Holy Week Reflections 2021 He Loves Us to the End: A Reflection for Maundy Thursday The Loving, Open, Broken Heart of God: A Reflection for Good Friday Death Has a Way of Telling the Truth: A Reflection for Holy Saturday  Transcripts Maundy Thursday – On Maundy Thursday, when we hear the gospel lesson read, we hear that Jesus loves us and that he loves us to the end. I don’t know about you, but in relationships, I’m really good

March 18, 2021 As Bishops of Province IV of The Episcopal Church (also known as The Province of Sewanee) who share in the oversight of the University of the South, we in no uncertain terms condemn the harassment of the Vice Chancellor of the University last month by, as of now, unknown vandals and the more recent racial epithets hurled at scholar athletes from a visiting college by young people in the crowd during a lacrosse game. We hope and

For more information on Appalshop, visit www.appalshop.org. Transcript Hi, this is Bishop Brian. I want to wish you a happy Saint Patrick’s Day. It is Wednesday, March 17th. Every Wednesday morning the diocesan staff, along with guests and friends, gather for morning prayer. We’ve done that each Wednesday now for a couple of years. This past year we’ve done that by Zoom. This morning’s gospel lesson for morning prayer came from the Gospel of John, where Jesus says he is

Transcript Hi, I’m Bishop Brian. I want to speak to you today about an upcoming event here in the Diocese of East Tennessee and an invitation to join in that event and in the work of storytelling and sharing of stories in our diocese. While February is Black History Month, we realize that the story of Black history is more than a month. It is our story. It’s an American story. It’s a church history story. And on March 7th

Transcript This past August, my eldest brother called me from Memphis. He called to say it was time to come home. Our mother was about to die. For nearly two years, we had prepared for this day. For nearly two years, my mother had been in and out of hospice care, with her kidneys slowly failing. Now, the day of her death was fast approaching. Susan and I packed bags, anticipating we would stay on for a funeral and made

 Transcript Hi, I’m Bishop Brian, and we are in the last couple days before we will gather virtually for our diocesan convention on Saturday, February 6th. Along with our delegates, I wanted to make everyone aware of all the ways in which you can participate and engage this weekend. Our diocesan convention worship will drop on Sunday morning at 10:30. You can follow that on Facebook or YouTube or go to dioceseconvention.org. This is a Eucharist for Sunday, February

 Bishop Brian invites you to a nightly prayer service of Compline, the night office from the Daily Office, as we celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Pass the link along to your friends and family who may wish to prayer Compline with Bishop Brian and other Christians across East Tennessee and the world.   Transcript Hi, this is Bishop Brian. I want to speak to you today about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. For well

 Note from Jody Davis I have had the pleasure of working with Caroline Wood in many capacities during my time in East Tennessee. From Grace Point Summer Staff, to parish youth ministry, to her work with ESK, Caroline has proven herself to be a generous and thoughtful leader. She has vast institutional knowledge of Grace Point Camp and our Diocesan youth programs, as well as extensive experience in all forms of youth ministry. Most importantly, she knows how to

 Transcript Hi, this is Bishop Brian, and as we are still in the midst of this Christmas season, I thought this might be a good time to reflect back on 2020. As the pandemic began in March and continued on, at some point I wrote to you, and said that my pledge was to be in touch with the diocese every other Wednesday until this pandemic was over. That has involved a lot of letters, and also now a