2304 2rd Ave Street Kearney, Nebraska 68847, United States
Loving, Liberating and Life-giving.
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble,
He is here
Welcome Father Christopher Szarke
Welcome Father Christopher Szarke
Welcome Father Christopher Szarke
Father Christopher Szarke became the rector of St. Luke's in September 2025, following rector positions in Utah and Maine; serving as a hospital and nursing home chaplain in Minnesota, California, and New York; and two decades working for nonprofit organizations. His passions in parish ministry include worship and preaching, pastoral care, faith formation, fellowship, and connections between the parish and the larger community. As rector at his previous parish, he regularly met with people discerning their call to lay and ordained ministry and prepared lay parishioners to serve as Eucharistic visitors, licensed lay worship leaders, and licensed lay preachers. He focuses on how to continue to support the development of ministries of the lay people, deacons, and retired priests at St. Luke's.
He has been active in his previous dioceses with diocesan leadership, including the Commission on Ministry, Standing Committee, Bishop Search Committee, facilitating the courses in Theology and Ethics and Pastoral Care at the Tuttle School for Discipleship and Ministry, serving as Deputy to General Convention in 2022 and 2024, and being the camp chaplain several times at the Utah and Maine diocesan youth camps, and looks forwards to ways he may be called to serve in this diocese.
Father Christopher's spiritual path includes having been a novice with both the Benedictine and Franciscan orders before entering the Anglican Studies Program at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta and completing his Master of Divinity Degree. He will complete his certificate at Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction in Tucson, Arizona, in the spring of 2026. His previous education included spiritual direction training at the Spiritual Renewal Center in Syracuse, New York, and a Master of Arts from the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, California, where his professors included Matthew Fox, Sister Jose Hobday, Jeremy Taylor and many others.
He completed 609 miles of walking pilgrimages in 2023: 55 miles on the Jesus Trail from Nazareth to Capernaun, 389 miles on St. Olavsleden across Sweden to Trondheim, Norway, and 165 miles on the Camino de Santiago from Porto, Portugal to Santigo, Spain. His next pilgrimage will be walking 155 miles from Assisi to Rome, Italy.
Father Christopher comes from a large family, mostly living in the Midwest, being the firstborn of seven, uncle to 22 nieces and nephews, great-uncle to 12, and enjoys being within a day's drive of them again.
Father Christopher
Welcome Father Christopher Szarke
Welcome Father Christopher Szarke
Former Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Father Christopher at St George's Catherdal, Jerusalem, Good Friday 2018
Welcome to St. Luke's Episcopal Church Church
Join us Any Sunday, 8 AM or 10:30 AM
Live-streamed services can be found on
You Tube Channel: Saint Lukes Episcopal Church Kearney
Life at St Luke's
SUNDAY SERVICES
SUNDAY SERVICES
Sunday Worship Times
Communion for all believers always celebrated.
8:00 AM In the serene silence of the
Chapel of the Good Shepherd
10:30 AM In the nave of Saint Luke's
with processional, hymn singing,
and the ministries of the
Band, Choir, Organ and a Children's Sermon.
This service is also live-streamed
for online viewing
Services can be found on YouTube.
Search Saint Lukes Episcopal Church, Kearney for video services.
MAP-EMAIL-PHONE
SUNDAY SERVICES
SAINT LUKE'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
KEARNEY, NE
We are on the corners of
2nd Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets
Note the black Cross on the Map Above
Entrances on both 24th Street and the alley to the west are handicap accessible,
(though the alley door is heavy.)
The entrance to the church on 23rd Street is not handicap accessible because of the stairs.
Email: kearneyreddoorchurch@gmail.com
(note 2 d's)
Phone: (308) 236-5821
Every Member is Encouraged to Be a Leader in Worship
Worship at Saint Lukes is truly
"the work of the people."
On average 30 lay people are engaged in serving as ushers, greeters, acolytes, ministers of the chalice, playing in the band or on the organ, singing in the choir, editing the live stream, reading the scriptures, leading the prayers, setting the altar, baking the bead, and managing the sound board,
The three clergy provide liturgical leadership and the message for the day.
There is a place of leadership in worship
for everyone who desires to serve at Saint Luke's,
CELEBRATION OF AMERICA
JULY FOURTH HYMN SING 1 1 !
Every year we celebrate this great country with song, poetry and historical readings. During the pandemic we were unable to gather, so the usual singers, musicians and readers gathered to record the event in three separate videos. The clip above is a selection of a few of the numbers from that library of videos. Click on the arrow above to watch our service commemorating the history of our nation.
And make your plans this year to join us on July 4th.
TUESDAY NOON PRAYER
TUESDAY NOON PRAYER
If you have prayer requests,
please email them to : kearneyreddoorchurch@gmail.com
and your Tuesday Prayer group
will lift them up to God.
When you attend the service,
you may fill out the prayer card in your bulletin and place it in the offering plate.
If you would like the person prayed for to receive a card indicating that, "Prayers were said for you today in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at Saint Luke's," please include that person's address on the prayercard.
If you want to join us in prayer for the sick and troubled, call 308-236-5821.
About Us - A Community Committed to Care and to Love
Glorious Worship
Majestic Pipe Organ
Majestic Pipe Organ
We welcome everyone. We welcome you.
:Every service is prayerfully planned and prepared by the clergy and musicians to highlight the message of the Gospel reading, and the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Psalms. These readings are complimentary and therefore put together in the lectionary. We listen to
We welcome everyone. We welcome you.
:Every service is prayerfully planned and prepared by the clergy and musicians to highlight the message of the Gospel reading, and the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Psalms. These readings are complimentary and therefore put together in the lectionary. We listen to hear what the Spirit is saying through these texts to the church and the world today.
In addition to our efforts to communicate these texts, every effort is also made to hallow the space, creating that spiritual atmosphere that draws us into the Presence of God, the only true interpreter of scripture.
At least thirty different members assume roles in the leadership of the services and the preparation of our worship space every week, All these energies collect us into the place of Holy Communion. and provide a rich tapestry in this symphony to and with God that is called Worship.
Majestic Pipe Organ
Majestic Pipe Organ
Majestic Pipe Organ
Nearly every Sunday Morning the powerful music of the pipe organ, played skillfully and passionately by Dr. Marilyn Musick, fills the church with sacred music. Public organ recitals are a regular feature of our outreach.
Communion for All
Majestic Pipe Organ
Communion for All
EVERYONE IS WELCOME to come and receive at the Lord's Table at St. Luke's.
We are the Episcopal Church, but we do not consider the altar to be an Episcopal Table,
It belongs to the Lord..
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness. All those who hear his call are welcome to come.
Support the Work of God through St. Luke's Ministries
Your generous support will enable us to continue meeting the deep human need for spiritual education, practice, prayer and worship, as well as our many missions of service to the poor, the stranded, the sick and the elderly.
Resources
Newly Published Blog
Where is the Love?
Where is the Love?
A sermon by the Reverend Stephanie Swinnea, 08/01/2021 published 04/23/2023.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Way is love. The Truth is love. The Life is love.
We continue today with a story of deceit, manipulation, violence and murder. We’re talking about King David? Who scriptures say was a man after God’s own heart? Where did it all begin?
“If you swallow a lie, the lie will swallow you. If you raise up the truth, the truth will raise you up.” Stephanie Swinnea
David was a man of mixed motives - as we all are. He wanted to be righteous. He wanted to have a good relationship with God. But he wanted other things as well, and he was willing to rationalize to justify his actions.
He wanted Bathsheba, another man’s wife. He had no right to her. But then, he was the King. And what kind of husband could Uriah have been? Hummph! He wasn’t even an Israelite! But a Hittite! A woman that beautiful certainly deserved better, if only for an evening. And after all, he was King!
David lied to himself to justify his sin.
There is a saying that every inmate is innocent, because most swallow a lie to justify their actions. Villains don’t believe themselves to be villains. But if you swallow a lie, in time, it will swallow you.
The voice of scripture calls to us: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”?
The violence David did to Bathsheba and Uriah was ultimately visited upon David. There were immediate consequences. But even later his beloved son Absalom, revolted against David, presuming to take what was not his, both the kingdom and David’s own wives. After fomenting civil war, Absalom took the palace and visited violence upon David’s wives. But he was killed in battle before he could take the kingdom. It was a profoundly empty victory for David, who grieved so deeply for the loss of his son, that his warriors could not even celebrate their victory.
God may have forgiven David his lies and violence, but David still came to reap what he had sown. He had swallowed lies, and those lies swallowed him.
If David had checked himself with one little question before every decision he would have saved himself so much grief and gained so much respect and love. One little question, “Where is the love?”
Love would have prevented him from despising the noble Hittite. Love would have prevented him from demanding from Bathsheba, what he had no right to demand. Love would have prevented him from murdering an innocent and loyal subject for the sake of convenience. “Where was the love?”
Love opens our eyes to truth, which allows us to recognize the justifications we make, based on lies that we tell ourselves. “If we swallow a lie, the lie will swallow us. But if we raise up the truth, the truth will raise us up.”
Jesus is the WAY, and that way is love.
Jesus is the TRUTH, and that truth is love.
Jesus is the LIFE, and that life is love.
We can all do good, even great things, but what counts with God is what we have done for love. That is the bottom line for righteousness with God.
Scripture says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way is death.” And, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge the Lord and he will direct your path.”
The Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians,
“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of GOD’S glory, that YOU MAY BE STRENGTHENED in your inner being with POWER through his SPIRIT, and that CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in LOVE.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
We have been given the power to love. Paul’s prayer has been answered. God has given us inner power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell within us and root and ground us in LOVE.
The way is love. The truth is love. The life is love.
When the Pharisees had accused Jesus of working miracles in the service of Beelzebub, prince of devils, Jesus told them they were liars and children of their father, the devil, who is the prince of lies.
So we know where deceit, innuendo, slander, malicious gossip, half-truth and dishonesty come from, the father of lies.
Seek single-mindedly and whole-heartedly, therefore, to love God and all that God has made. Let love open our hearts and minds to truth, to the way and to life. Let this be standard that guards our hearts and our faith forever: “Lord Jesus, where is the love? Show me the love, and I will follow.”
AMEN.
Mother Stephanie Swinnea