From the Dean

Good Faith!

An article for The Cathedral Times
by the Very Rev. Sam Candler, Dean of the Cathedral
June 30, 2026

It has been a great joy in my life to talk about good faith. It has been a joy to talk about the common good, too! Many of you have appreciated my remarks, my essays, my sermons, on Good Faith and the Common Good. Thank you!

For me, paying attention to good faith and the common good is one of the features of a thriving community of faith. One of the marks of a faithful parish is blessing. Good parishes, and good communities, bless people! Good parishes, and good communities, welcome good faith and the common good. We don’t go to church in order to scold, or to hear scolding. We don’t go to church to complain, or to hear complaining. We don’t go to church to repeat some purity code, whether that code is traditional or progressive. We go to church to bless people, and to be blessed by people. We go to church to be blessed by God, by good faith, for the common good. 

And now, a new chapel at the cathedral will proclaim and represent that good faith in still another way! Our new chapel, the Good Faith Chapel, is not finished yet. We still have some details and routines to develop. But many of us have been praying in it, and sharing community in it, for over two years, while the land was still a playground, and when we broke ground over eighteen months ago. Thank you! Good faith to you!

In fact, thank you to each of you reading these words who have been encouragers and prayers. You have prayed. You have given time. You have given money. You have given hope! Your participation is at the heart of the Good Faith Chapel. You, your good faith, is at the heart of the Good Faith Chapel!

We are not finished yet. And maybe our good faith will never be complete, until God’s glory covers the earth. We still welcome people who want to be part of good faith in the world.

For all of you who have given, and for all of you who will give, we are thrilled to have a small celebration in the Good Faith Chapel this Sunday, July 5! Yes, it is a holiday weekend, and much of the country will be honoring the United States of America. We will honor our country, too. However, between our two major Sunday services, at 10:10 am, we will gather in the Good Faith Chapel for a new service.

Services in the Good Faith Chapel will be a new kind of prayer, a new kind of religion, and maybe a new kind of Christianity. As many of you have noticed, the chapel offers a new way to experience transcendence and immanence, two primary components of worship. We know the transcendence of God, the awe of God, in the beautiful oculus in the ceiling – “an eyepiece to the heavens!” We know the immanence of God, the closeness of God, in seeing each other, face to face, in the octagonal space. We know God when we look up in love, and we know God when we look at each other in love!

If the world around us is a world of complaint and scolding and worry and fear, the Good Faith Chapel will welcome blessing and hope. And we will honor good faith no matter where that good faith comes from. All our services there will be services that offer love and hope, not complaint and fear. 

Join us! The world needs good faith! And the world needs blessing! Good Faith to you! Blessings to you!

The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip