Our Schedule of Services:

Here is our schedule:

more information may be found by downloading the bulletin.

Sunday, June 30

8:30 AM Service of Holy Eucharist

Sunday 8:30 Bulletin

10:30 AM Service of Holy Eucharist

Sunday 10:30 Bulletin

Link For Facebook

Pride Singers Opportunity!

If you would like to help sing in the Trinity Cathedral Pride Mass on Wednesday, July 10th, you can arrive there at 5:30 for a warm-up and rehearsal -- all singers welcome; the service itself is at 7:00 pm!

As Christians, we believe that all persons are made in God's image. So we celebrate the strides made in achieving LGBTQ+ human rights and push back against unjust laws and discrimination that continues today. This June, consider learning about milestones in the Gay Rights Movement like the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. You may wish to join in Pride celebrations across the state, or get involved in a LGBTQ+ resource organization like OutNebraska. DioNeb will have a presence at Omaha Heartland Pride on *July 13, learn more here. 

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Reflection for Thursday, June 27, 2024

PB & J?

A while back, I really wanted to photoshop a picture of the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church next to Jesus so that I could caption it “PB&J, anyone?” It was over a decade back, since the presiding bishop in question was the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori. We’re now reaching the conclusion of the term of the Most Reverend Michael B Curry, and the presiding bishops’ terms are 9 years.

Yesterday, we received the news that the bishops of the Episcopal Church have elected the Right Reverend Sean Rowe as presiding-bishop-elect. Bishop Rowe will be installed to the office officially in November, if history’s a guide. (As a bit of “Episcopalese” – the title “right reverend” is given to a bishop, while “most reverend” is given to our presiding bishop!)

Our Nebraska diocese has been tuned in to a greater-than-usual degree because our own bishop, the Right Reverend Scott Barker, was one of the nominated bishops. Perhaps of some interest, he finished second in the voting … but the margin was 89 votes to Bishop Rowe, and 24 to Bishop Barker! I wrote him a note saying that I suspect there’s a fair amount of relief in Nebraska that he silver medaled … and probably a decent amount of indignation that it was by such a margin!

In earnest, I haven’t known how to feel about this election. In the first place, we’re followers of Jesus, not any presiding bishop. I’m grateful when a presiding bishop inspires us or gives us great resources (as Bishop Curry certainly has over these past nine years – these are big shoes to fill!) … but our ministry as a church comes from loving God, loving neighbor. The actual work of executive figures always has an outsized share of tedious administration, and when working at the scale of our international church, I’m sure there’s plenty of that. A senior priest told me early in my ministry, “Everyone thinks they want to call a great preacher, but when they call one with no administrative skills, they get a load of much harder problems to solve.” It’s a comment that’s stayed with me.

I suppose that is to say that I haven’t really been sure WHAT I’ve thought the Episcopal Church has needed in a presiding bishop. Bishop Curry’s energy and charisma has been a gift (many of us delighted in the “A Case for Love” documentary highlighting his vision this past year). And he’s certainly put authority and resources behind programming such as the Sacred Ground curriculum (which over 10% of our Diocese of Nebraska has completed, including several dozen people here at St A’s – another opportunity coming this Fall, so stay tuned!). He’s also had to steer the executive offices through a number of institutional shake-ups, which I admit I haven’t taken the time to fully understand … tedious administration, remember?

Let me first say that a good part of my heart wanted Bishop Barker’s leadership. Here in Nebraska, he’s prioritized sending resources to the parishes, particularly by reducing parish giving to the diocese in the broader Nebraska budget. Something like 8 of the 10 budget cycles I’ve been here for have seen a reduced asking formula, leaving more resources in our local parishes. Bishop Barker has also been present in our churches and ministries. He visits each every year, and truly knows the people and stories of our communities. And I know of literally no other bishop who is present at a full week of youth summer camp each year – I asked him last year, as he and Canon Easton were helping me set up chairs for the talent show, how many of his colleagues he thought did work like this … I’ll guard the privacy of his answer, which came with a good-natured laugh, but it was a low number! Bishop Barker has also been a faithful pastor to the clergy … a role that formally goes to bishops, though often we clergy don’t take it seriously. I’ve turned to Bishop Barker a number of serious times in my own first decade in Nebraska, and he’s met me with care, encouragement, and assistance when needed. He’s had a great finger on the pulse of what our annual clergy gatherings have needed as well, including workshops on celebrating our gifts, navigating challenges, and addressing spiritual and emotional burnout.

All of which is to say, I think Bishop Barker would have brought a lot to the office of presiding bishop. I believe he would have been a faithful pastor and a serious preacher in the face of the wilderness we now navigate. I believe he would have brought the model of empowering local ministry, and the gift of his presence and attention, to the work. I believe he would have tended well the hearts and souls of his fellow bishops. And I believe he would have handled the “tedious administration” with diligence.

It's a bit of a leap of faith for me, then, to cast my hopes – even tempered by the awareness that the presiding bishop isn’t the whole church; simply one leader within it – on someone UNKNOWN to me. But I’ve spent the past few months with a bit of attention on these nominees, and a bit more of the past week or two tuning in to their comments.

Let me tell you what makes my leap of faith easier.

First of all, Bishop Rowe opened at least one set of his comments with a quote that he noted is “often attributed to the Christian activist, Dorothy Day.” The quote? “Everybody wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes.” He commented that, “In today’s Episcopal Church, we have some of that going on.” I had to laugh – getting the literal dishes done is something WE occasionally need more helping hands with here at St A's (I did them myself this morning, and reflected that I’ve done dishes at literally every church I’ve been employed in, and many that I’ve simply been visiting for an event!). Here’s a bit more of his comments from that short video:

“Our vision of God's reign and our commitment to become beloved community are strong, but the last half century our institutional structures haven't been working well enough to get us there. In the Episcopal Church today our desire to follow Jesus is stronger than our capacity for building and sustaining ministry. Now we are at an inflection point. We look around and see a world filled with need and injustice and loneliness, and we know that the Episcopal Church must respond by dedicating all of our gifts and skills to being the risen body of Christ in the world. We must make significant changes so that our structures, budgets, and governance bodies are focused on realizing God's mission in ALL our congregations and communities. In short, we've got a lot of dishes to do.” (Rowe, GC81 forum)

His manner is a bit of a cross between plain-spoken and abstract, but much of what I’ve valued about Bishop Barker’s leadership is here: a reminder that we need to roll up our sleeves and do the work, a real attention to painful realities (his noting of “loneliness” feels really true to me about life today), and a commitment to change structures to help our communities.

In other places, Bishop Rowe commented that the presiding bishop isn’t everything, but is a part of things – my own first observation about the office, too! He offered that the role’s work is to send resources where they’re needed. He also trusted experts – one question he responded to asked about mental health needs for clergy, and he responded by first saying we should release the taboo around it and noting that he himself had benefited from care over his life, and second by saying he’s not an expert in the area, but that he’d want to make space for the experts to do their job and make themselves available to the church as we need them. Good answer.

He also fielded a question about money and resources. What Bishop Rowe had to say about that was that there are plenty of resources in the Episcopal Church; what we need is the will to use them for what we say we care about. He talked about racial reconciliation and creation care – two of the mission priorities that Bishop Curry has held over the past year, and invited us to think seriously about what it would mean if we decided to fund them. This matched much of what I’ve seen work here in Nebraska: a choice to put our money where our mouth is, to empower the work of people who show up with sleeves rolled up, and a focus on our local congregations and communities.

I’ll note one other thing – Bishop Rowe was the youngest candidate, at 49 years old. He was also one of the youngest people consecrated a bishop – he’s got 17 years of experience … which makes for some math that invites some reflection on our expectations! We’ll have to see what comes of those numbers going forward.

I’m left with a good share of hope. Not because we don’t know what we’re doing without a presiding bishop … but because our bishops throughout the church seem to have been paying enough attention to our churches that they’ve elected someone who sees what we see in the everyday.



What comes next? Well, WE continue on (possibly doing a few more dishes as we go). And Bishop Barker returns to Nebraska, probably with a healthy share of relief that he has clarity about what his next season of work in the church will bring, and with our good cheer welcoming him. And we’ll keep an eye on Bishop Rowe, and the ways he invites us to show up with a dish towel for Jesus.