Touch of Faith

I tend to run a few weeks behind in getting my sermons blogged! Here's a link to the one I preached at Christ Church in St. Joseph based on the Gospel story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus garment and was healed. Feedback always welcome!

Bishop Jake's Monday Message

Bishop Jake will continue the tradition begun by Bishop Bruce of distributing a Monday Message via e-mail to clergy and lay leaders. In this week's message, Bishop Jake reports on his first week and offers several ways for all of us to stay connected with him. I recommend that you give it a few minutes of your time, and I'll try to be faithful in passing it along to all of you each week.

Here's the link: http://www.diocesewla.org/OwensbyMessage073012page1.htm
                                 

St. James Day

St. James' rector Morgan McIntyre, Presiding Bishop Schori, Deacon Bette.

Last Wednesday was the feast day of St. James the Apostle, but St. James' Episcopal Church of Shreveport celebrated a few days early! Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was in town to consecrate our new bishop, and she preached and celebrated at St. James' Sunday after the consecration. And your deacon got to go along! Here we are behind the altar at St. James', along with the rector, the Rev. Morgan McIntyre. It was a glorious day!

Photo by Dr. Richard Schori.

Consecrating the 4th Bishop of Western Louisiana!

What a wonderful liturgy it was! St. Mark's Cathedral in Shreveport filled with people, kites and banners, incense and music as we gathered this morning to consecrate and install the 4th Bishop of Western Lousiana, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Jake Owensby. The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church presided.

Preparing for the laying on of hands.

Bishop Owensby accepts the crozier from Bishop MacPherson.

The two photos above were taken by the Presiding Bishop's husband, Dr. Richard Schori. To see more of his photos and download your own favorite, go to www.episcopalchurch.smugmug.com.

The photos below were taken by Deacon Bette at the rehearsal dinner Friday evening.

The Owensby family, from left: Joy, Meredith, Patrich & Jake. Andrew, not pictured, is serving in Afganistan.

Fr. Whit, Judge Dee Drell, Mthr Dawnell, and Bishop Bruce MacPherson at the rehearsal dinner.

Consecration Fever!

Today is a day of preparation and excitement as we prepared for the consecration of The Very Rev. Dr. Jake Owensby as Fourth Bishop of Western Louisiana. Don't forget that you can watch the consecration from the comforts of home at 9:45 a.m. Saturday as it is streamed live on the Diocesan Website: www.diocesewla.org

Bishop Schori tours Holy Cross and visits with parishioners.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori will preside over the consecration. She is in Shreveport and this afternoon toured Episcopal ministries in the city.

Dr. Richard Schori visits with Dean Owensby and Joy Owensby at Holy Cross.

Day 4 in Babylon!

The Guy children sign in for Day 4 in Babylon.

Outdoor games involved sitting on ballooms to pop them!

The Tribe of Joseph is hungry!

As usual, the closing celebration rocks!

Day 3 in Babylon!

Charles Beane and Grace Houston on kitchen duty.

Outdoors, a furious game of "capture the flag" ensued.

Fr. Whit as Daniel tells his story.

Rockin' the house at the closing celebration.

Ordination and Consecration Webcast

For those of you who can't be in Shreveport, you can watch the Ordination and Consecration of our next Bishop, The Very Rev'd Dr. Jacob W. Owensby, live on the web at www.diocesewla.org at 9:45 a.m.

New Colors

Our new colors reflect our connection to the University of Louisiana at Monroe. We want to show our school spirit and celebrate the renewal of our Canterbury ministry.

Maroon and Gold are our colors now!

Day 2 in Babylon!

The weather cooperated! We got to play outside.

The Tribe of Levi learns that God's light always shines through.

Thomas of the Tribe of Asher helps lead the closing celebration.

Everybody sings!

Day 1 in Babylon!

The St. Thomas'-St. Alban's joint Vacation Bible School began this evening. Here are some scenes from our first adventure in Babylon.

Bobbie Pipes and Mary Beth Weaks staff the registration table.

Learning the motions to "Awesome God," one of our theme songs.

Mother Dawnell is head of the Tribe of Asher.

Buying food in the Babylon Food Court from head cook Charles Smith.

Starting a weaving project at weaver Grace Houston's tent.

Listening to Daniel tell his story.

                       

VBS in Babylon continues Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurday, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m., at St. Alban's. Bring your kids or grandkids and/or come to have some fun and help.             

Of One Heart and Soul

The Increduility of St. Thomas, by Caravaggio

I happened to be preaching at St. Andrew's in Mer Rouge a couple of months ago when the Gospel lesson was the story of Jesus showing his wounds to St. Thomas.

I've just blogged that sermon and thought you all might be interested.

You'll find it here: Of One Heart and Soul

Blog Improvements

Check out these improvements on the St. Thomas' Episcopal Church web log!

Deacon Bette added some tabs across the top of the blog and under the main heading for our mission statement, worship times and ministries.

Soon Canterbury will be another tab.

What else would you like to see here? Would the Daughters of the King like their own tab? Anything else I'm not thinking of?

Let me know!

Babylon VBS Workday

 Workers from St. Alban's and St. Thomas' will join forces to set up for Babylon Vacation Bible School. We will begin work on Saturday, July 14, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. Doughnuts and a Pizza lunch will be provided.  We should be finished a little after lunch. Join us for the fun!

The Deacon's Sermon Blog

iPhone Diary: 4 April 2012 (The Shape of Light)

I do not preach very often at St. Alban's and I haven't preached at St. Thomas' in a long time. That is not because Fr. Whit and Mthr. Dawnell don't want me to! It is because the demands of my day job limit the amount of time I have to write sermons. Moreover, I am called upon to lead services and preach at various churches around the convocation that do not have full-time priests, and preparing for those occasions takes most of the sermon-preparation time I can manage.

But I keep a sermon blog, and when I do preach, those sermons eventually get posted on the blog. I just posted a homily I preached at St. Alban's Tuesday of Holy Week and since they liked it a great deal, I thought it would be a good way to introduce you to my sermon blog. One of the things I like about blogging sermons is that I can illustrate them, sometimes with my own photographs! Feedback is always welcome.

Here's the link: http://the-deacons-sermons.blogspot.com/2012/07/shape-of-light-homily-for-3-april-2012.html