Rector’s Corner

Dear Doubters of Great Faith, On Wednesday of this week, Fr. Stephen Waller and I were honored to be guest lecturers in Dr. Stephen Sprinkle’s Doctor of Ministry class at Brite Divinity School, “The Ministerial Leader as Practical Theologian.” Steve specifically tasked us with leading a conversation around the practical implications of liturgy. What does our liturgical life as Episcopalians have to say about or to do with our lives lived out in the world? In short, so what? It was a fascinating, humbling time together, as we found ourselves surrounded by those who were every bit as schooled in their own liturgical practice, of so many different varieties, shapes and sizes. I started my part of the discussion by waging what we subscribers to Anglican theology uphold in our liturgical practice, the three-legged stool of “scripture, tradition, reason,” and what that looks like when praying really does shape our…

Dear Doubters of Great Faith, There were several identifiable steps along my journey to this passion I now own and possess for social justice ministry particularly in the area of racial reconciliation, healing, and privilege. While I was still a Church Business Administrator, I attended several gatherings of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes (CEEP), and heard a presentation by the Rev. Mike Kinman, sometime Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, MO, and now Rector of the famed social justice parish All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, CA. The year was 2014, and St. Louis had been for many months in the throes of protests over the killing in Ferguson of Michael Brown. The scene was not unlike what we witnessed in Dallas following the death of George Floyd. Downtown St. Louis was awash in daily marches of protesters decrying an end to senseless police violence. Fr. Mike told us…

“…for the saints of God are just folk like you and like me…” I sat captivated as they carried the casket of Ruth Bader Ginsburg up the steps of the majestic Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. I found myself thinking how appropriate, and how ironic, and how fitting, that such a diminutive physical frame, was coming to rest, and be honored, in such hallowed, majestic halls. Because, after all, she lived her life in what appeared to be, at least from this vantage point, some very majestic ways. Unique, individual, and yet so similar, to the emotions stirred as I watched John Lewis’ funeral caisson pass gracefully over the Edmund Pettus bridge less than two months earlier. These two lives, lived so fully, distinctly, humbly, and yet mightily, for the cause of equal rights, indeed liberty and justice for all. These two seemed to be able to think universally…

My Dear Doubters of Great Faith, It is amazing when I stop and consider that only one brief year ago (and yet a lifetime), I had my first conversation with the Search Committee of the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle. I remember telling you in our first Sunday together that my time with you, our time together, while sometimes seeming painfully slow, as in a pandemic, would in reality, be fleeting. And so, if we had business to attend to, we’d best be about that business! I was clear in my interviews as to the kind of ministry that God was (and is) calling me into, the ministry of urban social justice work with a particular emphasis on race, reconciliation, and healing. And I believed that was something that St. Thomas would be particularly good and gifted at, based on the leadership and hard work this place has…

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? I will, with God’s help! My Dear Doubters of Great Faith, It was over ten years ago that I began my official journey toward ordination in the Episcopal Church, and one of my first assignments was the penning of a “spiritual autobiography.” I crafted my work around the touchstone of our particular Episcopal tradition, the Baptismal Covenant, specifically the questions that get asked of or on behalf of candidates. These questions really are foundational to our Christian identity, because they reflect the ways Jesus lived out his human, and yet divine existence, thereby modeling goals for our own behavior. As such, they are (or should be) the lenses through which we view all of life. But this question of justice, and peace, and dignity, particularly when coupled with the seeking and serving…

My Doubters of Great Faith, We find ourselves on the horns of another national holiday, Labor Day, the veritable conclusion to the trilogy of summer’s secular holiday Trinity. This Labor Day finds us all in a place that feels in many ways so different than Labor Days past. The things upon which we reflect this year are not the adventure-filled excursions, time away with family and friends, and the joyful returns, recanting stories of the road. Those things were much fewer and farther between, if at all this year. Instead, themes of this year’s reflection all seem to revolve around strife, division, and “apart-ness.” A virus necessitates much of the physical separateness. Deeper wounds of ongoing racial injustice are exacerbated by COVID-19, and by political and economic responses to and around the pandemic. But there is something we as Christians can, should, and must do, as a part of our…