[Council of Christian Churches in Germany] The Rev. Kirsten Guidero, The Episcopal Church’s ecumenical and interreligious relations officer, met this week with ecumenical leaders at the Ecumenical Centre in Frankfurt, Germany, which is the Council of Christian Churches in Germany’s headquarters. They discussed how The Episcopal Church can contribute to ecumenical cooperation in the European country. “Cooperation between churches around the world enriches our own work in Germany,” the Rev. Christopher Easthill, the Council of Christian Churches in Germany’s chair, said during the June 23 meeting. “In particular, The Episcopal Church’s experience with structured ecumenical practice offers valuable inspiration as we continue to strengthen the unity of the churches.” Founded in 1948 and reconstituted in 1992 following Germany’s reunification, the council represents 25 churches and denominations countrywide. Its members include the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church in Germany (the main Protestant denomination), the Moravian Church, the Syrian and Coptic Orthodox churches, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches and many others. It focuses on shared witness, is committed to justice, peace and upholding the integrity of creation, and advocates for the rights of persecuted Christians worldwide. During the meeting, Guidero expressed interest in the resources the council has developed for local congregations and ecumenical initiatives. She also supported the Charta Oecumenica, a joint document from the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences that contains guidelines for increasing ecumenical partnerships among churches in Europe. Guidero also shared information on The Episcopal Church’s many ecumenical dialogues. For example, the dialogue between The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church is moving toward a vote on full communion at the Episcopal Church’s 82nd General Convention in 2027 in Phoenix, Arizona. The United Methodist Church had already approved full communion with The Episcopal Church at its General Conference in 2024. The Episcopal Church is currently in full communion with eight other churches: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; the Moravian Church (Northern and Southern Provinces); the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, India; the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht; the Philippine Independent Church; the Church of Sweden; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. In practice, this means, for example, that Episcopal and Lutheran congregations in Iowa are able to share the ministry of a pastor or priest. During the meeting, Guidero highlighted the common challenges facing churches in Europe and around the world: “Our dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria has shown how fruitful close cooperation can be,” she said. “We want to share these experiences and, together with the [Council of Christian Churches in Germany], explore new paths toward deeper ecumenical understanding.” Verena Hammes, the Council of Christian Churches in Germany’s executive director, welcomed the international exchange. “It is a privilege to hear first-hand about ecumenical life in the United States,” Hammes said. “We are particularly interested in learning about the work of the National Council of Churches in the USA and its current priorities.”

[World Council of Churches] Faith leaders, government representatives, health professionals, development partners, researchers and disability organizations from Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda have established a regional plan to promote disability-inclusive sexual and reproductive health and rights. The goal is to strengthen collaboration, knowledge sharing, research and policy advocacy across East Africa. The platform was established during a June 16-17 regional scientific conference on “Breaking Barriers: Disability-Inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa,” which was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Despite growing recognition of disability rights, people with disabilities continue to face significant barriers in accessing quality sexual and reproductive health information and services. Read the entire article here.

[Episcopal News Service] A priest in the Diocese of Southern Ohio is fighting an attempt to remove him from the priesthood over an extramarital affair he had while serving as a parish priest. The hearing panel in the Title IV disciplinary case against the Rev. Daniel McClain ruled in November 2025 that McClain was guilty of “conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy” and recommended to Southern Ohio Bishop Kristin Uffelman White a punishment of deposition, or removal from ordained ministry. McClain appealed that ruling to the churchwide Court of Review, which met online June 23 for oral arguments. McClain, who did not address the Court of Review, was represented by Deborah Stambaugh, a church attorney based in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Her central argument on appeal was that the hearing panel had not given McClain an opportunity to defend himself at a hearing, choosing instead to base its ruling on existing evidence and written arguments. “Very unfair and very misleading information had been put out about him,” Stambaugh said. “Father Dan’s dignity has not been respected. He has been made into a leper and a social pariah by what is nothing short of cyberbullying at the hands of the church.” McClain had served as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakwood, a Dayton suburb, until he was placed on administrative leave in February 2024 to face disciplinary proceedings under the church’s Title IV canons. That process was overseen by retired Eastern Oregon Bishop Nedi Rivera, who serves as an assisting bishop in Southern Ohio. At the time, the diocese was led by Bishop George Smith, then serving as bishop provisional. McClain “will not be permitted to function as an Episcopal priest in any setting until this matter is resolved,” Smith said in a February 2024 message to the congregation. (White was seated as Southern Ohio’s bishop diocesan later that month.) An initial investigation produced evidence and interviews that detailed a wide range of allegations against McClain while he was at St. Paul’s, including changes to worship practices, failed compliance with COVID-19 protocols, presence of pet cats in church buildings, inappropriate influence on warden and vestry selection, an unauthorized exorcism of the church building and questionable actions involving church finances. McClain denied any wrongdoing. Documentation is posted on the diocesan website here. Some St. Paul’s members also objected to McClain in 2020 hiring his then-wife to the congregation’s staff. About 18 months later, in April 2022, she filed for divorce. While the divorce was being finalized, McClain began a romantic relationship with another woman, whom he eventually married. That is the sole allegation specified by the Title IV hearing panel in its ruling against McClain. The panel found him guilty of “a persistent pattern of conduct which included engaging in an adulterous relationship during marriage, failing to model a life of fidelity expected of a member of the clergy, and making decisions and taking actions which were not in line with the relationship between rector and the congregation entrusted to their pastoral care.” During the Court of Review session, Stambaugh took issue with the way McClain’s relationships have been depicted and the severity of his recommended punishment. “His wife abandoned him,” Stambaugh said. “He sought out healthy companionship that helped stabilize him through a turbulent time after being abandoned.” McClain now works as a schoolteacher. Steven Ellcessor, the lawyer for the Diocese of Southern Ohio, however, argued to the Court of Review that most of the issues raised by Stambaugh were “irrelevant to this review proceeding” and “make it about something other than what it is.” On the central claim that McClain should have been given a chance to address the Title IV hearing panel at a hearing, Ellcessor said the underlying facts of McClain’s adultery were not in dispute, so the hearing panel’s procedural decisions did not prejudice McClain’s case. “This is not a case, like many, where priests have engaged in adulterous affairs, realized their errors, confessed to their bishop, expressed repentance and accepted the consequences of their actions,” Ellcessor said. “This priest never reported his conduct to his bishop, continued his conduct openly for well over a year and remained unrepentant.” The 18-member Court of Review is not tasked with determining McClain’s guilt, but rather whether the Diocese of Southern Ohio’s disciplinary hearing panel properly followed church canons. It now will deliberate on the case before issuing its ruling at a later date. Most clergy disciplinary cases are settled at the diocesan level, though respondents are allowed to appeal final rulings to the church’s Court of Review. It was first tasked to receive clergy appeals in 2018 under canonical changes approved by the 79th General Convention. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.

[Diocese of North Carolina] North Carolina Bishop Sam Rodman has announced plans to retire and called for the election of the next bishop diocesan. The new bishop will be elected at the diocese’s 212th annual convention in November 2027. The newly elected 13th bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina then will be ordained and consecrated in spring 2028. In a June 23 message to the diocese, Rodman said his decision to retire came from a “place of clarity and peace,” and that he believes it is both “the right time for me and for my family to embrace the opportunities that come with retirement – a new perspective and a slower pace,” and “this is the right time for the diocese to discern leadership for the next chapter of mission and service.” “Serving as your bishop has been, and continues to be, a joy, a blessing and an incredible gift,” Rodman said. “And I am grateful that we will still have time together building up beloved community here in North Carolina, as we focus our energy over the next two years on the diocesan priorities of discipleship in our churches and racial reckoning, justice and healing. This work is essential and will continue to expand as we move forward with our mission strategy priorities in the months ahead.” Rodman was elected the 12th bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina in March 2017, succeeding Bishop Michael Curry following Curry’s election as The Episcopal Church’s 27th presiding bishop in 2015 at the 78th General Convention. Since his ordination as bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, Rodman was called to serve The Episcopal Church as the co-convener of the presiding officers’ Working Group on Truth-Telling, Reckoning and Healing following the 79th General Convention, and he currently serves on the Standing Commission for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relations. Within the diocese, he has engaged clergy and lay leaders across congregations on a number of initiatives, including the diocesan mission strategy, advocacy and public witness, reparations and restitution, and the sharing of proceeds from the sale of the former diocesan house building to support congregations in their own ministry in the communities they serve. At the time of the announcement, the standing committee also shared a message with the diocese: “We are profoundly grateful for [Bishop Rodman’s] steady and bold leadership, emboldened as it has been by his constant and prayerful devotion to the Holy Spirit that has informed his personal care of the congregations throughout this diocese; and for the myriad ways he has walked with us in times of joy and times of challenge, always encouraging us to grow more fully into the one body of Christ. In the coming season of transition, as we anticipate all that accompanies the election of the next bishop, we look forward to both celebrating Bishop Rodman’s ministry, while yet, and with his ongoing guidance, continuing to focus actively on the work to which the Holy Spirit still calls us.” The standing committee also noted it is already working with consultants from The Episcopal Church to clarify roles, responsibilities, objectives and timelines. Additional details will be shared as the process develops. As it does, the diocese will follow Rodman’s call for “prayers as we navigate this time of discernment together, trusting in the wisdom, direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

[Episcopal News Service] On Jan. 25, 1873, on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, workers laid the cornerstone of St. Paul’s Within the Walls Episcopal Church, the first non-Roman Catholic church built inside Rome’s ancient walls. The land was purchased, and construction began in 1872, two years after Italian forces captured Rome and the unification of Italy was complete, which brought a constitution protecting religious freedom and the end of papal rule in the city. In March 1876, the red brick and travertine Gothic Revival church was consecrated. St. Paul’s will celebrate the consecration’s 150th anniversary year with a special Evening Prayer on June 26. California Bishop Austin K. Rios, who served 12 years as St. Paul’s priest-in-charge, will preach, and Bishop Mark Edington of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe will preside. Although the church’s founders leaned into Protestantism and displayed a somewhat antagonist need to express their own brand of catholicism in the eternal city, over time St. Paul’s was called both to represent The Episcopal Church in Rome and to communicate its understanding of catholicism as not just the Vatican or the Roman Catholic Church, but the larger calling as presented in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, emphasizing parallel liturgies, shared roots and Catholic-Anglican ecumenism, Rios told Episcopal News Service. “Being in Rome felt to me like we were touching on those roots all the time, and they were alive; it wasn’t just a dead past, it was something that was giving life to the present and to the future,” he said. As in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” What began as an American outpost for U.S. Embassy personnel, merchants, industrialists and tourists 100 years later welcomed Africans in the diaspora, and in the 1980s, founded the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center and established a Latino ministry. Later, it welcomed the LGBTQ+ community, establishing the first inclusive space for queer Christians and their allies in Rome. Michelle Ruelle found St. Paul’s in 2023 while searching for an inclusive Christian community. Born in the United States and raised Roman Catholic, in her youth she left the church and later self-identified as “unchurched.” She has lived the last 25 years in Rome, where she returned to Catholic Mass while her son took catechism classes, a rite of passage for Italian teens in what is largely a secular society. The classes required a parent to sign a document committing them to take the student to church on Sunday. She fulfilled her obligation but continued to attend because she liked the Gospel stories and the revolutionary character, Jesus. Yet, at the same time, she had many LGBTQ+ friends, her then 12-year-old daughter came out as gay, and eventually she couldn’t reconcile some of the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings. “You’re never going to get away, especially here in Rome, from the messages coming from the pulpit about gender theory. … Or if you are divorced, don’t come up for Communion,” said Ruelle, who is divorced. “I was always making excuses, concessions … then finally I was just like, I can’t anymore, now that my daughter has come out. I can’t feel safe in a place where I don’t know if somebody from the pulpit is going to say gay people are an abomination.” So, she left, feeling sad because she’d discovered the beauty of Christianity but had no place to worship. A year later, she typed the words “inclusive Christian denomination” into Google, and it delivered “The Episcopal Church.” “And on that particular day on the homepage, they had the LGBTQ flag, and I remember thinking, wait a second, I was looking for a Christian community, these people are Christian, and they’re proclaiming they’re supporting LGBTQ rights. What is this about? I got so excited, but then I was like, oh, but of course they’re not going to be here in Rome.” She’d landed on The Episcopal Church’s denominational website and then discovered its branch in Rome: St. Paul’s Within the Walls. “Day one, it was like home; it was so great. I have been there ever since,” said Ruelle, who became a vestry member and is in the process of becoming a deacon. St. Paul’s reputation for affirming and welcoming the LGBTQ+ community is one thing that draws people who, for historical, social, and political reasons, aren’t able to feel at home in their local church in Rome. “That’s one of the pillars of our ministry as The Episcopal Church in Rome. … We were the first and still only official church body to participate in Pride,” said Conner Drennen, one of St. Paul’s co-wardens. “There are other grassroots organizations and religious ecumenical groups — we all march all together — but we remain the only officially sanctioned church body.” For Harrison Wade, an Arkansan raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, St. Paul’s offered a welcoming space where he could express his true identity. Wade moved to Rome for graduate school and stayed to work in environmental sustainability. He began attending a Reformed Baptist church, but as a gay man, he felt he couldn’t be himself. When he and his Italian partner, a Roman Catholic, attended services together, Wade would introduce him as a friend. “But whenever we came to St. Paul’s, we could sit next to each other, we could be a couple. It wasn’t like it was a political statement or anything … I felt immediately accepted, and the more I attended, the more I felt at home.” Still, Wade said, to go from being a Southern Baptist to becoming an Episcopalian wasn’t an easy decision. “I remember praying for a sign, and there was one sermon that was just super evident that God was talking to me and saying, like, ‘Harrison, you have a home here at this church,’ and I made some of my closest friends at St. Paul’s.” St. Paul’s is not the only church in the Anglican