The Catechetic Converter

Years ago, I had pink hair as part of a ploy to get the youth of my parish to invite friends to church. See, I would let the one who brought the most visitors to church decide what color my hair would be on our summer mission trip. Pink won. The young woman who decided that pink would be my color eventually became an artist and drew the above photo of me as part of a gift when I was called away from that church. She included the line “it’s all good, I’m a priest” (which I think is something I said on the trip).

As a priest, there’s a sense that I’m supposed to have more answers than the rest of you. That, by virtue of my vocation, I’m closer to God and, therefore, the Truth. The reality is that people like me wind up following a call to ordained ministry as the result of chasing questions that wind up becoming other questions. If we’re any closer to Truth it’s only by way of asking deeper questions. That’s what this blog is about.

I’m a priest in the Episcopal Church. I live in Hawai’i, on the island of O’ahu, serving a congregation in downtown Honolulu. Before all of that I was a Southern Baptist growing up in Orlando, then an Evangelical in university in West Palm Beach, then an Episcopal seminarian in Alexandria, Virginia, then back to West Palm in my first parish, followed by six years served as both rector and school chaplain in Boca Raton. My faith has been built and broken down a number of times, refined and challenged, growing me ever closer to the Lord Jesus. Along the way my beliefs have evolved and I wanted to develop a place to share that evolution, in the hope that it might help you come closer to the Truth.

I no longer have pink hair. But in my priesthood I do continue to believe that it’s all good. And I hope you’ll find it to be so as well.

I’m calling this blog The Catechetic Converter not only as a pun, but as a reflection of my sense of my own Christianity: I believe in evangelism (which involves conversion) but in a way that embraces the ancient and Apostolic faith (which means it involves “catechesis”). So, I see myself as one who aims to convert, but from a cathechetical place.

Enjoy. Oh, and feel free to Discuss...

The Rev. Charles Browning II is the rector of Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church in Honolulu, Hawai’i. He is a husband, father, surfer, and frequent over-thinker. Follow him on Mastodon and Pixelfed.