The Whole Earth Is Local: A Reflection for the Holiday Season By +Brian Ernest Brown, CWC Every year around this time, I begin to see and hear the familiar refrain: “Shop local.” And I understand the heart behind it, people want to support small businesses, help their neighbors, strengthen their…
Tag: Abbot Bishop Brian Ernest Brown
Reflections, Musings & Meanderings
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A Thanksgiving Day Reflection
A Thanksgiving Day Reflection+Brian Ernest Brown, CWC Thanksgiving has always been a quiet teacher for me. It slows my hurried spirit and invites me to look, really look, at the world around me, not just with appreciation, but with honesty. Gratitude, I’ve learned, isn’t simply naming blessings; it is also…
Coworkers of Christ
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My Profession Is My Work, My Vocation Is My Calling: A Reflection on Being a Worker Priest
My Profession Is My Work, My Vocation Is My Calling: A Reflection on Being a Worker PriestBy +Brian Ernest Brown, CWC I have been clergy for more than twenty-five years, and in all those years I have also been something else: a worker clergy. A bi-vocational servant. A man who…
Reflections, Musings & Meanderings
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Religion, Relationship, and Being Spiritual: A Reflection
Religion, Relationship, and Being Spiritual: A Reflection By Abbot Bishop Brian Ernest Brown, CWC I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone say, “I’m not religious. I’m spiritual.” Every time, a little voice in the back of my mind whispers, I’m not sure you know what you mean…
Preaching, Homilies & Sermons
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Religion, Relationship, and Being Spiritual
Religion, Relationship, and Being Spiritual: A Reflection By Abbot Bishop Brian Ernest Brown, CWC I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone say, “I’m not religious. I’m spiritual.” Every time, a little voice in the back of my mind whispers, I’m not sure you know what you mean…
Reflections, Musings & Meanderings
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Why I Am a Christian: Probably Not for the Reasons You Think
Why I Am a Christian: Probably Not for the Reasons You ThinkBy +Brian Ernest Brown, CWC I am a Christian, but not for the reasons many would assume. I am not a Christian because I was raised in a religious home. I wasn’t. My family claimed the word Baptist, but…
Preaching, Homilies & Sermons
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The Shepherd, the Cross, and the Dawn
November 23, 2025The Last Sunday after Pentecost(Proper 29) The Readings from the Revised Common Lectionary Old Testament Jeremiah 23:1-6Psalm: Canticle 16 From Luke 1: 68-79Epistle: Colossians 1:11-20Gospel: Luke 23:33-43 Dear Ones in Christ, There are moments when the Word of God does not merely comfort us, it confronts us. Today…
Poetry, Prose & Prayer
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Vespers at Dusk
Vespers at DuskBy Abbot Bishop Brian Ernest Brown, CWC The day releases its labor,kneeling in rose and ashen graceinto the waiting dark. Branches lift their thin handssilent cantors lifting prayersupon the dimming sky. The wind whispers the ancient office,and every leaf, though fallen,keeps the chant of praise. Here, all striving…
Faith, Conscience & Common Good
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Following the Prince of Peace
Following the Prince of Peace By Abbot Bishop Brian Ernest Brown, CWC “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” — Matthew 5:9 Beloved in Christ, When we call Jesus the Prince of Peace, we invoke more than a comforting title; we proclaim a truth about…
Coworkers of Christ
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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…