A Post on St. Francis for Church Anew

I recently had the chance to write for Church Anew about one of my favorite figures in the Christian tradition: St. Francis of Assisi. He is often celebrated hrough pet blessings (and who doesn't like a pet blessing?), but Francis also challenged the church of his day in bold ways. In this blog post, I explore what it meant for Francis to “rebuild the church” and what his witness might mean for us today.

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Welcome!

My name is Miguel Escobar and I am an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Long Island, currently serving a two-year curacy at San Andrés Episcopal Church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. My work centers on the intersection of faith, justice, and economics, including through research and presentations on Christianity’s complicated relationship with money, wealth, and poverty. I write and think about these issues from my location in a parish setting, and more specifically as someone committed to Spanish-language, Latino ministry. As a writer, I focus on how Christianity has wrestled with questions of money from its earliest days to the present. My first book, The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today , traces how the early Church’s stance on wealth shifted over the first five centuries, going from a position of sharp critique to eventual accommodation, and reflects on what was gained and lost in that transition. I’m currently working on a second book that explores the...

La avaricia y lo suficiente

Este sermón fue predicado en San Andrés Episcopal, el 3 de agosto de 2025. Hoy es el octavo domingo después de Pentecostés, durante el tiempo ordinario, una temporada en que caminamos con Jesús hacia Jerusalén y tenemos la oportunidad de verlo interactuar con la gente de varios pueblos: sanando, ayudando a los necesitados y enseñando sobre temas éticos. Para mí, es una temporada favorita porque no estamos hablando de las grandes doctrinas de la Iglesia, sino de sus enseñanzas éticas y sus pensamientos sobre la vida cotidiana. Y hoy, escuchamos sus pensamientos sobre algo que fue parte de su contexto y sigue siendo parte del nuestro: la avaricia y la gran acumulación de riquezas. Antes de hablar de esto, quiero recordarles que Jesús fue un hombre pobre, y me refiero a pobreza económica. En el evangelio, Lucas subraya que Jesús nació en un pesebre, que su familia fue casi refugiada en ese entonces. También, cuando Jesús fue presentado en el templo, su familia ofreció dos palomas, qu...

The Panic Industry: Fear Your Neighbor

Second Sunday in Easter, Year C All Saints, Park Slope, Brooklyn A recording of this sermon is available here . Last week, The New York Times Magazine published a fascinating—and frankly, disturbing —story about how business is booming in the “panic industry.” It estimated that a third of Americans are preparing for a doomsday scenario: stocking up on supplies, weapons, and building safe rooms and modern day bunkers. The article highlighted how we Americans have moved well beyond the Cold War bunkers made of cinder blocks with shelves of canned beans. Today’s “panic industry” is selling sleek, high-end, climate-controlled fortresses outfitted with air filtration systems, solar panels, bullet proof doors, and enough dried food to last a year. They look more like luxury condos than survival shelters. And for seven million dollars, you can even get a moat. Of course, the article wasn't really about the bunkers themselves, though. It was about us. It was about how more and...

Miguel Castilleja Escobar

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