At Epiphany, everything shifts. As opposed to celebrating the birth and life of Jesus as we have been doing, Epiphany calls us to ministry, to evangelism, to reaching out. A Simple Call It’s all about Jesus. Epiphany, in fact, celebrates the wise men coming to see Jesus. Jesus, the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles,…

Recently I found a quote online that I thought fitting for this time in our history: “No church gravitates toward unity. We have to contend for unity against the gravitational pull toward selfishness and hypocrisy” (Barnabas Piper). But in our contentious culture, such words can be easily misunderstood. Contending for unity does not mean drawing…

In Part 1, we discussed the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost and how God moved in power to send his Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Acts 2. We also said the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit, because from the beginning, he has been about sending us out. Sensing the Holy Spirit Sometimes…

Editor’s Note: As you prepare your heart for Pentecost on June 5, read and reflect on these words from Bishop Brewer, and watch for Part 2, coming soon. Many of you are familiar with the story of what actually happened on the Feast of Pentecost. This great ingathering was akin to a Jewish Thanksgiving, where…

The day of the Pulse shooting five years ago, I was traveling home to Orlando from Louisville. As I waited in the airport, CNN and all the other news services were blowing up. And before long, my phone was blowing up too. Deacon Nancy Oliver called me early on to make sure I knew what…

In my last post, we traveled with the two on the road to Emmaus and recorded their initial responses to their Savior. We closed with the biblical statement that, even before they recognized him, their hearts burned within them as they heard him speak (see Luke 24:32). Opening Their Hearts Jesus’ words do that to…

Feb. 28 marks the day we give special thanks for two extraordinary pioneers. Anna Julia Haywood Cooper Anna Julia Haywood Cooper was born in 1859 in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was a teacher; she went to what was at that point the embryonic version of what we know as St. Augustine College and, through an…

What a difference a few weeks can make! In a video shown at our October 2020 annual diocesan clergy conference, Bishop Lloyd Allen shared an update on the state of Honduras post-COVID-19 lockdown. In particular, he emphasized that some schools in the Diocese of Honduras have reopened post-lockdown, but fear of the coronavirus has meant…

We find a startling juxtaposition in the New Testament, a juxtaposition between hatred—the world hating you (1 John 3:13-16) and love—the call to love one another (Matt. 10:34-42). All of that is really emblematic of the story of St. Alban from the early 200s in England. It comes from the area we would now call…

I’m probably like most of you. I don’t like social distancing, and I like wearing a mask and gloves even less. These tools have become symbols of isolation, of keeping one’s distance, reminding us in a very visceral way that we’re on our own, cut off from the many friends on whom we would normally…