Abbot Bishop
Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ
He was born in 1969 in Chicago, Illinois but spent his formative years on the Springfield Plateau in the Ozarks Mountains. Following high school he attended Drury College where he studied art history, humanities, and Latin. It was during this time when he met a Master Glassblower and took an apprenticeship becoming skilled in the many different forms of glass work from off hand glass blowing to stained glass, as well as glass fusion and etching, with an emphasis in lampwork glass blowing.
He opened his first studio gallery in Springfield, Missouri and what would later be called Dancingbird Glassworks was begun. In his career, he owned and operated several studio gallery locations in and around the Ozark Mountains in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. He has also traveled extensively around the United States demonstrating his craft and teaching others the art of glass work.
In the late nineties Brian felt a calling to a sacramental Christian ministry and completed his undergraduate degree work at St. John the Beloved Orthodox Theological Seminary. He would go on to earn a Master of Divinity from Pax Christi College and Seminary and ultimately be ordained to the priesthood in 2005 and consecrated to the episcopacy in 2006.
Brian’s priesthood finds its expression as an "episcopus vagans" or "wandering bishop" as his ordination to the priesthood and consecration to the episcopacy originates from within the Free Catholic Tradition. He was consecrated a bishop in 2006 and founded the Ecumenical Free Catholic Communion which would later be reorganized within a "new monastic" expression and blended with an "emerging church" paradigm in late 2023 and renamed the Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ. He served as the Archbishop of Christ Catholic Church, a founding member of the EFCC beginning in 2007. The church, under his leadership, had a significant influence on the Independent Sacramental Movement as a whole, in terms of formation, education, and the training of clergy within the movement through a seminary he founded, Whithorn School of Theology. He stepped down from the leadership of Christ Catholic Church and his position at Whithorn School of Theology in 2018 in order to focus on a more contemplative and ecumenical ministerial outreach.
He has throughout his ministry been focused on creating sanctuary for the least, lost, and the hurting through his activism within the LGBT community, his work toward promoting and teaching peaceful conflict resolution, and his work within various drop-in centers and homeless shelters. He has also, for most of his life, had a deep calling to serve those in need of end of life or palliative care. To that end, he has served both professionally and as a volunteer chaplain with several hospice organizations over the years and has lectured throughout the Ozarks in regards to the spiritual side of bereavement and hospice care.
Brian is the author and or editor of several books relating to the Old Catholic or Independent Sacramental Movement, including: The Directory of Autocephalous Bishops Catholic, The Christ Catholic Book of Prayer, and The Rule of the Order of the Merciful Heart. He currently serves as the Abbot Bishop of the Sacramental Community of the Coworkers of Christ. He makes his home in the Ozark Mountains amongst the funky folk of Fayetteville Arkansas.
