James Derkits

I was in college when a priest I knew started experimenting with this new technology called electronic mail in his ministry. He worked at Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, and he started sending out what he called the "Digital Cathedral" email with a sermon and church announcements. It was cutting edge stuff.  I knew Fr. Paul from youth retreats I attended and he was a hip, creative priest. It was not surprising that he adopted email as a ministry resource so early. Through that email I felt connected to him and other friends I knew through our Episcopal youth community, even though I lived away from them. It was in one of those emails that I learned one of my first Greek words: Koinonia.  Koinonia was what Fr. Paul called his High School youth group. They would get together and watch 90210 together (that was a popular television show, from the days when one had to watch such things at scheduled times.) After they watched the show, they would talk about the issues the charact...

The following is an edited sermon preached at the closing Eucharist at Mustang Island Family Camp and then at Trinity by the Sea, Sunday, August 14. The Reading was Luke 12: 49-56 Build one another up! Bishop David Reed asked to reflect on how we build each other up---he’s obviously a camp kid turned counselor turned staff turned director. So, maybe not everyone who starts as a camper becomes a priest or a bishop, but it does raise up loving leaders for our church and for the world. Camp makes leaders who think about building one another up because that is what camp does in so many ways. Laura, Eli, and I spent the weekend at Mustang Island Family camp for our eighth year, and the new construction is beautiful, and will work well for retreat groups. The chapel has just been completed except for the furniture…but we stood around a surf board altar to celebrate Eucharist in that beautiful space. There are more camps than Mustang Island, Camp Capers, Duncan Park, and Camp Allen. I’ve part...