Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe told members of the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council that the political upheaval created by the Trump administration has created an opportunity for the church’s witness, and underlined the need for a well-aligned, thriving institutional structure.
The three-day meeting of the church’s governing board, which began February 17 at the Maritime Conference Center near Baltimore will tackle future plans for Episcopal Migration Ministries, which has suspended most of its operations February 14, after President Trump’s pause of refugee resettlement.
But the agenda is dominated by discussion of plans for strategic realignment of the church’s vision and staffing structure, a process led by the Compass division of Insight Global, an Atlanta-based consulting firm, that began last September. Important announcements about staff restructuring at Episcopal Church Center in New York are expected within days.
“We are weathering what is proving to be a hard season for us and for the people that we serve, for sure, and many of us are afraid and looking to the church to provide a sense of safety and a moral witness in this time,” Rowe told council members in his opening remarks.
He said the church needs to lead “with clarity and purpose,” making decisions “that are firmly rooted in the kingdom of God.” Echoing a theme from his sermon at his seating earlier in February in Washington National Cathedral, Rowe said that “in that kingdom, where we find our true citizenship, migrants, transgender people, the poor and vulnerable are not at the edges fearful and alone. They are not reviled and scapegoated … [they] are at the center. They are the bearers of salvation.”
However, he cautioned, the church needs to use its public voice carefully at a time of entrenched political divisions, remembering that “the enemy is bound and determined to sow division among us, and to make us forget who we are and to what kingdom we belong.” The church should focus, he added, on “extending grace and understanding even when we are on opposite sides of debates or deliberations.”
“There are times when we need to speak with one voice to the rulers of the world. And indeed, we are called to use the power and privilege we have to advocate to our leaders, to lift up our voices and articulate the values we share. Yet I believe that our true power lies not in me making a barrage of statements, or in us collectively reacting to every outrage that the world presents.
“Instead, our power lies in a churchwide structure rooted in Christ and in the kingdom principles that can make a strong and effective witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we do that, we are making it more possible for our congregations and grassroots ministries to worship God, serve God’s people, and transform lives every day. And as a board, this is our greatest opportunity. It is our primary focus,” he said.
Remarks by Julia Ayala Harris, president of the House of Deputies, emphasized similar themes. She praised Rowe’s “prophetic leadership,” and his consistent reminder “that governance and mission are two expressions of the same divine calling.”
Harris urged council members to engage fully with the strategic realignment, stating that “we have the responsibility not just to respond to his leadership, but together, to shape, to support, and to sustain a long-term vision for our church, ensuring that our governance empowers dioceses to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their communities.”
She added: “This is the work before us — not just to talk about justice, but to structure our church in such a way that makes it real. Not just to name our values, but to ensure they shape how we steward resources, how we lead our dioceses, how we create bodies and policies that embody the Gospel.”
Harris invoked Our Lady of Guadalupe, whom she knew well from her childhood in a Mexican Catholic community in Chicago, as a powerful witness for the church in this moment. Mary’s decision to appear to the peasant Juan Diego, she said, “reveals that God’s transformative work often begins at the margins.”
Our baptismal calling, she stressed, “transcends political moments and institutional anxieties.” St. Paul’s reminder in Ephesians 6 “that our struggle is not against flesh and blood … calls us to resist not people but the dividing forces of fear, exclusion, and indifference that corrupt our common life.”
This commitment, she added, is embodied in the church’s recent action to join 27 other religious groups in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s decision to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to raid churches in search of undocumented immigrants.
“This is not about politics — it is about embodying Christ’s radical hospitality in our very structures and policies. The gospel compels us to welcome the stranger, to care for the vulnerable, and to ensure that all who seek spiritual sanctuary can do so freely.
“If we fail to lead with courage, we risk not just stagnation, but irrelevance. If we fail to structure our church in alignment with our values, we risk losing the trust of those who need us most.”
A team from Visions, Inc., a Boston-area diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm, led the council through a morning workshop focused on identifying and expressing emotions in times of stress and change, and the ways that perceptions of the emotions of others can be shaped by cultural and racial bias.
The presentation built on the tool for “conversations across difference” that Visions introduced to the council at last November’s meeting in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Council meetings in the last two years have sometimes been contentious, dominated by a small group of outspoken lay members who allege racial bias.
In a brief, heated exchange, Sandra Montes, a lay member from the Diocese of Texas, said she believed Visions had framed the conversation on emotional expression in a white-centric way.
“This is completely different to people of the global majority, to LGBTQIA+ people. And when we show up as ourselves … we are seen differently than who we are,” she said. “Do you want me to be like, OK, I need to learn my emotions so I don’t show that I’m angry or that I don’t show that I’m scared? That’s what this seems like to me.”
Thomas Chu, a lay member from New York, objected to her statement, using terms on an emotions wheel referenced during the talk to say he felt “mad, sad, and scared.”
“Sandra, you can speak what you’re saying. But I’m an LGBTQIA+ person, a person of color. I feel very differently from you. And I accept what you said, but please don’t represent us.”
“We have had a lot of this at a lot of meetings,” Chu added, affirming that he was pleased with the tools and practices Visions was presenting and ready to use them.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
