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The military chaplain is one of the few people trained to stand close to war without becoming part of the fight, and that tension can change everything.

In this episode, Bishop Wright has a conversation with Bishop Ann Ritonia, Bishop Suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries, about what spiritual care looks like in deployed units, VA health care facilities, and federal prisons, and why chaplains exist to help people stay whole in the middle of experiences most of us will never face.

They get practical about the day-to-day reality: providing Episcopal worship, facilitating religious support for other traditions when no clergy are available, advising commanders on the human needs inside a unit, and showing up for service members and veterans who carry trauma, grief, and moral injury. Bishop Ritonia also shares why Episcopal chaplains are formed as priests first, and how that priestly identity helps them care for all, including people who may be turned away elsewhere. Listen in for the full conversation.

The Rt. Rev. Ann Ritonia served parishes of all sizes for more than 19 years before her election as the eighth bishop suffragan for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries of The Episcopal Church. She served 17 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve, holding a range of leadership and executive roles.

Ritonia’s military honors include two Navy Commendation Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendations, and the Recruit Honor Graduate Award. She served seven years on the Chaplain Selection Committee for Armed Forces and Federal Ministries and provided spiritual direction and pastoral care to chaplains.

Mother to four adults and grandmother to Eva, Adaline, Leo, and Polly, Ritonia and her husband, Mike, live in Ellicott City, Maryland, with their two English bulldogs and golden retriever, Phoebe, Gemma and Louie.

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During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the fifth reflection: We Confess Nothing is Impossible for God. In Ezekiel 37, dry bones come to life– nothing is impossible for God. Whether you read the dry bones as literal or symbolic, the point is the same: God can revive what looks dead, even what has been desecrated and denied dignity. That raises a practical question for anyone trying to live a faith that matters: what is our role in breathing life over death? Listen in for the full conversation.

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During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the fourth reflection: We Confess We Do Not See as God Sees. What if the metrics you trust most are blinding you to the best possible choice? In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel’s search for Israel’s next king helps us uncover why patience, humility, and a long memory of God’s ways are essential for real discernment. The story refuses our love of polish and speed: seven strong candidates pass by, and the answer arrives late, smaller, and smelling like pasture. That pause—Have we seen all the sons?—becomes a model for leadership, relationships, and everyday decisions that resist convenience in favor of wisdom. Listen in for the full conversation.

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During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the third reflection: We Confess We Forget. Thirst in the desert will test any heart. Using Exodus 17, they trace the tension of freshly freed people, real dehydration, rising panic, and ask why human memory collapses right when we need it most. Their focus lands on confession as a path back to freedom: admitting that we forget and that fear tempts us to outsource our agency to leaders or systems that cannot carry our soul.

Walking through the story, they name the true cost of freedom—responsibility and agency—and sit with Moses in the uncomfortable middle between a grieving crowd and a listening God. Rather than scolding the ancestors, we let their honesty teach us. If you’re standing at the edge of a hard need—health, money, work, or grief—this conversation invites you to carry memory like water and to trust that provision may arrive from an angle you didn’t expect.

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During the season of Lent, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the second reflection: We Confess God is Our Portion. What if confession started with an inventory of abundance rather than a list of failures? Through the story of Abram and Sarai, they explore how trusting God as our portion reshapes how we understand hardship, delayed timing, and the hidden mercies of “no” and “not yet.” Listen in for the full conversation.

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Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Bishop Wright invites all to a five-week Lenten teaching series, We Confess, with weekly video meditations and study guides that frame Lent as a loving turn toward healing, renewal, and hope through honest confession. You can learn more about the series at episcopalatlanta.org/lent26.

In this week's episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the first reflection: We Confess Our Disobedience to God. Starting with Genesis 2–3 as a living paradigm, they unpack why humans reach for control even when life is abundant, and how that refusal to submit to God’s words and ways leads to guilt, isolation, and disobedience. The aim isn’t to scold; it’s to show a path home. Listen in for the full conversation.

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What if the friends you need for today’s troubles include people from yesterday’s pages? Jesus' transfiguration points to a friendship that bridges time. It unites Jesus with Moses and Elijah to steady him for the hard road ahead. From that mountaintop, we explore how spiritual companions—ancestors in faith and the neighbors at our table—help us move through division, loneliness, and the loud churn of public life without losing our center.

In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the transfiguration and friendship. From that mountaintop, they explore how spiritual companions—ancestors in faith and the neighbors at our table—help us move through division, loneliness, and the loud churn of public life without losing our center. Listen in for the full conversation.

Read For Faith, the companion devotional.

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What if the most political act in history was God taking on human flesh? In this episode, Bishop Wright has a conversation with former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to explore what it means to follow Jesus in a complex, pluralistic, and politically charged world.

Drawing on the Incarnation, John 14, and decades of global ministry, Welby reflects on human dignity, solidarity with all people, and why an apolitical Jesus is no savior at all. From interfaith neighborliness to immigration, public witness, and the courage required of the church today, this episode invites listeners to imagine a faith rooted in Christ, lived boldly in context, and marked by hope, humility, and love. The claim is simple and bracing: following Jesus means honoring the dignity of every person and showing up where life is fragile, complicated, and real. Listen in for the full conversation.

Justin Welby was Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Communion from 2013 to 2024. Born in London in 1956, he was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied history and law. For 11 years—five in Paris and six in London—he worked in the oil industry; his booklet, Can Companies Sin?, drew on this corporate experience and evolved from his dissertation at theological college. He was Bishop of Durham, Dean of Liverpool Cathedral, and Canon of Coventry Cathedral, whose international reconciliation work he led for five years. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he set three priorities for his ministry: a renewal of prayer and religious communities across the Church; supporting churches and Christians to be agents of reconciliation and peace-making in places of conflict; and encouraging and inspiring Christians to share their faith.

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