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.
The Advent and Christmas seasons are “Take a Walk Around the Block” seasons. What do I mean by that? Well, several things. For many of you, either family will descend on you or you will descend on family. In many ways, that is a wonderful thing! But, it also carries with it the tensions and…
As we move into the season of Advent, it might be worthwhile to re-visit the reason we go through this particular season before Christmas. In Latin, adventus means a “coming, approach, or arrival”. In our Christian context, in Advent we wait for the coming, approach, or arrival of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the…
In 587 BC, the nation of Israel suffered a devastating event: the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem and the resulting exile. It was a catastrophe for their society. For fifty years, the people of Israel languished in exile until they were allowed to return by King Cyrus of Persia in 537 (or so) BC. They returned…
We have changed the planned start date for church reconstruction to June 1, 2019 (we originally planned to begin November 1, 2018) We made this change after consultation with our architects, MHP, and our builders, Tellepsen. As our plans developed over the summer MHP and Tellepsen determined that we could achieve significant cost reduction in…
Join the choir of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church and guests at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church for a commemoration of Remembrance Day, the eleventh day of the eleventh month. On Sunday, 11/11/18, at 4 pm, one hundred years to the day after the signing of the Armistice which ended World War I, we will remember all…
Guest Column by Eileen Spisak, Parish Administrator I’m really excited about the wonderful things happening here at St. Thomas’ as we continue work to recover from the floods of Hurricane Harvey, and I want to share my excitement with all of you, and tell you about some of what’s going on — some things you…
Saint Thomas’ will begin offering a monthly Healing Service on the second Sunday of each month after our 10:30 am Morning Prayer service. Many in our parish are suffering under various ailments and it is good and right for their brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for them. We do that through the prayer…
When Jesus said you cannot serve two masters (Matt. 6:24), He was contrasting faith in money and faith in God. Many have erroneously used this to attack money and people with money – but money is not really the issue. Many things can be idols or the “master” of which Jesus is speaking. Money just…
Opening Twitter and Facebook these days is a harrowing experience for me as it well might be for you. We are the wealthiest, most prosperous, and most dynamic country in the world — and yet everyone seems to be angry. Usually, they are angry at a particular person in a public position; but they can…
Do you remember when The McCallie School came to St. Thomas’ to give a presentation on the development of boys? I visited with Troy Kemp, the Executive Director for The National Center for the Development of Boys, when I traveled through Chattanooga, TN this summer. He told me that the meeting they had in our…