EPISCOPAL ADDRESS

June 5, 2006
Louisiana Annual Conference
Centenary College
Shreveport, Louisiana

Bishop William W. Hutchinson

The last time we gathered as an Annual Conference was August 27, 2005.  It was a bright and sunny day in Baton Rouge as we convened the special called session at First United Methodist Church.  After conducting our business, which ironically dealt with the potential sale of Lafon Nursing Home, a facility in New Orleans that had become a major concern for the Annual Conference, we said our goodbyes.  I recall saying, as I was about to pronounce the benediction, “Be careful as you go home. There’s a storm out in the Gulf and we don’t know where it might land.” 

I didn’t know at the time that a mandatory evacuation of the New Orleans area had been called for while we were in session!  I didn’t know at the time that some of our Conference members would be unable to get back home because contra flow had already started.  I didn’t know at the time that “the storm in the Gulf” would become the most destructive natural disaster to ever hit the United States!

I must admit that my attention was focused on something other than the storm.  Kay and I had just faced a personal storm of our own, the death of her father. I left the Conference session and headed immediately for Oklahoma where Kay’s Dad was to be buried on Monday, August 29, 2005. 

The morning of August 29 dawned in Woodward, Oklahoma with the television totally consumed with the news of the devastating arrival of Katrina.  As we made preparations to go to the church for Art’s funeral, we were watching the continuing news updates that brought the breaking news of this monstrous storm.  After the funeral, and before we loaded in cars to make the three hour drive to Oklahoma City where Art was to be buried, we caught more coverage.  It was bad.  But the worst was yet to come, at least as far as New Orleans was concerned. 

August 29, 2005 may not be a “day that will live in infamy,” but it will remain a hallmark date that will never be forgotten by us in Louisiana, or those in Mississippi and Alabama.  Our lives were changed on August 29, 2005.

Three weeks later we were facing another storm.  Rita was boiling in the Gulf.  Forecasters said it was every bit as powerful as Katrina and could even be worse.  We battened down the hatches again and on September 24, 2005 she came ashore.  She was as furious as they predicted, and at the last minute she made an unexpected turn and came ashore in southwest Louisiana.  The remainder of our coast was devastated and injury and destruction was widespread.  She even made waters rise in southeast Louisiana again and flooded parts of New Orleans for a second time.  She was nasty.

From those two events forward our agenda as an Annual Conference changed radically and all our previous plans were put on hold as we began an all out effort of relief and recovery that is unprecedented in United States history.  And we haven’t stopped.  In fact, the efforts grow more and more involved and more and more consuming as time goes by.  What we thought was going to be a Herculean effort has turned into something far beyond that and something none of us were prepared to undertake, much less fully understand.

“And Are We Yet Alive”, that historical hymn with which we have opened United Methodist Conferences since the founding Conference of our foreparents, took on new meaning.  Some of us weren’t yet alive.  Others were severely injured and impaired.  Still others were transported far away where we could no longer see each other’s face.  But in and through it all we have lived up to the proclamation that we have given “glory and thanks to Jesus Christ for his almighty grace.”

And with Charles Wesley’s words for the second stanza of this great and very appropriate hymn we say:
“Preserved by power divine to full salvation here,
Again in Jesus’ praise we join, and in his sight appear.”

Praise be to our living God for letting us “in his sight appear” once again and join in Jesus’ praise!

Last year I laid out for the Conference several concerns and several suggested plans.  Little did I know that most of them would be handled in a very different way than I had envisioned. 

1. The Institutional Task Force

 

For the past few years, actually since I have been Bishop in Louisiana, I have been concerned about the number of institutions we have to support and the lack of a plan to adequately support and fund them.  You will recall that I had asked for, and you granted, a special task force to deal with this growing concern.  We had met several times and were narrowing in on what we felt would be some valid suggestions concerning the future of some of the institutions.  But alas, Katrina has taken these suggestions in her own hands and has directed us in a new way.

You will recall that our meeting on August 27, 2005 was for the purpose of recommending the sale of Lafon Nursing Home.  That proposal passed the Conference unanimously and we left Baton Rouge that day with a plan to allow for the sale of the Home if the proper buyer was located.  That plan has become moot.  During Katrina, the home was so severely damaged, as was the area of the city in which it is located, that selling the property is a very questionable possibility.  As of now we are weighing any option that comes to us and are hoping to resolve our ownership in such a way that we just get out from under the liabilities without major cost to the Annual Conference. 

The Methodist Home for Children in New Orleans was also severely damaged and the kids and staff there were evacuated to Ruston, where the Louisiana Methodist Children’s Home graciously received them, provided space for them and provided services with them for several months while the facility in New Orleans was being repaired enough for some to return.  Earlier this year the Board of Directors of the New Orleans Home requested of the Board of Directors of the Ruston Home to consider working out plans whereby the New Orleans Home would be absorbed by the Ruston Home and the two would become one corporate entity and under one governing board.  That request was positively received by the Ruston board and as of today plans are underway to make this merger possible.  I am firmly convinced this is a gift to us and to the ministry with children in Louisiana.  When this merger is completed we will have a much stronger presence in the state and will have a much more stable fiscal environment in which our ministry is performed.  Couple this merger with a major gift made by the Henning families of Sulphur and Lake Charles that will make the construction of a new facility in southern Louisiana possible and you will join me in thanking God for this blessing that has come out of tragedy.

Katrina heavily damaged Dillard University, one of the United Methodist Church’s historic Black Colleges.  The campus took on major flooding and was evacuated as well.  Many of the Dillard students were transported to Centenary College for shelter and care.  Centenary was a gracious and generous host to these displaced young men and women and we give thanks for their hospitality.  As of now Dillard occupies the Hilton Hotel on the riverfront in New Orleans and is doing wonderful work of holding the University together.  When they will be able to return to their beautiful oak lined campus is questionable at this time.  However, repairs continue on the main campus and full occupation is expected within the next year.

St. Mark’s Community Center, a project of the Women’s Division of the Board of Global Ministries, was also severely damaged.  They are undergoing renovation now and are being prepared to serve as a housing center for volunteer work teams, just as Peoples Community Center has been prepared for like service.  And Dulac Community Center in Dulac is preparing to build additional dormitory facilities that will house work teams in that area of the state as volunteers come there to serve the coastal area in clean up and rebuilding. 

Suffice it to say that the Institutional Task Force has disbanded “for now” as the direction and concerns of our institutions have taken on totally new parameters and needs.  We will continue to work closely with each institution as the future unfolds.

2. Strengthening the Black Church

 

The plans for our strengthening the Black Church initiative were also interrupted.  The Summit planned for September 8-10, 2005 was cancelled.  The W.T. Handy Convocation scheduled for November 18-19, 2005 was cancelled.  The Committee stopped meeting in favor of hurricane response, coupled with the fact that many of the task force members had been displaced to other states.  But they have reconvened and have begun plans for the coming year.  Once again there will be a W. T. Handy Convocation on November 17-18, 2006.  There also will be a Summit meeting for all African-American clergy on February 25-26, 2007 at the Wesley Center in Woodworth.  This will precede our bi-annual clergy gathering, “Tending Our Lives Together”, scheduled for February 26-28, 2007. 

1. New Church Start

 

I announced last year that there would be a New Church start in the Slidell area in the spring of 2006.  Erase that!  We have some new church starts all right!  They are the rebuilding of some of our existing churches that were totally ruined in the storm.  The population base that would have supported the New Church is “iffy” at best and we will wait until things seem to stabilize a little more before we will reevaluate that in the Slidell area.

      4. The New Orleans Initiative
                                                             
Now here’s the irony of all ironies.  I spoke last year of the first steps toward a much needed urban renewal plan for New Orleans.  I even announced an Urban Academy for April of 2006 and promised that we would come to Conference with some definite proposals and plans ready for adoption!  Wow!  Did that ever get taken out of our hands! But we certainly do have major plans!  The reorganization of ministry in New Orleans into a Mission Zone is a major new plan and one that calls for the prayerful support of all of us.  It is truly one of the most exciting possibilities for “newness” that I know and I personally am very committed to its success.

Let me take a personal moment to say how much I thank the churches and clergy of the New Orleans, Lake Charles and Acadiana districts for “hanging on” and even prospering over these past nine months.  The leadership in all these districts has been exceptional and we all owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude for the witness you have made and for the perseverance you have exhibited.  You have been in our thoughts and prayers constantly and we pray better days are ahead.

Also, a personal word of thanks to the entire church in Louisiana.  Your response to the disasters we have encountered has been Christ-like.  You did not wait to be asked to be a servant.  You became one immediately.  You did not wait to be told what to do.  You did it immediately.  You did not wait to be invited to send help in the form of people and money.  You did so immediately.  You have been a great blessing and I thank you on behalf of the church and on behalf of all those you have served.

The days ahead of us are crucial.  We must show to the world around us a united and unified spirit of Christian love and outreach.  My prayer is that we will resemble the illustration in Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch’s book, The Shaping of Things to Come.
They give two examples of how ranchers keep cattle.

The first example is a fence.  On small ranches, the rancher builds a fence to keep cattle in.  It is clear which cattle are in and which are out.  Many of our churches are built on this model and it is very clear to us who is out and who is in.

The second example is a well.  In the outback of Australia, ranches are so large that a rancher cannot fence in the property, so they simply drill a well.  They trust the cattle will not stray too far from the well or else they will die.

It is my fervent prayer that the new Mission Zone we are creating in New Orleans and that will extend into Calcasieu and Cameron parishes will be built on the well model.  We want to dig deep wells that will offer the sweetest water of salvation to all thirsty souls.  Jesus Christ is the water for which the world thirsts.  And if the well of our church holds sweet water, all will want to flock there for the slaking of their thirst.

This is a model that isn’t built on regulation, but on invitation.  We want to be the most inviting people in the Mission Zones and beyond.

And while I am here, let me speak to one situation that has caused considerable concern among some – the location of the New Orleans District Parsonage.  In the process of securing the new District Parsonage, necessitated by the destruction of the former home, the Conference Board of Trustees conferred with the District Board of Trustees.  After looking for a suitable home it was decided that the best purchase would be a site on the North Shore.  After the house was under contract, the Conference Board of Trustees consulted with the District Board of Church Location and Building which returned a negative vote on the purchase given the location of the home.  All that followed is a complicated set of circumstances and too long to go into at this point.  Suffice it to say that this purchase has caused some hurt feelings and some angry reactions.  Realizing the divisiveness of such an issue, I have asked Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Ford, the new District Superintendent and spouse of the New Orleans District, to hold a series of consultations with various groups in the District to determine if the purchase on the North Shore is detrimental to the ministry and outreach of the New Orleans District.  They graciously have consented to do so. 

Consequently, they have had their first meeting with the Committee on Superintendency of the New Orleans District.  They will have further meetings as their first year proceeds to further evaluate the needs of the District and the location of the District Parsonage.  Should the District decide through this process that the location of the parsonage needs to be moved, they have again graciously consented to effect such a move when possible and practical.  It is their desire, just as it is the desire of all of us, that the Kingdom of God not be affected by the location of a home.

My request of you is that you allow this process to work and that you not try and make this District matter a matter to be debated by the Annual Conference.  I can assure us all that the delegates to this Annual Conference will not know the best thing to do for the New Orleans District.  That is a matter that should be decided within the District with the people who are directly affected.

In addition to all these changed plans and these difficult months, we have had some wonderful happenings as well. 

A. We had a very meaningful retreat with the clergy families who were affected directly by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. 

B. We had four meaningful Faith and Fasting retreats – three with clergy and one with laity.  We learned about and practiced one of the means of grace that Mr. Wesley said all should observe.

C. We held a very successful Discerner’s Academy and the work of the Academy for Spiritual Formation and the work of the Center for Pastoral Effectiveness has continued uninterrupted and with renewed strength as they have risen to the unique needs of our spiritual lives.

D. Our Volunteers in Mission program has remained strong, sending teams both outside our Conference as well as bringing teams into our Conference. Our Conference Youth program continues to flourish and grow.  We have seen new efforts in Christian Education.  And our Church Extension and Transformation work has continued to attract new participants in Transformation and new visions for New Church starts.

E. We are planning for the dedication of the church in Cambodia that our Conference has paid for through your generous mission giving.

F. We are ready to move ahead at the Wesley Center with a new lodge building and a new pavilion.  It is my understanding that the Wesley Center will come to Conference next June with definite plans for the financing and construction of these much needed facilities for our growing ministry in Woodworth.

G. And, once again, we have paid out our apportionments at more than 95%.  For 2005 our payout was at 95.69%, which was slightly better than the year before!  We absolutely astounded the general church with this faithful record.  And hear this.  There were two Districts who paid 100% of all their apportionments.  One was the Baton Rouge District and the other – the Lake Charles!  Yes, even with the ravages of Rita, Lake Charles churches felt this part of their mission and ministry was so important that they paid at 100%!! You owe yourselves and each other a huge hand of congratulations for this marvelous record.  I couldn’t be more proud of you!

H. There’s one more thing of which we can be very proud.  In the midst of everything, we held our own with church membership.  In 2005 we did have a decline, but only of 225 members!  And our average attendance at worship services increased!  I’d say that was exceptional in the midst of all that we have endured.  And here’s something that would have made a difference.  In 2004 our churches added 1,993 new disciples for Jesus Christ through Professions of Faith.  In 2005 we added 1,624, or 369 less!  If we had just kept pace with our evangelism efforts and had added new followers of Christ to our churches, we would have gained in membership!  So it isn’t that people are leaving the United Methodist Church that is making us decline in membership – not in Louisiana.  It’s in the fact that we are not winning new people to Christ as we are commissioned and commanded to do!  Again, we can do much better at that.

I.  And last, but certainly not least, we have put in place a Storm Center in Baton Rouge and established six recovery centers scattered across the state.  One in Slidell, three in New Orleans, one in Abbeville, and one in Lake Charles.  UMCOR has been the major funding source that has made this possible and within two years time we will have been given some $14 million dollars plus by UMCOR to bring emergency relief and long term case management to our state.  There will be much more of this information shared at an appropriate point in the Conference agenda, so I won’t take the time here.  I just wanted to acknowledge this gargantuan accomplishment to you and say, “Thanks be to God for God’s immeasurable grace.”

There is one severe disappointment I do want to share.  At the last regular session of our Annual Conference we voted to establish the office of Director of Multicultural Ministries.  We had set a process in place for advertisement of this position but had not activated it when Katrina rolled in, followed  three weeks later by Rita.  When the immensity of these storms, and the financial impact they were going to make on our Conference became apparent to me, I made the singular decision that we would not put this office in place.  This was a $100,000 expenditure we did not have to make and I deemed it best to put the position on hold.  I did check with the Conference Ministry Team for their advice and they supported my decision.  Hence, this position is still in the wings, waiting for a better day when we can fund it without worry.

Yes, in spite of it all, we have had a good year and God has blessed us.   We come together battered and bruised but not defeated and bowed.  Our work may be a little more defined now, but the future is still wide open to creativity and newness.  We will keep our doors open to God’s leadings and we will address the multitude of needs, even as we focus on our own very specific needs. 

But for a few minutes I want to take off my Bishop’s hat as temporal leader and put on my hat as spiritual leader, which I believe is the basic role of the Bishop anyway, and I want to talk with us as a Conference about how we go forward from here.

Bishop Alfred Norris used to say to us in the Annual Conference of which I was a clergy member and over which he presided, “I don’t want to preach or teach.  I just want to talk with you.”  I don’t want to preach and I really don’t want to say more in the traditional vein of an Episcopal Address.  The time for laying out plans and cheering our victories doesn’t seem to be totally in sync with the present moment.  I just want to talk with you a few minutes.

Once again our historical hymn speaks:

“What troubles have we seen, what mighty conflicts past,
Fightings without, and fears within, since we assembled last!

Yet out of all the Lord hath brought us by his love;
And still he doth his help afford, and hides our life above”

We’ve been through some very ragged and rugged terrain together. Emotions are frayed and tongues have been loosened a little too much.  Trust has been strained and confidence has been shaken.  We’ve wanted our lives put back together “right now” and all we’ve been able to offer from my office and the Conference staff are those now famous words, “for now.”  Clergy and laity have worked beyond expectation in most cases, and beyond capacity in all cases.  And still the future looms unsteady, unsecured, and unknown.  And we’re entering into that frightful period that we almost came to ignore and defy, known as “Hurricane Season.”  And we are still in that slow period and frustrating period known as “Recovery”, and it will go on for several years ahead of us with no let up in intensity in sight.

Several years ago Kathleen Norris, one of my favorite authors, wrote a beautiful book she entitled, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, (Ticknor and Fields, 1993).  In this book about life on the Great Plains and the hardships of such a life she tells of a handwritten prayer found in her grandmother’s Bible.  It so spoke to me the first time I read it that I wrote down the line and put it on the refrigerator so I could see it every time I opened that door.  It is a prayer that Kay had scripted for me in beautiful calligraphy and it now sits in my office so I can see it every day as I do my work for God’s kingdom.  It simply and reflectively says:

“Keep me friendly to myself, keep me gentle in disappointment.”

I believe this has a great message for us in light of all we have seen and experienced.  The scripture puts it similarly in this phrase; “There is great gain in godliness with contentment.”  Or, as Eugene Peterson translates it, “A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God.”  (The Message)

When we remain friends with ourselves no matter what is happening around, to, or for us; and when we are gentle in disappointment, then we are on the road to ‘godliness with contentment.’  It is when we try to make everyone else and every circumstance in which we find ourselves responsible for who and what we are that we get led away from both godliness and contentment.

It is very important to remember that contentment and godliness are not attributes imposed from outside our self.  Both come from within our self.  Neither is dependent on what another does to you or for you.  In the words of the great hymn, “How Firm a Foundation” –

‘The soul that on Jesus still leans for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes
That soul though all Hell should endeavor to shake
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.”

Our faith and our strength come from within and are energized graces from God to us.

The fact that our strength comes from within is certainly true of the living organism called “the church.”  I, along with many of you, have been very frustrated with the slowness of much that has happened post Katrina and Rita.  I have been angered and disgusted by some of the things and some of the people we have encountered along the way.  And that reaction does not serve to a positive end but spills over into the real mission of the church and dilutes that which we are to be about.  My disgust has negatively impacted my own spiritual state.  It has made me think less than Godly thoughts toward the forces of obstruction.  I have allowed them to drag me into a state of discontent, and I know some of you feel the same.  Collectively, that has had a less than positive impact in the body of the church.  We tie up our energies there and put the real mission of transforming lives on hold.

I return to my original statement.  Godliness with contentment is not determined by what a group or an individual does to you or for you.  That arises from within one’s self and one’s relation to God.  That is true of the body called the church.

It is also true of individuals.  I have, more than once, succumbed to discontent and a less-than-godly state because of hurt or disappointment perpetrated against me by an individual or a group.  When that happens, I pray for God’s enlightenment as to what I need to do to rise above the hurt.  The answer is still the same.

My relationship with God that gives me contentment must not be controlled by what an individual or a group of individuals do to me.  My spiritual state is up to me and me alone as I immerse myself in God’s presence through prayer, study, and meditation and as I find other persons with whom to share this journey, whose own objective is toward godliness.

We will always have to deal with the lack of godliness and the rip-roaring state of frantic search for meaning with which we are surrounded.  I in no way am suggesting we just draw in our horns, gaze at our navels, and let the rest of the world go hap-hazardly and perilously by.  Our mission is always to be in the very midst of that frantic activity, but always with the basic mission of trying to win souls for Christ.

What I am saying is that we can only do that effectively when we have our own house in order – as a church and as individuals – and when we clearly know our mission and have godly contentment within ourselves so we can approach the needs of the world.

“Keep me friendly to myself, keep me gentle in disappointment.”

My prayer for us, the Louisiana Annual Conference, as we go forward from this day is that we can be friendly to ourselves and that we can be gentle in our disappointment.  May we earnestly search for that godliness with contentment that will enable us to know the deeper truths in life than those found in rotting debris, broken houses, shattered church buildings, impaired lives, and tarnished dreams.  May we find our true mission and may we sacrifice everything we are in order for God to bring to completion that good work that God began in us.  Let us not take that completion into our own hands and impose on it our own understandings of what it means to be complete.  Let us bow before the living God and earnestly search after God’s will.  I join you in prayer and commitment to that end. 

“Then let us make our boast of his redeeming power,
which saves us to the uttermost, till we can sin no more.

Let us take up the cross till we the crown obtain,
And gladly reckon all things loss so we may Jesus gain.”

AMEN AND AMEN.