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A Journey to Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging
Episode 9 • 7th August 2023 • Listening for Clues • On the Journey with Jon & Lauren
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A Journey to Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging

We are honored to have the Rev. Dr. Brandt Montgomery speak with us about his call to ministry and experiences as a school chaplain, and his key role in bringing to life a program that promotes diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging at Saint James School, an Episcopal boarding school in western Maryland.

Highlights:

[00:00:00] INTRO 

[00:01:41] Being the Chaplain at St. James School 

[00:04:16] Relationships 

[00:06:10] Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging 

[00:11:08] Surprises Along the Way 

[00:15:51] Call to Priesthood 

[00:20:43] Being a Priest Who Happens to be Black 

[00:23:23] Learning from History 

[00:24:36] Learn More or Contact Brandt 

[00:25:03] St.Mark's, Lappans 

[00:26:28] Thanks

The Rev. Dr. Brandt Montgomery is the Chaplain of Saint James School in Hagerstown, Maryland, having previously served at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Lafayette, Louisiana as Chaplain of Ascension Episcopal School from 2014-2017, then as Associate Rector and All-School Chaplain from 2017-2019. From 2012-2014, Fr. Montgomery was the Curate at Canterbury Episcopal Chapel and Student Center at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Fr. Montgomery’s scholarly interests lie in the areas of American religious history, Episcopal Church history, the Oxford Movement and Anglo-Catholicism, the Civil Rights Movement, and practical theology.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Listening for Clues is pleased to present our new series, "Good News!" featuring weekly conversations with people who are making a difference, large or small. We want everyone to know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how. So, our listeners and viewers can experience the good news and go out and make a difference themselves.

Listening for Clues invites you into conversations that discover clues, rather than solutions to life’s problems. Join the journey with Jon Shematek and Lauren Welch, Episcopal deacons, as we explore whatever lies ahead. Check our website Listening for Clues.

© 2023 Listening for Clues

Transcripts

Jon:

/Welcome to Good News being brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren:

We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek Deacons in the

Lauren:

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

Jon:

We sure are.

Jon:

And today we are bringing you some good news from our

Jon:

special guest, the Reverend Dr.

Jon:

Brandt Montgomery, who's the chaplain of Saint James School and

Jon:

the Vicar at Saint Mark's Lappans.

Jon:

Brandt has previously served at the Episcopal Church of the

Jon:

Ascension in Lafayette, Louisiana as Chaplain of Ascension Episcopal

Jon:

School from 2014 to 2017.

Jon:

And then as associate Rector and all school chaplain from 2017 to 2019,

Jon:

from 2012 to 2014, Father Montgomery was the curate at Canterbury Episcopal

Jon:

Chapel and Student Center at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Jon:

Father Montgomery's scholarly interests lie in the areas of American religious

Jon:

history, Episcopal church history.

Jon:

The Oxford movement and Anglo Catholicism, the Civil Rights

Jon:

movement and practical theology.

Jon:

Wow.

Jon:

That's quite a breadth of academic interests, Brandt., welcome.

Jon:

We're so glad to have you today.

Brandt:

Thank you.

Brandt:

I'm very happy to be here and looking forward to this conversation,

Brandt:

and thank you for having me on.

Lauren:

We're really looking forward to our conversation together.

Lauren:

Brandt, tell us about your work as chaplain at Saint James School.

Brandt:

Well being the chaplain of Saint James School, I would say is

Brandt:

one of the greatest jobs that I have.

Brandt:

The other greatest job I would say now as being vicar of Saint Mark's Lappans.

Brandt:

But being chaplain at Saint James is a very interesting Experience

Brandt:

in that Saint James School, we are a very unique boarding school.

Brandt:

We were established here in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Brandt:

We've been on the same plot of land since 1842.

Brandt:

And we were established primarily to help advance the principles

Brandt:

of the Oxford movement.

Brandt:

Among young children.

Brandt:

And so our chapel routine every day pretty much keeps to that same model

Brandt:

that our original founders kept.

Brandt:

So we begin Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Brandt:

with 8:00 AM chapel every day.

Brandt:

All the students, all the faculty, all the administration.

Brandt:

We are there together in the school chapel.

Brandt:

And it's a wonderful experience to be able to be part of that.

Brandt:

And in addition to all of my chapel duties, helping the headmaster

Brandt:

lead those I teach American history here at Saint James.

Brandt:

I teach African American history as well, a class which I started here.

Brandt:

At the school just this year it was in its first run and it was very successful.

Brandt:

So we're gonna do it again next year.

Brandt:

And I taught a little bit of modern European history for about a month

Brandt:

toward the end of the school year.

Brandt:

We had a faculty member who retired early.

Brandt:

So they asked me to take one of his sections for the last month.

Brandt:

And and I did okay with it.

Brandt:

And I also am in charge of the service learning program here.

Brandt:

So we have a service learning requirement for.

Brandt:

All of our students to graduate.

Brandt:

So it's 15 hours for every year that they are enrolled here at Saint James.

Brandt:

And so for most students here at Saint James, that is 60 because we have eighth

Brandt:

through 12th graders, or second through sixth formers, as we would say here.

Brandt:

They have to, in a way go through me in order to be sure that they

Brandt:

graduate cuz I oversee all those hours, make sure that they're done.

Brandt:

So I have a lot of responsibilities here.

Brandt:

I wear a lot of hats.

Brandt:

And, and another thing that I do is that I co-chair with our associate head and

Brandt:

academic dean our faculty Diversity, Equity inclusion and Belonging committee.

Brandt:

And we've started a lot of good conversations among our student

Brandt:

body about several different.

Brandt:

Aspects of community life that we would like for them to address

Brandt:

and to begin to think about in a very cool, calm and collected way.

Brandt:

How can we have respectful conversation among each other?

Brandt:

And so it's been very good joy to be able to help lead in those initiatives here.

Brandt:

So but I would say, Just having the opportunity, most importantly to

Brandt:

be a priest in a boarding school aspect where the students, they

Brandt:

live here, they live in community.

Brandt:

Being able to have those relationships with them outside of the classroom

Brandt:

like overseeing dorm duty one night a week having seated meals with

Brandt:

them in the refactory going to their athletic games and supporting them,

Brandt:

having my advisees over one night a week for like pizza that I fix, or

Brandt:

apple pie or something like that, and just, just hanging out with them.

Brandt:

That is where the real impact lies.

Brandt:

And so I feel myself very blessed to be able to be a priest

Brandt:

in this kind of environment.

Jon:

Oh, that, that is great.

Jon:

I was listening to you at the beginning hearing about your academic

Jon:

credentials and the courses that you're teaching at Saint James School.

Jon:

As you talked about that a bit more, I was really beginning to

Jon:

realize the relationships that you form with, I'm assuming the other

Jon:

faculty as well as the students?

Brandt:

Yes.

Brandt:

We, we really are, we really are a collegial bunch and we really emphasize

Brandt:

that this really is a team effort.

Brandt:

We, we aren't just on our own.

Brandt:

It takes all of us together to make this work.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

And you were talking about the diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging . Right.

Jon:

And you're bringing that to Saint James or you have started to bring that.

Jon:

Could you describe that a little bit, how that journey

Jon:

has been and how that's going?

Brandt:

Well, how the committee came about in the first place

Brandt:

was in the summer of 2020.

Brandt:

Of course we remember that was a summer where there was a lot of unfortunate

Brandt:

racial strife going on in the country.

Brandt:

We had, you know, the killings of Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

Brandt:

It was just a lot of lot of unfortunate racial things happening.

Brandt:

And our headmaster here, Father Dunnananan who's going to be starting his 32nd year

Brandt:

here next year he wrote a letter to the community to say that yes, we are very.

Brandt:

Concerned about all the things that are happening here.

Brandt:

And he wrote in that letter that we reinforce how we are very proud

Brandt:

and very supportive of all of our students and our faculty of color here.

Brandt:

And that they are loved and that they're respected.

Brandt:

And some of our younger alumni, they wrote a politeful letter back to Father

Brandt:

Dunnan open letter saying, you know there were some experiences that were happening

Brandt:

here among Saint James that we felt.

Brandt:

Really didn't honor the cultural heritage and traditions of

Brandt:

a lot of our student bodies.

Brandt:

So we encourage you, Father, to really evaluate how the school can be better.

Brandt:

And so he wrote another open letter to saying, okay, yes,

Brandt:

we, we are going to do that.

Brandt:

And so one of those initiatives was the creation of a faculty diversity committee.

Brandt:

And he asked me to be the chair of it.

Brandt:

And then when our associate head came on, that's here now,

Brandt:

she joined me as co-chair.

Brandt:

And through that journey, we've been able to do a lot of important

Brandt:

work here at Saint James.

Brandt:

We've been made sure to do is to explain to a lot of our, you know, older

Brandt:

alumni who perhaps may have had some concerns about us talking about this,

Brandt:

how talking about issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Brandt:

This actually goes along with the way of Jesus.

Brandt:

Jesus has been doing this and talking about this for long, long, long

Brandt:

time, and so, Basically this is part of the tradition of the church.

Brandt:

And so they don't need to be concerned about that, about they don't want

Brandt:

the tradition of the school changing.

Brandt:

And it's not changing.

Brandt:

We're just going along with what has been the tradition

Brandt:

of the church for a long time.

Brandt:

Just, just coming to the realization of that.

Brandt:

And so we have done things like having these respectful conversations also in

Brandt:

light of The 2024 presidential election coming up because when now former

Brandt:

President Trump was running against Secretary Clinton for the presidency,

Brandt:

apparently there were some issues that came up with that, which the

Brandt:

faculty were not equipped to deal with.

Brandt:

And so, Remembering that and not wanting to go down that road again.

Brandt:

We've been having these conversations.

Brandt:

We now have unisex bathrooms in several of our academic buildings here on campus.

Brandt:

So.

Brandt:

We have a language policy, which allows for more of our international students

Brandt:

to be able to have opportunities to speak their native language among themselves

Brandt:

when they're not necessarily like in the classroom or in any other major

Brandt:

community atmosphere because it's hard to be able to be an international student.

Brandt:

In an American school and having to, you know, hear something, translate it in

Brandt:

your head and then try to speak it out.

Brandt:

And so that language policy makes it more open and more allowed in a way

Brandt:

that a lot of our international students felt that they felt constrained for.

Brandt:

Very happy about that.

Brandt:

And we also came up with a diversity statement.

Brandt:

The first ever diversity statement that the school ever had, ever.

Brandt:

And that was at the encouragement of our accrediting body at their

Brandt:

last accreditation visit to us.

Brandt:

They said, we, you really need to do this.

Brandt:

And so the faculty diversity committee was charged with coming up with a draft of it.

Brandt:

The board of trustees tweaked it a little bit, and then what we have now,

Brandt:

that is the diversity statement, but our committee helped bring about that.

Brandt:

So there have been some things that have been very good, very well done,

Brandt:

and that have been very well received.

Brandt:

I'm very happy to say that.

Jon:

And a lot of work.

Jon:

It sounds like

Brandt:

a lot of work.

Brandt:

And I have a lot of good people on the diversity committee who are

Brandt:

very good people to work with, and they really are committed to this.

Brandt:

And so Saint James has really been doing a lot of good things, and it's on

Brandt:

the way to being an even more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and belonging

Brandt:

per place than it already has been.

Brandt:

So

Lauren:

Brandt, the students must have been really grateful to be able for the

Lauren:

first time, to speak their truth and, and know that they were gonna be heard.

Lauren:

All of them that that sounds really wonderful.

Lauren:

So was there anything that surprised you while you were going through this process?

Brandt:

I would just say cuz, well, I thought that we were gonna have a little

Brandt:

bit more blow back and push back than we originally did, but actually we didn't.

Brandt:

And that just goes to show just what I've been seeing all along, especially

Brandt:

from younger generations of people, younger generations of faculty, that

Brandt:

they are yearning for the world to be a reflection of what it actually is.

Brandt:

A very diverse, equitable, and inclusive place.

Brandt:

The Pew Research Center, I believe, came out with some statistics a couple of

Brandt:

years ago that said that 49% of of current children, like seven to 18, 49% of them

Brandt:

around the world are racially not white.

Brandt:

And so this generation coming up is very diverse.

Brandt:

And so when it comes to talking about gradualism and wanting to, you know, get

Brandt:

to certain things and everything like that, that's not gonna fly with them.

Brandt:

I mean, they want to be recognized for who they are now, and they

Brandt:

don't wanna wait for that.

Brandt:

And I can understand that.

Brandt:

I see that and I recognize that in them.

Brandt:

And so I.

Brandt:

Being that we haven't gotten a lot of, you know, blow back on what we've

Brandt:

been trying to do, that shows that a lot of people recognize that here.

Brandt:

And so that, that's been a very pleasant surprise to see.

Jon:

When we're talking to people and one reason we really did wanna speak

Jon:

with you Brandt, is we're looking for people that are making a difference.

Jon:

And it sounds like you sure are making a significant difference in

Jon:

the lives of the students no matter what, what they are and who they are.

Jon:

So that, that's that's great.

Jon:

That is actually,

Brandt:

and one, and one of the gifts that Saint James brings to Washington,

Brandt:

cuz we're in Washington County, Maryland.

Brandt:

Here and we've oftentimes been called the best kept secret of Washington County.

Brandt:

Cuz oftentimes when I go into Hagerstown into the town and I tell them I'm the

Brandt:

chaplain of Saint James School and everything like that, they have no

Brandt:

idea that the school has been here.

Brandt:

And some of them are lifelong residents of Washington County,

Brandt:

Maryland never even knew about school.

Brandt:

And so one of the Great things that I believe Saint James offers is the strong

Brandt:

diversity among our student body and in our faculty, like among our students.

Brandt:

This year we had, I believe, 30 international countries and 17 American

Brandt:

states represented among our student body, 30 international countries.

Brandt:

And and so we, we really are in my view, A pictorial image of

Brandt:

what the kingdom of God really is.

Brandt:

And so not only are we Anglo-Catholic in our liturgical aspect here

Brandt:

at Saint James, but we are, you know, catholic in our makeup.

Brandt:

So we really try to emphasize how we really, you know embody the full

Brandt:

expression of what catholicity is.

Brandt:

And among our student body we have of course Christians here, but we

Brandt:

also have a few Muslim students and we made allowance for them to

Brandt:

celebrate Ramadan when that happened.

Brandt:

We have several Jewish students here.

Brandt:

We've had Sikh students before.

Brandt:

We've had Buddhist students and never before have they felt that

Brandt:

the school was forcing them to be any other way than what they were.

Brandt:

And so that is a testament to how we really take catholicity seriously.

Jon:

So, Well, that's, that's impressive I admit, I was surprised when I went

Jon:

out to the it might have been your Facebook page and saw some graduation

Jon:

pictures and I thought, I had no idea.

Jon:

But first of all, it was even co-ed.

Jon:

But then also to see the diversity this with all the different skin

Jon:

tones that were represented there.

Jon:

That was, that was.

Jon:

Very surprising to me.

Brandt:

Right.

Brandt:

And our students really enjoy being with each other.

Brandt:

Yeah, they really do.

Brandt:

Cuz I'm, I'm right now, from what I understand, we have like

Brandt:

236 students right now coming into the school next year.

Brandt:

So for us, that's a very good number.

Brandt:

But with us being such a small student body, all the students get to know

Brandt:

each other on a personal level.

Brandt:

And in the classroom we have enough numbers in our classroom where

Brandt:

we can have a good relationship with each of our students.

Brandt:

And so how we love each other is very genuine and it's

Brandt:

good to be able to see that.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

That's fantastic.

Jon:

So, Brandt, can I ask you just for a moment to think about what

Jon:

this experience has meant for you personally on your faith journey?

Jon:

How has it actually affected your heart or, or your understanding

Jon:

of your call to priesthood or your understanding of what our presiding

Jon:

bishop talks about the community of love?

Jon:

It sounds like you're embodying that, but what do you, what, what,

Jon:

how's this affecting you as a, as a human being, as a black priest?

Brandt:

Oh, oh, oh, yes.

Brandt:

Thank you very much.

Brandt:

Oh, that.

Brandt:

So yes.

Brandt:

Well, I went to an Episcopal school for one year when in, when I was in

Brandt:

the seventh grade in my hometown.

Brandt:

And the reason I didn't go back was cause all of my classmates,

Brandt:

it was a small school.

Brandt:

All of my classmates in the seventh grade, they had left the school.

Brandt:

They had gone back.

Brandt:

I wanted to go back, but the, my hometown priest at the time, He didn't

Brandt:

want me to be in a grade by myself.

Brandt:

And so he said, I recommend that, you know, Brandt leave

Brandt:

the school was results of that.

Brandt:

So, you know, he was really caring about me.

Brandt:

I was mad as, but, but I understood where he was coming from.

Brandt:

He did not want me to be in a form by myself.

Brandt:

So, but, but that seventh grade year in an Episcopal school really

Brandt:

changed my life for the better.

Brandt:

It was where I was first introduced.

Brandt:

To the Anglican tradition to the Episcopal Church.

Brandt:

First time I experienced the liturgy as we do, and it really caused me to see God in

Brandt:

the new light that I had not seen before.

Brandt:

And so as a seventh grader, I was very much weird in

Brandt:

that I loved going to chapel.

Brandt:

I loved going to morning prayer in the morning.

Brandt:

I enjoyed the Eucharist I loved the old hymns because it was feeding me.

Brandt:

In a way that I needed.

Brandt:

And so I started attending the Episcopal church because of that.

Brandt:

And so my hometown priest, after a while, he began to talk to me about Brandt,

Brandt:

have you thought about ordained ministry?

Brandt:

Yeah.

Brandt:

And that's where I began thinking about it.

Brandt:

And so as I was going through college, the call was, you know, Still there with me

Brandt:

over and over and over again to it after college, I said, okay, I'm gonna do this.

Brandt:

And so I went through the ordination process in the Diocese

Brandt:

of Alabama and they put me forward and and the rest is history.

Brandt:

And so now being here at Saint James, this, which is now my second private

Brandt:

school, but my third educational institution to serve as a priest it

Brandt:

really shows me how important the church's schools are to the wider

Brandt:

evangelistic outpost of the church.

Brandt:

And to again, be able to have this opportunity.

Brandt:

To help spread the good news in an academic way to show, you know, how

Brandt:

God truly is love for all people, and especially in a boarding school setting.

Brandt:

It really has affected me in a very good way.

Brandt:

It has brought life to me and my priesthood in ways that I.

Brandt:

It's hard to put into words sometimes, but it really is, is just a sheer

Brandt:

joy to be able to do that and to have those deep conversations

Brandt:

with students that when they're searching and when they're thinking.

Brandt:

And especially here in the boarding school when kids are away from home

Brandt:

and we are basically functioning in loco parentis to these kids, you know.

Brandt:

They began to think about these things a little bit earlier than

Brandt:

your, like, say your college students.

Brandt:

Do.

Brandt:

And just to be able to have those experiences with

Brandt:

them has been very joyous.

Brandt:

And one of my great privileges that I get to do here at Saint James, in

Brandt:

addition to all the other stuff that I've done, is that I get to teach

Brandt:

the confirmation class here at Saint

Brandt:

James every year.

Brandt:

So this year we had 11 go through the class.

Brandt:

One of them even told me, you know, that felt real.

Brandt:

That felt real.

Brandt:

And, and that was, and that was a fifth former a junior here at

Brandt:

Saint James who told us that.

Brandt:

And so experiencing that call, And and having that call just really

Brandt:

come out and to be reinforced through my service here at Saint

Brandt:

James, it really lets me know I'm glad to be doing this.

Brandt:

I can't see myself doing anything else other than what I'm doing.

Brandt:

It really gives me life that I'm humbled and proud beyond

Brandt:

measure to be able to do it.

Brandt:

And and you asked how this is has affected me as a black priest there have at my

Brandt:

previous school before I came to Saint

Brandt:

James there were some issues that I stepped into there that necessarily

Brandt:

weren't good and that, you know there were some times in which the students

Brandt:

let me know in certain ways that.

Brandt:

They did not want me there.

Brandt:

For example very early on in my time as I was walking to my office one morning,

Brandt:

and this again at my previous school, I had KKK literature on my desk found there

Brandt:

and and that was a rattling experience and went the rector at my previous church.

Brandt:

When he found out about it, he said, Brandt, you are fine.

Brandt:

I'm glad that you're here.

Brandt:

I've got your back.

Brandt:

The church has got your back.

Brandt:

We are glad that you are here.

Brandt:

So he definitely supported me through that cuz I almost said, okay, okay, if

Brandt:

they don't want me here, I will leave.

Brandt:

But he had my back and a very good thing, you know, in connection to that.

Brandt:

It was about a year ago now, I would say.

Brandt:

I had the student who was one of the people that did that, he called me and

Brandt:

he said, Father, that was one of the stupidest things I ever did in my life.

Brandt:

Mm, it has, yeah, it has haunted me ever since.

Brandt:

And I just had to call you and say, I'm sorry.

Brandt:

And so, and, and he said that, you know, the way that I still loved him

Brandt:

through all that remained with him.

Brandt:

And so I would say as a black priest, that's one of the things

Brandt:

that I've seen later on that hopefully I've been able to help.

Brandt:

You know, just other people see just the wide breadth and diversity and

Brandt:

just the wideness of God's mercy.

Brandt:

The wideness of God's love, the wideness of God's community.

Brandt:

And I just consider myself to be a priest of the church who just so

Brandt:

happens to be black and all that.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Well, you are a gift to the church.

Jon:

You're a gift to the youth.

Jon:

You're gift to all of us.

Jon:

I just, I'm so grateful for for everything you're doing.

Brandt:

Well, thank you.

Brandt:

Thank you very much.

Brandt:

And, and so, but, but my previous school and going through all that, it, it

Brandt:

prepared me for my life here at Saint

Brandt:

James and I've been very fortunate to be here.

Brandt:

I've been here four years at Saint James and next year will be my fifth year.

Brandt:

And hopefully I'll be here for a good bit more to come.

Brandt:

God willing.

Lauren:

We hope you will be too.

Lauren:

Brandt.

Lauren:

You have a wide variety of interests.

Lauren:

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Brandt:

Well I really do.

Brandt:

You know, I really do enjoy my academic ministry.

Brandt:

I'm a church historian and I always tell my students when I, you know,

Brandt:

teach my history classes that history.

Brandt:

It is a story and it's a story with a purpose.

Brandt:

It is a story that we are meant to look at, to really, seriously look

Brandt:

at so that we could be better people ourselves, so that when we look at

Brandt:

our past, we can say, okay, well these are good things that we can keep.

Brandt:

These are some bad things we don't need to do again.

Brandt:

And so it's very important that we remember our history.

Brandt:

And in that, not only as a historian, but as a priest, I try to just be able

Brandt:

to do that among the young people and everybody here that that I serve, let

Brandt:

us be mindful of who it is that we are.

Brandt:

Be mindful of whos we are so that we can be the best people that

Brandt:

God has yearned for us to be.

Brandt:

Mm-hmm.

Jon:

Amen to that.

Jon:

So Brandt I'm sure people will be interested in learning a little bit more

Jon:

about Saint James School and perhaps about Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Lappans.

Jon:

And so we'll put in our show notes.

Jon:

There will be internet links, the URLs for both of those in case people

Jon:

wanna find out more, or I assume they could contact you through email

Jon:

through one of those organizations.

Brandt:

Oh, yeah, that'd be great.

Brandt:

You may.

Brandt:

Go ahead.

Brandt:

I just was say, one interesting thing I wanted to mention about Saint Mark's and

Brandt:

Saint James, there is a connection there.

Brandt:

Whereas, you know, a lot of churches they found schools to be outgrowths

Brandt:

of their of their parish institutions.

Brandt:

Saint Mark's Church is.

Brandt:

As far as I know, it is the only parish church in the Diocese of

Brandt:

Maryland that was founded by a school.

Brandt:

The College of Saint James, which is now Saint James School.

Brandt:

It founded Saint Mark's Church in the late 1840s to be kind of like the

Brandt:

school's missionary outpost in this area of Washington County, Maryland.

Brandt:

And over the years, there have been several Saint James.

Brandt:

School clergy who have been directors and priest in charge of Saint

Brandt:

Mark's.

Brandt:

And so me being the vicar of Saint mark's has been a way of kind of

Brandt:

reestablishing that historic relationship between the school and the church.

Brandt:

And so I'm very happy to be able to step back into parish ministry in, in a

Brandt:

bit of a way and to be able to do that.

Brandt:

And I'm, I'm loving it.

Jon:

That's great.

Jon:

And I'm sure they're you've been there, what, for about a month?

Jon:

I'm sure they're already probably a month.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

They're probably already loving you is my guess.

Brandt:

I'm, I'm, I'm feeling it.

Brandt:

I'm feeling the love from 'em.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

Oh, that's great.

Jon:

That's great.

Jon:

Brandt, once again, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

Jon:

This has been a, just an amazing conversation

Brandt:

and thank you very much.

Brandt:

Thank you both for, for having me.

Brandt:

I've enjoyed it.

Lauren:

It was wonderful to have you, Brandt, and Jon.

Lauren:

And I also want to thank.

Lauren:

All who are watching and listening, we cannot spread good

Lauren:

news without your participation.

Lauren:

Please take a moment to comment, like, and share on all your social media

Lauren:

platforms that will help us spread the good news to even more people.

Lauren:

And again, thank you for the gift of your time with us today.

Lauren:

Until next time, peace and blessings.

Jon:

Good news is being brought to you by listening for clues.

Jon:

You can find us on our website, listening for clues.com, our YouTube channel,

Jon:

our Vimeo channel, and just about every podcast platform that there is.

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