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

 Transcript Greetings to the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. As your bishop, it is good to be able to share a Christmas word with you. The late writer Madeleine L’Engle wrote a poem several years ago reflecting on Christmas. It is entitled, The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973. I would like to share it with you: This is no time for a child to be born, With the earth betrayed by war & hate And a comet slashing the

 Click here for more information and registration on the REI Presentation day. Transcript – Hi, I’m Bishop Brian. I have a couple updates with our work on Becoming Beloved Community that I want to share with you. This past Monday evening, we completed what was a three-week conversation with Greg Garrett, the author of “A Long, Long Way.” Greg’s book looks at Hollywood and racism. And for the past three Monday evenings, a group of us gathered in conversation

 Jody Davis has done outstanding work for the Diocese of East Tennessee in his capacity as our Diocesan Youth Coordinator. It is not surprising to me that the Diocese of West Texas has recognized Jody’s many gifts and called him as the next Director of the Duncan Park Camp in Colorado. It is bittersweet to lose Jody and Gracie, but it is a joy to know that Jody’s dream to run an Episcopal camping ministry is possible now. Jody