The Book of Common Prayer tells us that the mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. That is the reason we exist, and we gather each week for comfort and the strength God gives us for that mission. What undergirds our mission is our trust in resurrection, our trust … Read More
The Floods and this Church’s Response
The reports of large-scale flooding continue to dominate the headlines. We do not yet know what will be the extent of damage, but for a number of people it is already catastrophic, and for others it soon will be. I want to encourage each of our churches to be ready to help people who might be in need. Please keep … Read More
Bishop Benfield on the Recent Tornadoes and bin Laden’s Death
Moral fiber is not a phrase that you will find in the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer. But it is a phrase that describes part of the make-up of each of us; it is probably fair to say that each of us has a slightly different moral fiber depending on such things as how we were raised, the … Read More
How the Violence of the Tornadoes Brought Churches in the South Together
Church bells call people to prepare for worship. The month of April has seen tornado sirens throughout the South call people of faith to pray for deliverance from severe storms and to ask God and one another how they might assist the storms’ victims. The month’s storms culminated in the devastation that focused on northern Alabama Wednesday evening. Tornadoes and … Read More
Bishop Benfield’s Easter Sermon
[Listen to the audio.] Some places are just down right scary: dark alleys and empty parking garages immediately come to mind. In any TV drama, if a person is walking down an alley or through an empty garage, there is going to be trouble. Let’s add another such place: churches at night. That’s right: churches at night. As nice as … Read More
Help Rebuild the Episcopal Church in Haiti, Brick by Brick
When the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010, it effectively leveled the most populous diocese of The Episcopal Church. Seventy percent of church buildings were considered a total loss. Diocesan-run schools, clinics and hospitals that served over 100,000 Episcopalians, as well as countless community members, were wiped out in thirty-five seconds . . . Read more here. To purchase bricks to … Read More
Bishop Benfield’s Sermon from the Opening Service at the 139th Convention of the Diocese of Arkansas, Friday, March 11, 2011
When the committee assembled to decide which scripture lessons we would read in church at public worship, the person bringing the Bible into the room must have had a loose-leaf version in a three-ring binder and dropped it, and subsequently lost all the Old Testament except Isaiah. The evidence for this accident is that week after week in the lectionary … Read More