Welcome to the official site for The Right Reverend Matthew Davis Cowden, Bishop of West Virginia. Here you’ll find out a little more about me. Some personal, biographical, some of my favorite links, hobbies, and my trivial pursuits. I’ve had this page since the 1990’s and it’s gone through various iterations. In the early days of nascent website culture, it seemed like everyone was going to have a personal site in the future, as in the way we each have our own pocket cell phones with a personal number as well as a Facebook page or direct way of sharing our lives with some version of the public. A personal site like this one of my own name is as much a hub for contact, further information about me, reading some my materials that usually end up further down a news feed on social media, and pictures. Welcome to my little bit of real estate on the internet. +mdc
Tonight (January 6) at 7:00pm, the Rev. Nathan Self will be Instituted as Rector of St Christopher Episcopal Church.![]()
![]()
All are invited to join in this celebration of new ministry. St. Christopher is located at 821 Edgewood Drive, Charleston.
This week in our Diocesan Cycle of Prayer, we pray for Grace Church, Elkins; Grace Church, Middleway; Grace Church, St. Marys; and Grace Church, Ravenswood. ![]()
![]()
Today, the Feast of the Epiphany, we pray that we may have the strength and courage to lead others to Jesus.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Wheeling Island continued its nearly 30-year tradition of serving a free Christmas Day dinner to the community.![]()
DETAILS: tinyurl.com/yfyvcsvn?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WTRF_7News
Advent Reflections 2025![]()
Wednesday in the Fourth Week of Advent![]()
December 24, 2025![]()
by the Rev. Canon Jordan Trumble![]()
![]()
It doesn’t feel like late Advent in my house until the synth pop masterpiece “Emmanuel,”from Amy Grant’s 1983 Christmas album, is playing at top volume. It is, technically, a Christmas song; its repeated lyrics paraphrase part of the lesson from Isaiah appointed in the lectionary for Christmas and which many of us will hear read tonight or tomorrow. For me, though, this song captures the joyful anticipation of the end of Advent as we await the birth of the Christ Child. The words are simple but sung with conviction and intensity. There is joy in Grant’s voice and, as I listen and sing along, I find myself experiencing anticipatory joy and excitement for Emmanuel, for welcoming God Incarnate.![]()
![]()
Throughout Advent, we’ve heard the name Emmanuel over and over, in the hymns of the season and even in this week’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew when an angel of the Lord visits Joseph in a dream. The longing of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” builds into the angel’s message for Joseph, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’” As the weeks of Advent progress, the urgency of this message, that God is coming into the world to be with us, has only grown. ![]()
![]()
As we turn this last corner toward Christmas, how are you preparing to celebrate the Good News of Emmanuel? Are you ready to sing it out? Or to welcome the Christ Child quietly? No matter how you are preparing yourself, the Good News is unchanging: God’s promise to be with us is unwavering and eternal. Come, Emmanuel! We are ready.
Advent Reflections 2025![]()
Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent![]()
December 23, 2025![]()
by Jacob Hall![]()
![]()
In this week’s collect, we ask God to “purify our conscience by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.” At this point in the Advent season, many of us are probably struggling to make much room at all for that daily visitation. As Christmas again rapidly hurls towards us, many of us, myself included, have already put up our trees and other holiday decorations, wrapped presents, sent Christmas cards, run to the store (again) for one more gift we forgot about, tried to make it to two Christmas parties in one evening, and all the other seemingly endless tasks this wild and wonderful time of year brings us. ![]()
![]()
In the midst of the inevitable hustle and bustle of the season, it can easily begin to feel that our Advent observances, marked by our forebears of centuries ago with austere penitence and fasting, are little more for us than a change in the color of vestments at church and the annual opportunity to enjoy vigorously singing “Lo! he comes with clouds descending.” And though we will probably find ourselves unable to completely detach from all the yuletide busyness around us, we would all do well to take a note from the collect and find at least a moment to make room in some way for that daily visitation from Christ, whether by praying the Office or reading your bible, by feeding the hungry or buying gifts for poor children (just as our Lord was once a poor child himself)–even if we have to do it while wearing a Santa hat.