Rev. Charles Browning

A priest in the Episcopal Church in Hawai'i, husband, parent, surfer, occasional writer, frequent over-thinker. Forgiven, just like you.

(Avatar image is a drawing of me from my artist friend Mei Lin, back when I was her priest and had pink hair)

The Catechetic Converter: http://catecheticconverter.com
Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/FrChazzz
Loops: https://loops.video/@FrChazzz

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Last Notes

2026-04-22 22:23:00 GMT

Today we'll be talking about Purgatory. What it is, where it is, and what the Bible has to say on the subject.
Join us at 2:30 pm Hawai'i time for the live stream (or whenever after)
#Jesus #Anglican #Episcopal #Church #Christianity #theology #spirituality
https://www.youtube.com/live/dUqH58Ct9II

2026-03-19 19:21:00 GMT

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TBH it explains the Terminator having that accent: he was actually being remote operated by an Eastern European dude in some warehouse.

2026-03-04 00:32:09 GMT

Worked from home. Got distracted by a favorite movie. Decided to write about it in order to salvage my distraction. It's about the prescience of the movie Hackers and how we can still make the world better with the tools at our disposal.
https://catecheticconverter.com/on-hacking-the-planet
#Movies #Film #Philosophy #Theology

2026-01-14 19:51:59 GMT

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I had this same thought in the lead up to the new film! In the 30s (and like how the artist Alex Ross depicts him), Supes was just a big dude, a kind of "strong-man" type. I think that depiction makes more sense (in terms of an entirely fictional human-looking alien that can fly and freeze things with his breath, of course).

2025-10-17 22:05:53 GMT

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I think of this meme VERY often these days
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/391/767/809/667/316/original/cd11e8fdae0f1ca2.png

2025-10-17 21:19:58 GMT

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🧵 /6 Anyway, that's my rant for now. Here's a great article by a leading conservative priest in the Episcopal Church that expresses his own pain at what's happening (and also informs my own thoughts on the matter):
https://livingchurch.org/commentary/you-have-broken-my-heart-a-letter-to-my-siblings-in-gafcon/

2025-10-17 21:18:48 GMT

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🧵 /5 Telling the rest of us that we're all heretics and wicked puts distance between us. Imagine what would have happened if the Jerusalem Council decided that they could no longer recognize the leadership of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and thus needed to start their own community, one that is more "pure" to what the Bible said.
I am where I am in my convictions because of my deep love of both the Church of my forebears and the scriptures that I have been reading and studying since childhood.

2025-10-17 21:15:03 GMT

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🧵 /4 Further (as in an article link I'll post in a bit puts it), their stance is arguably NOT Anglican nor "traditional" when it comes to both the theology of the scriptures and the ecclesiology of the Church.
Regardless, the problem is the result of what the theologian Kosuke Koyama discusses: focusing on the "-ism" rather than the -"ist" or "-ian."
GAFCON leadership seems afraid of the prospect of having to sit face-to-face with a Queer bishop and accept that the Holy Spirit has called them.

2025-10-17 21:10:15 GMT

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🧵 /3 The "majority" was opposed to this idea and dragged Saint Peter to the mat about it. But then he testified to God's work and the Church discerned (even somewhat reluctantly) that God had indeed done a new thing and accepted the change.
GAFCON represents the largest bodies of Anglican Christians in the world. And they're using those numbers as a kind of cudgel against us in the Episcopal Church and others for our stance on things like women's ordination and Queer acceptance.

2025-10-17 21:07:24 GMT

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🧵 /2 Of course we've seen examples where Christians have made use of "majority rule," but it was never TRUE. In those cases, and this is just from my gut, it was patently wrong (I'm thinking things like slavery, etc. but I won't get into the nuances of democratic-informed election processes because that's a whole other thing).
Christianity is, properly and Truthfully, about mutual discernment. Consider the first controversy the impact the Church: the baptism of Gentiles...

2025-10-17 21:03:08 GMT

Catching up on the news about the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON, a group of "conservative" bishops/provinces that consider themselves still #Anglican) now maybe-sort-of announcing the formation of an alt-Anglican Communion. Anyway, it's one of those things that I find both deeply distressing as well as very embarrassing. And the thing that frustrates me the most is this:
"Majority rule" has NEVER been a measure of Truth for Christianity. 🧵 /1

2025-05-13 02:15:05 GMT

#Linux is funny. People often say that you get what you pay for. I didn't pay a cent for either of the Linux distros I've used and I enjoy them far more than any OS I've ever actually purchased.

2025-04-06 02:36:31 GMT

Was at the #HandsOff demonstrations today in #Honolulu. Was handed this #Trans pride flag, which inspired this little entry:
https://catecheticconverter.com/being-ministered-to
#Theology #Church #Episcopal #Christianity

2025-03-16 21:55:31 GMT

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After tedious testing of various boards and connectors with the multimeter, my wife and I were under the impression that it might be the fuse. So I de-soldered the fuse after the multimeter indicated that it had no continuity--only to discover that the fuse was indeed intact. Re-soldered it to the board. Still no power.
This might be a lost cause lol. I'm going to hit up a proper geek shop this week and see what they say.

2025-03-16 06:42:19 GMT

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Alright. So I was able to finesse the ribbon back in and it seemed to connect fine. But the display is still not lighting up. What I’ve noticed is that that weird connector piece gets inconsistent power when I hit the pins with the multimeter (now 2 and 3 get nothing, unless I push it a bit closer together and then 2 gets me a beep but still nothing on 3—but suppose it’s possible that only 3 out of the four pins actually have any current in them and 3 is just… there)

2025-03-16 06:21:53 GMT

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Is there a way to make them stick back down on the vinyl (I’m assuming it’s vinyl)? Like an epoxy of some sort, spread super thin? They just sort of peeled up.

2025-03-16 03:57:32 GMT

#diy #repair question: I bought an old 5-disc CD/DVD player at a garage sale a few years back (absolute steal btw) and it recently was giving me problems. Seems the control panel stopped working (likely from my toddler pushing the button a ton), so I opened her up and found that the ribbon cable connecting the control panel to the rest of the machine looked like so when I disconnected it. Seems to be the problem. Can this be repaired or do I need to track down a replacement cable?
#Help
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/170/095/109/131/388/original/42d2f24410d43ddf.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/170/095/194/336/668/original/c7acaeab1b0d2a74.jpeg

2025-03-13 00:03:42 GMT

Wednesdays in #Lent, we'll be taking a look at the Book of Ephesians. Tonight is our first installment in the series, covering the first chapter. We'll be getting acquainted with the context of the letter and then taking a look at how Paul presents the gospel.
Join us live at 6:00 pm Hawai'i time (or whenever after), by clicking below:
https://www.youtube.com/live/D-Zo7zyArq8

2025-02-19 21:26:14 GMT

A man who puts himself above the law is not, properly, a king. A king is supposed to submit to certain laws (of God or nature). This is why we speak of crowns as “heavy.” The current US president is not trying to be a king because he is not appealing to any notion of higher law. He is appealing to his own sense of law, thus making himself to be a god. We #Christians have a term for this: idolatry. And the proper response to this is the one taken by Daniel and his friends in faithful #resistance

2025-02-06 01:48:54 GMT

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Lots of cheering and horn-honking in support of putting a stop to fascism!

2025-02-06 00:17:25 GMT

The whole attack on #Wikipedia just makes me think of that Stephen Colbert line from his Washington Correspondent’s Dinner speech, where he reminded George W Bush that “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

2025-02-05 23:49:41 GMT

Was out at the local #50501movement #protest at the state capitol in #Honolulu. Lots of people protesting lots of different things. But the thing that seemed to hold it all together was something akin to joy. Yes, people are angry. But that wouldn’t be the emotion I’d say evoked the feeling on the ground. Things were largely celebratory (save for a couple spicy moments with counter demonstrators across the street)

2025-02-04 21:22:25 GMT

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/6 I ignored him all the way to my seat in the bleachers with my class. I sat there until he, red in the face, DEMANDED that I return to the sound booth and run the thing. Which I did. And the matter of my grades was never an issue again (though, they did assign a teacher to monitor us in the sound booth, but that guy was cool).
The lesson: know your ability and when your opponent lacks said ability. That ability is your power and you can use it to resist someone who attempts to control you.

2025-02-04 21:19:00 GMT

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/5 As I descended the stairs from the sound booth, for a brief moment I saw the admin put his finger to his chin and attempt to work the mixer. This was like a 48 channel mixer—a very complicated piece of equipment. He clearly did not know the first thing to do.
I heard him call my name. I kept walking. /

2025-02-04 21:17:11 GMT

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/4 So I’m told that I need to “set up the sound system” and then leave the booth and sit with my class. I informed the admin that I was put in charge of this and that my grades were never part of the deal. They disagreed.
So I did the one thing I knew I COULD do: I dropped the levels, turned off the mixer, and said “okay then, you run it.” /

2025-02-04 21:14:46 GMT

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/3 But there was a problem: the school didn’t like me very much. I tended to ask questions and challenge authority. So after winter break, an administrator approached me, right before the start of chapel, that I “did not have the grades” to be running the sound board. Which, of course, was bullshit. /

2025-02-04 21:12:24 GMT

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/2 At that time the church saw an opportunity: I was at the school and I had the training. So the church entrusted me to operate the sound equipment for assemblies, chapel, etc. I was told, by the head of the church’s A/V department “you’re in charge; no one touches this soundboard without your permission.” /

2025-02-04 21:10:25 GMT

#Story time (or, How I Learned #MaliciousCompliance And You Can Too!): When I was about sixteen years old, I was the sound guy for my school. I went to a Baptist parochial school. The church owned all the sound equipment and they had trained me, since I was like 10, in how to operate it. The school was allowed to use the equipment, but in general no one at the school had the technical know-how. So they relied on the church’s A/V crew to run things. Until my sophomore year. 1/

2025-01-26 20:52:01 GMT

This 2021 article is making the rounds and it reminds me of something I said in a sermon a few weeks back: we never talk about people being #addicted to money. I said that I would love to hear a testimony that goes like “I was so hooked on #wealth that I would do horrible things. I enslaved children, I made people work so hard they couldn’t use a toilet, I corrupted entire nations to feed my habit. But then I met #Jesus and gave it all away. Now I’m free!”
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/billionaires-should-not-exist

2024-11-19 23:51:28 GMT

I come back to this page of Louis Menand’s “The Metaphysical Club” a lot. Normally I focus on that first highlighted sentence. But this time I was caught by his words regarding the ways in which “traumatic wars” (are there other kinds?) discredit prior beliefs and assumptions. Was this the case for the War on Terror and are we at our current historical moment because that “war” traumatized us to an astonishing degree as a people?
#philosophy #American #politics
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/512/286/011/550/643/original/6ece252a72e435e0.jpeg

2024-11-15 20:49:21 GMT

From Federalist No.47 (ironic number). Read, mark, and inwardly digest.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/488/931/958/259/747/original/dc68714d33ccc3f5.jpeg