The Curate

09/09/2026

International Buy Your Priest a B**r Day
September 9

(Gift cards, Deliveries, Rain Checks accepted) 🍻🧙‍♂️

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Buy-A-Priest-A-B**r_Day

09/03/2026

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

“My mind is sundered and torn to pieces by the many and serious things I have to think about.

When I try to concentrate and gather all my intellectual resources for preaching, how can I do justice to the sacred ministry of the word?

I am often compelled by the nature of my position to associate with men of the world and sometimes I relax the discipline of my speech.

If I preserved the rigorously inflexible mode of utterance that my conscience dictates, I know that the weaker sort of men would recoil from me and that I could never attract them to the goal I desire for them. So I must frequently listen patiently to their aimless chatter.

Because I am weak myself I am drawn gradually into idle talk and I find myself saying the kind of thing that I didn't even care to listen to before. I enjoy lying back where I once was loath to stumble.

Who am I — what kind of watchman am I? I do not stand on the pinnacle of achievement, I languish rather in the depths of my weakness. And yet the creator and redeemer of mankind can give me, unworthy though I be, the grace to see life whole and power to speak effectively of it. It is for love of him that I do not spare myself in preaching him. “

— Gregory the Great

A reading for Sept 3 in “From the Fathers to the Churches” by Brother Kenneth

09/01/2026

ON FUNDRAISING

Well, it's that time of the year again: fundraising.

'Will priest for food', 'Any crumbs from the table accepted', 'Whatever you can spare' -- that sort of (humiliating) thing.

Alas, for the foreseeable future, all my friends and acquaintances will assume that all my calls, texts, and emails will involve some sort of asking, begging, and crying for support.

I make no promises or guarantees, except this: I strive to keep such things to a minimum.

On a more serious note, my wife and I have skin in the game. We're not asking anyone to do anything that we are not doing ourselves.

In the spirit of St Paul, "We will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. But if we love more, are we loved less?"

We gladly serve and sacrifice for the sake of the Cross and the Church. We have done so for 30+ years. The Lord has always provided what we need, even more than we need, often before we ask. We trust he will do so again.

Any and all ministry partners are welcome. Thank you in advance for your prayers, pledges, and presence in my life and ministry.

Follow the link to learn more and to share in this work.

Meet our newest Chruch Planting Curate at St. Benedict's Anglican Church in Rockwall, Texas.

08/31/2026

REPENT AND PARISH

I just spent the last 9 days covering a parish for a vacationing priest. Holy Cross Anglican Church is an REC parish, rooted and grounded in the gospel and Alpine, Texas.

Here I share a few thoughts on that lovely experience:

REPENT AND PARISH I just spent the last 9 days covering a parish for a vacationing priest. Holy Cross Anglican Church is an REC parish, rooted and grounded in the gospel and Alpine, Texas. As a Skeetside suburbanite who drives 40 minutes (on avg) to St Benedict’s Anglican in Rockwall, Texas — or...

08/31/2026

The Law can “rubber-neck” but can it rescue or redeem?

The parable teaches that the Law can merely come near to us in order to assess our situation or analyze our condition. But it must walk around us or pass by us because it cannot rescue us, redeem us, or restore us. Only the Gospel can do that. By that I mean Jesus Christ — God in the flesh — the...

08/29/2026

Y'all don't even know what you're missing...but there's a way to find out. Click and Follow and Subscribe. Whether $8 per month or $80 per year this helps support my ministry: coffee, conversation, & care of souls.

Christian, Husband, Dad, Priest, Friend of Monks and Other Strangers in the world. + AI free zone. +

08/25/2026

A gift is coming…

LEAVING RUIN It’s been 24 years since I first read this beautiful novel. The story moved and shook me in profound ways. Likely because I related to the Rev. Cyrus Manning so much pastorally. Even more likely because I felt myself “leaving ruin” existentially and spiritually. In some ways this ...

08/25/2026

Lord, help our sons and other young men in all the ways.

COMMENTARY By Crier in the Wildernesswww.virtueonline.orgApril 28, 2026 If you’re a Baby Boomer and a socially-conservative Christian, and you don’t understand young men nowadays, I’m writing for you. I also have something to ask of you at the end of this essay. It recently came to my attentio...

08/23/2026

A literal shot in the dark
and a few personal impressions.

Arrived in Alpine this evening. Got settled. Drove over to Marfa Lights Viewing Area. Smoking a cigar in the moonlight under the Big Dipper in a crisp breeze. The immensity of this star-filled sky leaves me speechless. Psalm 8 comes to mind. And a Rich Mullens lyric: // Sometimes I think of Abraham....

08/17/2026

Pop-Protestantism?!

So Insightful! Reading this took me on a walk down memory lane from Stone-Campbell CoC days to now. It felt very “been there, done that”. 🥹

https://rfogue.substack.com/p/digging-into-pop-protestantism

We Are All Non-Denominational Now Part Three