About the Via Media Reflections on Faith, Conscience, and the Common Good In an age of noise and division, Via Media seeks a different path, the sacred middle way. Hosted and written by me, Brian Ernest Brown, bishop, teacher, and pilgrim of conscience, Via Media explores the moral and spiritual…
Category: Reflections, Musings & Meanderings
Reflections and musings from my meanderings in these here Ozark Mountains: life, love, loss, laughter, and the long practice of grace.
Coworkers of Christ
Read more
St. Martin’s Day Invitation to the Day of Prayer for Peace
Invitation to the Day of Prayer for PeaceThe Feast of Saint Martin of Tours November 11thOpening of St. Martin’s Lent “Lord, Heavenly Father, help us to become peacemakers, that we may be called the children of God.”— From the Litany of Peace by Archbishop Karl Prüter On the Feast of…
Coworkers of Christ
Read more
The Clergy Collar: A Visible Witness of Consecration
The Clergy Collar: A Visible Witness of Consecration A Pastoral Reflection from the Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ By Abbot Bishop Brian Ernest Brown,CWC In the Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ, the wearing of the clergy collar is more than tradition or uniform, it is a…
Preaching, Homilies & Sermons
Read more
Surrender Not Love to Indifference
“I have few illusions but I feel a responsibility to work towards the things I consider good and right. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to change certain things for the better, or not at all. Both outcomes are possible. There is only one thing I will not concede:…
Coworkers of Christ
Read more
A Consecration I Didn’t Seek, and the Grace I Found
On the Feast of St. Kevin of Glendalough, nineteen years ago today, June 3, 2006, I was consecrated to the episcopacy and made a bishop within the Free Catholic tradition. It was a day marked by equal measures of challenge and grace, shadow and blessing. The truth is, the day…
The Unsettling Hallmarks of Our Accelerating Age
The Unsettling Hallmarks of Our Accelerating Age The dust is still settling from what we’ve come to call the postmodern age, a period defined by its skepticism towards grand narratives, its embrace of fragmentation, and a pervasive sense of irony regarding universal truths and established authority. Yet, as we navigate…
Faith, Conscience & Common Good
Read more
The Coming of the Son: Sunrise on Bear Mountain
In the darkness that is winter and the depth that is Lent, behold, Easter draws near when the Light of the World will rise again! I awoke to a glorious sunrise this morning and was immediately reminded of the imminent coming of Easter and all that resurrection means in this…
Reflections, Musings & Meanderings
Read more
The Garden Before Grace
The Garden Before Grace By +Brian Ernest Brown, CWC Twenty-seven years ago, on a Summer Solstice long ago, I completed my third-degree initiation within the Wiccan tradition and took vows that felt, at the time, both solemn and eternal. It was a night of deep symbolism and sacred friendship, celebrated…
Dancingbird Gallery & Studio
Read more
Holy Springs, Open Doors, and Coming Home from Another Direction
Again I find myself returning to the theme of home, how a place can call you back long after you’ve left it, and how returning isn’t always going backward. Sometimes it’s a forward movement from another direction, a circling flight that finally brings you to where you were always meant…
Dancingbird Gallery & Studio
Read more
Heat, Hummingbirds, and the Hazards of Creativity: Notes from the Torch
Heat, Hummingbirds, and the Hazards of Creativity: Notes from the Torch This morning began with clarity, the rare kind. A soft, cooling breeze slipped through the Ozark hills, and for a brief, holy hour the world felt fresh… and so did I. My mind was sharp, ideas were flowing, and…