2021 Easter Speaker Series

St. Michael’s presents our 2021 virtual Easter Speaker Series called The Hope of Resurrection. This series features four Episcopalian clergy who each offer a brief video message rooted in the hope and meaning of Jesus’s resurrection and grounded in the Christian Gospel. Look for a new video to be posted below each Sunday between April 25 and May 16. Each following Tuesday afternoon, Fr. John Newton, SMEC rector, will welcome that Sunday’s guest speaker to his podcast, Calm Words for Anxious Hearts, to “give an account for the hope that is in them” (1 Pet 3:15). The videos and podcasts will be available here and also sent via email to those on our mailing list. You can subscribe to the St. Michael’s e-news on our home page or by emailing Christine Havens, Communications Director, at chavens@st-michaels.org.

This Year’s Speakers

The Rev. Mark Andrew Jefferson, PhD
Assistant Professor of Homiletics
Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), Alexandria, Virginia
Dr. Jefferson is an internationally respected preacher and teacher of preachers. He was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College and has preached at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC among other places. Dr. Jefferson engages popular culture through a variety of media; his blog posts have been featured on Urban Cusp and The Root. A native of Hampton, Virginia, he is the quarterback for the Seminary’s flag football team, the Fighting Friars.

The Rev. Beth Fain
Missioner for Congregational Vitality
The Episcopal Diocese of Texas, Houston, Texas
Beth works with the laity and clergy of the diocese to create systems that increase congregational vitality including developing peer learning cohorts and designing and delivering innovative ways of educating about vital practices.  She also consults with, and coaches, congregations, communities, and clergy and lay leaders as referred by Canon Saylors.

The Rev. Patrick Hall
Rector
Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Houston, Texas
Patrick is a native Houstonian who loves this concrete mosquito palace of a city with great fervency. Before becoming rector of Epiphany Church in 2019, he served as the Episcopal chaplain to Rice University for seven years. His passions include regular prayer for the Houston Astros and Texas Longhorns, buying college students foodstuffs with church money, saying true things in sermons and writing idiosyncratic essays that no one has yet published.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Kinney
Assisting Priest
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Austin, TX
Fr. Steve is an old school Austinite who has been involved in the intersection between the city’s creative community and the Episcopal Church for many years. He was the founder and executive director of The Front Porch, which “cultivated community one conversation at at a time,” with guests such as Austin politician Kirk Watson, Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, and Rabbi Neil Blumofe, host of Views & Brews at the Cactus Cafe. For the last several years, he coordinated the innovative, ecumenical Easter Vigil celebrated on Holy Saturday evenings in downtown Austin.