wfn.org | [ENS] Louisiana diocese begins 3rd century of ministry

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Friday, November 18, 2005

Louisiana diocese begins 3rd century of ministry

Bishop describes city, church changed for good

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

ENS 111805-2

[Editor's Note: Rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina - a top priority as New
Orleans' Christ Church Cathedral marks its bicentennial - will be featured
in a Thanksgiving Day television special, "Gulf Coast Thanksgivings,"
produced by the Episcopal Church and set to air nationally November 24 on
Time Warner Cable. For local listings, visit http://www.comeandgrow.org/.]

[ENS] In a spare sunlit room above New Orleans' Jackson Square on a cold
November 17 morning, the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Louisiana
turned towards its third century of ministry.

The diocese's bishop declared that the Episcopal Church was changing
with the city, for the better.

"Our new normal is a church engaged, a church that is a servant church
and a church that lives not for itself alone but for all for whom Christ
died," Bishop Charles Jenkins gently declared during a short homily
ending a Morning Prayer service.

"That old normal of being the Episcopal Church with our doors locked,
being a church that existed for we who were in it will be no more. That
washed away with your refrigerator," he said.

Jenkins spoke to about 40 people gathered to mark the bicentennial
anniversary of the day when the Rev. Philander Chase -- later the rector
of Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans and the first bishop of both
Ohio and Illinois -- conducted the first non-Roman Catholic Church
service in the Louisiana Purchase on November 17, 1805. The service was
conducted in a room at the Cabildo, the former seat of Spanish rule in
the Louisiana Territory, and that's where the day of celebration began.

Protestants living in the Louisiana Territory held a vote to decide which
denomination would be the first invited in to serve them, Jenkins said.
Taking such a vote was unique for a time in history when religious freedom
was the exception, not the rule. Jenkins reminded the congregation that
the Spanish and French governments had established state religions at
the time, just as the British government had.

The vote came months after the United States had purchased the territory,
about 2 million acres spreading from the Mississippi River to the
Rocky Mountains to the Canadian border, from France in late 1803 for
$15 million.

"The Episcopal Church won with more votes then there were people
registered," he said. "I don't know how that happened but this is
Louisiana.  And so we were the first on the scene."

Before the service of Morning Prayer from the 1789 Book of Common Prayer,
Jenkins described the church's unique role in the rebuilding of New
Orleans.

"It is the faith communities and the faith communities alone who care for
those who fall through the crack and it is the faith communities who care
for those issues of human dignity, of the rights of every human being and
who can recognize, even in the poorest among us, that presence of God,"
he said.

The day ended with more than 1,000 people who packed Christ Church
Cathedral and spilled out onto St. Charles Avenue to sway to the premiere
of "All The Saints."

Composer Irvin Mayfield, founder of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra,
was commissioned by Christ Church Cathedral to write a piece of music
that would "offer the world a glimpse of resurrection," according to
the Very Rev.  Dave Allard duPlantier, dean of the cathedral.

The "All The Saints" concert, duPlantier said, was meant to mark the
cathedral's third century of ministry by "lifting up the musical soul
of this great city." He said it was appropriate to that what he called
the cathedral's gift to the city come in the form of jazz, reminding
the audience that jazz in a true American art form that was born on the
blood-stained, water-soaked, wind-swept soil of New Orleans.

Mayfield said he was pleased that "the Episcopal Church has really put
their arms around jazz" and wanted to use it as "a tool for healing."

During the day between the two events, the church was trying to live out
a vision of resurrection. At the cathedral, clothing hung on racks set
up on the front lawn and the Reverend Canon Steven Roberts sorted our
donated shoes by sizes. Then he jumped up to help broker an exchange
between a couple wanting to donate a mattress and a family who decided
they needed a bed. Roberts helped rope the mattress to the family's car.

Christ Church Cathedral has been running what it calls a distribution
center since the early days after Hurricane Katrina, according
to duPlantier.  They began offering the basics such as water and
bleach. Soon they assembled five-gallon buckets filled with cleaning
supplies. At first, duPlantier said, they had to convince people that
the material weren't for sale but, instead, were free for the taking.

Now the halls of the cathedral are lined with supplies of everything
from soap and toilet paper to energy shakes and crutches. Anyone who
comes to the center fills out a form and workers gather their needed
supplies while the people look through the clothing on the front lawn.

While the church was helping out with people's everyday needs, it was
also looking at the bigger picture. Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD)
announced a $3.2 million grant to the diocese to help with the rebuilding.
Part of that money will go towards buying the Glimmer Inn, a bed and
breakfast behind the cathedral. It will become an urban ministry center,
with a credit union, day care, and job-training center. The diocesan
Office of Disaster Response will also be housed at the Glimmer Inn.

ERD, the diocese, the cathedral, and others, are also considering how
it might be able to build affordable housing in the area, duPlantier said.

The day of celebration was not without its moments of remembered grief.
During Morning Prayer at the Cabildo, Jenkins said "I know that for me
I am still in a stage of mourning about things that are gone. I find
myself grieving about people, traditions, customs, places, even things,
that are lost and, except for the people who live in Christ, are no more."

Towards the end of the "All The Saints" concert, Mayfield played his
version of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee." He told the audience that it
was the first song his father taught him to play and he played it first
in a church.  Mayfield has yet to find his father. The elder Mayfield
rode out Hurricane Katrina at his home in the Gentilly neighborhood of
New Orleans, then disappeared during the subsequent evacuation.

The audience was pensive during Mayfield's trumpet version of the song,
nodding their heads and touching their hands to their eyes.

In the midst of those memories, however, people declared their intention
to rebuild New Orleans.

Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu stood in the cathedral's pulpit
before the jazz concert to declare that New Orleans "lives today and
will continue to live." He said the city and all of its traditions and
culture is worth preserving.

"Tonight's a beginning," he said.

"If we don't believe in our city, then nobody else will," Mayfield said
after leading his orchestra, made up off musicians who lost their homes
during the storms, in an extended version of "Ninth Ward Blues"

The blues are important, Mayfield said. "The blues always remind us it's
going to get better."

-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for the
Episcopal News Service.

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