You can also subscribe to the Calvary podcast on your favorite podcast app.
You can also subscribe to the Calvary podcast on your favorite podcast app.
A national leader in the Episcopal Church, the Rev. Winnie Varghese is known for her inspired writing, teaching, and preaching. Winnie has been a leading voice on issues including mass incarceration; systemic racism; gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ issues; and immigration, among others. She is the 23rd rector of St. Luke’s, Atlanta. Prior to St. Luke’s, Winnie served at Trinity Church Wall Street, St. Mark’s in the Bowery in New York City, and St. Alban’s, Los Angeles. Winnie has also served as the Episcopal Chaplain at both Columbia University and the University of California Los Angeles.
Dr. Brian D. McLaren started his career as a college English teacher, then became a pastor, and then put the two together to become a spiritual writer. He loves the outdoors (fly fishing especially), music (jazz and folk especially), and reading (novels and poetry especially). He has four adult kids and five amazing grandchildren and will show you photos without your permission. His new book, Do I Stay Christian? (St. Martins, 2022) is on Publisher’s Weekly top 20 books of 2022. He and his wife, Grace, just survived Hurricane Ian, and can be found walking the beach, pruning trees in their little mango orchard, and watching tortoises cross the road. He looks forward to returning to Calvary and telling the honest truth (as he sees it) about the future of faith.
The senior rabbi at Temple Israel, Micah Greenstein loves Torah no matter where it comes from. “Torah” in a broad Jewish sense refers to the teachings and wisdom of Judaism, but he treasures insights on goodness, love, justice, shalom, and compassion from every faith tradition and every reflection of God’s unity. What inspires Greenstein most about the Jewish legacy he lives and teaches is that it is not simply a tale of enduring persecution and surviving hate but rather a 4,000-year-old joyful embrace of faith, family, and the blessing that comes with being God’s partner in healing a broken world. A preacher at the Lenten Preaching Series since 2000, Rabbi Greenstein is an integral part of Calvary’s Lenten services.
Dr. Omid Safi is a teacher in the Islamic tradition of Radical Love with extensive written work on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. A leading Muslim public intellectual, Safi investigates the intersection of spirituality and social justice. He is also deeply committed to liberationist prophetic traditions manifested in the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Malcolm X. Dr. Safi has delivered the keynote address in annual services honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
The Reverend Jen Bailey is an ordained minister, author, and national leader in the multi-faith movement for justice. She is the founder and executive director of Faith Matters Network. The Rev. Bailey believes love is the animating force that will make the difference between a future of uncertainty and division and one of deep belonging. She is ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Rev. Becca Stevens is a speaker, social entrepreneur, author, priest, founder of ten non-profit justice enterprises, and President of Thistle Farms. She has been featured on multiple news outlets and named a White House Champion of Change. Stevens has raised over $65M in funding for justice initiatives. She leads important conversations across the country where she underscores her central message that love is the strongest force for change in the world.
The Rev. Dan Matthews is a consistent favorite at Calvary’s Lenten Preaching Series over the last fifty years. His preaching is inspired by powerful and meaningful stories like the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. In light of these stories, Matthews pushes us to recognize when genuine blessings come our way. He believes that these moments of being “kissed by God” are more than being in the right place at the right time. His spiritual discipline of holy love is modeled after his mother’s ability to love with abandon. Each time he receives communion he is reminded of the transformative power of that love.
Mr. Jon Meacham currently holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University and is the Canon Historian at the Washington National Cathedral. The author of multiple bestselling books, Meacham explores the human and sometimes surprisingly intimate sides of pivotal historical events and time periods. His latest book, And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, was released in 2022.