January 5, 2020: The Second Sunday after Christmas, The Rev. Candice Frazer
This Christmas the Alabama Shakespeare Festival produced The Best Christmas Pageant Ever as one of its offerings. It’s a cute play about a church Christmas pageant in which an unchurched family of juvenile delinquents—known as the Herdman children—ends up with all the lead roles—Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and Harold the angel (you know Harold, […]
December 22, 2019: The Fourth Sunday of Advent, The Rev. John Bagby
December 29, 2019: The First Sunday after Christmas, The Rev. Candice Frazer
John’s Gospel is obviously different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those Gospels, which we know as the Synoptic Gospels, are story-telling Gospels. They proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ by describing his life and ministry in biographical terms—Jesus went to this place, he had this experience, he interacted with this person, he said these […]
December 15, 2019: The Third Sunday of Advent, The Rev. Candice Frazer
Last week we heard John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness words like “Repent!” and “You brood of vipers!” Words of judgment and condemnation for a people who had fallen away from the Lord; a people who had lost their hope, allowed their religious practices to become a prison instead of broadening their freedom, […]
December 8, 2019: The Second Sunday of Advent, The Rev. John Bagby
December 1, 2019: The First Sunday of Advent, The Rev. Candice Frazer
The cycles or rhythms of the natural world help us to orient to time, help us to take comfort in their continuity, and offer us a peaceful presence in which to engage our hope. As one season passes into another, we too are brought along with the world finding ourselves growing into maturity and change. […]
November 24, 2019: Christ the King Sunday, The Rev. Candice Frazer
I have a birthmark in the shape of a crown on my inner ankle. When I was a little girl, I would daydream that the mark meant I was royalty and one day a messenger would come and tell me that I was actually a princess and I would get to go live in a […]
November 10, 2019: The Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. John Bagby
November 17, 2019: The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, The Rev. John Bagby
November 3, 2019: The Sunday after All Saints Day, The Rev. Candice Frazer
I grew up a Roman Catholic. We went to mass every Sunday or Saturday night—but never missed a week. As a Catholic, I was taught about the Communion of Saints. The understanding that there were those who had walked this earth and now lived in heaven but might still intercede for me, if I asked. […]