Earlier this year, 26 teens from our diocese came together to participate in the second annual Soul in the City mission-immersion experience. This was the second year of relaunching the effort to have a diocesan-based, youth-mission experience. It was held in Lakeland in July, and the teens volunteered throughout the week in a variety of…

Churches in Central Florida and Around the World Respond with Donations In response to the Pulse shootings, more than 30 local Latino and LGBTQ community leaders and organizations came together within 36 hours to support the #SomosOrlando campaign. The purpose was to advocate for funding, resources, and partnerships that would prioritize high-quality culturally and linguistically…

Thinking Outside the Box On June 26, Church of the Resurrection in Longwood announced to the congregation the start of a Home Furnishings and Personal Care event to benefit Loaves & Fishes of Apopka. Ministry members Donna Hilyard and Tom Nooft wanted to do something different, something out of the box. “My family had dropped…

Christ in us gives us the ability to help those who grieve Imagine the pain of a friend who attended funerals with his brother, mourning the loss of close friends: 10 victims of the Pulse massacre. Imagine a colleague’s shock as he explained he would miss work to attend a funeral for a family member…

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, For more than four decades, the Diocese of Central Florida’s companion relationship with the Diocese of Honduras has helped Episcopalians in both countries do the work that Jesus summons us to perform. It fills me with great joy to witness how this partnership grows stronger year by year through…

A São Paulo visitor is welcomed as a friend “Michelle!” Bruno shouted across the street as I sat on the steps outside Praça da Sé Cathedral. He gave me a warm hug and said he had missed me. I first met Bruno five weeks before when we played Uno and talked. He immediately put me…

  “Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body also is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness” (Luke 11:34). It has been a long time since I have written about Alex. We haven’t had much contact with him…

In the wake of the Pulse shootings, the people of the Diocese of Central Florida rallied in support of the victims and their families. The benefits were immeasurable. Lives were embraced; souls were touched. One extraordinary offering was Archdeacon Kristi Alday’s July 16 training on “Walking the Mourner’s Path.” The class was open to everyone…

“Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying” (Luke 10:38-39). An unexpected knock on our door on a Sunday afternoon revealed Igor, whom…

God’s call is always a call to love. To love him. To love other people. But the ones he sends us to love are often those we would never choose on our own. A Love That Sacrifices Peter, in the tenth chapter of Acts, had no idea God would call him to go be with…