Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Episcopal Church

  • My favorite part of exploring ideas is seeing how ideas affect other people. The other day I shared an article suggesting that instead of tinkering with Daylight Savings Time or opting out of it, what if we adopted it all year round? It is not as novel a concept as one would think and has far…

  • Confession

    “We don’t do confession.” I remember the conversations I used to have as a child about church. And it was usually how we do things differently or what is an E-piss-co-palian? Which always was accompanied with laughter. This childhood was in Alpena, a small city in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Alpena was largely Polish, then;…

  • In many of the Episcopal Churches of which I’ve been a part, there is a regular tradition of wearing red on Pentecost. Red, of course is the liturgical color of the day, but it also matches the fire images that accompany the day. Opportunities to red the place up and evoke the tongues of fire…

  • I went to work for Barnes & Noble when I started grad school. The store was in Downtown Crossing in Boston, across from Filene’s Basement. It closed some years ago. Last I heard, the doors were locked and the space has been unused for several years. I worked for Barnes & Noble for several years…

  • I’m tired of the blame. The health and vitality of the The Episcopal Church and the Mainline generally is an oversimplified story of the 20th Century, too easily shouldered on the leadership of the 21st. It’s always the politics or the practice or the beliefs or the Bible or the liturgy or anything else ad nauseam, but…

  • Stewardship in the Episcopal Church is really pretty messed up. One of our favorite things we say about Stewardship is that it isn’t only about money. It is about giving in many ways, especially giving of our time, our talent, and our treasure. It’s a catchy phrase. There’s alliteration, which is always fun. And the…