Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

  • a Should’ve Asked Question Speaking to people much older than myself about baptism, I hear some pretty interesting things. First among them is how their children were baptized. Many of the people I’ve met in ministry have an experience of gathering with family on a Saturday for the baptism of their children. This practice is…

  • Word obsessed

    Lately, though, words have begun to mean even more to me. Not simply because I write, teach, and preach as a priest or as a sentry posted to defend orthodoxy from the heretics. [That’s all nonsense to me, by the way.] But because our faith keeps coming back to words. Simply words. Having words. Words…

  • Our Pentecost

      While we wait for Superman and our friends build bomb shelters a low thunder rumbles, proving our certainty justified. The forecast calls for rain: 100%. The cloud with the lightening bolt flying out comically warns us: an image so innocent and besides, we’ve been through storms. We know what to expect. We wait. The only…

  • Innocence

    Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide The fact that Kalief Browder was innocent is a tragedy. The fact that his mother found his lifeless body is a tragedy. The fact that he was abused in prison by guards and prisoners alike is a tragedy. The fact that he…

  • I love you, Church, but we’ve got a problem. Sometimes it seems like you are addicted to tyrants and despots. Like those Hebrews asking for a king. Or else you are addicted to ineffectual and passive leadership. The kind easily manipulated by the whims of the powerful or chided in parking lots. You make it…

  • The sort of liberation Jesus offers comes with a helping of crazy. Proper 5B  |  Mark 3:20-35, 1 Samuel 8:4-20 Mistaking GOD for a demon This morning we truly begin the season after Pentecost. Unlike the other seasons of Advent, Christmas, the season after the Epiphany, Lent, and Easter, this season does not have an…