05/19/2026
A Message from Episcopal City Mission's Executive Director
Dear Beloved Kin,
In 1999, as I left Robben Island—the political prison off the coast of Cape Town where Nelson Mandela and countless freedom fighters were imprisoned for demanding liberation and justice—I saw the picture featured and was confronted by a haunting question: If I had lived during apartheid in South Africa, would I have had the courage to stand on the right side of history?.
That question reverberates through the defining struggles of our past—from resistance to N**i Germany, to the Civil Rights Movement, to ongoing fights for democracy, land, and human rights around the world. It is not only a question of history. It is a question for us now.
We are living at a critical inflection point. Each of us is called to make a choice to do what we can: to stand in unwavering solidarity with those facing oppression, and to act in the sacred name of love and justice.
Every day, through the work of ECM, I see you making that choice with courage and conviction. You are grassroots organizers, Episcopalians, ecumenical partners, justice funders, and innovators in the solidarity economy — people planting seeds of hope through bold action at a time when our shared future is at stake. And our collective work is bearing fruit through:
1.Engaging in ECM’s Emergent Action Network, a hub for Episcopal Churches and people of faith across Massachusetts to take spiritually and faith-grounded action—including helping secure rent stabilization on the ballot and joining the LUCE statewide immigrant-justice network.
2.Investing in Centro Coopertivo de Desarrollo y Solidaridad (CCDS), an organization nurturing an ecosystem of immigrant-owned worker cooperatives in East Boston - building an economy of care across childcare, eldercare, cleaning, catering, interpretation, and more - with plans for incubating in other immigrant communities.
3.Expanding our community and knowledge through Lessons of Liberation, a spiritual and political education series focused on deepening formation via online book study and dialogue with theologians, academics, and activists.
4.Gathering at Church of Our Saviour to produce multilingual “Know Your Rights” keychains for the LUCE network and training others to become LUCE supply hubs—in decisive response after ICE crossed a line in Arlington.
5.Confronting historical ties to the slave trade at San Pedro/Saint Peter’s Salem, Christ Church, Cambridge, and Emmanuel, Boston and sharing it publicly.
6.Convening ECM’s Reparations Leadership Parishes to organize a Reparations Summit and launch Sacred Reckonings, a learning space for spiritual and political formation toward repair.
7.Joining MA TPS Committee in fighting for a path for immigrants with “Temporary Protected Status” to remain in our communities, including churches hosting their documentary, The Next Dream.
8.Moving $1.5 million to primarily BIPOC-led grassroots organizations to advance racial and economic justice movements—that include immigrant justice, rent control and affordable housing.
9.Responding to movement grantees in many ways including an increase of $150,000 in Rapid Response funding for grassroots organizations, many focused on immigrant communities.
10.Gathering frontline BIPOC leaders for healing, renewal, and spiritual grounding led by the Wisdom Council of ECM’s Finding Our Way Home program.
In 2026, our collective witness is clear: and we must continue to make the choice in this critical time to resist harm, nurture resilience, and plant the seeds of a more just and thriving future.
This work matters deeply—and it requires sustained support.
We invite you to join us in this rapid-fire time of challenge to our communities. Give your time. Offer your financial resources with a gift. Help us continue this urgent work of organizing, accompaniment, and transformative giving.
Visit https://www.episcopalcitymission.org/donate to donate today.
Together, we follow the God of liberation, who calls us—again and again—to act for the sake of love.
With love and commitment,
The Reverend Arrington Chambliss
Executive Director
Episcopal City Mission
