Last Thursday, April 24, we were grateful to welcome the Rt. Rev. Rob Wright, bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, to speak to a group of lay and clergy leaders from across our diocese, including a number of members from our Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission. The event was offered as a "Lunch & Learn" session on "Christian Leadership in these Challenging Times" and was held at the historic Calvary Episcopal Church in Charleston, where the Rev. Ricardo Bailey serves as rector (Father Bailey served in the Diocese of Atlanta prior to the call to our diocese).

After the gathering, Bishop Wright and his wife, Dr. Beth-Sarah Wright, met with leadership from the Diocesan Racial Justice & Reconciliation Commission to talk about the initiatives, focus, and efforts that the group has produced since their beginning in 2020. He was quite impressed with their progress, offering Sacred Ground courses throughout the diocese, holding three Learning Days to share key moments of historical importance, organizing their group into key areas of focus, organizing racial justice pilgrimages, and more.

Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley created this event after hearing Bishop Wright speak on the dangers of Christian nationalism and God's call to us during these times while attending a recent House of Bishops meeting. When Bishop Ruth learned Bishop Wright was coming to SC for vacation, she asked if he would be willing to share that talk with members of our diocese during his time here. You can read his presentation to the House of Bishops online at this link. The presentation was also mentioned in the Episcopal News Service article about the gathering at this link.

Many thanks to Bishop Wright and his wife for spending some of their vacation time with us, and thank you also to the members and leadership of Calvary Episcopal Church for being such warm, welcoming, and gracious hosts!

View more photos from the visit on Facebook at this link.

For more on the meeting with commission leaders after the Lunch & Learn, read below...

Ms. Vermelle Simmons, who serves as co-chair of the Diocesan Racial Justice & Reconciliation Commission (and also on the Standing Committee) shared the following summary of the meeting with Bishop Wright after the Lunch & Learn. She also shared her own personal reflection on what she learned from the event with Bishop Wright.

Bishop Wright Meets With Commission Leadership
On April 24, 2025 the two co-chairs of the Diocesan Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission (Gail DeCosta and Vermelle Simmons) along with the chair of the Leadership Training (Nancy Laprada) met with Bishop Rob Wright (Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta) and his wife (Dr. Beth Sarah Wright of Thrive with Dignity) after the general Leadership Meeting at Calvary Episcopal Church with clergy and lay leaders of the diocese.

Dr. Beth Sarah-Wright will be the acting director of The Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing beginning May 1st. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss "Dismantling Racism Training." The meeting was very informative. After listening to all that the commission has been doing in the Diocese of South Carolina, Bishop Wright was impressed with the stats that were shared about Sacred Ground and Learning Day participation. The meeting was successful as we learned about some changes that are in process with some of the programing at the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing.

Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley has called Ann Fleming as Canon for Congregational Development in the Diocese of South Carolina, beginning on June 1. Fleming currently serves as Vice President for Development and Operations at the Episcopal Church Building Fund (ECBF), where she has worked in several capacities since 2020. At ECBF, Fleming has consulted with a number of congregations in our diocese as they strategize and plan for future building. Since 2023, she has been a key consultant to Messiah, Myrtle Beach, skillfully guiding church leadership through the process to create a visioning report and building plan as they work toward building a new church home. As Canon for Congregational Development, Fleming will oversee mission strategy for the diocese, including the development and implementation of resources to raise up and equip clergy and lay leaders for transformative congregational life.

Bishop Woodliff-Stanley is excited to welcome Fleming to her staff. “I am absolutely thrilled Ann is joining our team!” said Bishop Woodliff-Stanley. “The work she has already done with congregations in our diocese as an ECBF consultant has led to much demand for her to be present more among us. Her broad and deep experience in congregational and leadership development will help us manage the rapid growth we are experiencing in our diocese. She has an infectious positive approach to challenges combined with impressive skill and a team spirit. I look forward to welcoming her to the Lowcountry.”

In this new role, Fleming will primarily focus on supporting and guiding individual congregations in their growth and development, often by facilitating leadership training, strategic planning, revitalization efforts, and connecting churches with necessary resources to address specific needs within their communities. In addition to her time with ECBF, Fleming brings a wealth of work experience at the diocesan level, having served as Missioner for Transition and Congregational Development, as well as Regional Missioner, for The Episcopal Church in Colorado.

While Fleming was not looking for a new job, she felt a special call to this opportunity to work with Bishop Ruth and the people of the Diocese of South Carolina. “Sometimes I’m not sure what God wants me to do next,” said Fleming. “And sometimes I can feel a hand in my back and a voice in my ear saying, ‘Trust me. Go.’ This is one of those times. All the doors are swinging open and I am ready to step through and into this new season with Bishop Ruth and all of you in The Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina. It is simply a gift of the Holy Spirit, and I am profoundly grateful to be able to say, ‘Here I am, God. Send me.’”

Fleming currently lives in Colorado, but is looking forward to moving to South Carolina in the coming months. She enjoys traveling and good food and is open to recommendations for great places to eat in our diocese! She has two adult children, of whom she is quite proud, particularly “all the ways they are living into their best and most authentic selves,” said Fleming.
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While this role is a new full-time position on diocesan staff, she will assume the responsibility for congregational development and church planting that previously was assigned to Andrea McKellar as Canon for Strategy and Vitality. As was announced at the end of February,  Canon McKellar plans to step back from her role on diocesan staff later this summer. She will work with Fleming for a period of transition once she joins the staff on June 1.

View an album of photos from the trip on Facebook at this link.

Last week, 45 pilgrims from our diocese traveled together on the “Bending the Arc Racial Justice Pilgrimage” first envisioned by the rectors of the three historic African American congregations on the Charleston Peninsula—Calvary, St. Mark’s, and St. Stephen’s—known between the churches as "Three Churches United." Their journey took them first to Atlanta, Georgia and then on to Alabama with stops in Montgomery and Selma. In addition to pilgrims from the three churches, there were members of the Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission and other friends from across the diocese.

The transformative pilgrimage would not have been possible without the collective efforts of the three priests who lead "Three Churches United": the Rev. Ricardo Bailey, rector of Calvary, Charleston; the Very Rev. Michael Shaffer, interim rector of St. Mark's, Charleston; and the Rev. Adam Shoemaker, rector of St. Stephen’s, Charleston.

The pilgrimage was thoughtfully planned and expertly managed by the Rev. Laura Rezac, executive director of St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center. “Her outstanding work created a crucible that allowed participants to become immersed in a rhythm of taking in sites, worship, and thoughtful small group reflection time,” said Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley. “She managed every detail of the trip, taking great care of the pilgrims.” She was provided with invaluable assistance by Shawan Gillians, a seminarian in our diocese who has been interning with St. Stephen's, Charleston, but is a member of St. Mark's.

Key stops along the journey were:

• Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta
• Ebenezer Baptist Church and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Atlanta
• Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama
• National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama
• Selma, Alabama - Met Bryan Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, and attended service with him as the preacher
• Selma - Marched alongside thousands across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in participation of the 60th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday"

A transcript of the message is below:

Greetings, beloved Episcopalians of the Diocese of South Carolina. As we prepare to begin the season of Lent, I wanted to offer some reflections to you about our call in the season in which we find ourselves in our country. As I've traveled the diocese, particularly since the New Year, I've had an opportunity to listen and to talk with many of you. And I've heard a lot of concerns about the things we've seen unfolding. Many of you have asked questions about what we ought to be doing. I've heard others express a desire to learn more about what has led to this moment in our country, which for some of us is experienced as an unprecedented moment and for others, seems all too familiar with notes from the past.

I've talked with people of different political persuasions and people who voted differently, and people who have different thoughts about policies. I've had some conversations with folks who wonder if we ought to remain completely apolitical as a church. So I thought it would be helpful if I would simply, tell you about where I am in this discernment. You know, as I think about first and the question of, ought we be speaking at all about the events that are unfolding in our country?

I'm reminded that the scriptures are set inside of stories from start to finish of political struggle. The stories that we hear in the Bible are not in a vacuum. You can begin by looking at the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt and then, their wandering in their sojourn in the wilderness, having escaped that bondage. You can look at all of the prophets of the Old Testament set inside of, various conquests by different nation states and oppression of one people against or by another.

And the question and the longings and the desire for liberation at the heart of those stories, the prophet's cry for reform, particularly, performed for the poor economic reform and the treatment of those who are most at risk is always, always the central question that's raised in the prophets of the Old Testament, coming in to the New Testament.

You can see that the story of Jesus life is set against the oppression of the Roman Empire, and is set against questions of religious authority and the right use of that authority with respect to the Jewish leadership of his time. So the scriptures do not suggest to us that our call is ever to be a political. Those notions are much more, recent, and come to us from a spiritualized concept of Christianity that doesn't take into account the full context of the biblical narrative.

We have always been called as the people of God to speak into political times, not from a partisan point of view, but from the point of view of the justice and the mercy, the righteousness, the love, the forgiveness, the compassion of our God and the biblical witness. There's this out more than any other topic. The one topic that is most frequently raised in the scriptures is the treatment of those who are poor, the treatment of those who are oppressed.

So in these days, I do believe that we have a calling to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of our political landscape. This is not a Partisan statement. People from both of our political parties, as well as independents, can come together around principles that we know to be central to the life of a Christian. The challenging thing about that is that we find ourselves in a landscape in which the term Christian is bandied about and at times co-opted and used in ways that do not align with the values we see so pervasive in the Christian narrative. And the scriptures do not align with the values that we see in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

So I think part of our call in these days is indeed to become conversant with the context that has led to this current moment. To that end, I am working my way through several books and I want to commend them to you. And I have begun conversations with two authors of these books who I think can be a great resource to us in this diocese.

The first book I want to commend to you is. The 7 Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism by Carter Heyward. Many of you will remember Carter Heyward as one of the Philadelphia 11 first ordained women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. She is a feminist theologian and an activist, our neighbor to the North in North Carolina, and she has recently published this book, which explores the background, the fabric, and the history of a constellation of ideas and concepts that we have come to refer to as white Christian nationalism, which truly is a set of principles that neither reflects Christ nor the strongest ideals of our country. However, this constellation of ideas has a grip on this country that is dangerous and important for us to understand.

In her book, Carter Heyward identifies seven interlocking or related principles that she identifies as the sins of white Christian nationalism, and then seven Calls to action for us. It's challenging. There are parts of the book with which you likely will take issue or want to argue. That's good. That's part of what we're about as Episcopalians. I invite you to take up this book and engage it.

The second is a book also on the same topic, Christians Against Christianity by Obery Hendricks, who is an African Methodist Episcopal ordained elder, a scholar, a former seminary president, and who currently teaches at Columbia University and is a visiting professor at the Union Theological Seminary.

And then thirdly, I called your attention a book which would have us engage in spiritual practices that will help us continue the work we've identified as core to us building beloved community. This book is called Hope Is Here, and it is by Luther Smith, who is a professor emeritus of Church and community at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, author of many books and scholar on Howard Thurman. I have begun conversation with both Carter Heyward and Luther Smith about how we might deepen our practices here in this diocese to be a people capable and engaging the challenging times in which we find ourselves. I know you may have already chosen reading material for Lent at this point in time, but I wanted to offer these to you.

Now, in case you haven't, or in case you'd like to pick these up, in addition to other works you might be reading presently, and knowing that we are beginning a long arc which will span, I anticipate. Through Lent and Easter and beyond through this year, as we work together to take counsel, to learn about the moment we are in, and then in all of the local context in which we find ourselves to take right action, to stand for those who are most marginalized, who are most oppressed.

In this moment, particularly, I call our attention to those who are new to our land, those immigrants who need us to stand with them. Particularly, I call our attention to our transgender siblings, whose rights are being stripped even as we speak. And particularly, I call our attention to all of those who continue to experience the violence and the disrespect of systemic and structural racism in all of its myriad of forms. We must walk alongside. We must be with those who are the most vulnerable, the most oppressed among us. For, as our Presiding Bishop recently reminded us, they are not at the margins of our lives. They are in the center of our life and of the story of Jesus working among us. So I call us as Bishop Mariann Budde called us all recently to courage, to be brave and to be a people of mercy.

I thank you for the work you are doing and all of the various places where you are. And I want to invite conversation that is courageous, that honors our real differences where we are not afraid to explore those, but always centering the lives of those who are most vulnerable and always understanding our responsibility to be true to the deepest part of the gospel. The love of Jesus for all people, and the lifting up of those who have the greatest need among us. God bless you. I look forward to being with you in the days to come. Blessed Lent.