'It's about freedom of the press': photographer tackled by ICE throws camera to save it – video; The Guardian, January 26, 2026

Lauren Hurrell , The Guardian; 'It's about freedom of the press': photographer tackled by ICE throws camera to save it – video

"Last week, the independent photographer John Abernathy was tackled to the ground by ICE agents during a protest in Minneapolis. He said he tossed his camera in the hope of saving his photographs because the images of the protests 'deserve to be seen'. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN Abernathy had been arrested for obstructing pedestrian and vehicle traffic on federal property."

Chicago Opens Its 1st Food Pantry Inside A Public Library; Block Club Chicago, January 23, 2026

Michael Liptrot, Block Club Chicago; Chicago Opens Its 1st Food Pantry Inside A Public Library

"A West Side library is entering the fight against hunger and food insecurity with the opening of a food pantry — the first of its kind in the city.

Legler Regional Library, 115 S. Pulaski Road, unveiled its expanded food pantry Thursday. A collaboration between the city, the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Chicago Public Library, the pantry is the first in the library system’s new Library-Based Food Access program.

Since soft-opening in July 2025, the food pantry has served around 600 households monthly in one of Chicago’s most food-insecure neighborhoods, according to the city. The pantry has grown since its soft launch.

“The pantry prioritizes dignity, consistency [and] reliable access to food,” said Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown at Thursday’s grand opening at Legler. “Not only are we expanding what a library can offer, but we’re exemplifying [Mayor Brandon Johnson’s] whole government approach to Chicago.”"

Honoring the Memory of Alex Pretti; The Bulwark, January 26, 2026

William Kristol, The Bulwark; Honoring the Memory of Alex Pretti

"It’s fitting to begin with the words of Alex Pretti a little over a year ago at the deathbed of Terrance Lee Randolph, a veteran Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital in Minneapolis.

Today we remember that freedom is not free. We have to work at it, nurture it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it. May we never forget and always remember our brothers and sisters who have served so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. So in this moment, we remember and give thanks for their dedication and selfless service to our nation in the cause of our freedom. In this solemn hour, we give them our honor, and our gratitude.

It’s fitting, in the wake of Pretti’s killing Saturday, to remember and give thanks for his dedication and sacrifice in the cause of our freedom. And it’s proper that we resolve that he shall not have died in vain.

What would such a resolve mean? We can be guided by Michael and Susan Pretti, Alex’s parents, who said Saturday,

We are heartbroken but also very angry. . . .

Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.

The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. . . .

Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.

The good news is that the administration’s slander campaign against Pretti is failing, underscored by the news this morning that the president is dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis—a rebuke of those currently in charge. But there will be lasting dishonor for all those who joined in the smears, and on those who kept silent.

But the way to honor Pretti isn’t simply to insist on the truth about him. It’s to end the lawless occupation that took his life. It’s to free his fellow citizens, in Minnesota and beyond, from attacks by masked, trigger-happy government agents. It’s to begin to end the grotesque mass deportation campaign that has led to so much inhumanity, cruelty, and violence across the nation. It’s more broadly to limit the authoritarian depredations of the Trump administration over the next three years. It’s to lay the groundwork for an America in which men and women like Alex Pretti and Renee Good are once again honored rather than killed.

This is a task for all of us, and for many institutions, including the courts, state and local government, civil society, and the private sector. But it’s above all a task for Congress. The simple fact is that DHS, ICE, and CBP are creatures of Congress. They are authorized in legislation; their funds are appropriated; the behavior of their employees can be regulated by Congress as it chooses." 

Search Engines, AI, And The Long Fight Over Fair Use; Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), January 23, 2026

 JOE MULLIN , Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF); Search Engines, AI, And The Long Fight Over Fair Use

"We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, and addressing what's at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.

Long before generative AI, copyright holders warned that new technologies for reading and analyzing information would destroy creativity. Internet search engines, they argued, were infringement machines—tools that copied copyrighted works at scale without permission. As they had with earlier information technologies like the photocopier and the VCR, copyright owners sued.

Courts disagreed. They recognized that copying works in order to understand, index, and locate information is a classic fair use—and a necessary condition for a free and open internet.

Today, the same argument is being recycled against AI. It’s whether copyright owners should be allowed to control how others analyze, reuse, and build on existing works."

Most Fox News Reporting on Minneapolis Shooting Supports Official Version; The New York Times, January 25, 2026

Ken Bensinger, The New York Times; Most Fox News Reporting on Minneapolis Shooting Supports Official Version

Fox anchors were laser focused on promoting the Trump administration’s narrative that the slain protester, Alex Pretti, had brought the violence upon himself.

"On Sunday morning, reporters on many TV networks were poring over multiple videos of the shooting over the weekend of a protester in Minneapolis by immigration agents, trying to understand what happened from slow-mo footage and freeze-frame images.

But on Fox News, the nation’s top-rated cable news network, there was little of that kind of analysis. Instead, most of its hosts, reporters and guests appeared laser focused since the shooting late Saturday morning on supporting the Trump administration’s official narrative: that Alex Pretti, a 37-year old intensive care nurse, brought the violence upon himself."

'Fundamentally wrong:' Gun groups, Republicans condemn Noem, Patel statements; Axios, January 25, 2026

Marc Caputo, Axios; 'Fundamentally wrong:' Gun groups, Republicans condemn Noem, Patel statements

"A Minnesota gun-rights group accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI director Kash Patel of spreading misinformation about the right to bear arms at protests.

Why it matters: The Trump administration's misstatements about Alex Pretti's shooting death are damaging its credibility even with allies, especially in the gun-rights community.

• "We're getting it from all sides," a Trump adviser told Axios on Sunday.
• 
  

Zoom in: Appearing on "Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo," Patel said, "You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have a right to break the law."

• Patel was echoing Noem, who said Saturday, "I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."
• 
  
• The Gun Owners Caucus of Minnesota was quick to dispute Patel's statements, posting on Xthat Patel was "completely incorrect on Minnesota law. There is no prohibition on a permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines at a protest or rally in Minnesota."
• 
  
• The group's president, Rob Doar, told Axios that Noem's understanding of Minnesota gun law was "fundamentally wrong," and he took issue with her statements about Pretti not having his ID while he carried his concealed weapon.
• 
  

State of play: Minnesota law does not prohibit carrying a loaded firearm to a protest, according to the caucus' webpage as well as information from gun-control advocates like Everytown.

• An FBI spokesperson said Patel wasn't speaking to the letter of the law, per se, but to the practicalities of showing up to a protest armed and coming into conflict with law enforcement.
• 
  
• Protest groups in Minnesota specifically advise demonstrators to not bring firearms or "weapons of any kind" regardless of what the law allows.
• 
  

Pressure on DHS

The big picture: President Trump was already complaining about his collapsing immigration poll numbers from videos showing aggressive DHS confrontations with citizen protesters — and that was before the Jan. 7 shooting of Minneapolis protester Renee Good, Axios first reported.

• DHS was also facing a credibility problem over misstatements by top Border Patrol enforcer Greg Bovino and by Homeland Security's spokesperson before Pretti's shooting.
• 
  
• Noem, who faces calls for impeachment from Democrats, complicated the situation with her Saturday comments.
• 
  
• Echoing a DHS statement on X, Noem said that "an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect reacted violently."
• 
  

Reality check: Videos shot from different angles tell a different story. The conflict did not stem from Pretti's possession of a gun:

• Pretti had no visible weapon: He clearly had a smartphone recording video in his right hand. His left hand was free, videos show."

The Trump Administration Is Lying About Gun Rights and the Death of Alex Pretti; Reason, January 25, 2026

ROBBY SOAVE, Reason; The Trump Administration Is Lying About Gun Rights and the Death of Alex Pretti

"As with the killing of Renee Good two weeks ago, the legal threshold at which lethal force can be justified is whether the officer who killed Pretti reasonably feared for his own safety. Only a careful, impartial investigation can determine that. The Justice Department has declined to conduct such an investigation into Good's death, instead seeking to investigate the victim's family.

Video footage of Pretti's death shows federal agents using pepper spray on protesters. Pretti appears to be recording the altercation with his cell phone. After an agent shoves one of the protesters to the ground, Pretti moves to assist her. Several CBP agents then decide to bring Pretti down.

It's conceivable that the agent who shot Pretti had the impression that he was reaching for his weapon—though the first shot clearly went off after another agent disarmed the protester. It's also possible that the killer didn't have even that much justification. Yet federal authorities have all but ruled out that possibility, and are making abjectly false statements in support of their mendacious posture.

Noem has repeatedly claimed it as a fact that Pretti intended to harm officers. "This individual showed up to a law enforcement operation with a weapon and dozens of rounds of ammunition," she told reporters. "He wasn't there to peacefully protest. He was there to perpetuate violence." Miller flatly asserted that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" who "tried to assassinate federal law enforcement."

These are lies. They have no evidence that Pretti wanted to kill anyone. Even if evidence were unexpectedly to come out tomorrow that he was secretly a would-be assassin, it would still be wrong for officials to state as fact that Pretti intended to kill. There are no known facts that establish murder as his motivation. This is a man who was watching officers interact with protesters and recording it on his phone. Contrary to what the Department of Homeland Security wrote on X, he did not approach law enforcement, let alone with a gun drawn."

Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life; The New York Times, January 25, 2026

Talya Minsberg, Corina Knoll and Julie Bosman, The New York Times; Alex Pretti’s Friends and Family Denounce ‘Sickening Lies’ About His Life

[Kip Currier: How despicable and unethical it is to see and hear Trump 2.0 government officials like Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, and others -- whose salaries are paid for by American tax dollars and who take oaths to serve as public servants for U.S. democracy and uphold the Constitution -- wield conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated falsehoods as reputational weapons to defame and slander individuals like Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good.]

[Excerpt]

"He was a calm presence amid hospital chaos. A mentor who taught kindness and patience to younger friends and colleagues. A singer with a knack for dancing. A bicyclist who treasured the beauty of Minnesota.

This weekend, the family, co-workers and friends of Alex Pretti, who was killed by immigration agents in a confrontation after he was apparently filming them, remembered his life, even as the circumstances of his death were debated on the national stage.

They shared photos of the Alex they knew: a smiling, bearded Mr. Pretti in the powder-blue scrubs he wore at his job as an intensive-care nurse at the Veterans Affairs hospital, an outdoors lover posing with his mountain bike on a wooded trail and a student wearing a green cap and gown as he sang a solo at his high school graduation in Green Bay, Wis.

And they denounced what they saw as smear campaigns in the aftermath of Mr. Pretti’s death.

Within hours of the killing by federal agents on a Minneapolis street, Trump administration officials labeled Mr. Pretti a “would-be assassin” and asserted, with no evidence, that he had committed an act of “domestic terrorism.”

Through their own shock and grief, people who knew him struggled to rise above the lies and insults, they said, to describe who he was.

Rory Shefchek, a friend from high school who now lives in Madison, Wis., said that he hoped that Mr. Pretti would be remembered as the person he knew.

“He was a helpful, kind guy,” Mr. Shefchek said. “He was a confident, diligent and respectful person throughout his life. I hope that Alex’s story can catalyze change, as someone who believed in doing the right thing.”

Of the cellphone footage of Mr. Pretti’s death that has circulated widely in the news and on social media, Mr. Shefchek said, “We have all seen the video and our eyes don’t lie.”"

Judge grants order barring feds from altering or destroying evidence in Pretti shooting; MPR, January 25, 2026

Andrew Krueger , MPR; Judge grants order barring feds from altering or destroying evidence in Pretti shooting

[Kip Currier: Consider the current state of public trust that has resulted in a Temporary Restraining Order (T.R.O.) needing to be sought by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was then approved by federal Judge Eric Tostrud, because of concerns that the Trump 2.0 administration will potentially cover up and/or obstruct a fulsome, fair, and transparent investigation into the killing of ICU nurse Alex Jeffrey Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis on January 24.]

[Excerpt]

"A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order barring federal officials from destroying or altering evidence related to Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis.

That’s in response to a lawsuit filed Saturday night by the Hennepin County Attorney's Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. 

Judge Eric Tostrud’s order bars the federal government from “destroying or altering evidence related to the fatal shooting involving federal officers that took place in or around 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026, including but not limited to evidence that defendants and those working on their behalf removed from the scene and/or evidence that defendants have taken into their exclusive custody.”

The lawsuit was filed after the BCA said it was blocked from accessing the shooting scene on Saturday to collect evidence, despite having a search warrant giving them authority to do so."

Lies, violence and the American state; Democracy Docket, January 25, 2026

Marc Elias, Democracy Docket; Lies, violence and the American state

"In early 1974, as he awaited his fate for writing about the horrors of the Soviet penal system, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn decided to take on the authoritarian regime’s most potent tool: lies. “In our country,” he wrote to Western journalists, “the lie has become not just a moral category, but a pillar of the state. In breaking with the lie, we are performing a moral act, not a political one.”

Several weeks later, on the day he was exiled from his country, he explained the connection between government lies and state-sponsored violence against citizens:

When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance. It displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly. A few years pass — and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally —Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence...

Donald Trump is an infamous liar. He has lied his way through business, law and politics. The movement he built is based on lies — lies about the economy, immigration and crime. But its most important lie — the Big Lie — is about democracy itself.

Trump abhors democracy because it allows ordinary Americans to reject his lies. Even worse for Trump, it allows us to reject him.

When voters did exactly that in 2020, he responded with more lies — lies in court, lies in the media, and lies to his supporters. On Jan. 6, 2021, those lies turned into violence.

Yet, as Solzhenitsyn suggests, that was not the end of the story. The violence itself then required more lies — about the Capitol Police, the Department of Justice, election workers, judges and his political enemies.

But something has changed in recent weeks. The lies are no longer about shadowy figures wielding great power and influence. They are now targeting everyday citizens — people standing in their own communities, in front of their homes, protecting their neighbors."

Senate Democrats and Republicans call for investigation into killing of Alex Pretti; NPR, January 25, 2026

 Luke Garrett , NPR; Senate Democrats and Republicans call for investigation into killing of Alex Pretti

"Congressional leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration's account of the killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old U.S. citizen shot dead by federal officers during an immigration enforcement protest in Minneapolis Saturday...

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., warned the Trump administration against any attempt to shut out local and state law enforcement from the investigation. 

"There must be a thorough and impartial investigation into yesterday's Minneapolis shooting," Tillis said in a post Sunday morning. "Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump's legacy."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also called for a "full joint federal and state investigation" and said the "credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake" in a statement. 

On Sunday, Trump administration officials continued to defend the federal agents who killed Pretti. The head of President Trump's immigration operation, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, told CNN that the federal agents are "the victims" and said Pretti "perpetrated violence" during an active immigration enforcement operation.

"That suspect injected himself into that law enforcement situation with a weapon," Bovino said. 

The video evidence and eyewitness accounts that have surfaced so far refute that assertion. There has been no evidence that NPR has verified of Pretti brandishing his handgun at any time during the encounter with federal agents.

On Saturday, Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said if a U.S. citizen approaches law enforcement with a gun, federal officers "will be legally justified in shooting you." 

The powerful National Rifle Association and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., criticized Essayli. 

"Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it's a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don't understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government," Massie said on X. 

Chair of the House Oversight Committee James Comer, R-Ky., suggested Sunday that Trump remove ICE from Minneapolis because local law enforcement aren't cooperating. 

"If the mayor and the governor are going to put our ICE officials in harm's way, and there's a chance of losing more innocent lives or whatever, then maybe go to another city and let the people of Minneapolis decide do we want to continue to have all of these illegals," Comer said on Fox News."

Vance Gives Deranged Excuse for Agents Killing ICU Nurse; The Daily Beast, January 25, 2026

Erkki Forster , The Daily Beast; Vance Gives Deranged Excuse for Agents Killing ICU Nurse

"JD Vance has suggested that Minnesota officials invited the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in an unhinged defense of the Trump administration’s deportation operation...

He claimed on X that local officials “created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border.”...

The vice president, who frequently makes false claims—such as alleging that Haitian migrants in Ohio are eating dogs—added, “This is just a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.”"

For Trump, the Truth in Minneapolis Is What He Says It Is; The New York Times, January 25, 2026

Peter Baker , The New York Times; For Trump, the Truth in Minneapolis Is What He Says It Is

"Twice since the start of the year, federal officers have gunned down protesters in Minneapolis with cellphone cameras rolling and twice President Trump and his lieutenants have rushed forward with a message to the American people: Don’t believe what you see with your own eyes.

Without waiting for facts, the Trump team has advanced one-sided narratives to justify each of the killings and demonize the victims. Renee Good, a mother of three, was engaged in “domestic terrorism” and “viciously ran over the ICE Officer,” they declared. Alex Pretti, an I.C.U. nurse at a veterans’ hospital, was an “assassin” aiming to “massacre law enforcement.”

The trick is that the Trump versions of reality have collided with bystander videos watched by millions who did not see what they were told. Ms. Good did not run over the ICE agent who killed her; a video analysis suggested she was trying to turn away from him and he continued to shoot her even as she passed him. Mr. Pretti approached officers with a phone in his hand, not a gun; he moved to help a woman who was pepper sprayed and he was under a pileup of agents when one suddenly shot him in the back.

The videos, sometimes shaky, incomplete or at a distance, may not show the totality of what happened in those confusing split seconds on the street and they do not speak to what was going through the heads of the officers who opened fire in what is being called self-defense. Many questions about exactly what happened remain unanswered and further investigation could change the understanding of the deadly events in Minneapolis, perhaps even bolstering the Trump administration’s assertions, but the administration is blocking independent inquiries."

Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony; The Guardian, January 24, 2026

Robert Mackey, The Guardian; Alex Pretti did not brandish gun, witnesses say in sworn testimony

"Two witnesses to the killing of Alex Pretti have said in sworn testimony that the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was not brandishing a weapon when he approached federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday, contradicting a claim made by Trump administration officials as they sought to cast the shooting of a prone man as an act of self-defense.

Their accounts came in sworn affidavits that were filed in federal court in Minnesota late Saturday, just hours after Pretti’s killing, as part of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protesters against Kristi Noem and other homeland security officials directing the immigration crackdown in the city.

One witness is a woman who filmed the clearest video of the fatal shooting; the other is a physician who lives nearby and said they were initially prevented by federal officers from rendering medical aid to the gunshot victim.

The names of both witnesses were redacted in the publicly available filings."

Protest breaks out at South Texas immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos; Houston Public Media, January 25, 2026

 

David Martin Davies, Texas Public Radio

, Houston Public Media; Protest breaks out at South Texas immigration detention facility holding 5-year-old Liam Ramos

"A protest broke out Saturday at the South Texas family detention complex in Dilley, about 70 miles south of San Antonio, after guards abruptly ordered attorneys to leave while detainees — many of them children — poured into open areas of the facility chanting “Libertad,” or “Freedom,” according to an immigration attorney who witnessed the event.

Immigration attorney Eric Lee said he was at the Dilley facility for a confidential visit with clients — an immigrant family of six, including five children — when guards began shouting for everyone in the waiting area to leave, citing what they described as “an incident.”

As the Michigan-based attorney walked toward his car, he said he heard what sounded like “hundreds of children” shouting, with voices he described as “high-pitched” and “urgent.” He said he could see children streaming from dormitory areas behind a chain-link fence and chanting “Libertad.”

Lee said clients he later spoke with told him the protest was triggered by concerns over the treatment of Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old who was taken into custody with his father in Minnesota earlier this week and transferred to the Dilley facility."

A Call for Peace and Discernment: A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Scanlan; The Episcopal Diocese of the Susquehanna, January 25, 2026

[Kip Currier: Share with others the following letter by Bishop Audrey C. Scanlan.]

The Episcopal Diocese of the Susquehanna; A Call for Peace and Discernment: A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Scanlan

Dear Members of the Episcopal Diocese of the Susquehanna,

In recent days the brightness of the Epiphany light has been obscured as division and discord in our nation has turned to deadly violence in our streets.  The events in Minneapolis – the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent, this weekend’s shooting and killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal forces – and the ongoing illegal seizure and detention without due process of hundreds of individuals across our country call for us as citizens and Christians, to respond.

Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5:20

These are grievous days in which the evil that Isaiah writes about is evident in our cities, villages, and in the hearts of those who do harm.  In the face of evil, God calls us to resist and to work, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to restore the peace and harmony that is God’s dream for us.

Many of us across the diocese are already engaged as peacemakers and reconcilers.  Our parishes are working to support the most vulnerable in our communities. Individuals are serving in ways that are both quiet and bold, reaching out one-on-one or to whole groups serving to repair the breach.  In the great prologue to John’s gospel, we read: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5) While the light maybe obscured, it is not extinguished.  God’s love will prevail.

Today I call us to discernment. I invite a diocesan-wide practice to engage in prayerful reflection on God’s call to us, asking for affirmation of the ways that we are now serving and direction for the days ahead. This ancient Christian practice invites us to listen for God’s call to us as we follow the path of love.  United by the waters of baptism, each of us in our diocese – lay and clergy alike – is called to participate in God’s mission and to find our place that will bring us from heartbreak to healing.  Our nation needs us and our faith instructs us to do this work. Discernment is not a “one and done” event but an ongoing practice that reveals God’s will for us.

In my discernment in the past several months, I have heard God calling me to “stability.”  This monastic virtue is described by St. Benedict as a path of perseverance in the face of adversity and the refusal to flee when the community or self becomes uncomfortable. Benedict also points to stability as the place where conversion of life can take place. For me, stability means “showing up:” sitting each morning to read the scriptures and say my prayers, meeting with people in their own discernment even when answers are not yet evident, and remaining faithful to our pattern of worship, coming together to be nourished by the Sacraments. Stability means to stand in the face of evil and to proclaim God’s power and love.  

And now, God is calling us to discern some more.  To revisit our practices in the context of what is happening in our country today.   Through this practice God may affirm that what we are doing is holy and good and to keep at it, or God may reveal something new, something more for us to do.

I invite you to join me in discernment and to do this work individually or collectively, as a family or parish community. There are materials provided at the end of this letter to assist you in your prayer of discernment.  May your work be blessed as you find God’s call to you as an agent of peace.

If you would like to share the call that God has placed on your heart with our diocesan community, please email communications@diosusquehanna.org and we will keep a list on our website to invite ongoing prayers for our ministry together from now until we celebrate the paschal feast at Easter.

May God bless us and keep us and may the light of Christ shine in our hearts.

The Rt. Rev. Audrey C. Scanlan
Bishop Diocesan of The Diocese of the Susquehanna"