A conversation with the Very Rev. Drew Henley on the third section of Soong-Chan Rah’s book Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times. We discuss how our repentance and lament must be both personal and corporate, and some of the resources of our Anglican heritage that can help us do so.

• Watch Drew’s video reflection from Lamentations 3
• Our previous podcast episode with Drew: Leon McKenzie and Drew Henley: Co-leading a Multi-Ethnic Church (and Deanery!)
• Find out more about our C4SO Reads For Lent Series.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is Christ Church Mission in Mission, Kansas, led by the Rev. Dean Behrens.

A conversation with the Rev. Sandy Richter on the second section of Soong-Chan Rah’s book Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times. We discuss how privilege and exceptionalism show up in the American church, and how they prevent us from doing the essential work of lament that opens space for empathy, mutuality, and solidarity.

• Watch Sandy’s video reflection from Lamentations 2
• Find our more about C4SO is celebrating Black History Month.
• Find out more about our C4SO Reads For Lent Series.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministries this week are Fellowship of Hope Mentoring in Richardson, Texas, led by the Rev. Nobie Hendricks, and Trinity Lakeside Anglican Contemplative Community in Flower Mound, Texas, led by the Rev. Markene Meyer.

A conversation with the Rev. Teesha Hadra on all the ways we avoid lament, and how to allow ourselves to practice this vital action for the healing of our souls and our world. Part 1 of our series reflecting on Soong-Chan Rah’s book Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times.

• Find our more about C4SO is celebrating Black History Month.
• Find out more about our C4SO Reads For Lent Series.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is Trinity Eastside Parish (soon to be Immanuel Anglican Church), led by the Rev. Matthew Browne.

A conversation with the Rev. Danny Bryant of St. Mary of Bethany Parish in Nashville, Tennessee, about their Equitable Healing Reparations Initiative, which is seeking to pay student debt for Black therapists as an act of repentance and reparation for the church’s complicity in racism.

• Find our more about C4SO is celebrating Black History Month. (And check out the first visio divina exercise.)
• Find out more about the Equitable I’m Healing Reparations Initiative.
• Find out more about C4SO Reads For Lent (a series we start next week on the podcast!).
• Here’s a link to the prayer we prayed at the end of the podcast.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is All Souls in Seattle, Washington, led by the soon-to-be ordained Andy Pelander.

We continue our Leaders Unplugged mini-series by talking with the Very Rev. Dr. Kris McDaniel, C4SO’s Canon for Church Development, and the Rev. Dr. Brad Swope, C4SO’s Director of Church Planting. We discuss why C4SO focuses on planting churches, as well as how we seek to do so: not as “franchises” but as contextualized Anglican communities informed by a “costly identification” with each church’s unique missional context. We also discuss C4SO’s approach to leadership development and church adoption.

• Find our more about C4SO is celebrating Black History Month.
• Find out more about church planting in C4SO.
• Find our more about church adoption in C4SO.
• If you have questions, you can email Kris, or email Brad.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is La Misión de San Lucas (The Mission of St. Luke) in Kansas City, Kansas, led by the Rev. Gene Flanery.

We continue our Leaders Unplugged mini-series by talking with the Rev. Trish Nelson, C4SO’s Canon for Ordinations. We discuss what Anglican ordination is, how it relates to the priesthood of all believers and the ministry life of the whole church, and how it works in C4SO. Trish was also declared a one-woman super spreader event (for C4SO’s values), and the process of ordination was compared to a play-doh machine.

• Trish referenced our Advent podcast episode with Jon Odom.
• Check out C4SO’s Path of Discernment to Holy Orders.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministries this week are St. John’s Anglican Church in Orinda, California, which is in the process of being re-planted under the guidance of the Very Rev. Rob Patterson, and Cornerstone Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, led by the Rev. Jon Odom.

We start a new series today called Leaders Unplugged, where we will hear from leaders in our diocese about their role in C4SO. We hope it gives everyone a sense of the diverse life of our nationwide diocese. Today we talk with the Very Revs. Leon McKenzie and Drew Henley about their relationship as co-pastors of Redeemer Community Church in Atlanta, as well as their new role as Co-Deans of the Southeast.

• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministries this week are Shared Life Community Church in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, led by the Revs. Chris and Jen Goers, and The Mission Anglican Church in Pensacola, Florida, led by the Rev. Ron Browning.

We kick off 2021 with a conversation about the recent manifestation of Christian nationalism we saw in the Capitol attack on Epiphany. Bishop Todd shares on how to notice the idolatry of Christian nationalism in the church, and resist it in the way of Jesus.

• Download Bishop Todd’s “Current Issues Facing Clergy, Vol 5: Christian Nationalism“
• Esau McCaulley’s article: “Truth over power: It is past time for the church to speak plainly about the election“
• Tish Harrison Warren’s article: “We Worship with the Magi, Not MAGA“

As a final tag to our Advent Hope in Harsh Times series, Bishop Todd brings a Christmas message to C4SO, encouraging us to face the harsh realities of 2020, and also tend to the larger reality of the kingdom of God by worshiping Christ, the newborn King this Christmas. O come, let us adore him!

• Bishop Todd’s Christmas Message can be found in article form here.
• Bishop Todd was wearing a Reyn Spooner Hawaiian Christmas shirt for our recording of this episode. Check out what these shirts look like.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is Christ the King Hawaii, led by the Rev. Don Steiner.

We finish our series Advent Hope in Harsh Times this week by talking with Christine Warner, Executive Director of the Matthew 25 Initiative, an Anglican community of biblical justice and mercy contending for shalom on the earth. Christine shares her story of getting hit by a truck two and a half years ago, almost losing her life, and what the experience of recovery has taught her about hope.

One thing Christine didn’t mention on the podcast is that the Matthew 25 Initiative has a podcast: Click here to listen and subscribe to The Anglican Justice and Mercy Podcast. Their new season starts January 2021.

Another thing Christine didn’t say on the podcast but wanted to pass along to everyone is this:

In my greatest place of pain, of brokenness, of my body being crushed and sliced, of my despair and pain feeling like it would win, I encountered His beauty and light and love in such breathtaking power. I have never known myself so deeply loved by God. When I came to consciousness and I was blind, deaf, mute, in a wheelchair, seemingly unable to “contribute” to the world, I knew my worth, that I was profoundly valuable in the kingdom. That is our God! speaking his love subversively and creatively, speaking our worth as anchored in that love and our capacity to love back.That is the stuff of THE story, the deep real reality that feeds hope.

• Check out the Anglican Justice and Mercy Podcast.
• Check out the Matthew 25 Initiative website to get involved.
• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is Christ Church Broad Ripple in Indianapolis, Indiana, led by the Rev. Todd Fisher.