[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal churches nationwide are hosting and participating in events commemorating the United States’ 250th anniversary this weekend. While the commemoration is intended to be joyful and festive in nature, many Episcopal-led events will be more nuanced and reflective. The 250th anniversary celebration throughout the afternoon of July 5 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Frederick, Maryland, for example, won’t shy from acknowledging the United States’ imperfect history. “It’s very clear to us here at All Saints, and to many members of our community, of the state that we’re in in terms of the ideals of our democracy and how far we are from God’s vision for all of humanity,” the Rev. Catherine M. Thompson, All Saints’ rector, told Episcopal News Service. “How do you balance those two things, a love of the country in which you live and serve, and a desire to live more fully into God’s vision?” All Saints’ celebration will begin with a concert that includes the premiere of Hollis Thoms’ “Mneme,” featuring the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, a West African woman enslaved during the period of the American Revolution who became the first published African American author. Her enslavers, so impressed with her work, got her book, “Poetry on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” published in 1773. She was freed shortly after her book was published. Wheatley’s poetry attracted the attention of Founding Fathers George Washington, who praised her work, and Thomas Jefferson, who dismissed her literary talents as “below the dignity of criticism.” “By me setting [Wheatley’s] poems to music and having a Black woman sing her words, we’re trying to say that her poetic talent is of value and is part of our society,” Thoms, an All Saints parishioner, told ENS. “Phillis Wheatley’s words are a part of our American history and American way of life … a part of this idea that we’re all striving for, that all persons are created equal.” Jouelle Roberson, a soprano based in Washington, D.C., will sing Wheatley’s poetry in “Mneme.” After the concert, members of All Saints’ truth and reconciliation committee will lead roundtable discussions on select writings and speeches from historical American figures of different backgrounds, including Logan, a Cayuga orator and war leader, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the Declaration of Sentiments and others. Participants will gather in small groups to discuss the readings and reflect on their significance today. All Saints’ celebration will conclude with a choral Evensong using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The Rev. Jennifer Mariano, the church’s associate for pastoral care, will preach. “The United States is politically and socially divided, but we don’t have to stay stuck in this division. We don’t have to be like this,” Mariano told ENS. “We can move forward by God’s grace. The ideal that we are all created equal is still appropriate and worth striving for.” Many Episcopal churches share All Saints’ sentiment and will express similar messages during their celebrations. The following is a list of some Episcopal churches hosting or participating in community-led America 250 events. Check online locally for additional events. All times listed are local. New York, New York — The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine will host “Truth Is a Common Good: A Vigil for Our Unfinished Democracy” on July 2 at 6 p.m. The livestreamed vigil will incorporate readings, live music and time for reflection to “consider the ideals that have shaped our nation and the ongoing work of building a more just and inclusive society.” Washington, D.C. — Washington National Cathedral will host an interfaith service on July 3 at 10 a.m. The livestreamed service, taking place instead of the cathedral’s annual Independence Day concert, will include curated Scripture, readings and music from different religious and cultural traditions, as well as contributions from spiritual and civic leaders. The service also will honor “individuals who have shown extraordinary courage and bravery in service to our shared life together, affirming that the work of a more perfect union is never finished and never done alone.” Boston, Massachusetts — Old North Church’s Evensong service on July 3 at 6 p.m., and Choral Matins service on July 5 at 11 a.m., will include patriotic hymns, choral anthems and historic prayers for the nation. Old North Church has a direct connection to the American Revolution. The lighting of two lanterns on the church’s steeple signaled to Paul Revere that British soldiers were on their way to arrest colonial militia leaders. The lit lanterns ignited his “midnight ride” to Lexington, Massachusetts, to warn the militia leaders. Omaha, Nebraska — Trinity Episcopal Church will host a celebratory prayer service on July 4 at 9:30 a.m. commemorating the “inextricable link” between the establishment of the United States and The Episcopal Church. Lorton, Virginia — Pohick Episcopal Church will host several events throughout the day on July 4, beginning at 12:30 p.m. with a bicycle ride around the Pohick Cemetery. There will also be a reading of the Declaration of Independence, a prayer service and more. Founding Fathers George Washington and George Mason served on Pohick’s vestry and supervised the church’s construction, which was completed in 1774 by enslaved and indentured laborers. East Hampton, New York — The commemorative communitywide service on July 5 at 10 a.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church will feature parishioners reading excerpts from speeches, writing, and documents from historical U.S. figures, including U.S. presidents, Emma Lazarus and Martin Luther King Jr.  New York, New York — The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, The Episcopal Church’s bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, will preach at a festive livestreamed worship service on July 5 at 11 a.m. at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The service will take place while an international fleet of tall ships is in New York for various weeklong celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary, including an Independence Day parade, public tours and a regatta. Trenton, New Jersey — St. Michael’s Episcopal

[Episcopal News Service – Londonderry, Northern Ireland] The Peace Bridge is one of the most prominent public symbols of reconciliation in this city, once an epicenter of Irish sectarian violence. Completed in 2011, the bridge connects the city’s two halves, though the east side is still mostly Protestant and the west side mostly Roman Catholic, decades after a peace agreement marked an end to the conflict known as The Troubles. A more personal symbol of reconciliation can be found in the face of Richard Moore. His right eye is gone. His left eye remains, but it no longer sees. Raised Catholic in the west-side neighborhood of Creggan, Moore’s blindness was the result of a rubber bullet fired into his face by a British soldier in 1972 when Moore was 10. His only infraction was running home by an unauthorized route, past a military outpost set up to quell the city’s civil unrest. The moment the bullet hit Moore’s face, it changed his life forever — for the better, he believes. Now in his mid-60s, he is a successful pub owner who founded the global charity Children in Crossfire, which helps children in communities struggling with poverty. “I actually had no anger, no bitterness, no hatred for the person who shot me,” Moore said, his eyes shaded behind dark glasses as he shared his story July 1. Anglican Consultative Council members, on a pilgrimage to his city, listened inside Derry’s historic St. Augustine’s Church as Moore described how he eventually found and met the man who shot him in 2006, and how he forgave the man. They are now friends. To be filled with such happiness after such adversity, forgiveness is the reason, Moore said. “Forgiveness is a gift that you give to yourself.” His story provided a poignant human element to the ACC’s daylong pilgrimage, scheduled midway through its June 28-July 4 meeting. The ACC is meeting for the rest of this week in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. The rest of the island is the Republic of Ireland. The Anglican pilgrimage to Derry frequently invoked the theme of reconciliation in the context of ongoing Irish efforts in the city and across Ireland’s divided island to maintain the peace that was established in 1998 after three decades of violence. Derry, a Northern Ireland border city, was the site of some of the worst violence between Catholic nationalists, who wanted independence and greater civil rights, and Protestant unionists, who were loyal to the United Kingdom. Irish Archbishop John McDowell, whose Anglican Church of Ireland spans the entire island, told Episcopal News Service that some of the old divisions still exist in Derry. Today, Irish nationalism is the majority sentiment here, he said, and even the city’s name can provoke controversy. Londonderry is the more formal name, reflecting British influence dating to the early 1600s, though residents often prefer Derry, which is closer to the original Irish “Doire.” Even now, the city is “still coming out of conflict,” McDowell said. “It was difficult to end the war, but it takes a completely new set of skills to make the peace.” Derry residents are also known for their exuberant hospitality, as they demonstrated to the ACC representatives from 37 worldwide Anglican provinces, including The Episcopal Church, who traveled from Belfast by coach buses. They arrived at a former military facility that had been converted to a hotel and conference center called The Ebrington. Volunteers from the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe, many wearing neon yellow reflective vests, greeted them in a long welcome line that threaded into the building. Every handshake was paired with a broad smile and a greeting in the local way: “You’re very welcome.” Smile. Handshake. “You’re very welcome!” Smile. Handshake. “You’re very welcome!” The welcome line led to a ballroom, where Derry Bishop Andrew Forster gave the ACC visitors his own warm welcome. “You’re not the first pilgrims to come to this place,” he said. “The city’s been here since 546,” when St. Columba planted churches around the region. “This city has a reputation for being a place of division,” Forster said. Now at peace, it is writing a better history. “We’re called to be reconcilers in a sectarian environment. …Our experience on this island is that peace is always a fragile thing. We have to handle it with care.” With the Anglican pilgrims ready to tour the city, lead tour guide Jim O’Hagan warned of rain in the forecast. While providing safety instructions, he also shared his own excitement at the presence of more than 100 bishops, other clergy and lay leaders from across the Anglican Communion. “I’m a proud Derryman, and like all proud Derrymen, we like nothing more than sharing our city with visitors,” said O’Hagan, executive director of Veritas Tours. The ACC members were divided into four groups to begin their walking tour of central Derry. Starting on the east bank of the River Foyle, they learned about the Peace Bridge and then crossed the bridge on foot to the west side. The city’s Catholic and Protestant populations had once been more integrated, before the start of The Troubles in about 1968. After civil unrest and nationalist violence were met by British crackdowns, residents began relocating to sectarian enclaves on either side of the river, said the Rev. David McBeth, a minister from All Saints Anglican Church in Derry who was leading one of the pilgrim groups. Today, the footbridge serves as both a symbolic and a functional structure, “to join the Catholic community and the Protestant community together again,” McBeth said. On the west side, the ACC members made their way to the city’s Guildhall, an 1890 structure that serves as a civic center and a repository of local history. During The Troubles, it was the site of some civil rights protests and, in 1972, was damaged by a nationalist terror bombing. Now restored, it hosted the ACC for lunch. Local

[Diocese of Lexington] The Standing Committee of the Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky announced on July 1 the final slate for nominees for election as the diocese’s ninth bishop. With the successful addition of the Rev. Karen Booth as a petition candidate, the candidates are: The Rev. Karen Booth, rector of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Georgetown, Kentucky. The Rev. Benjamin Hart, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Anchorage, Kentucky. The Rev. Rob Keim, rector of St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church in Arroyo Grande, California. The Rev. David Sibley, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Walla Walla, Washington. Clergy and lay leaders will have opportunities to meet the nominees during meet-and-greet events the week of July 20–24. These gatherings will allow members of the diocese to learn more about the candidates’ ministries, leadership experience and vision for the church. The schedule and more details can be found here. The Diocese of Lexington invites the church to join in a novena – nine days of prayer – leading up to the bishop election. Those prayers can be found here. The bishop election is scheduled to take place Aug. 1 at Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, the second-largest city in the state. The consecration is planned for Dec. 12. Click here to learn more about the candidates and the search process. The ninth bishop will succeed Bishop Mark Van Koevering. They will lead the Diocese of Lexington’s 34 faith communities across the eastern half of Kentucky, extending north to the Ohio River and east to the mountain communities of Appalachia.

[Episcopal News Service] The U.S. Coast Guard’s Eagle cutter will lead an international fleet of tall and gray hull ships as they sail into New York harbor and salute the Statue of Liberty on July 4 in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary and Independence Day. Among the officers, crew and cadets who are celebrating on the 295-foot Eagle is the Rev. Sue Carter, an Episcopal priest based in the Diocese of Michigan. This is her second year serving as auxiliary chaplain on the Eagle. “I’m looking forward to being alongside the cadets,” Carter, associate priest at St. Katherine’s Episcopal Church in Williamston, told Episcopal News Service before setting sail on the Eagle last month. As chaplain, Carter holds worship services on the Eagle and is available for counseling and pastoral care whenever anyone on board needs it. “They tell me that I’m their ‘nana’ on board,” she said. “Some also affectionately like to call me ‘Chaps.’” Tall ships are large, traditionally rigged sailing vessels. They are categorized into four classes, A-D, based on length and other criteria. The Eagle, known as “America’s Tall Ship,” is one of the United States’ two active commissioned tall ships. Commissioned and built in 1936, the three-masted barque Eagle was initially owned and operated by Nazi Germany as the Horst Wessel – named after the Sturmabteilung paramilitary member whose murder made him into a martyr for the Nazi Party. After World War II ended in 1945, the United States assumed ownership of the Horst Wessel as a war reparation. In May 1946, the ship was recommissioned as the Eagle. Today, the Eagle, a Class A vessel, is used for training Coast Guard cadets and officer candidates. The ship also occasionally serves a public relations role for the Coast Guard and the United States, as in this year’s 250th anniversary celebrations. “Every summer, the Coast Guard Academy’s sophomore class, or third class, divides into two phases and spends one phase training on the Eagle for a few weeks and another phase doing field work. Those who are part of the Eagle phase in July will have a particularly special time because they will be a part of the Independence Day festivities in New York City on this significant anniversary,” Carter said. “That’s an experience that can’t be replicated.” The weeklong celebration will begin on July 3 with Class B tall ships sailing down the East River from Hell Gate Bridge to Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn, followed by a military history boat tour that will highlight strategic uses of New York harbor from the Revolutionary War through today. The July 4 parade route includes sailing up the Hudson River from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, passing the Statue of Liberty, to the George Washington Bridge. After the parade, some of the participating tall ships will berth in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, and will open for free public tours through July 7. One of those ships is Italy’s Amerigo Vespucci, which is named for the explorer and navigator for whom America is named. The celebration will culminate with the “Five Sisters Cup,” a regatta, or race, between the Eagle and three of its four identical sister ships: Portugal’s Sagres, Romania’s Mircea and Germany’s Gorch Fock. They will race from New York to Boston, Massachusetts. They last raced in 1976 for the United States’ bicentennial celebrations, which resulted in a Gorch Fock victory. “It’s all fascinating history,” Carter said. “People will be pumped because a lot of us remember when the tall ships did the same parade and race for the 200th anniversary celebrations.” After the festivities end in Boston, the Eagle will sail to Portland, Maine, where Carter will disembark.  Even though she’s looking forward to witnessing this celebration as a chaplain aboard the Eagle, Carter said she’s most looking forward to watching the cadets gain confidence operating the ship over the coming weeks. “Their skills and their confidence just grow immensely during that time period,” Carter, who was a journalism professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing for 28 years, said.  Carter and the cadets won’t stay on the Eagle the entire time. On July 5, for example, some will join her in attending a festive worship service at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, celebrating the United States’ 250th anniversary. The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia, The Episcopal Church’s bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, will preach. Earlier this year, Ritonia reminded Carter and other Armed Forces and Federal Ministries chaplains during an in-person gathering why their roles are necessary.  “As chaplains, we’re there for [cadets and active service members] in any capacity at any time, whether it’s a typical year or a special commemorative year like this one,” Carter said. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] If you ask New York Bishop Matthew Heyd for his two cents on how The Episcopal Church should mark the United States’ 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, you might well get 25 cents’ worth — as in one of the Pauli Murray commemorative quarters he keeps in a bag near his desk. “Pauli Murray is this extraordinary expression of all the things we’re talking about in terms of moving toward her ideals, both as a church and as a country,” Heyd explained. “Her life embodied this dialogue that we’re having [now] between our faith and our civic ideals.” This year, as the nation celebrates America 250, Heyd and other Episcopal leaders say the anniversary is a time to examine the nation’s and the church’s origin stories; a time for truth-telling and accountability, and for the church and the nation to live into their founding principles of liberty, justice, equality and respect for the dignity of every human being. “There’s no time better than this time for the church to claim who it is as church and to be that voice that holds the nation accountable to its lofty vision of appreciating the equality and dignity of every human being,” the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, Washington National Cathedral’s canon theologian, said. The 2024 commemorative quarter, issued as part of the American Women Quarters program, depicts the Rev. Pauli Murray, civil rights activist, co-founder of the National Organization for Women and the first Black woman ordained an Episcopal priest, on the reverse side. The obverse side depicts George Washington, the first president of the United States of America, who was also an Episcopalian. The quarter is a potent pocket-sized symbol that not only references the nation’s and church’s shared histories but also hints at what the church is being called to do moving forward – and who will do it – at this particular moment in time. Like Heyd, Brown Douglas and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe mentioned Murray and her legacy, as well as those who engaged in similar work, when asked which part of the church’s past gives them hope for the future. The front side of the coin: Change was made First, though, what exactly is that past? Here’s a brief primer on the early years of The Episcopal Church in the context of America’s beginnings, drawn from both “A History of the Episcopal Church,” by Robert W. Prichard and the online Archives of The Episcopal Church. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, officially severing ties with Great Britain. Thirty-four of the 56 signers were members of the Church of England, from which The Episcopal Church would split after the American Revolution. Among the points of contention: Clergy were required to swear loyalty to the king in their ordinations, and the Book of Common Prayer in use at the time included prayers for the British monarch. These expressions of support, and the deep divisions they caused, made it clear that the church, like the country, needed to make a formal break. In 1782, William White, rector of St. Peter’s and Christ Church in Philadelphia, who had been serving as chaplain to the Continental Congress since 1777, published “The Case of The Episcopal Church in the United States Considered.” It laid out a plan for the new Episcopal church though with a unicameral legislature, the bicameral legislature, similar to the way U.S. Congress is organized, would follow in 1789. On Sept. 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the U.S. as a sovereign nation by signing the Treaty of Paris. A group of 10 clergy in Connecticut elected the Rev. Samuel Seabury their bishop, but Church of England bishops refused to ordain him because English law would require him to take an oath of allegiance to the crown. Seabury was consecrated the first bishop of The Episcopal Church in Aberdeen, Scotland, by three nonjuring Scottish bishops on Nov. 14, 1784, establishing the American episcopate. The first General Convention of The Episcopal Church took place in Philadelphia from Sept. 27 to Oct. 7, 1785. Among the agenda items: officially adopting the name “The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America,” authorizing the preparation of an American Book of Common Prayer and drafting a General Ecclesiastical Constitution. In June 1786, British Parliament passed legislation that provided for the consecration of three bishops for the American church. The following February, William White and Samuel Provoost were consecrated bishops in Lambeth Palace Chapel by the archbishop of Canterbury. At its third General Convention, July 28 to Aug. 8, 1789, The Episcopal Church approved its Constitution, setting in place the organizational framework that still exists today and marking its formal split with the Church of England. For much of the next two centuries, the church and the U.S. government – forged in the same crucible of liberty – grew in parallel, facing the challenges of the day, including slavery, equal rights for women and LGBTQ+ rights. And, as exercises in representational government often do, The Episcopal Church made its share of missteps, including, but far from limited to, failing to take a stand against slavery in the run-up to the Civil War and refusing to ordain women priests until the Philadelphia Eleven forced the issue in 1974. A formal apology for slavery would not be issued until the 2006 General Convention. “Yes, we were at the table,” Rowe said, regarding the intertwined origin stories. “We have 11 presidents, 34 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. George Washington was an Episcopalian. That ultimately became an important force in our development. At one point, it was our goal and part of our mission strategy to be the national church.” That, Rowe explained, was how Washington National Cathedral, chartered in 1893, came to exist. “Our idea was that we would sort of represent the Christian ideals of