resolution that lamented the church’s historic complicity with colonial-era doctrines that assumed European superiority while justifying white domination over Native Americans in the spread of Christianity. The Episcopal Church has grappled with the legacy of that doctrine for decades. In 2009, General Convention approved a resolution saying it “repudiates and renounces the Doctrine of Discovery as fundamentally opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our understanding of the inherent rights that individuals and peoples have received from God.” For the dugout canoe project, Caretakers of the Land also received funding from the Wildhorse Foundation, the Ataw First Foods Fund and the Bisbee Foundation. That support allowed the organization to form a team of experienced carvers and volunteers, who spent last winter carving the tree into “a work of art” and a canoe that “navigates the water very well,” Fossek said. “Throughout the carving process, many synchronistic and long-lasting friendships were formed and strengthened with regional leaders, inspired individuals, and organizations that we feel are part of this current transition to a more relationship-based and holistic socio-economic system,” he said. Tribes that call the region home include the Umatilla, Palus, Cayuse, Walla Walla and Nez Perce. Fossek, a member of the Walla Walla band, said his dugout team already has taken several tribal groups out on the water “for connection and team building,” as well as hosting non-Indigenous groups. Fossek told the news website Wallowa County Chieftain in March that he got the idea for the project from his grandmother, who wanted to preserve ancestral crafts for future generations. The funding from the diocese and other backers allowed Fossek and fellow co-director Brosnan Spencer to buy tools for the project and to pay the experienced carvers who worked on the dugout. The project has helped Caretakers of the Land develop the knowledge that will enable additional programs connected to the water and tribal customs. “We are now in the position to help expose people to the dugouts, build them with and for other tribes, and offer wholesome experiences including the cultural arts we have been learning and teaching over the years, the habitat management and the canoes,” Fossek said. The diocese continues to raise money to support Caretakers of the Land as it pursues its vision of Indigenous cultural education. – 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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[Episcopal News Service] Trinity Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, will host a “Celebrate the Feast” bilingual Latin American Signature Music Mass on Sept. 6. Texas Assistant Bishop Héctor Monterroso will preach. The special service is both a celebration of sacred music traditions from Latin America and the Latin American diaspora and a celebration of the 30th ordination anniversary of its rector, the Rev. Hannah E. Atkins Romero, the first woman ordained a priest in El Salvador. She has been serving as Trinity’s rector since 2007. The service will include prayers for migration ministries and justice for migrants. “We’re wanting all of the songs to reflect Latin American culture and history and be a celebration of the values and goodness that immigrants who are being persecuted in our country now bring to our country,” Romero told Episcopal News Service. “We couldn’t fit every country in Latin America, but there will be a good sampling of genres and classic and contemporary traditions.” Plans for the Latin American Signature Music Mass began in January, after Monterroso was scheduled to make his official bishop’s visitation to Trinity on Sept. 6, which also is Romero’s ordination anniversary. Monterroso and Romero have been good friends since they first met in El Salvador in 1996, the year Romero was ordained. The prayers and music, which will be directed by church musicians Ernesto Vega, Sandra Montes and Paul Mortilla, will reflect the service’s theme, “Cuando el pobre crea en el pobre” – “When the poor believe in the poor.” Trinity’s choir, instrumentalists and musical guests will additionally perform the premiere of two commissioned works composed by Trinity music ministry members, “Trinity Cha-Cha-Cha” by Ernesto Vega and “Canto de Hannah” by Angela Ortiz. “We’re blessed with so many talented musicians here at Trinity, and I’m proud to call them my friends,” Romero said. The service will mostly be in Spanish and English, but one Brazilian musician will sing the hymn “Our Father of the Martyrs” in Portuguese to include Brazil, the largest country in Latin America by population and land area. The service will end with singing a Swahili arrangement of “Siyahamba,” a South African hymn originally written in Zulu, to acknowledge Africa’s heavy influence on Latin American culture, including music. “It’s an embrace of different cultures and a reminder that the church exists not only for itself, but for the sake of the world,” Monterroso told ENS in a phone interview. Dedicating the service to migrants was important for Romero because, she said, “so much has happened lately in Houston.” In July, for example, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who has lived in the United States for 35 years, was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas, while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was searching for another individual. As the co-founders of the Houston Migration with Dignity Coalition, Romero and her husband, Elmer Romero, an El Salvador native, led prayer vigils for Araujo and his brother, who was recently released from ICE custody. Prayers will also be dedicated to migrants who are in the United States under a federal program known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, that has long been supported by The Episcopal Church. It allows the Department of Homeland Security to declare certain foreign nationals protected from deportation if they would face hazards in their home countries from conditions such as natural disasters, civil unrest or other violence. Romero noted that TPS for El Salvador is scheduled to end on Sept. 9, and work authorization for certain Venezuelans under TPS is scheduled to end on Oct. 2. The Latin American Signature Music Mass, Romero said, is her ministry’s latest protest – a “joyful protest.” “We wanted to do something joyful in a time of terror and murder and oppression, not in a Pollyanna way, but to come together and still proclaim that God’s love and inclusion is stronger than all the hate and rhetoric out there,” Romero said. Protesting through Latin American music is “appropriate,” according to Monterroso, because their melodies and lyrics have historically been performed as expressions of resistance. “The music is joyful, but it also comes from communities that have learned to sing through suffering, struggle and hope, and I think that understanding has been an important part of Hannah’s formation as a priest and experience in life,” said Monterroso, who is Guatemalan and previously served as bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Costa Rica. “As a priest, many times you must lead pastorally people who suffer and struggle, but at the same time are waiting for hope. …It feels completely natural that the words and rhythms will carry our prayers on this special day.” -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

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[Episcopal News Service] The hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where The Episcopal Church’s Full and Equal gathering is being held was temporarily placed on lockdown Sept. 2 while police responded to a deadly mass shooting nearby. A gunman opened fire around 4:30 p.m. at an apartment building in the Loring Park neighborhood near downtown, killing two people and injuring six others, before police found the shooter dead at the scene. He was later identified as 35-year-old Carlton Neal Johnson II, who had been fighting an eviction, according to the Star Tribune. The Full and Equal gathering, celebrating 50 years of progress toward full LGBTQ+ inclusion in The Episcopal Church, is taking place Sept. 3-5, at the Sheraton hotel less than one block from the shooting scene, and some attendees who had arrived the day before the church event reported being affected by the lockdown. “The area is on lockdown due to yet more gun violence,” Connecticut Bishop Jeffrey Mello posted to Facebook. “Pray for all those impacted, healing for those injured, and an end to this scourge.” During the initial police response, The Episcopal Church sent a message to Full and Equal attendees about the lockdown, advising anyone at the hotel to remain in their rooms. “There is no indication that this incident is related to our event or to The Episcopal Church in any way,” the church’s advisory said. A follow-up message to attendees confirmed that the lockdown in the area had been lifted, and the gathering’s programming would begin as scheduled at 9 a.m. Sept. 3. It would include “an opportunity to gather for prayer and reflection — grieving those lost and injured and recommitting to the work of standing against the scourge of gun violence that infects our nation.” The gathering marks 50 years since General Convention passed a resolution in 1976 affirming that LGBTQ+ individuals “are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church.” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe is expected to join one of the panel discussions and will be the celebrant at a concluding Holy Eucharist on Sept. 5 at St. Mark’s Cathedral. The preacher will be the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, who became the church’s first openly gay bishop when he was consecrated by the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003. There have been 324 mass shootings in the United States so far in 2026, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as any incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter. The Episcopal Church has been active for years in lamenting the human toll of gun violence while advocating for political reforms promoting gun safety, particularly through the Bishops United Against Gun Violence network. In 2022, a deadly shooting occurred about two blocks from where the church was holding its 80th General Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, and Bishops United responded by organizing a march through the neighborhood calling for an end to gun violence. As police continue to investigate the Minneapolis shooting, Full and Equal attendees are again offering prayers for peace. “Prayers ascending for those impacted by the shooting in downtown Minneapolis just across the street from the hotel were in,” the Rev. Susan Russell, one of the Full and Equal gathering organizers, said in a Facebook post on Sept. 2. She added that she and other attendees were safe, though “somewhat shaken up.” As the Full and Equal gathering got underway Sept. 3, Michigan Bishop Bonnie Perry, a convener of Bishops United Against Gun Violence, led participants in a mournful litany. “We pray for communities where gun violence is not an interruption but a pattern,” Perry said. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org. Mary Frances Schjonberg contributed reporting from Minneapolis.

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[Anglican Communion News Service] Following tensions surrounding the recent general elections in Zambia last month, the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa issued a statement on Sept. 2 calling for prayer and peace. Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, signed the statement on behalf of the African primates, expressing concern for the democratic process and the detention of political opponents during the elections. Incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development won the Aug. 13 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. “Our hearts are particularly heavy as we remember all those currently detained in connection with the electoral process,” Makgoba said in the statement. “We hold in our prayers every individual who is separated from their families during this time of uncertainty. We pray for their physical safety, their mental well-being, and the protection of their dignity.” Read the full article here.

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[Episcopal News Service] Every year in late August and early September, thousands of monarch butterflies gather at Stonington Peninsula, a sub-peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and wait for favorable weather and wind patterns before they begin their nearly 2,000-mile migration to central Mexico, where they will settle for the winter. Most of these lightweight insects – up to 90% – won’t survive the nearly two-month journey because of harsh weather conditions, predators, light pollution, pesticides and a lack of food available on their route, but their survival is necessary for North America’s ecosystem. As the monarch butterflies fly south, roughly 50 to 100 miles daily, they will feed on wildflowers and crops, transferring pollen and helping plants, including food crops, reproduce in the process. Episcopalians in the Marquette-based Diocese of Northern Michigan, which serves the state’s Upper Peninsula, and fellow Yoopers understand and appreciate the monarch butterflies’ importance. That’s why about 100 people gather every year at Peninsula Point Lighthouse for the annual “blessing of the monarch butterflies” event hosted UP Wild Church, a ministry of the Diocese of Northern Michigan and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Northern Great Lakes Synod. Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray, who will bless the butterflies on Sept. 2, described the act as “definitely relational” and “an act of reverence.” “To bless [the butterflies] is to participate in something sacred for me, and to be blessed by them is to receive a grace that honestly cannot be spoken, only felt,” Ray told Episcopal News Service in an email. “Blessing is a way of saying that we see the goodness God sees. …Blessing makes me aware of the relationship we have with God’s creatures and all of life.” Established in 2019 in Marquette, UP Wild Church now has eight branches that hold nondenominational nature prayer services, community engagement events, such as tree planting, and wilderness walks in the Upper Peninsula’s abundant natural settings – pine forests, inland lakes and the freshwater shores of Lake Superior. Church members also address the environmental crises that threaten those places through education and advocacy. UP Wild started the “blessing of the monarch butterflies” in 2021 as both a spiritual tradition and as an opportunity to teach adults and children about the monarch butterfly’s life cycle, migration process, cruciality as a major pollinator species, causes of their population decline and ways to prevent them from becoming endangered. Blessing migratory creatures, including monarch butterflies, “is an ancient practice of pilgrimage – a journey to a hold place which leads us into personal transformation – that our souls ache for,” Lanni Lantto, UP Wild Church’s co-founder, told ENS in an email. After members of UP Wild Church introduce themselves and the church’s ministry, the blessing event will commence. It will include group singing, an acknowledgment that the Upper Peninsula was first inhabited by the Anishinaabe people, a lecture on the butterflies and meditative breathing. Participants will also gather anything natural they can find nearby, like leaves, rocks and sticks, which Carol Schlitz, a member of UP Wild Church, will combine to form a butterfly mandala structure. “It’s a grounding activity to put everyone in the right frame of mind before the blessing officially begins,” Schlitz told ENS. “For me, as a nature photographer, I see God in everything.” There’s no guarantee the butterflies will still be near Peninsula Point Lighthouse by the time the blessing event starts because they base the start of their migration on weather conditions, wind speed and wind direction. If they are still around, a volunteer from Monarch Watch, an education, conservation and research program based at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, will explain the importance of tagging the butterflies to track their migration patterns and survival rates. Participants will then be invited to catch the butterflies in large nets, identify their sex and place the tags on their wings before releasing them. Sue Jamison, a member of UP Wild Church and a retired first grade teacher, has been a Monarch Project volunteer for 25 years. When she was a teacher, her class spent the first month of the new school year learning about monarch butterflies. She would bring monarch caterpillars into the classroom so that her students could witness them feed, grow, form chrysalides and hatch into butterflies 10 to 14 days later. After they’ve hatched, Jamison taught her students how to identify the butterflies by sex (males have two black spots – scent glands – in the center of each lower hind wing) and chart how many females and males they had. “My students loved the monarch project; I’m sure it’s a project they’ll never forget,” Jamison told ENS. “By learning about the monarchs’ importance and learning about their journey south and witnessing their natural beauty, I hope more people can appreciate everything they bless us with. The least we can do is bless them, learn about them and do our part to help ensure their survival as a species.” From egg to a flying adult, non-overwintering monarch butterflies, the generations that don’t migrate south, typically live four to five weeks. In her short lifetime, a female butterfly can lay between 300 and 500 eggs. However, fewer than 10% of eggs and caterpillars survive to become adults because of predators, parasites, extreme weather conditions and habitat and food loss. Milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars eat and the only plant that adults use to lay their eggs. “We’re always encouraging people to grow pesticide-free milkweed and let the plants grow. If you see milkweed, don’t cut it,” Schlitz said. “They’re resilient plants that will grow just about anywhere, and monarchs need them for survival.” The migrating generation, however, can live for six to nine months if they survive their journey. Some will fly as far as 3,000 miles depending on their starting point. The survivors will arrive in Mexico by the end of October or early November, coinciding with Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, […]

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The Grapevine, the monthly newsletter of the parish of St. John, Ocean Springs, is available online.

The Grapevine in available online.

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Yoga classes will start back on Wednesday, September 10

• Chair yoga - 10:30 a.m.
• Gentle mat yoga - 12:00 noon

Wednesday afternoons from 4:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Children (K – 3) are invited to participate.  For more information contact Mary Chaffe Brooks or Jonathan Mitchell.  Cherubs sing about once every 6 weeks, usually at the beginning of the 9:00 a.m. service.