Building begins...

Lift High the Cross!
Andy atop Nativity's Steeple on
the day the new cross was raised!

St. Francis’s response to Christ’s call to “rebuild my church” has inspired me throughout ordained ministry.  After implementing visionary programming and capital projects in parishes in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama, including restoring the 19th century National Historic Landmark church, the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, God is calling me to build upon the spiritual foundations.  After 17 years of ordained ministry and 8 years of serving as Rector of the Church of the Nativity, I begin my first-ever sabbatical on May 30.  I am grateful to the vestry and leadership of the Church of the Nativity for their encouragement and support for this important time for me, my family, and our parish.  Special thanks to the Louisville Institute, a Lilly Foundation funded program for those who lead and study American religious institutions, for their generous award of a 12 week Sabbatical Grant for Pastoral Leaders.  

The most important building we have to do in the church is to build the Kingdom of God through peoples’ ever deepening relationship with Christ.   All other building is in vain unless we attend to this foundation. 

My sabbatical, Sabbath time for rest and renewal, refreshes my heart for ministry while preparing to strengthen the parish’s spiritual undergirding through the Catechumenate process of forming Christian disciples. The Sabbatical journey begins with a 10-day centering prayer retreat at St. Mary’s in Sewanee, Tennessee.  Later in June, I travel with my wife Tippy to Italy, visiting Assisi, San Damien, Rome, Gubio, Cortona, Greccio, Florence and other places in Tuscany and Umbria where Francis was inspired to “build Christ’s church.”  The Louisville Institute grant funds Tuscan cooking classes for Tippy and me at the Villa Piazzano outside of Cortona,  renewing a passion for good cooking and helping us stay well. Our children, Case and Sally, join us in Rome for family time in the Eternal City and on the Amalfi Coast in Sorrento.  Tippy and Sally return to the states while Case and I travel to Armenia for deeper study and reflection within the beauty and mystery of the ancient Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.  Christian formation emerged when Armenia became the first Christian nation in 301.  I return to The School of Theology at Sewanee for deliberate conversations with church leaders and scholars on the Catechumenate, along with time for further reflection and writing, reading, rest, hiking, playing and cooking.  I’ll be back in church on Rally Day, August 28!

I hope you’ll follow the blog and share the journey with me.  I’ll be posting thoughts, prayers, and pictures on a “not quite daily” basis.  Deep peace of Christ to all.