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Rian Adams
Choose A Donkey Over A Horse: Palm Sunday Sermon The Rev. Rian Adams, St. Matthews Episcopal Church For over a decade I’ve preached from the Passion narrative on Palm Sunday. This year I’m going to follow my personality and deviate from the norm. Today I’m preaching from the Palm Sunday Gospel reading. Why? Palm Sunday tells a story that prepares us to read the passion narrative. It prepares us to learn the lessons Jesus taught the disciples using a donkey. He used an donkey to show them the heart of the divine. My Palm Sunday sermon…
My cover of Pirate Song by Kenny Chesney. I’ve appreciated this song since it released on Kenny’s latest album, Songs for the Saints…
Here’s my rendition of Pike County Breakdown played on my walnut Gibson style 2 conversion banjo. The banjo is an early 1930s one-piece flange banjo with a Huber HR-30 tone ring…
Allow me a confession: I love Gibson prewar banjos! I’ve caught a lot of flack over the years for being an amateur banjo player because people tend to assume I don’t have teeth. The complex was so bad that after graduate school I kept my “hobby” a secret so I could appear “intellectual.” (Hey, we all have our moments.) Here’s me on an early 1930s prewar Gibson walnut style 2. There’s more information below the video. I feel lucky sometimes, (well each day to be alive but…
Beyond the Collar: Fostering Genuine Connection in Christian Ministry In the vocation of Christian ministry, one encounters a profound and often paradoxical challenge: the mandate to serve authentically within a context where unspoken expectations can feel as binding as any ecclesiastical decree. With reverence and hope, parishioners frequently imagine their clergy as epitomes of moral clarity, unwavering wisdom, and spiritual serenity. Such elevated views, while rooted in respect, inadvertently prompt clergy to assume a “mask”—a crafted persona that aligns with these idealized expectations yet restricts the freedom of authentic self-expression. Drawing from the depths of Anglican theology…
Young Spirituality I love old things, especially old typewriters because they seem to have a certain “soul” that my Mac’s keyboard does not hold. I type a lot of my poetry on my typewriter from the early 1960s. This poem, young spirituality, is one of those. This poem came to me in an instant while driving in Asheville North Carolina. I noticed a group of people holding signs and screaming with a megaphone on the evils of abortion and “liberalism.” Half a mile down the street was another group, this time marching in…