The Bishop’s Blog

Letter to the Clergy from Bishop Minns

“For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”(Luke 22:27)

It may surprise you to know that I don’t like the British historical television series Downton Abbey, and to the chagrin of my family I won’t even watch it with them. It’s not that I don’t admire the gifted writing of Julian Fellowes, or the beautiful sets and the costumes that adorn the talented actors.

Letter to the Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(1 John 1:8,9)

Letter to the Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Walking through Penn Station in mid-town Manhattan is not an experience for the faint-hearted. It is ugly, over-crowded, and confusing, and it is a far cry from the grand train station of an earlier era that it has replaced.

Letter to the Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Letter to the Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross.Matthew 27:31,32

One of the most celebrated journeys in all history is the Via Dolorosa (The Way of Suffering or Sorrows). It is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem, believed to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion.

Letter to Clergy from Interim Bishop

Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”(Luke 6:38)

I can still remember the time when a man from the “Every Member Canvass” team of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Darien, came to our door and said that he had come to talk about stewardship and our financial giving to the church.

‘If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.’(1 John 4:20)

When we first moved to the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1988, where I was to serve as Rector of All Angels Church, I was excited by the energy and diversity of the people of that part of the city but also somewhat intimidated by the large number of homeless people who were ever present on the streets and subways.

Letter to Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop*, he desireth a good work.A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) (1 Timothy 3:1-5,King James Versi

Letter to Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

Growing up in the industrial Midlands of England, I was unaware of discrimination due to race. I was, however, quite conscious of ever-present discrimination due to regional, educational, and class differences that marked much of British society. But racial prejudice was simply not something that I encountered.

Letter to Clergy from Interim Bishop Minns

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful, were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church.