The blog of the Rev’d David O. Browder, Rector of St. Thomas’. Law and gospel, grace, pop culture, links to interesting articles and videos.
by David Browder Last week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, leaving a vacancy on the Supreme Court. In all likelihood, President Trump will nominate a successor and the Senate will vote on the President’s nominee. Each of us has political convictions; each of us has opinions about how the Supreme Court should rule on any…
by David Browder Last week, I wrote about Postmodernism and its axis of power and contrasted it with Christianity and its axis of love. Why am I interested in what may seem like an obscure academic issue to many? Because the axis on which we choose to live our lives (either power or love/grace) determines…
by David Browder Ideas have consequences. In the twentieth century, the ideologies of Fascism, Marxism, and, in many countries (including our own), of racial superiority, showed, in often terrible ways, the truth of this saying. We can track many ascendant philosophies over the course of history and see the effects they had on people in…
Do you know any children, youth or family ministry rockstars who could take their knowledge and experience to build a program in a parish striving to live out their mission of offering a warm welcome, transcendent worship, deep learning and joyful service? We at Saint Thomas’ Episcopal Church in Houston are seeking a dynamic, experienced…
In my video update above, I am thrilled to report on a number of exciting initiatives, and on the work we have been doing this summer.
This team of parishioners, an outgrowth of the summit we held earlier this year, has been meeting with our consultants from Ministry Architects on a number of initiatives over the last several months. Based on your input, the team has been working on transforming (really restarting) our children’s, youth and family ministries.
We have started construction of our new academic building and renovation of our church! Monday, crews from Tellepsen, our construction partner, put up a sediment fence to keep dirt from going where it shouldn’t — and move dirt, we will!
It has been almost three years since Hurricane Harvey came through and changed all of our lives. So many volunteer and overtime hours have gone into working, planning, gathering feedback, and putting together a master plan for our campus. This past Monday saw these dreams and all of this work start to become reality for us. Thanks to all of those who have helped us plan and do the work necessary.
It has now been a few months since the pandemic hit us and we are still wearing masks, socially distancing, and trying to beat Covid-19 back. We want to re-open and get back to something approaching normal — but it just has not worked out. In the crisis caused by this pandemic, there is real…
We are delighted to announce that we have received a letter of obligation from FEMA indicating that our grant has been approved for funding. This is the step we have been waiting for to begin the post-Hurricane Harvey renovation of the church and construction of our new academic building. Next week we will receive a…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, As you have probably read, COVID-19 cases have risen in Houston over the past couple of weeks. Hospitalizations have risen as well with capacity reaching a point of strain. We will move all of our services online again. We will go back to our Stay at Home protocols with Morning and…
By David Browder Most of you probably do not know that Saint Thomas’ founding rector wrote in the 1950s and 1960s, during his tenure here, in favor of segregation. I knew about this, and assumed everyone else did, too. We have spent many years distancing ourselves from those writings and those ideas. But I think…
