Rev. Craig C. Sweeney
First of all, I consider myself a joyful Christian.
God has created us marvelous creatures, placed us in an
amazingly beautiful world and I believe that God wants us to
enjoy life to the fullest. I daily give thanks to God
for 'life, love and laughter.'
I was born an Episcopalian and - as was typical in the 50's
and 60's - church attendance was mandatory. Like most
kids, I didn't think much of all that 'drudgery,' but did
love being an altar boy (acolyte). When liberated
after high school, I quit going to church.
It wasn't till I'd been married some dozen years and become
the father of three daughters that I finally decided my
girls needed to experience church and I returned -
ironically, to the church I had grown up in. Turned
out that God had plans for me!
I have an MBA and a law degree and had spent some 20 years
in corporate and real estate finance and law as a senior
executive and then several years as the owner of a small
business. I had set out to 'get rich' and while we were very
well off, we weren't rich!
Without all the details, I'll simply say that during a very
tough time in my business life, I found myself unemployed
and deeply afraid. I turned to the God I had only
recently become intimate with and prayed for help.
What followed was an intense spiritual experience that
marked my truly becoming a Christian. What I consider
to have been a miracle followed shortly thereafter.
It wasn't the miracle that converted me, it was the
overwhelming, certain knowledge that God truly did know and
love me. That intimacy with God is something I long to
share. It wasn't too much later that I had a powerful
call to ordained ministry and we sold everything and headed
to seminary. After three years there, 5 years with two
parishes in Kansas, I have as of this writing been blessed
to be the Rector of Epiphany for 4 years. My wife and
I love NE Pennsylvania and I dearly love this parish.
I love the Episcopal Church, love our ancient liturgies and
rituals, love our classic music, but mostly I love this
church because we are permitted to challenge things, ask
hard questions, and even disagree with each other - so long
as we always forgive and always come and worship
together. I believe that it is through prayer and
worship and the study of Scripture that we become intimate
with God through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit and
worship is the highlight of my life. I preach from
Scripture, for it always points me to God's very simple plan
for his creation: that we love one another. I
can't think of anything else that will make the world a
better place.
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