Reminder...

Canterbury@U.L.M. Holy Eucharist today at 5:30 p.m. Mother Dawnell will celebrate and Father Whit will preach. We sure hope to see you there!

Bayou Park is the green space on the U.L.M. campus directly across Northeast Drive from the Library and on the Library side of the Bayou. Bring a lawn chair or blanket if you want to sit!

Fall Back!

It's that time again: Across most of the United States,daylight savings time (DST) will end at 2 a.m.
on Sunday, November 2, when clocks will fall back to standard time. Set your clocks back one hour before going to bed on Saturday night!

Convention Changes!

Storm Damage responsible for

Changes in Diocesan Convention!

The Site for the 35th Annual Convention has changed. We will meet at

the following location for all events:

Bayou DeSiard Country Club

3501 Forsythe Ave., Monroe, LA 71201

There is also a change in the agenda. Here is a broad outline:

Friday

Lunch on your own

1:00 Registration

2:00 Business

4:30 Holy Eucharist

6:00 Silent Auction

7:15 Banquet

Saturday

Light breakfast provided prior to beginning of meeting

8:30 Business

Noon Adjournment

Lunch on your own

Clergy Spouse luncheon cancelled.

Parking spaces are limited, so please carpool as much as possible.

These changes are a result of the damage wrought by the storm on

Monday. As you may know, Monroe was struck by an F2 tornado on

Monday. The Garden District was hit hardest. Grace Church sits in

the midst of that neighborhood. Access to the area is limited and power is

disrupted. As a result, we are unable to meet at Grace Church.

As the outline above suggests, we will follow a significantly revised

agenda. Given our space and the available time, we will dispense with

workshops, hearings, and vendors. This is regrettable but unavoidable.

Please be on the lookout for a ministry fair day in the future in which

some of these canceled sessions will be held.

Most importantly, let us keep the people of Monroe in our prayers.

Many are enduring the negative impact of this storm. At the same time,

let's also acknowledge the grace and grit of these good people who, in

the midst of trial, have worked quickly and effectively to host our Convention. 

Nothing keeps that Monroe Convocation down!

  

The Rt. Rev. Jacob W. Owensby, Ph.D., D.D.

The Diocese of Western Louisiana

Canterhury@ULM...

Tailgate in the Grove today. Good time had by all!

The Art & Power of Conversation

Joseph Kisses His Brothers, by Cornelius

So today we talk about talk. Each one of today’s lessons tells us something about the art and power of talk.

And it’s timely. Today’s society seems addicted to talk. We tweet. We post status updates on Facebook and other social media. Our news media provide talking heads 24/7.

Talk, talk, talk. And so often, it seems that, rather than talking with each other, conversing, if you will, we are screaming past each other.

I no longer try to have serious discussion of important topics on Facebook. Too often have I witnessed such talk turn into ugly, personal attacks. These exchanges are more like drive by shootings than conversations, or even arguments—which can be totally civil and useful when done well.

So what does each of our lessons tell us today about the art and power of talk?

 

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The Archdeacon's sermon, last Sunday at St. Luke's Chapel, Grambling, La. 

Not a Show-Off God

Last Sunday at St. Thomas' & St. Alban's:

Last spring I attended the triennial assembly of the Association for Episcopal Deacons. Our keynote speaker and workshop leader was Eric Law, an Episcopal priest and author of several book, including “Holy Currencies: 6 Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries.”  

Law has gone from writing books to founding a center for congregational development and stewardship called the Kaleidoscope Institute. Our Bishop has just decided that some of Law’s work needs to be in the curriculum of our Diocesan school of ministry for lay people. So, the St. Thomas’ chapter of the Daughters of the King is a step ahead of everyone else on that because they studied this book together last spring!

To kick off his workshop at the deacon’s conference last year, Law had the assembled deacons—as I recall, around a hundred of us—play a silly little game that ended up making a big point. With the help of the organizers of the conference, a bunch of these bookmarks were handed out. Some people got none, some got 2 or 3 and a few got 5 or 6.

Then, Law said, this game has just two rules. 1) If someone gives you a bookmark, you must take it, and 2) the person who ends up with none.. wins. When I give the signal, Law said, you will have 10 minutes to give away all of your bookmarks.

Well, I don’t remember if anyone won that game. And I don’t remember how many bookmarks I ended up with, but I’m pretty sure it was more than I started with. I got down to zero a couple times, but no sooner had I done so than someone would come along and thrust a bunch into my hand.

Now, you might be thinking, “Well, duh! The rules of the game were set up to make sure that happens!” And, indeed, they were. The value of the game was not that it was a “fair” or “objective” test of anything. The value of the game.. was in what it revealed about how humans think!

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Looking for God in All the Wrong Places

Last Sunday in Mer Rouge:

So.. what do a Baptist church in Pollock, La., and the Washington Monument have in common?

No idea?

The Baptist church in Pollock sits on the west side of Highway 165. You pass it every time you go to Camp Hardtner. Like most Baptist churches, it has a steeple. But unlike most churches with steeples, it does NOT have a cross on top.

Anyone happen to know what is on top of the steeple? It’s a hand with one finger pointing heavenward.

Now the Washington Monument does not have a hand on the top! It has a 4-sided aluminum cap, each side containing an inscription. Three of the inscriptions have to do entirely with the building of the monument: names, dates, etc.

The fourth inscription says what? It says, “LAUS DEO,” which is Latin for “Praise be to God.”

Now, a quick side story. The inscriptions on the cap of the Washington Monument are not visible from inside the monument. They are visible only to those who might be hovering in mid-air over the peak of the monument, in other words, people in helicopters and, presumably, God.

So the National Park Service created a replica of the cap that is on display inside the museum at the base of the monument. A few years ago, in the mid-2000s, the replica cap was moved to a tent on the grounds while the museum was renovated. When it was moved back indoors, instead of being placed catty-corner to the wall so that all four sides could be read, as it had been before, it was placed with the LAUS DEO side against the wall, which prevented visitors from seeing it.

An uproar ensued. The Park Service was accused of being ashamed of the Christian foundations of our nation. On snopes.com you can find a letter from the head of the Park Service stating that it was an accident, they had meant no offense and that it would be fixed. Since the letter is dated 2007, I assume the problem has long been corrected.

One interesting thing to me about that story, however, is that no one seems to notice or mention that “Praise be to God” is much more common as an expression of Muslim piety than it is as an expression of Christian piety.

Of course, Muslims typically say “Praise be to Allah,” and they routinely say it often: in times of gratitude and in times of distress, before beginning an important task and at the end, and on and on.

But if you accept that the God of all three of the Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Islam and Christianity—is one and the same God, then “Praise be to God” sounds much more Islamic than Christian. Christians are more likely to be heard saying, “Praise the Lord,” or “Thank you, Jesus!”

But whatever the builders of the Washington Monument had in mind when they inscribed “LAUS DEO” on the top of the monument, they, like the builders of a Baptist church in Pollock, La., were looking for God in all the wrong places.

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