I'm Fr. Keith Winton, Brownell Talbot chaplain, and I'm glad to be able to tell you a bit about myself and our chapel service.
I'm the priest at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church at 84th and Pacific, and I spend my Wednesdays at BT. My wife Lisa works with non-profits, and I'm the father of three. My youngest, Bobby, just started his freshman year at Loyola University, Chicago. I'm also a chaplain at UNMC.
Brownell Talbot’s beginnings and roots are in the Episcopal Church, and as it became a separate entity from the Diocese of Nebraska, both the church and school partners wanted to ensure it would always be grounded in the values of that faith tradition. Thus a school chaplain from among the Episcopal churches in the city is part of the BT charter.
The role of a chaplain is different from that of a parish priest, and as an experienced hospital chaplain, I am more sensitive than most to the importance of providing support in an inclusive way to people of various faiths, and people with no particular faith tradition. Our chapel services include a reading, typically a reading from Christian texts (but not always...this week the reading is from the Hindu Upanishads), prayer, and a short homily, all of which are crafted to be relevant to everyone and to reinforce the core values of BT: Compassion, Integrity, Responsibility, and Respect. Chapel time is not a “world religions survey” class; it is a time to learn and think about those core values using the specific examples and wisdom of thousands of years of sacred texts.
The energy, joy, inquisitiveness, and curiosity of BT's students make Wednesday my favorite day of the week!
If you have any questions, you can reach me at [email protected].
Fr. Keith
