[Episcopal News Service] The Most Rev. Ramón Ovalle was installed as primate of the Anglican Church in Central America, also known as IARCA, on Aug. 29 at Catedral Episcopal Santiago Apóstol in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Guatemala since 2024. Ovalle was elected primate during IARCA’s eighth provincial synod, held in April at the Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist in San Salvador, El Salvador. He succeeds the Most Rev. Juan David Alvarado Melgar, bishop of the Anglican-Episcopal Church in El Salvador. Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was unable to attend Ovalle’s installation, but he sent a letter offering his prayers on The Episcopal Church’s behalf that was read during the service. “We pray with thanksgiving for your installation as primate of IARCA, and for the gifts you bring to this ministry,” Rowe said. “We pray for God’s strength and guidance as you all together – primate, bishops, clergy and laity – face significant challenges, both internal and external.” IARCA, which in Spanish stands for the Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America, includes the dioceses of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. The Anglican Communion describes addressing environmental challenges, political instability, food insecurity, poverty and infrastructure as some of IARCA’s biggest issues. The province also prioritizes strengthening women’s leadership. Rowe and Ovalle met earlier this month at the Anglican primates of the Americas meeting in Brazil, where they and other primates pledged to work together on global issues, including colonialism, secularism, polarization, migration concerns, economic and social insecurity, corruption and climate change and justice. “I look forward to our continued fellowship in this region of the Anglican Communion,” Rowe said.

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Tommy Dillon has been a Dolly Parton fan most of his life. He not only loves the country singer’s music and movies, but he’s also been to Dollywood, her amusement park in Tennessee, more than once. Most of all, he admired Parton’s dedication to social justice and philanthropy, especially through her nonprofit, the Dollywood Foundation. “Dolly really lived out the example of what the kingdom of God looks like on Earth,” Dillon told Episcopal News Service. “She welcomed everybody.” Dillon had just settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, to serve as interim rector of Christ Episcopal Church a week and a half before Parton died on Aug. 25 at 80 following a brief battle with an unspecified cancer. Like so many people worldwide, Dillon grieved upon hearing the news of her death. “She meant so much to so many people. … It hurts,” Dillon said. After some reflection, Dillon, with enthusiastic approval from his new congregation, decided to hold a community service of thanksgiving for Parton’s life and service to others on Aug. 30. The liturgy included readings from Genesis 37:1-4 and Matthew 5:13-16 and Parton’s songs “Coat of Many Colors,” “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” and “I Will Always Love You.” “Coat of Many Colors” is Parton’s 1971 autobiographical song about growing up poor, but loved, in rural Tennessee. In the song, Parton describes her mother telling her the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors, told in Genesis 37. “Singing ‘Coat of Many Colors’ after that reading from Genesis made perfect sense,” Dillon said. An offering during the service collected $2,000: $1,000 in donations and a $1,000 match from New York Bishop Matt Heyd, who greeted the congregation at the start of the service. The money was donated to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library through the Poughkeepsie Public Library District. The Imagination Library, part of the Dollywood Foundation, has donated more than 330 million free books to children worldwide since its founding in 1995. Service attendees were also encouraged to donate a children’s book for Governor Clinton Elementary School, which is located across the street from Christ Episcopal Church. Promoting children’s literacy is one of many initiatives Parton, dubbed the “Queen of Country,” supported in her lifetime. Born on Jan. 19, 1946, in Pittman Center, Tennessee, Parton is believed to have donated between $500 million and $600 million over the course of her life, according to financial analysts. Part of that money also supported education programs and health care and medical research programs like the American Red Cross, HIV/AIDS-related charities and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Parton also financially supported disaster relief, animal welfare and conservation programs. Parton is additionally recognized as an LGBTQ+ icon for her long history of openly supporting LGBTQ+ communities. One of Parton’s most famous songs, “I Will Always Love You” from 1973, reached global mainstream success in 1992 when Whitney Houston’s critically acclaimed cover was released as the lead single from the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard,” Houston’s film acting debut. Parton invested most of the roughly $10 million in royalties from Houston’s cover in supporting the Black community in Nashville. “Dolly brought joy to everybody’s life she touched,” Dillon said. “She represented kindness, humor, faith, generosity and welcome.” Parton, the granddaughter of a Pentecostal preacher, credited much of her values to her deep Christian faith and spirituality. When her husband of more than 60 years, Carl Dean, died in 2025, she told The Associated Press in an interview that her faith comforted her. “I am a person of faith, and I truly believe that I’m going to see him again someday,” she said. Two of Parton’s 10 competitive Grammy Awards were won in the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song category. She received The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Other Episcopalians and institutions churchwide honored Parton and shared how much she meant to them. On Aug. 26, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, also hosted a special evening worship service in Parton’s honor. The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, honored Parton on Aug. 27 by playing an excerpt from her song “9 to 5” on its carillon. “I loved that she defied expectations of how women should be and how women should act and how women should look,” Colorado Bishop Kym Lucas said in an Aug. 26 video message. “I was a fan of hers because she supported Black country music star Charley Pride, even when it cost her concert dates and recording contracts. I admired her into my adulthood as she gave of her resources to help children learn to read, to provide scholarships for underprivileged youth, to make her life and witness a testament that we do best when we help one another.” Texas Bishop C. Andrew Doyle said in an Aug. 26 Facebook post that Parton finished her “course in faith.” “She sang the Gospel plainly, put books into the hands of millions of children who will never see her face, and kept a table where everyone was welcome,” Doyle said. In Poughkeepsie, after the service, attendees gathered across the street from Christ Church at Goodnight Kenny, a bar, to continue celebrating Parton’s life through her music and a special cocktail adapted from one of her cookbooks. “Celebrating Dolly’s life is a chance for us to come together and show what the world should look like – the Kingdom of God – around grieving together, because Dolly meant something to a lot of people,” Dillon said. -Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.

[Episcopal News Service] Alaska Bishop Mark Lattime announced in an Aug. 25 message to his diocese a call for the election of his successor, saying he plans to retire on Feb. 26, 2028, when the new bishop is installed. The diocese’s standing committee will soon initiate a process to elect the ninth bishop at the October 2027 diocesan convention. “I have had the extraordinary joy and honor of serving as your bishop for 16 years – Sept. 4 marks the beginning of my 17th year,” Lattime said. “After much prayer and discernment with my wife, Patricia, and our family, I have come to understand that it is now time for me to begin a new chapter of my life, a chapter devoted to living more fully into the calling of husband, father and grandfather.” Lattime has been serving the Fairbanks-based Diocese of Alaska as its eighth bishop since 2010. He was ordained a deacon and then a priest in 1997 after earning a Master of Divinity degree from Bexley Hall seminary in Gambier, Ohio, which has since federated with Seabury-Western Theological Seminary to form Bexley Seabury Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. Before serving the Diocese of Alaska, Lattime served in parish ministry in Lexington, Virginia, and Geneseo, New York. As a member of The Episcopal Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Commission on Native Schools, Lattime has dedicated much of his episcopate to justice and reconciliation over the Doctrine of Discovery and the church’s role in operating and supporting Indigenous boarding schools. When he retires, Lattime plans to live in Juneau, Alaska’s capital, with his wife, whom he married in 2022 at Church of the Holy Trinity  in Juneau. He said they look forward to traveling, spending time with loved ones, worshipping in the same pew and “growing old together in the peace and joy that comes with knowing that we are walking together in the light of God’s love.” Lattime ended his message expressing his love for his fellow Alaska Episcopalians: “When I first started as your bishop, one of our many wise Alaska elders said to me: ‘All folks really want from their bishop is to know he loves them,’” Lattime said. “I do love you and this land, recognizing that both are knit together. I pray my love for you has never been in question. It has been the easiest part of my ministry. It also has been the greatest joy of my calling as your bishop.”

[World Council of Churches] Church leaders from Nigeria gathered Aug. 26 at All Saints Anglican Church in Abuja for an ecumenical prayer service calling for peace and stability in the West African country. During the service, the Rev. Jerry Pillay, World Council of Churches’ general secretary and a pastor in the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, shared how Christian witness can help promote justice, peace and unity in Nigeria. “Justice must be at the heart of Nigeria’s democratic life,” Pillay said. “We must refuse every attempt to turn ethnic or religious differences into sources of hatred.” Read the full article here.

[Episcopal News Service] For many Episcopalians, baseball is a beloved summer tradition best enjoyed with both loved ones and fellow churchgoers. It’s so popular that several dioceses with cities that have major league and minor league baseball teams host annual group outings to games.  Southwest Florida Bishop Douglas Scharf, who as a child played baseball, looks forward to his diocese’s annual “Baseball with the Bishop” gathering at a Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. For him, it’s an intergenerational opportunity for Episcopalians from different congregations to meet and form new relationships. “It’s really wonderful to have people from across the diocese and from different small churches, big churches – all ages. ‘Baseball with the Bishop’ really brings a lot of different people together,” Scharf told Episcopal News Service. “It’s great to see … kids bring their baseball gloves ready to catch a foul ball.” “Baseball with the Bishop” started in 2012, when the Rt. Rev. Dabney Tyler Smith was bishop of Southwest Florida. Between 300 and 400 Episcopalians attend annually. More than 350 have so far registered to attend this year’s gathering during the Aug. 28 game against the San Diego Padres. During the game, they will lead the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in the seventh inning after the diocese is introduced on the jumbotron. “It’ll be a big moment of recognition for us,” Scharf said. “People who aren’t with the diocese don’t usually recognize me as the bishop right away because I’m not wearing a purple shirt at the game, but when they do, several of them will ask me about The Episcopal Church or the diocese. It happens almost every year.” “Baseball with the Bishop” is also a small fundraiser. The diocese works with the Rays and FEVO Enterprise, a digital platform, to sell group tickets at a discounted rate. Proceeds from tickets sold through FEVO’s designated sales page for the diocese support the Episcopal Charities Fund of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, which provides financial grants to parish-based outreach and special needs ministries. The Diocese of Arizona also uses its annual Arizona Diamondbacks outing in Phoenix to support a ministry. At this year’s outing at the Diamondbacks’ Aug. 21 game against the Cincinnati Reds at Chase Field in Phoenix, which was Faith and Family Night for members of religious organizations, the Diocese of Arizona dedicated proceeds from its ticket sales to the diocesan LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Ministry. The Diocese of Arizona has been participating in Faith and Family Night since at least 2018, when the Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith was bishop. The earliest known diocesan baseball event is believed to have started in 1986, when the Diocese of Ohio hosted its first Bishop’s Baseball Bash event with then-Bishop James R. Moodey. Some 700 Episcopalians gathered at the now-demolished Cleveland Stadium to cheer for the Indians, who are now called the Guardians. The event is no longer active. The oldest known continuous annual diocesan baseball gathering began in 1993 in the Diocese of Los Angeles in California, when the Rev. Greg Larkin started “Episcopal Dodgers Night.” Larkin, who retired in 2022 after serving as rector of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Camarillo, continues to organize the event annually and is affectionately known around the diocese as “Canon Baseball.” Today, the tradition is called “Episcopal-Lutheran Dodgers Night” because it has been a joint event with the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in recent years. More than 1,000 Episcopalians and Lutherans have so far registered for this year’s outing at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, which will take place Sept. 3, when the Dodgers play the St. St. Louis Cardinals. Scharf said he thinks baseball games are an appealing environment for fellowship outside of traditional church settings because it’s more laid back and slower paced than other sports. Larkin agrees but believes there’s more to the mass appeal. “Well, obviously, baseball is God’s sport,” Larkin, who also grew up playing baseball, jokingly told ENS. But in seriousness, “at the risk of waxing poetic, there’s something about a summer evening at a ballpark that’s a little more relaxing than, say, a winter’s evening at a hockey rink or at a basketball stadium.” Beyond fellowship and charity, Larkin and Scharf are excited for the competition. The Dodgers and the Rays are both first in their respective divisions as of Aug. 27. “We had a couple of rough patches, but we’re back on track, and I’m predicting a Rays win on ‘Baseball with the Bishop’ night,’” Scharf said. “We got this.” In Pennsylvania, the Diocese of Pittsburgh will host “Episcopal Night” at PNC Park during the Pittsburgh Pirates game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 15, which is also Roberto Clemente Day. They will join fellow Pirates fans in honoring the Puerto Rican right fielder and humanitarian who died in a plane crash in 1972 while delivering emergency relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. He had played for the Pirates his entire professional baseball career. Earlier this season, the Diocese of Texas hosted two “Episcopal Night at the Ballpark” events to cheer for the Texas Rangers in Arlington and the Houston Astros. Episcopal gatherings aren’t just for MLB teams but also extend to the minors. On Aug. 30, Episcopalians in the Diocese of Upper South Carolina are invited to watch their bishop, the Rt. Rev. Daniel P. Richards, throw the ceremonial first pitch at Segra Park in Columbia, when the Columbia Fireflies will take on the Charleston RiverDogs. During the Diocese of Albany’s “Baseball with the Bishop” outing in July, Albany Bishop Jeremiah Williamson threw the first pitch at the Tri-City ValleyCats game against the Trois-Rivières Aigles at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy, New York. The Episcopal Church in Minnesota embraces both major and minor league teams. The Minneapolis-based diocese has hosted gatherings at both Minnesota Twins and St. Paul Saints games. At this year’s gathering on