Official Diocesan Blog

"One of the central messages of the book of Revelation—spoken to a people who were struggling with persecution, war, famine, and pestilence—is that there are interludes throughout where we see the worship of the saints and the angels in heaven. There is a consistent picture that in spite of all the chaos that the world seems to be devolving into, we see the worship of God in heaven. There is a sense in which it is a reminder to us that God remains on his throne and sovereign—that God will gather all things up unto himself.

Dear friends,

It is with heavy hearts that we watch the situation unfolding in Israel. The incursion of Hamas into Gaza, killing more than 1500 people and injuring many more, is a grievous and shocking event, provoking a declaration of war by Israel. I write to you today to encourage your continual prayer over the conflict, that the blood of Jesus would atone, heal, and bring peace to that region.

"When we are together, we see something larger—we see the reality of God in our midst. It is fundamentally an encouraging experience to be together. The church will eternally, always be together in glory with the Lord." 

"We as Pittsburgh Anglicans (or Nashville Anglicans, or wherever you are) have Christian foreign perspectives that are quite different from the culture around us. What we need to do to become good missionaries is to develop the kind of curiosity that missionaries have for the culture they're going to.... Understanding others who are not of our own mindset helps us to understand how the gospel intersects with that reality. Jesus is indeed the hope of the nations. Jesus is the answer to everybody's deepest longings. But sometimes we don't understand what those longings are.

Join us in welcoming two new clergy to the Diocese! The Rev. Paul Calvin and the Rev. Dn. Dawn Lundgren, who both serve at Church of the Redeemer in Roseville, MN, officially dimissoried into the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh on September 15, 2023. Church of the Redeemer is seeking to join our diocese in November.

Since you loved our 39 Questions with Bishop Alex, we thought we'd do it again! Get to know the Rev. Canon Dr. Bill Henry, who has been with us since June, and get a sneak peek inside his fun, eclectic office. Canon Bill tells us everything from what exactly a "canon to the ordinary" does to "What's up with all the bobbleheads?" 

Do you have a question for Canon Bill? Post it below!

"Often in those contexts where we step out of the ordinary, what we're doing every day, we have an opportunity for God to break into our busyness and hyper focus and for us to hear God afresh." 

As we prepare for the upcoming diocesan clergy retreat, Bishop Alex reflects on the importance of intentionally taking time away and creating space for the Holy Spirit to lead us in reassessing our path and priorities.

"As we walk into Labor Day, it is important to remember that work is part of who we are. There is something fundamentally dignifying about work. There is something about the image of God in work, which also suggests to us that whatever our work is, we should do it well, because working well is part of our witness.

Bishop Alex shares his thoughts on how our labor (and our rest!) is a reflection of God's work, and encourages us to view our work as a gift, attached to our identity in bearing the image of God.

"How do we make decisions about what we should be doing as a congregation? At the heart of it, we really need to know what we're about. What is our congregational mission? What are we here to do? Unless we have a good sense of that, there are a million good ideas. And the hardest decisions, of course, are not between this good thing and this bad thing, but between this good thing and this good thing." 

"There's a great line at the end of the last battle in C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, where Aslan sees all the people assembled and says, 'You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.' That is something that we as Christians should stop to think about—are we actually as happy as God means us to be?" 

In this week's message, Bishop Alex urges us to remember that God means for us to find both struggle and joy in this life.