A Journey to Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging

Jon: 00:00:12

/Welcome to Good News being brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren: 00:00:17

We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek Deacons in the

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Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

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We sure are.

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And today we are bringing you some good news from our

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special guest, the Reverend Dr.

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Brandt Montgomery, who's the chaplain of Saint James School and

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the Vicar at Saint Mark's Lappans.

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Brandt has previously served at the Episcopal Church of the

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Ascension in Lafayette, Louisiana as Chaplain of Ascension Episcopal

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School from 2014 to 2017.

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And then as associate Rector and all school chaplain from 2017 to 2019,

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from 2012 to 2014, Father Montgomery was the curate at Canterbury Episcopal

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Chapel and Student Center at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

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Father Montgomery's scholarly interests lie in the areas of American religious

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history, Episcopal church history.

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The Oxford movement and Anglo Catholicism, the Civil Rights

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movement and practical theology.

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Wow.

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That's quite a breadth of academic interests, Brandt., welcome.

Jon: 00:01:32

We're so glad to have you today.

Brandt: 00:01:35

Thank you.

Brandt: 00:01:36

I'm very happy to be here and looking forward to this conversation,

Brandt: 00:01:39

and thank you for having me on.

Lauren: 00:01:41

We're really looking forward to our conversation together.

Lauren: 00:01:45

Brandt, tell us about your work as chaplain at Saint James School.

Brandt: 00:01:52

Well being the chaplain of Saint James School, I would say is

Brandt: 00:01:56

one of the greatest jobs that I have.

Brandt: 00:01:59

The other greatest job I would say now as being vicar of Saint Mark's Lappans.

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But being chaplain at Saint James is a very interesting Experience

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in that Saint James School, we are a very unique boarding school.

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We were established here in Hagerstown, Maryland.

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We've been on the same plot of land since 1842.

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And we were established primarily to help advance the principles

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of the Oxford movement.

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Among young children.

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And so our chapel routine every day pretty much keeps to that same model

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that our original founders kept.

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So we begin Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

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with 8:00 AM chapel every day.

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All the students, all the faculty, all the administration.

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We are there together in the school chapel.

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And it's a wonderful experience to be able to be part of that.

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And in addition to all of my chapel duties, helping the headmaster

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lead those I teach American history here at Saint James.

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I teach African American history as well, a class which I started here.

Brandt: 00:03:07

At the school just this year it was in its first run and it was very successful.

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So we're gonna do it again next year.

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And I taught a little bit of modern European history for about a month

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toward the end of the school year.

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We had a faculty member who retired early.

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So they asked me to take one of his sections for the last month.

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And and I did okay with it.

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And I also am in charge of the service learning program here.

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So we have a service learning requirement for.

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All of our students to graduate.

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So it's 15 hours for every year that they are enrolled here at Saint James.

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And so for most students here at Saint James, that is 60 because we have eighth

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through 12th graders, or second through sixth formers, as we would say here.

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They have to, in a way go through me in order to be sure that they

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graduate cuz I oversee all those hours, make sure that they're done.

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So I have a lot of responsibilities here.

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I wear a lot of hats.

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And, and another thing that I do is that I co-chair with our associate head and

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academic dean our faculty Diversity, Equity inclusion and Belonging committee.

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And we've started a lot of good conversations among our student

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body about several different.

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Aspects of community life that we would like for them to address

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and to begin to think about in a very cool, calm and collected way.

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How can we have respectful conversation among each other?

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And so it's been very good joy to be able to help lead in those initiatives here.

Brandt: 00:04:43

So but I would say, Just having the opportunity, most importantly to

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be a priest in a boarding school aspect where the students, they

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live here, they live in community.

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Being able to have those relationships with them outside of the classroom

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like overseeing dorm duty one night a week having seated meals with

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them in the refactory going to their athletic games and supporting them,

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having my advisees over one night a week for like pizza that I fix, or

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apple pie or something like that, and just, just hanging out with them.

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That is where the real impact lies.

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And so I feel myself very blessed to be able to be a priest

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in this kind of environment.

Jon: 00:05:34

Oh, that, that is great.

Jon: 00:05:36

I was listening to you at the beginning hearing about your academic

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credentials and the courses that you're teaching at Saint James School.

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As you talked about that a bit more, I was really beginning to

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realize the relationships that you form with, I'm assuming the other

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faculty as well as the students?

Brandt: 00:05:56

Yes.

Brandt: 00:05:56

We, we really are, we really are a collegial bunch and we really emphasize

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that this really is a team effort.

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We, we aren't just on our own.

Brandt: 00:06:06

It takes all of us together to make this work.

Jon: 00:06:09

Yeah.

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And you were talking about the diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging . Right.

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And you're bringing that to Saint James or you have started to bring that.

Jon: 00:06:19

Could you describe that a little bit, how that journey

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has been and how that's going?

Brandt: 00:06:25

Well, how the committee came about in the first place

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was in the summer of 2020.

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Of course we remember that was a summer where there was a lot of unfortunate

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racial strife going on in the country.

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We had, you know, the killings of Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.

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It was just a lot of lot of unfortunate racial things happening.

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And our headmaster here, Father Dunnananan who's going to be starting his 32nd year

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here next year he wrote a letter to the community to say that yes, we are very.

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Concerned about all the things that are happening here.

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And he wrote in that letter that we reinforce how we are very proud

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and very supportive of all of our students and our faculty of color here.

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And that they are loved and that they're respected.

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And some of our younger alumni, they wrote a politeful letter back to Father

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Dunnan open letter saying, you know there were some experiences that were happening

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here among Saint James that we felt.

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Really didn't honor the cultural heritage and traditions of

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a lot of our student bodies.

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So we encourage you, Father, to really evaluate how the school can be better.

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And so he wrote another open letter to saying, okay, yes,

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we, we are going to do that.

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And so one of those initiatives was the creation of a faculty diversity committee.

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And he asked me to be the chair of it.

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And then when our associate head came on, that's here now,

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she joined me as co-chair.

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And through that journey, we've been able to do a lot of important

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work here at Saint James.

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We've been made sure to do is to explain to a lot of our, you know, older

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alumni who perhaps may have had some concerns about us talking about this,

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how talking about issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

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This actually goes along with the way of Jesus.

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Jesus has been doing this and talking about this for long, long, long

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time, and so, Basically this is part of the tradition of the church.

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And so they don't need to be concerned about that, about they don't want

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the tradition of the school changing.

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And it's not changing.

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We're just going along with what has been the tradition

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of the church for a long time.

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Just, just coming to the realization of that.

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And so we have done things like having these respectful conversations also in

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light of The 2024 presidential election coming up because when now former

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President Trump was running against Secretary Clinton for the presidency,

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apparently there were some issues that came up with that, which the

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faculty were not equipped to deal with.

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And so, Remembering that and not wanting to go down that road again.

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We've been having these conversations.

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We now have unisex bathrooms in several of our academic buildings here on campus.

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So.

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We have a language policy, which allows for more of our international students

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to be able to have opportunities to speak their native language among themselves

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when they're not necessarily like in the classroom or in any other major

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community atmosphere because it's hard to be able to be an international student.

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In an American school and having to, you know, hear something, translate it in

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your head and then try to speak it out.

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And so that language policy makes it more open and more allowed in a way

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that a lot of our international students felt that they felt constrained for.

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Very happy about that.

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And we also came up with a diversity statement.

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The first ever diversity statement that the school ever had, ever.

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And that was at the encouragement of our accrediting body at their

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last accreditation visit to us.

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They said, we, you really need to do this.

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And so the faculty diversity committee was charged with coming up with a draft of it.

Brandt: 00:10:28

The board of trustees tweaked it a little bit, and then what we have now,

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that is the diversity statement, but our committee helped bring about that.

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So there have been some things that have been very good, very well done,

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and that have been very well received.

Brandt: 00:10:41

I'm very happy to say that.

Jon: 00:10:43

And a lot of work.

Jon: 00:10:44

It sounds like

Brandt: 00:10:46

a lot of work.

Brandt: 00:10:46

And I have a lot of good people on the diversity committee who are

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very good people to work with, and they really are committed to this.

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And so Saint James has really been doing a lot of good things, and it's on

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the way to being an even more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and belonging

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per place than it already has been.

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So

Lauren: 00:11:08

Brandt, the students must have been really grateful to be able for the

Lauren: 00:11:12

first time, to speak their truth and, and know that they were gonna be heard.

Lauren: 00:11:18

All of them that that sounds really wonderful.

Lauren: 00:11:23

So was there anything that surprised you while you were going through this process?

Brandt: 00:11:30

I would just say cuz, well, I thought that we were gonna have a little

Brandt: 00:11:34

bit more blow back and push back than we originally did, but actually we didn't.

Brandt: 00:11:38

And that just goes to show just what I've been seeing all along, especially

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from younger generations of people, younger generations of faculty, that

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they are yearning for the world to be a reflection of what it actually is.

Brandt: 00:11:53

A very diverse, equitable, and inclusive place.

Brandt: 00:11:57

The Pew Research Center, I believe, came out with some statistics a couple of

Brandt: 00:12:01

years ago that said that 49% of of current children, like seven to 18, 49% of them

Brandt: 00:12:12

around the world are racially not white.

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And so this generation coming up is very diverse.

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And so when it comes to talking about gradualism and wanting to, you know, get

Brandt: 00:12:25

to certain things and everything like that, that's not gonna fly with them.

Brandt: 00:12:28

I mean, they want to be recognized for who they are now, and they

Brandt: 00:12:32

don't wanna wait for that.

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And I can understand that.

Brandt: 00:12:35

I see that and I recognize that in them.

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And so I.

Brandt: 00:12:40

Being that we haven't gotten a lot of, you know, blow back on what we've

Brandt: 00:12:43

been trying to do, that shows that a lot of people recognize that here.

Brandt: 00:12:46

And so that, that's been a very pleasant surprise to see.

Jon: 00:12:51

When we're talking to people and one reason we really did wanna speak

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with you Brandt, is we're looking for people that are making a difference.

Jon: 00:12:57

And it sounds like you sure are making a significant difference in

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the lives of the students no matter what, what they are and who they are.

Jon: 00:13:06

So that, that's that's great.

Jon: 00:13:08

That is actually,

Brandt: 00:13:09

and one, and one of the gifts that Saint James brings to Washington,

Brandt: 00:13:11

cuz we're in Washington County, Maryland.

Brandt: 00:13:13

Here and we've oftentimes been called the best kept secret of Washington County.

Brandt: 00:13:18

Cuz oftentimes when I go into Hagerstown into the town and I tell them I'm the

Brandt: 00:13:22

chaplain of Saint James School and everything like that, they have no

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idea that the school has been here.

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And some of them are lifelong residents of Washington County,

Brandt: 00:13:31

Maryland never even knew about school.

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And so one of the Great things that I believe Saint James offers is the strong

Brandt: 00:13:43

diversity among our student body and in our faculty, like among our students.

Brandt: 00:13:47

This year we had, I believe, 30 international countries and 17 American

Brandt: 00:13:53

states represented among our student body, 30 international countries.

Brandt: 00:13:58

And and so we, we really are in my view, A pictorial image of

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what the kingdom of God really is.

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And so not only are we Anglo-Catholic in our liturgical aspect here

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at Saint James, but we are, you know, catholic in our makeup.

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So we really try to emphasize how we really, you know embody the full

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expression of what catholicity is.

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And among our student body we have of course Christians here, but we

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also have a few Muslim students and we made allowance for them to

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celebrate Ramadan when that happened.

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We have several Jewish students here.

Brandt: 00:14:39

We've had Sikh students before.

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We've had Buddhist students and never before have they felt that

Brandt: 00:14:46

the school was forcing them to be any other way than what they were.

Brandt: 00:14:51

And so that is a testament to how we really take catholicity seriously.

Jon: 00:14:56

So, Well, that's, that's impressive I admit, I was surprised when I went

Jon: 00:15:00

out to the it might have been your Facebook page and saw some graduation

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pictures and I thought, I had no idea.

Jon: 00:15:07

But first of all, it was even co-ed.

Jon: 00:15:09

But then also to see the diversity this with all the different skin

Jon: 00:15:13

tones that were represented there.

Jon: 00:15:15

That was, that was.

Jon: 00:15:16

Very surprising to me.

Brandt: 00:15:17

Right.

Brandt: 00:15:18

And our students really enjoy being with each other.

Brandt: 00:15:20

Yeah, they really do.

Brandt: 00:15:22

Cuz I'm, I'm right now, from what I understand, we have like

Brandt: 00:15:25

236 students right now coming into the school next year.

Brandt: 00:15:29

So for us, that's a very good number.

Brandt: 00:15:31

But with us being such a small student body, all the students get to know

Brandt: 00:15:36

each other on a personal level.

Brandt: 00:15:38

And in the classroom we have enough numbers in our classroom where

Brandt: 00:15:42

we can have a good relationship with each of our students.

Brandt: 00:15:45

And so how we love each other is very genuine and it's

Brandt: 00:15:49

good to be able to see that.

Jon: 00:15:51

Yeah.

Jon: 00:15:52

That's fantastic.

Jon: 00:15:53

So, Brandt, can I ask you just for a moment to think about what

Jon: 00:15:58

this experience has meant for you personally on your faith journey?

Jon: 00:16:02

How has it actually affected your heart or, or your understanding

Jon: 00:16:07

of your call to priesthood or your understanding of what our presiding

Jon: 00:16:11

bishop talks about the community of love?

Jon: 00:16:13

It sounds like you're embodying that, but what do you, what, what,

Jon: 00:16:16

how's this affecting you as a, as a human being, as a black priest?

Brandt: 00:16:20

Oh, oh, oh, yes.

Brandt: 00:16:21

Thank you very much.

Brandt: 00:16:23

Oh, that.

Brandt: 00:16:23

So yes.

Brandt: 00:16:24

Well, I went to an Episcopal school for one year when in, when I was in

Brandt: 00:16:28

the seventh grade in my hometown.

Brandt: 00:16:30

And the reason I didn't go back was cause all of my classmates,

Brandt: 00:16:35

it was a small school.

Brandt: 00:16:36

All of my classmates in the seventh grade, they had left the school.

Brandt: 00:16:39

They had gone back.

Brandt: 00:16:40

I wanted to go back, but the, my hometown priest at the time, He didn't

Brandt: 00:16:45

want me to be in a grade by myself.

Brandt: 00:16:47

And so he said, I recommend that, you know, Brandt leave

Brandt: 00:16:51

the school was results of that.

Brandt: 00:16:52

So, you know, he was really caring about me.

Brandt: 00:16:54

I was mad as, but, but I understood where he was coming from.

Brandt: 00:16:59

He did not want me to be in a form by myself.

Brandt: 00:17:01

So, but, but that seventh grade year in an Episcopal school really

Brandt: 00:17:06

changed my life for the better.

Brandt: 00:17:09

It was where I was first introduced.

Brandt: 00:17:11

To the Anglican tradition to the Episcopal Church.

Brandt: 00:17:14

First time I experienced the liturgy as we do, and it really caused me to see God in

Brandt: 00:17:21

the new light that I had not seen before.

Brandt: 00:17:24

And so as a seventh grader, I was very much weird in

Brandt: 00:17:27

that I loved going to chapel.

Brandt: 00:17:30

I loved going to morning prayer in the morning.

Brandt: 00:17:34

I enjoyed the Eucharist I loved the old hymns because it was feeding me.

Brandt: 00:17:39

In a way that I needed.

Brandt: 00:17:41

And so I started attending the Episcopal church because of that.

Brandt: 00:17:45

And so my hometown priest, after a while, he began to talk to me about Brandt,

Brandt: 00:17:50

have you thought about ordained ministry?

Brandt: 00:17:53

Yeah.

Brandt: 00:17:54

And that's where I began thinking about it.

Brandt: 00:17:57

And so as I was going through college, the call was, you know, Still there with me

Brandt: 00:18:04

over and over and over again to it after college, I said, okay, I'm gonna do this.

Brandt: 00:18:09

And so I went through the ordination process in the Diocese

Brandt: 00:18:11

of Alabama and they put me forward and and the rest is history.

Brandt: 00:18:17

And so now being here at Saint James, this, which is now my second private

Brandt: 00:18:24

school, but my third educational institution to serve as a priest it

Brandt: 00:18:28

really shows me how important the church's schools are to the wider

Brandt: 00:18:35

evangelistic outpost of the church.

Brandt: 00:18:40

And to again, be able to have this opportunity.

Brandt: 00:18:44

To help spread the good news in an academic way to show, you know, how

Brandt: 00:18:50

God truly is love for all people, and especially in a boarding school setting.

Brandt: 00:18:56

It really has affected me in a very good way.

Brandt: 00:19:00

It has brought life to me and my priesthood in ways that I.

Brandt: 00:19:07

It's hard to put into words sometimes, but it really is, is just a sheer

Brandt: 00:19:12

joy to be able to do that and to have those deep conversations

Brandt: 00:19:18

with students that when they're searching and when they're thinking.

Brandt: 00:19:23

And especially here in the boarding school when kids are away from home

Brandt: 00:19:28

and we are basically functioning in loco parentis to these kids, you know.

Brandt: 00:19:37

They began to think about these things a little bit earlier than

Brandt: 00:19:39

your, like, say your college students.

Brandt: 00:19:42

Do.

Brandt: 00:19:43

And just to be able to have those experiences with

Brandt: 00:19:46

them has been very joyous.

Brandt: 00:19:48

And one of my great privileges that I get to do here at Saint James, in

Brandt: 00:19:51

addition to all the other stuff that I've done, is that I get to teach

Brandt: 00:19:54

the confirmation class here at Saint

Brandt: 00:19:56

James every year.

Brandt: 00:19:58

So this year we had 11 go through the class.

Brandt: 00:20:03

One of them even told me, you know, that felt real.

Brandt: 00:20:07

That felt real.

Brandt: 00:20:09

And, and that was, and that was a fifth former a junior here at

Brandt: 00:20:13

Saint James who told us that.

Brandt: 00:20:15

And so experiencing that call, And and having that call just really

Brandt: 00:20:22

come out and to be reinforced through my service here at Saint

Brandt: 00:20:27

James, it really lets me know I'm glad to be doing this.

Brandt: 00:20:30

I can't see myself doing anything else other than what I'm doing.

Brandt: 00:20:36

It really gives me life that I'm humbled and proud beyond

Brandt: 00:20:41

measure to be able to do it.

Brandt: 00:20:43

And and you asked how this is has affected me as a black priest there have at my

Brandt: 00:20:52

previous school before I came to Saint

Brandt: 00:20:54

James there were some issues that I stepped into there that necessarily

Brandt: 00:21:00

weren't good and that, you know there were some times in which the students

Brandt: 00:21:06

let me know in certain ways that.

Brandt: 00:21:09

They did not want me there.

Brandt: 00:21:11

For example very early on in my time as I was walking to my office one morning,

Brandt: 00:21:18

and this again at my previous school, I had KKK literature on my desk found there

Brandt: 00:21:24

and and that was a rattling experience and went the rector at my previous church.

Brandt: 00:21:31

When he found out about it, he said, Brandt, you are fine.

Brandt: 00:21:34

I'm glad that you're here.

Brandt: 00:21:36

I've got your back.

Brandt: 00:21:37

The church has got your back.

Brandt: 00:21:39

We are glad that you are here.

Brandt: 00:21:40

So he definitely supported me through that cuz I almost said, okay, okay, if

Brandt: 00:21:45

they don't want me here, I will leave.

Brandt: 00:21:47

But he had my back and a very good thing, you know, in connection to that.

Brandt: 00:21:53

It was about a year ago now, I would say.

Brandt: 00:21:56

I had the student who was one of the people that did that, he called me and

Brandt: 00:22:02

he said, Father, that was one of the stupidest things I ever did in my life.

Brandt: 00:22:06

Mm, it has, yeah, it has haunted me ever since.

Brandt: 00:22:09

And I just had to call you and say, I'm sorry.

Brandt: 00:22:13

And so, and, and he said that, you know, the way that I still loved him

Brandt: 00:22:18

through all that remained with him.

Brandt: 00:22:21

And so I would say as a black priest, that's one of the things

Brandt: 00:22:26

that I've seen later on that hopefully I've been able to help.

Brandt: 00:22:33

You know, just other people see just the wide breadth and diversity and

Brandt: 00:22:38

just the wideness of God's mercy.

Brandt: 00:22:39

The wideness of God's love, the wideness of God's community.

Brandt: 00:22:43

And I just consider myself to be a priest of the church who just so

Brandt: 00:22:49

happens to be black and all that.

Jon: 00:22:51

Yeah.

Jon: 00:22:52

Yeah.

Jon: 00:22:53

Well, you are a gift to the church.

Jon: 00:22:55

You're a gift to the youth.

Jon: 00:22:57

You're gift to all of us.

Jon: 00:22:58

I just, I'm so grateful for for everything you're doing.

Brandt: 00:23:02

Well, thank you.

Brandt: 00:23:03

Thank you very much.

Brandt: 00:23:04

And, and so, but, but my previous school and going through all that, it, it

Brandt: 00:23:07

prepared me for my life here at Saint

Brandt: 00:23:10

James and I've been very fortunate to be here.

Brandt: 00:23:13

I've been here four years at Saint James and next year will be my fifth year.

Brandt: 00:23:17

And hopefully I'll be here for a good bit more to come.

Brandt: 00:23:21

God willing.

Lauren: 00:23:23

We hope you will be too.

Lauren: 00:23:25

Brandt.

Lauren: 00:23:25

You have a wide variety of interests.

Lauren: 00:23:28

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Brandt: 00:23:31

Well I really do.

Brandt: 00:23:34

You know, I really do enjoy my academic ministry.

Brandt: 00:23:37

I'm a church historian and I always tell my students when I, you know,

Brandt: 00:23:43

teach my history classes that history.

Brandt: 00:23:45

It is a story and it's a story with a purpose.

Brandt: 00:23:49

It is a story that we are meant to look at, to really, seriously look

Brandt: 00:23:53

at so that we could be better people ourselves, so that when we look at

Brandt: 00:23:59

our past, we can say, okay, well these are good things that we can keep.

Brandt: 00:24:02

These are some bad things we don't need to do again.

Brandt: 00:24:04

And so it's very important that we remember our history.

Brandt: 00:24:08

And in that, not only as a historian, but as a priest, I try to just be able

Brandt: 00:24:13

to do that among the young people and everybody here that that I serve, let

Brandt: 00:24:19

us be mindful of who it is that we are.

Brandt: 00:24:23

Be mindful of whos we are so that we can be the best people that

Brandt: 00:24:28

God has yearned for us to be.

Brandt: 00:24:33

Mm-hmm.

Jon: 00:24:36

Amen to that.

Jon: 00:24:38

So Brandt I'm sure people will be interested in learning a little bit more

Jon: 00:24:43

about Saint James School and perhaps about Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Lappans.

Jon: 00:24:49

And so we'll put in our show notes.

Jon: 00:24:52

There will be internet links, the URLs for both of those in case people

Jon: 00:24:57

wanna find out more, or I assume they could contact you through email

Jon: 00:25:01

through one of those organizations.

Brandt: 00:25:03

Oh, yeah, that'd be great.

Brandt: 00:25:05

You may.

Brandt: 00:25:06

Go ahead.

Brandt: 00:25:07

I just was say, one interesting thing I wanted to mention about Saint Mark's and

Brandt: 00:25:11

Saint James, there is a connection there.

Brandt: 00:25:15

Whereas, you know, a lot of churches they found schools to be outgrowths

Brandt: 00:25:20

of their of their parish institutions.

Brandt: 00:25:24

Saint Mark's Church is.

Brandt: 00:25:26

As far as I know, it is the only parish church in the Diocese of

Brandt: 00:25:30

Maryland that was founded by a school.

Brandt: 00:25:34

The College of Saint James, which is now Saint James School.

Brandt: 00:25:36

It founded Saint Mark's Church in the late 1840s to be kind of like the

Brandt: 00:25:43

school's missionary outpost in this area of Washington County, Maryland.

Brandt: 00:25:48

And over the years, there have been several Saint James.

Brandt: 00:25:52

School clergy who have been directors and priest in charge of Saint

Brandt: 00:25:56

Mark's.

Brandt: 00:25:57

And so me being the vicar of Saint mark's has been a way of kind of

Brandt: 00:26:02

reestablishing that historic relationship between the school and the church.

Brandt: 00:26:07

And so I'm very happy to be able to step back into parish ministry in, in a

Brandt: 00:26:13

bit of a way and to be able to do that.

Brandt: 00:26:14

And I'm, I'm loving it.

Jon: 00:26:17

That's great.

Jon: 00:26:18

And I'm sure they're you've been there, what, for about a month?

Jon: 00:26:20

I'm sure they're already probably a month.

Jon: 00:26:22

Yeah.

Jon: 00:26:23

They're probably already loving you is my guess.

Brandt: 00:26:25

I'm, I'm, I'm feeling it.

Brandt: 00:26:27

I'm feeling the love from 'em.

Jon: 00:26:28

Yeah.

Jon: 00:26:29

Oh, that's great.

Jon: 00:26:29

That's great.

Jon: 00:26:30

Brandt, once again, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

Jon: 00:26:33

This has been a, just an amazing conversation

Brandt: 00:26:37

and thank you very much.

Brandt: 00:26:38

Thank you both for, for having me.

Brandt: 00:26:39

I've enjoyed it.

Lauren: 00:26:40

It was wonderful to have you, Brandt, and Jon.

Lauren: 00:26:44

And I also want to thank.

Lauren: 00:26:46

All who are watching and listening, we cannot spread good

Lauren: 00:26:51

news without your participation.

Lauren: 00:26:53

Please take a moment to comment, like, and share on all your social media

Lauren: 00:27:01

platforms that will help us spread the good news to even more people.

Lauren: 00:27:06

And again, thank you for the gift of your time with us today.

Lauren: 00:27:10

Until next time, peace and blessings.

Jon: 00:27:17

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Jon: 00:27:20

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Jon: 00:27:26

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