This week we are launching something brand new: Cross Connections: Faith on the Move—an expansion of our digital content to include video-based Christian Formation. This addition is designed to supplement and build upon the successes of our worship livestream and the Cross Connections podcast. We get terrific feedback on the podcast every week, from parishioners and from people who live in faraway places. Providing a digital resource for faith formation is obviously something that people are finding useful, and we want to expand it to continue to meet that need.
I filmed the first video series this past spring at a monastery in the California desert. It’s called “Where is the Glory,” and it explores the concept of the Presence of God through the biblical depictions of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the Temple in Jerusalem, and the person of Jesus. You can access it here.
While this first video series is only digital, most of them will be drawn directly from our Sunday morning Adult & Youth Forums. For example, I’ll be leading the first Forum series this fall, “Who is Jesus?,” which begins September 14th. We’ve already begun filming those sessions so that they’ll be available for online viewing in addition to the in-person gatherings in the Harrison Room.
Whenever anyone prepares to lead a Forum series, they pour hours of prayer and study into it. So why not extend the reach by recording it—making it available not only to those who attend in person, but also to those who can’t make it on a given Sunday, who are away for a stretch, who are long-distance livestream regulars, or even to those who may discover our content months or years from now on YouTube?
In my previous parish in New Jersey, this kind of ministry bore remarkable fruit. Time and again, newcomers to the church told me that before they ever stepped through the doors, they had already been fed by the teaching we’d made available online. In many ways, their discipleship journey began long before they arrived for worship.
That, at its core, is what Christian Formation is about. We aren’t just filling our minds with information. We are being shaped—formed—as followers of Jesus, in every part of our lives. Christian Formation is a lifelong journey of being drawn closer to Christ.
I have seen congregations transformed by making formation a priority. Few things create more energy, more excitement, or more joy in the life of a church than people growing deeply in their faith. That energy and joy then get seen in people’s connection to outreach, stewardship, and fellowship. My prayer is that Cross Connections: Faith on the Move will help all of us continue that journey—wherever we are, and whenever we need it.
Peace,
The Rev. Rick Morley
Rector
Published on August 28, 2025.