Church of the Brethren leaders are sending a letter expressing condolence to the Catholic Church on the death of Pope Francis. The letter is signed by Annual Conference moderator Dava Hensley and general secretary David Steele, and is being sent to the Vatican and to denominational ecumenical partners that are based in the Catholic tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Church of the Brethren districts and congregations are welcome to share the letter with their own regional ecumenical partners based in the Catholic tradition, and with Catholic congregations in their local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The full text of the letter follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n April 23, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the Catholic Church and all Catholic sisters and brothers in the faith,<\/p>\n\n\n\n We join with you in mourning the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remembering his namesake Saint Francis, we celebrate with you Pope Francis\u2019s commitments to care for \u201cthe least of these\u201d among the poor and vulnerable of this world and to care for God\u2019s Creation. His heart for peace and justice was a testimony to his radical discipleship to Jesus Christ, as was his conviction to lead a life of simplicity. His empathy for each of those he met personally throughout his life of faith and Christian leadership was remarkable, as was his deep concern for migrants and immigrant communities, and his personal involvement in inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue and relationship-building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The global Christian community\u2014and indeed, the whole world\u2014has lost a great leader who will be remembered for his humility, compassion, and love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our prayers are with the Catholic Church and the College of Cardinals during the upcoming transition, and with each Catholic congregation and community and each church member in this difficult time. May God surround all who mourn with comfort and peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dava Hensley David A. Steele #MissionAndMinistryBoard #StrategicPlan #RacialJustice #LoveOurNeighbors #Discipleship #NewTestamentGiving<\/p>\n\n\n\n ———-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n Church of the Brethren leaders are sending a letter expressing condolence to the Catholic Church on the death of Pope Francis. The letter is signed by Annual Conference moderator Dava Hensley and general secretary David Steele, and is being sent to the Vatican and to denominational ecumenical partners that are based in the Catholic tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1258,3261,2746,1424,3260,1261,3153,3263,3259,3262],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-25129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-annual-conference","tag-catholic-church","tag-dava-hensley","tag-david-steele","tag-death-of-pope-francis","tag-general-secretary","tag-general-secretarys-office","tag-letter-of-condolence","tag-pope-francis","tag-roman-catholic-church"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25132,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129\/revisions\/25132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25129"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=25129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Moderator of the Annual Conference
Church of the Brethren<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Secretary
Church of the Brethren<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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