Much has happened since my election as your second Bishop on May 14th. My excitement to serve you all has not been diminished at all despite my recent health issues. After a heart attack on June 28th, two stents were placed in my right coronary artery giving me immediate relief. Two days later a second procedure placed additional stents in my Left arteries due to chronic buildup. While I am told genetics played a large role in my attack, I have amended my diet to be safe. The doctors say that I should be back to full strength in time....
I remember my graduation from high school. I said goodbye to many friends, but it did not sink in at the time that I would probably never see most of them again. As I come to my retirement, I am reminded of Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. He is heading into persecution in Jerusalem and realizes that this will be his last journey in Asia Minor. He says this as part of his farewell: And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again....
Bishop-Elect Alex Farmer suffered a heart attack on Tuesday, June 28 while working in his yard. He drove himself to an emergency room and was sent from there to the University of Florida main hospital where he immediately had surgery to put in two stents. He later elected to have non-urgent follow-up surgery Thursday to insert two more stents in another part of his heart. The prognosis for recovery is very good and Bishop-Elect Alex says that he is feeling great. He should be able to go home on Saturday. After consulting his doctor, he plans to move forward with a previously scheduled retreat with the diocesan staff beginning Wednesday....
I don’t know about you, but I have almost given up on reading diet books. It is not that I don’t need to eat less and eat better. It is more that it almost feels hypocritical to investigate another diet when I have not followed the most recent one very faithfully. I suspect the same is true for many of us when it comes to reading books about discipleship. Why read another one when we haven’t mastered the content of earlier ones?...
I am at a season of transition in life where my heart resonates with the words of John the Baptist, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, ESV). So for the next few Communiques, I want to focus on three topics, three things that I believe are critically important for the life of followers of Jesus. Today I want to consider Bible study and prayer, just for a moment....
When Archbishop Foley Beach heard that I was heading to Israel for a personal trip, he asked if there was some way I could stop in Poland along the way and ordain a Ukrainian woman named Nina there. His diocese is closely connected to Christ Church, the historic Anglican congregation in the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Nina will serve there, once her visa goes through....
As the season of Lent draws near, it occurs to me how counter-cultural it really is. The culture tells us in many ways that our needs and desires come first, and that limiting ourselves by restraining our desires is somehow generally wrong. We also have a culture that tells us that busyness is required to get the most out of life....
It is common for Christians to teach that we live in the Already–Not yet season. Jesus has already called many to be his people, but the kingdom is not yet fully realized, and will not be until Jesus returns again....
I hope that as we head towards Christmas, you are finding the Lord’s peace in the midst of the flurry of the season. Let me share one perhaps unexpected way to prepare for Christmas....
A recent podcast caught my attention as it compared the cultural upheaval of our own day to the year 1968. I was a senior in high school that spring, and remember vividly the sense of things falling apart. There were violent anti-war rallies, the continuing Civil Rights debates, and the horrific assassinations of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy. Kennedy was a presidential candidate in that tumultuous and divisive election year. And yes, there was a deadly pandemic that year as well....
While we have used the term a lot, I struggle a bit with the language of the “new normal.” Obviously, we mean what life will be like after the pandemic, and certainly many things have changed already. I think there will be major impacts on business travel, online education, various types of available jobs, the economy, etc., etc. But my real struggle is with the concept of “normal.”...
Although we are not quite there yet, the new normal, post-pandemic world is thankfully almost in sight. While this has been a physical health restoration process, I am more concerned that there be a spiritual restoration coming out of it. Will we take the time to hear what the Lord will speak? There can be no real revival without such hearing....
I was struck by a scene in one of the most recent episodes of the online series The Chosen (see below**). Jesus’ new disciples Peter and Matthew get into a heated argument. Matthew is depicted as the tax collector who had made Peter’s life financially miserable....
Lockdown. It is the tragic and fearful state which we all experienced early on in the pandemic. Everything came to a halt. Sadly, some countries are in the midst of lockdowns again. What struck me as I considered the story of Jesus appearing to the disciples after the resurrection (John 20:19-23) is that they were in lockdown:...
Most of you are probably familiar with the military acronym AWOL, Absent Without Leave. It refers to persons who have left their posts without permission (but who have not permanently deserted.) In the midst of Lent, I want to re-purpose the same acronym. I think many of us are regularly Absent Without Leaving. In other words, we may be physically present (or at least virtually present on a phone call or video chat), but we are emotionally absent, our minds and hearts engaged somewhere else....
Have you ever felt like you are sailing in a fog? I think the pandemic alone, even without the other stresses we are experiencing nationally, makes us all feel disoriented....
I write to call for prayer for our nation and to reflect personally and Biblically on some of what we have seen....
What a traumatic and tragic week we have been through together. I am reeling from the report of the death of a Capitol police officer from the mayhem on Wednesday in Washington. I know many of you, like me, are still having trouble believing that the Capitol could have been under siege with members of Congress literally hiding in the building....
To rectors and clergy,Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that this season of coronavirus exile is very hard. I am reminded of Psalm 137, the song of the exiles:"By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered ZionHow shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" Many of you have asked when will we be able to worship together again as ...
Keep ReadingDear Diocesan Family, As we are living in this time of a truly global pandemic, let me begin with the transforming words Jesus shared with his disciples. They were about to face his crucifixion, the greatest tragedy and most redemptive act in human history, when all of human sin crushed our Savior (Isaiah 53). After predicting that the disciples would abandon him, Jesus c...
Keep ReadingDear Rectors and clergy in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese, Greetings in Christ. Many of us are under local and state declarations of emergency, and all of us are now under a national state of emergency. As you know, the school systems in many of our areas have just announced closures, the trigger decision point that I shared with the diocese this morning. Therefore let me st...
Keep ReadingDear brother and sister clergy, Many of you are aware of the quote from the Talmud, adapted in the film Schindler's List, "He who saves the life of one man saves the entire world." A longer version is "Whoever destroys a single life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed the whole world, and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture to have saved the w...
Keep ReadingDear Gulf Atlantic Diocese, I do not need to tell you that we face a pandemic. No one yet knows everything this will mean for our country, churches included. I believe that as difficult as this may be, the Lord has purposes for us and our neighbors if we seek him. Let me share three things briefly: The Lord is in charge, and loves us as his own. We need not fear even ...
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