July 2026

Dear Beloved,

Every summer I look forward to the return of the Cliff Swallows here along the South Platte River in Denver Colorado. These amazing birds travel hundreds and even thousands of miles from Central and South America to Colorado to build their mud nests, feast on millions of flying insects and renew their cycle of birth and new life.



Recently I traveled to Alaska and was surprised to see and hear Rufous Hummingbirds zipping about. Where did these tiny birds come from and what were they feasting upon? (The answer is: they come from Florida and Mexico and for nectar from innumerable wildflowers.)  

In visiting with many folks this summer, I have come to see how similar we are to these winged creatures. Grandparents are flying across the country to visit their children and newly born grandchildren, family reunions with many making long car trips to gather again with loved ones. Sometimes it might even be travels to the country of their ancestors so as to meet them or at least walk where they walked and experience the world that was their home. Some of us have a deep desire to be a part of class reunions or travel great distances to visit dear friends who have become family; in their presence one is deeply at home.

This October, many of us in our Beloved Communion will be traveling and gathering in Minnesota for a reunion of sorts for us, our Holy Synod. This will be a time to reconnect with old friends, meet new friends, be inspired by powerful and brilliant guest speakers, celebrate and pray together, share meals, take care of our business agendas and continue to develop and tweak our constitution and statutes.  

My deep hope for all who will be attending in person or participating online is that we will experience the joy and renovation that comes when we "birds of a feather" migrate "home" to be together.



Let us pray that new life and rebirth will be experienced by all. May the Holy Spirit lead and guide us that we may continue to be a welcoming home for all.

paz y amor 

Bishop Paul "Pablo" Burson, M.Div., L.P.C.

Presiding Bishop, ECC

BishopPaul@ecumenicalcatholics.net

Please enjoy some photos that I took during my time away for Retreat and Rest this summer in Alaska, where my friend so graciously let me use his cabin.

…..Pablo

TO: ECC Members

Dear friends in Christ,

As we look ahead to our Synod this October, we write with an invitation to prepare well together and to share a learning opportunity that we believe can serve the wider ECC community.

Our keynote speaker will explore important themes shaping conversations in our communities and our wider society today. To make the most of that time, and of the workshops that follow, we are asking those attending Synod to spend time with the attached guide before October. We also hope this guide will be shared more broadly across ECC parishes as a helpful resource for reflection, conversation, and formation.

The guide offers clear, accessible definitions in three key areas, along with links to short articles and videos you can read or watch at your own pace. Whether these topics are familiar to you or entirely new, there is no need to be an expert. Our hope is that we can begin from common ground and raise our shared understanding of three societal challenges where we are called to be part of the solution and cannot sit on the sidelines.

For Synod participants, this preparation will help us arrive comfortable, grounded, and ready to engage. For the broader ECC community, we hope it will invite parish leaders, ministry teams, small groups, and all members of our community into deeper learning and faithful action.

Most of all, we want you to know how much we are looking forward to gathering in October. We have a wonderful keynote speaker, and the workshops we’re planning are designed to be both meaningful and genuinely enjoyable — sending each of us home with concrete, hopeful ways to live out our faith every day.

We can’t wait to be together in October, and we are grateful for the wider learning, conversation, and witness that can begin across the ECC community now.

In the peace of Christ,

ECC Truth & Reconciliation Team/Synod Planning Committee

Kevin Beckford

Janelle McCormick

John Phelps

Ann Connolly

Beenella Phelps


Click here to read the Guide

ECC Synod Preparatory Material - October 2026



FAQ: If the ECC is rooted in the Old Catholic tradition, why do we sometimes say we are a Vatican II Church?

When people come into the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, they may sometimes hear us described as “Vatican II Catholics.” That phrase usually reflects the lived experience of many in the ECC. A number of us were deeply shaped by the Second Vatican Council and by the vision of the Church it opened up—a Church that felt more hopeful, more open, more engaged with the world, and more rooted in the shared dignity of all the baptized.

At the same time, the ECC is rooted in the Old Catholic Tradition, which emerged after Vatican I in response to the increasing centralization of authority in Rome. Old Catholics looked instead to an earlier pattern of church life—one marked by shared leadership, synodality, and a less centralized understanding of authority. That inheritance also shaped the ECC directly: our original Constitution was patterned after Old Catholic church organization and governance.

For many people in the ECC, discovering the Old Catholic Tradition felt less like leaving Vatican II behind and more like finding the wider home of the very things Vatican II awakened in them. The council gave language and visibility to values Old Catholics had long preserved: the Church as the People of God, authority as service, full participation in the liturgy, openness to ecumenism, engagement with the modern world, and a living tradition grounded in the early Church.

So when people in the ECC call themselves Vatican II Catholics, they usually do not mean that our church began with Vatican II. More often, they mean that Vatican II expressed a vision of Catholic life they still cherish—and that in the ECC they found that vision still alive, and deeply at home in the Old Catholic Tradition.

The Emmaus and Holy Questions communities warmly welcomed Presiding Bishop Pablo Burson when he visited the Pacific Northwest in May, 2026.

On July 11, 2026, Bishop Pablo traveled to Appleton, Wisconsin for a pastoral visit with the Emmaus Ecumenical Faith Community members.



While there, he was invited to celebrate with Fr. John Higgins his 25th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.

On June 27, 2026, the Rocky Mountain Region gathered joyfully to celebrate and to give thanks to God as Deacon Mike Weil was ordained as a Priest.


The celebration was held at Church of the Beloved, with family, friends and members of his ECC Community, Church of the Holy Family.

Mike lies prostrate during the singing of the Litany of the Saints.

Bishop Kae Madden lays hands on Father Mike,

ordaining him to the priesthood.

Clergy of the Rocky Mountain Region of the ECC

participate in the ordination.

The congregation is invited to extend hands

in blessing Father Mike.

Newly ordained Father Mike Weil distributes communion

to the congregation at Church of the Beloved.

Father Mike offers “First Blessings” as a newly ordained ECC priest to virtual attendees on Zoom.

My alarm went off long before sunrise.  At 3:00 a.m.

I arrived at Saint Bernadette’s Church in Los Angeles, where sleepy families, volunteers, guardians, and children were gathering for a journey that would stretch far beyond the miles ahead of us.

Rev. Tammy Fuqua

Holy Angels, California

I was volunteering with Get On The Bus, a program under the nonprofit organization Center For Restorative Justice Works (CRJW), that helps to reconnect children with their incarcerated parents.

The program provides transportation, support, meals, and opportunities for children to visit parents housed potentially hundreds of miles from home, completely free of charge.

For many families, these visits happen only once a year.  For some children, it is the only chance to hug a parent, hear their voice in person, or simply sit beside them for a few precious hours.  

This visit carried even deeper significance as it was Mother’s Day.

My role that morning when I arrived at the church was to help check in guardians and kids before we boarded a bus for the long trip to the Central California Women’s Facility, a correctional and rehabilitation state prison in Chowchilla.  While on the bus I became the bus councilor providing counseling for anyone needing it for the journey.  



The bus ride was long, quiet at times, and filled with the ordinary realities of exhausted families. Children slept curled up on guardians’ laps. Adults leaned against windows trying to catch a little rest before the day ahead.

One unique part of the trip involved a doctoral professor and researcher conducting research on caregivers and children visiting incarcerated parents.

The children each received a small digital camera and were asked to photograph things that stood out to them along the journey.

I found myself wondering what they would choose to capture.

Highway signs?

Sunrise through a bus window?

Their guardian asleep beside them?

Cows in the green pastures of farmland?  

What does a prison visit look like through the eyes of a child?



When we finally arrived, the environment was stark.

The prison sat isolated, surrounded by emptiness.

Walking inside, I felt the heaviness of the place almost immediately.

The sound of gates closing behind me.

The sight of barbed, razor fencing stretching overhead.



The unmistakable feeling of entering a world defined by separation and confinement.

But then the visiting room filled.  Everything changed.



Children ran toward mothers.

Mothers embraced children.

Smiles broke through nervousness.

Tears appeared almost instantly.

For a few hours, prison rules, walls, and razor wire seemed to recede into the background.

What remained was relationship.

I met incarcerated women who were helping facilitate the visit. As I spoke with them, I found myself carrying quiet questions:



Who are you?

What brought you here?

What parts of your story remain unseen?



It was a reminder that every person has a story larger than the label they carry.

One of the most touching moments came near the end of the visit. Each mother was given a stuffed bear for each child that wore a white T-shirt. They were invited to write messages to their children.  Words of love, encouragement, and connection that their child could take home.

Then came the hardest part.  

Cleanup.  

Goodbyes.

Tears flowed across the room from children, mothers, guardians, and yes…….a few from me too.



The women received instructions about what items could return to their cells and what belongings would need to stay with family members until release. The emotional warmth of reunion slowly gave way to the practical realities of prison life.

After another long ride home, we returned to Saint Bernadette’s around 9:00 p.m. Families gathered bags, hugged goodbye, and dispersed into the night.

But my day wasn’t finished.

I stayed until about 10:00 p.m. with one family waiting for an Uber, knowing they still had another two-hour drive home ahead of them.

It struck me then how much effort, sacrifice, and endurance are required simply for a child to spend a few hours with a parent.



As a priest, this experience reinforced for me why prison ministry matters.

Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited me.” 

I’ve always understood that verse as a call to accompany those behind bars. But this experience expanded that understanding.

Incarceration doesn’t affect only the person

serving the sentence.

It reaches children,

grandparents,

guardians,

and entire family systems

trying to hold together across distance,

cost,

and heartbreak.

Get on the Bus is about more than transportation.  

It is about preserving connection.  

It is about protecting a child’s relationship with their parent.  

It is about recognizing the dignity of families

navigating extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

I went expecting to witness prison ministry.  

What I encountered was something deeper:

love showing up in a place built around separation.



And that is something I will carry with me for a long time.

If you would like to learn more about Get on the Bus,

check out their website:

 https://www.crjw.org/getonthebus

My wife, Rose, and I recently joined Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Newton, Massachusetts, and I am currently transitioning my ordination to the ECC. In addition to teaching at the university level, I am a Christian author and have published several books, including both Christian non-fiction and fiction.



You can view the books on my website: www.drmarkhobson.com

To participate:

1. Visit the website and select a book.
2. Email me at Mark@drmarkhobson.com and let me know which book you would like, along with your mailing address.
3. I will provide payment instructions and mail a signed copy of the book directly to you.

Paperback and Kindle editions are generally priced at $20 or less.

By purchasing a book through this fundraiser, you will support my writing ministry and the mission and ministries of the ECC.

Thank you for your consideration, support, and prayers.



Blessings,

Deacon Mark Hobson

This Newsletter was created by the Office of Presiding Bishop. Please send any questions and inquires to Carolyn Sue Cecil: admin@ecumenicalcatholics.net.

All photos in this newsletter were taken by Bishop Pablo Burson, Carolyn Sue Cecil, Tom Moos and Tammy Fuqua. Miscellaneous photos are used with permission from Pixaby.com.

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