Everyday Liturgist with Marcus Halley

We're talking about "Soul Freedom" in this episode where I interview writer, scholar, and contemplative Karen Keen. We discuss scripture as a tool formation (rather than as a rule book), cultivating a contemplative practice is a busy world, and engaging a faith that involves our whole selves. What I most appreciate about this episode is that Karen gives us permission to be unfinished, to embrace a...

The Ballot and the Gospel While renewing his driver’s license online, Marcus Halley lingers over a question about updating voter registration which sparks his exploration of Christian faith, voting rights, and how to live faithfully without surrendering the gospel to partisan identity. Drawing on his religious upbringing, family stories, and political formation in college, he argues that voting ri...

Cameron Nations on Discernment, Vocation, and Becoming Human In this episode of Everyday Liturgist, Marcus Halley interview Cameron Nation, Canon for Vocations and Community Engagement in the Diocese of Alabama. Together they draw the wisdom of Rowan Williams, Marcus's experience of public discernment in the Western Massachusetts bishop election, and Cameron's experience cultivating leaders in Ala...

In this episode, Marcus Halley responds to a graduating student’s spiritual anxiety by asserting that surrender is the door to the spiritual life. Marcus shares that we all have a common experience of deep hunger: for meaning, connection, and love. He then contrasts trying to control God through formulas and practices with learning to surrender to God by cultivating practices of silence and listen...

In this episode of Everyday Liturgist, Marcus Halley shares an Easter Sunday sermon from Trinity College Chapel. Marcus frames human beings as God’s image-bearers called into partnership with God against the rebellious forces bent toward injustice and death. He argues that Jesus’ resurrection is not a return to normal life but the first sign of God’s new creation where domination ends and justice...

In this episode, Marcus Halley shares a sermon he gave on March 22, 2026 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, Connecticut. Using John’s story of the Raising of Lazarus, he explores how to face real grief while holding the church’s theology of life, echoing the Book of Common Prayer: “life is changed, not ended.” He distinguishes Lazarus’s temporary return to mortal life from Jesus’ resurrect...

Walking in the Darkness Marcus Halley shares a Lent sermon from St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church (New Haven) on Jesus as “the light of the world” in John’s Gospel. He links the woman at the well (Photini) and the man born blind to the idea that true sight is spiritual insight. He argues that darkness is not the absence of God, drawing on Barbara Brown Taylor’s contrast between unrealistic “full solar”...

Where Are the Young People? with Allen Wakabayashi In this episode, Marcus introduces an extended Everyday Liturgist conversation with Allen Wakabayashi, chaplain at the Episcopal Church at Princeton, prompted by Allen’s Living Church article “Where Are the Young People?” Both reflect on what students teach them with their diverse backgrounds, deep questions, a hunger for meaning, and the need for...

A Lenten Observance in a Distracted World In this episode, Marcus Halley reflects on Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent as a call to cultivate focus and attentiveness in a chaotic, distraction-saturated world. The word “behold” (which appears twice in Matthew’s Transfiguration story) is more than seeing—it requires contemplation, stepping back, leaning in, and having “the eyes of our hearts enlig...

When is violence the moral option? Is love really a durable power? In this episode of Everyday Liturgist, Marcus dives into a student's tough question on the morality of violence and the bigger themes around love and making a difference in the world. This conversation shaped the sermon he gave at St. Peter's Episcopal Church (which has been modified for this podcast) which explores the overwhelmin...

"But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he consented."- Matthew 3:15 What does Jesus's baptism mean for us? Divine solidarity. God chooses us even when we don't choose God. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marcushalley.substack.com

Happy Epiphany, y'all! What would make the Magi journey thousands of miles to see an infant ? A king ? A story, one that promised to reshape everything they, in their wisdom and knowledge, had come to know about the world. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit marcushalley.substack.com

I read over 133 books* in 2025 (if you count all 77 books of the Bible). These are the five passages from the non-biblical books that I can't stop thinking about. Here's to more reading in 2026! Read the Bible in ONE Year! BibleProject | One Story That Leads to Jesus: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/63058-bibleproject-one-story-that-leads-to-jesus Other books mentioned in this episode: Eiren C...

Jesus invites us to a life free of shame and fear... which might come as a surprise given what passes for Christian faith in our wider culture. If Jesus invites us out of shame and fear, what does he invite is into and how to do we practice this new sort of life into being? Have questions? Email them to everydayliturgist@gmail.com . Subscribe to the Everyday Liturgist newsletter on Substack . This...

We're taking a new adventure! Everyday Liturgist is becoming a podcast! Let's explore ways of thinking of Jesus, faith, spirituality, and what it means to be a Christian disciples in new ways, with a little bit of humor and a whole lot of gratitude. Have questions? Email them to everydayliturgist@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Everyday Liturgist newsletter on Substack . This is a public episode. If y...