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The Episcopal heraldic achievement, or the bishop's coat of arms, is composed of a shield, with its charges (symbols), a motto scroll and the external ornaments. The Shield, which is central and most important feature of any heraldic device, is described (blazoned) in 12th century terms, that are archaic to our modern language, and this description is done as if being given by the bearer with the shield being worn on the arm. Thus, it must be remembered, where it applies, that the terms dexter and sinister are reversed as the device is viewed from the front.

By heraldic tradition, the arms of the bishop of a diocese, called the "Ordinary," are joined to the arms of his jurisdiction, in this case the Diocese of Orange in California.

These arms are composed of four sections. The uppermost portion of the design is blue field on which are placed a range of mountains, in black, to represent the Santa Ana Mountains. This segment is placed above a silver (white) field on which is seen an orange tree. In the third section from the top, is placed the silhouette of a mission colonnade, in black on silver (white), to honor the heritage of the Spanish missionaries who brought the Faith to the area of the California coast, which is signified by the bottom portion of the design which is blue field on which are seen the wavy silver (white) bars, used to represent the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

For his personal arms, His Excellency, Bishop Brown has retained the design that was adopted at the time that he was selected to become the Bishop of Boise, in Idaho. These arms are composed of a silver (white) field on which can be seen two gold (yellow) mountains coming forth from a base that is wavy bars of blue and silver (white). The mountains are used to signify the various Coastal Ranges of California and the blue and silver wavy bars, the heraldic representation of water, is for the Pacific Ocean, at Monterey Bay and the Big Sur region of Coastal California. The water is also used to signify that the countries of the Bishop's ancestral heritage, Denmark, Ireland, England and the Azores, are all coastal countries. The water and the mountains are the major geographic features of the Diocese of Monterey that His Excellency had the honor to serve as a priest, Moderator for the Curia, Vicar General and Chancellor until his appointment to be Bishop of Boise.

The Monterey Diocese has the honor to have within its borders the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (Carmel Mission Basilica) which is the final resting place for Blessed Junipero Serra. Tradition had it that Father Serra used a rugged, wooden cross to aid in his evangelization of the California Native Americans. Such a cross has been placed at the center of Bishop Brown's design. The cross is represented in the rare heraldic tincture of brown to cant (play-on) the Bishop's surname and by the use of this color His Excellency pays particular honor to the heritage of his parents George W. and Edna A. (Dunn) Brown. In the upper left of the Bishop's design is a crescent composed of black and gold (yellow) checks. This is the classic symbol of St. Francis Xavier, a particular patron of the Bishop, that was also the titular of the church, in Seaside, California, where the Bishop was stationed at the time of his appointment to the Diocese of Boise.

For his motto, His Excellency, Bishop Brown, uses the phrase, "COME LORD JESUS," which is taken from the Book of Revelation (Rev.22:20). By the use of this phrase, Bishop Brown expresses the deep Catholic and Christian conviction that we must invite Jesus to become a part of our everyday lives so that we may be made worthy to be the "Children of God" and be able to contribute to the building of the Kingdom of God, toward the second coming of Christ and to attain our eternal salvation, through Christ Our Lord.

The device is completed with the external ornaments which are a gold processional cross, that is placed in back of the shield and which extends above and below the shield, and with the pontifical hat, called a "gallero," with its six tassels in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See of March 31, 1969.

-Deacon Paul J. Sullivan