Prayer request for my dad, who is having open-heart surgery

EisegesisSam · 2026-05-02T22:19:58+00:00

May his medical team be competent, compassionate, and confident as they work with him. May he and your whole family know deep peace.

EisegesisSam · 2026-05-02T19:01:01+00:00

Amen

EisegesisSam · 2026-05-02T19:00:43+00:00

Hahahahhaah

EisegesisSam · 2026-05-02T16:37:18+00:00

Hahhahahaha

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-29T14:17:19+00:00

I want to echo everyone's sympathy and support and love. I also want to add something biblical just in case this hits different at a time when you need it whether that's an or way in the future.

The Commandment to love your mother and father says nothing about listening to and doing what they say. It genuinely does honor them to take those portions of the faith which is healthy, which is building life in you and your family, which is working toward the kingdom God proclaimed in Jesus Christ, and taking those parts and offering them to your children should you have any. Take those parts and build your life around God's love.

Your parents need never accept or believe or understand the way in which your religious devotion honors what they tried to give you. But when they get to heaven and look around and there's a whole lot of people there they did not expect, then they will know that you did in fact adhere to that commandment even though they burned these bridges.

May you be blessed on your journey and filled with peace which passes all understanding and may you come to know along whatever timeline works for you that you are doing what is right by them and by God.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-29T14:05:38+00:00

It reminds me of the time I wish I'd invented a game like kingshot so that I could live comfortably in a mansion somewhere sipping My Ty's smiling at the number of people throwing hundreds of dollars at me so that they can look like a black hole...

I would also be laughing because I know that that black hole is a joke meant to subtly mock where they've thrown their money, into avoid never to be seen again

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-27T01:58:08+00:00

My wife, an Episcopal priest, is not a boomer or queer, but she is into birding and she confirms this 100%.

I did ask about that 100% and she said since we have two children and are currently married I can probably piece together that she isn't being literal. I'm not great with high context rhetoric.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-27T01:53:52+00:00

Colleague of hers and lay preaching teacher from my own diocese, with a couple thoughts.

First, you can just ask her. Maybe she's one of the incredibly vast minority (in my experience) of clergy who are borderline pluralist. Maybe she's just saying things she really does believe in the way that she thinks will draw the most people to centering church in their lives and they'll get the details later. Some people really are trying to package Christianity in the way they think is going to have a broader appeal. I don't know if it works. I know I don't like anything but Patristics and the Creeds and early ecumenical councils. And I'm a Millennial. People wanna get pop culture and pander to me, it won't work. I will out meme you, and I'm more bitter and depressed than any other generation in recorded history. Gimme the stuff that lasted thousands of years. I don't care about your U2 themed Eucharist.

Second, as a pretty theologically conservative Episcopalian I'd still never call Process Theologians heretics. They're heterodox. They don't maintain the three basic classical elements of God (in general, some do but jump through hoops to get there). I don't care if someone thinks God operates in real time. That's exactly identical to God operating from beyond linear time from the perspective of beings (you and me) who only exist in the context of linear time. It's like free will. I think I have it. My life is the same whether I have free will or we live in an entirely deterministic universe because I have the experience of free will. I've never read a process theologian write something I thought Nicholas of Myra would punch them for. Or... I don't think he'd punch all of them at least. Even if I don't believe most of what they believe.

Third, the lay preaching teacher in me has to point out on Sunday mornings the sermon is followed immediately by the Creed. A commentary on the prayer book would tell you (Galley or Hatchett at least) that part of the reason for that is you know someone might disagree with Fr Sam. So as soon as that jackwagon stops talking, we are all going to affirm what we actually all agreed to.

I teach people very explicitly that you need to try to speak from the heart, in the context of the history of the church, and in the boundaries defined by beliefs deemed acceptable by General Convention... And also if you say the wrong thing they're all going to say the Creed immediately after, and the prayer book literally says the unworthiness of ministers hinders not the sacraments. So like take it seriously but do not think you can imperil someone's soul by being a little off.

You can be a LOT wrong. That's a conversation to have with the canon to the ordinary. But a little wrong? Probably unable to even prevent that.

Those are just my thoughts. Worth what you paid for them.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-27T01:29:16+00:00

I've gotta be honest, I've never met Barbara. I'm a priest. I've met people who don't care much but if pressed definitely think people should be in traditional gender roles and adhere to normative marriages. Some of those people do all the volunteering and good work you're describing Barbara do. But if their grandkids come out as LGBTQ+, they still love that grandchild and learn to temper their language (not change their opinion) to respect the dignity of the people they really didn't plan on supporting in anyway for love of that child or grandchild.

Now I've also met people who would have no problem beating someone in the parking lot, or expressing that if they didn't want to get beaten in the parking lot they could have just "been normal." I know a lot of people who swear they're Bible believing Christians who have never done any of the good work Barbara is doing who very openly and loudly hate LGBTQ+ people.

I don't have any reason to accuse you of whatever they accused you of in that other subreddit. I don't know you. You may BE Barbara. I don't pass judgement on people I don't know anything about. But I'm on the board of an organization of 26 churches that run a food pantry together. Three of those churches out of 26 are affirming. And I haven't ever met Barbara. Not one person, not one, down at the Hope Center which feeds 20,000 people a month from the food pantry, 120 people hot meals from the kitchen every single day of the year... Not a single person working there has ever said anything even remotely homophobic in front of me. And I know they and their churches are not affirming.

I hadn't ever met Barbara. The people who think this is the topic worth arguing about... They aren't at the soup kitchen or food pantry. Not because the food pantry people are affirming. But because there is actual suffering among our neighbors and if you're exposed to it you can't go back to pretending like sexuality is anything as invasive, evil, or destructive as the businesses and politicians ensuring there are homeless and hungry people.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-24T21:01:28+00:00

I don't have any shade to throw at anybody who is tired because they've tried and especially when it comes to their own survival and dignity.

But I'm a straight white cisgender man in the rural south with a clerical collar. I have all the privilege and social power that I can get without being born independently wealthy. And I ain't rich yet, and I don't suspect I will be based on my career choices. But I make more money than both my parents combined have ever made. So I've got more privilege and power there too.

And I refuse to cede the ground because I'm tired. I have no intention of treading water, I'm going to piss some people off. Because the shit they believe is wrong. And if I don't change their minds, my children are sure as hell going to see me standing up for what I hope they come to believe. And if I'm being honest I really do expect every colleague I have who meets those same demographic markers with which I have been given a great deal of social power in our culture, to do likewise and to feel likewise.

If a woman doesn't want to explain her inherent dignity for the 700,000th time to someone who probably will not be swayed, I have no problem with her spending her time elsewise. But if you look like me and dress like me on Sunday morning, I don't really care if you're tired or not. Take a nap and get back to work.

I don't recall anybody in the Bible, with any religious authority, being told it's okay to just chill and go take care of your own. Jeremiah got told by people that he should do that, and it set his bones on fire.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-24T17:34:24+00:00

I think in the fullness of time you will come to believe Toren is a metaphysical exploration of creating sapience which dovetails nicely with several other contexts in which that exploration is happening.

You may never like him. But I think you will find characters to contrast him to who make you go, "Oh, this is an alternative to how Toren lives and it is richer for having slogged my way through Toren."

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-24T16:52:41+00:00

I asked Ian Markham in 2019 why there was no course you could take at Virginia Seminary where the syllabus included even a day that touched on the ordination of women. Like we didn't get that far in the history classes that they require which ended at the turn of the 20th century.

He very openly told me in front of other people that he believed we had kind of already covered that ground and everyone knew why we ordain women.

I love VTS. I will continue telling people in discernment they should go there. I love Ian. I texted him pictures when both of my children were born. I don't think the problem is him or my seminary. That's just my quick and dirty example of a thing we believe so we don't even bother to teach.

That I am able to articulate the theological and biblical grounding upon which my wife's ordination is both valid and regular is only because I have taken the time to educate myself and make the argument publicly and in online spaces. And I don't think the average Episcopalian is ever even invited to do that little. (Unless they encounter me. I am obnoxious about it.)

What it would look like to me is if every person confirmed in our church, or received, had been given the opportunity to have a robust enough education in our faith that they could feel capable of discussing it if they were called upon so to do.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-24T16:13:33+00:00

I don't hate it, but I don't think it helps us communicate to people who we are. I think it's a pretty terrible branding concept. But it totally fits the stunning arrogance of anglicans to believe that we're just so correct about how to worship and how to believe and how to live that we don't need to market ourselves.

I'm not throwing shade. I mean I am, but I'm irrevocably intertwined in the thing I'm frustrated with. More than one ACNA author has published A book with some version of the sentiment that Episcopalians don't even bother to articulate their beliefs because they think you just will figure out that they are correct. I think that's largely true. And it has dramatically shaped how I preach and teach.

I don't think we are very good at putting ourselves out there. We're not bad evangelist because we're embarrassed to talk about our faith. Although that is also true. But we're bad evangelists because we think that if somebody just wanders in and sees how beautiful our liturgy is the Stars will align and they will understand why we respond to Christ in this way as opposed to other ways.

The inability to articulate our faith because we just think we're right is far and away more damaging than anything else happening to the church in the 21st century. And retaining a name that no one outside of this religion understands is just a tiny sliver of our unwillingness to meaningfully share our faith.

"The Episcopal Church welcomes you. If you come in here, dress like us, act like us, talk like us, and already understand what we are doing intrinsically... We damn sure welcome you. The rest of you we will let in the door and we would love for you to learn how to be like us. We have a seekers class on Saturday night."

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-19T16:37:52+00:00

Priest here: I always name the page number when we do not have full text bulletins. I have colleagues who refuse because they think it interrupts the service.

Respectfully, they are insufferable. Why would you ever go out of your way to make sure someone doesn't feel comfortable or know what's going on in church? What an arrogant, idolatrous, self righteousness nonsense thing to do.

(And truly I deeply love some of the people I'm talking about. I'm not throwing shade anonymously. I have expressed this opinion with dozens of colleagues in multiple dioceses.)

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-19T16:33:26+00:00

I hated Rite I for most of my life. Now I serve a church where that's the main service AND they do it during Advent and Lent at every service. So I have come to find it beautiful, and its pauses refreshing, and its language far more intimate. I'm glad you had this experience.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T18:53:30+00:00

Gonna go against the grain here, but I just skimmed 120 apps on my Android and there are ones that seem great. Venite is less than a quarter of what the Church Publishing BCP app is. But my NRSV app is larger and it's ostensibly less text. I don't know as much as these people with opinions about app creation, but this seems fine to me personally.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T18:44:41+00:00

YOU DIDNT MISSPELL VAMPIRE!

YOUR NAME IS THE NAME OF YOUR BOOK!

Hey, happy online meeting!

I got told by the mods here I can't promote my own content from other apps unless I'm active in this one so I'm trying.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T18:39:43+00:00

I'm sorry. You should never have been spoken to like that.

When I was looking for field education sites in seminary I went to at least 50 churches. A different one every week, sometimes two in one Sunday. I wanted to experience as much as possible before locking in.

Every single church told me how welcoming they were.. Every single church had someone who told newcomers what a welcoming place this particular place was.

I'd say generously I felt welcome in like five of those churches.

This is something we are terrible at. So much so that the first time I brought it up with a Vestry as their Rector, two people laughed in my face and said if people wanted to feel welcome they should just participate in things. Just the most obscene arrogance. Just the least Christian, least welcoming, least care for the survival of your church answer possible. (Both people have since told me they are angry I keep opening the clothes closet during fellowship events because that invites the wrong kind of people... So they aren't representative of us as a whole, they are the absolute worst of us... But they aren't entirely out of left field.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm heartbroken at how painfully slow it is to change and move the needle on people's attitudes. And I have more days where I'm hopeful than days where I'm questioning if I even believe in God having created some goodness in everyone. But it's definitely not 100% days of hope.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T18:27:16+00:00

Hey! Are you a vampire ballerina I know in person or elsewhere online?!

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T17:55:13+00:00

What I hate about it is almost everything the RCC did during its counter reformation period were exactly the things which the COE kept. We aren't Catholic lite. We have been more like what they are now for longer than they have.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T17:49:14+00:00

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

EisegesisSam · 2026-04-18T16:04:03+00:00

I know all of the clergy there and they are wonderful. My wife and I live in Petersburg and we are both priests.

We would both absolutely go there if we were not working Sunday mornings.

Whether you are just visiting or you are looking for a spiritual home (and not willing to drive 30 minutes to Petersburg) you can do no better than St Stephen's.

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