Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes Report

Greetings friends,

Aside from bringing back quite an illness (hopefully not a Voodoo Curse) from New Orleans, I also brought back many great ideas and a whole lot of creative energy from the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes Conference.

The conference, as a whole, was great. I got to meet a lot of movers and shakers in the Episcopal Church world. What I learned is this: everyone cares deeply about our generation. Young Adults were on every one's mind at the conference.
The biggest amount of energy for me has to do with the amount of great work that the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Louisiana is doing for the people of NOLA. Perhaps the most impressive is the Jericho Road project. In one of the areas heavily flooded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, The Diocese has purchased 50 or so plots of land. On these plots, they are building sturdy, good, affordable housing for the residents of that area. More can be read at the Jericho Road housing website here. For a great picture of the bishop of Louisiana standing in front of one of these homes, see this great article.

Another highlight was the Keynote Address, given by Ray Suarez - an Episcopalian and Senior Corespondent for PBS's the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. We have been given permission to share this speech with our congregations. I really think that would be worth a good reading. It is funny and uplifting and speaks volumes about just how poised the Episcopal Church is to reap the benefits of a changing world. Here it is.

Perhaps my biggest aha moment of the conference was that St. Paul's is doing so much right already. Not that I didn't think we were, mind you, but I was surprised to find that people from sister parishes had heard of the YAMs group here and were excited to hear what I/we had to say about ministering to and with Young Adults. Thank you all for that.

Yours in Christ,
Bob

P.S. Here are some pictures. The first is my friend Peter Gray (we stayed in his house. He is married to Giulianna Gray, also an Episcopal priest). Lisa is pictured on the front porch of their house. The stained-glass window is in one of the churches to which Peter ministers. We were able to see some live music on Frenchman's Street (where the locals hang out). A Mardi Gras Indian Chief named Big Chief Monk Boudreaux came on stage and sang a couple numbers with them. The aforementioned voodoo curse may have come from the little store on Bourbon Street that we entered for fun - they had votive bingo candles.





P.P.S. I also got a chance to see former St. Paul's parishioner, Nicole Sieferth. She is the communications person at Trinity Church, Wall Street these days. Here is an article that she wrote about the conference.