T h e
G o o d N e w s
A r c h i v e s
January 2001
God Makes All Things New Again
You know how it is when you hear an old favorite song on the radio and then for the next several days you just can’t seem to get it out of your head? No matter what you do to occupy your time, you find that eventually your mind drifts back to that old familiar tune. That’s sort of what has been happening to me this past week. Only instead of an old song, it has been a religious theme that has been bouncing around in my consciousness. My wife thinks it’s one of the hazards of my vocation. Normal people hear songs. A priest tends to hear religious themes.
In my case, the theological theme that has been running around in my head is the belief that God makes all things new again. Now I’m not sure why this has been on my mind, but it is rather interesting to me to see real evidence of this theme all around me. So with that in mind, I’ll share with you a few of my personal observations.
People know that Good Shepherd has been here in Lake Charles for more than one hundred years. What most people don’t know is that in all those years, Good Shepherd has never had a woman serve our parish as the senior warden. As I see it, here is an example of God making things new again. Libby Schneider has been a member of Good Shepherd all her life. Now Libby is making history, so to speak. She has agreed to serve this next year as senior warden of this parish church. Our God opens up our eyes and shows what is possible even when we haven’t experienced it before.
There have been other incidents this past week that have made me pause and reflect on God making things new again. Yesterday, I received a letter from Bishop Hargrove informing me that John Miller has been made a postulant for Holy Orders in our diocese. John and Celene will be leaving us next fall to attend seminary. John is the first seminarian sponsored from Good Shepherd since Father Pelham Mills and Father Gedge Gayle went to seminary in the 1960s. John is leaving a career as a construction engineer and beginning a new life. This is an exciting time for the Miller family.
Even more evidence of making things new can be found in our new parish web page. If you want to find what I consider to be one of the premier church web sites on the Internet, then check out our new site at goodshepherd-lc.com. Fr. Steven and Penny Roberts spent several weeks redesigning this site. It has been updated and is reflective of who we are as a faithful people of God. If you haven’t already done so, check out our new web page, then add this site to your favorite site list.
When God makes things new again, we experience the power of rebirth. We know first-hand what it is like to be spiritually renewed. This to me is one of the most amazing aspects of the Christian faith. If we allow ourselves to be open to the possibility of God entering into our lives, then new and wonderful things will happen. We are witnesses to God’s new revelations every day of our lives. The proof is all around us if we only have eyes to see and ears to listen.
God’s peace,
Mark +
A Time for Renewal
By the time you are reading this newsletter, I’ll be away attending a clergy conference in West Cornwall, Connecticut. This will be my second trip to the Clergy Leadership Project. I have two more to go after this one. The idea behind the Clergy Leadership Project is really quite simple. A group of priests – about 25 – is brought together for a course of professional continuing education. Within the group, we are broken down into four smaller groups. Those smaller groups keep in contact with one another during the year through conference calls and e-mail. In my group, there are priests from Idaho, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois, and, of course, Louisiana.
Through our regular conference calls, we’ve gradually become good friends just by listening to each other. We provide support and counsel for each other’s ministry. We’re also a sounding board for testing out new ideas for parish ministries. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with my colleagues.
This year’s conference has two primary areas of focus. The first is a program on God and Science. During this section, we will listen to Dr. Glenn McGee from the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics speak to us. The controversial and topical subjects of genetics, cloning and medical care in general are evolving faster than anyone could have imagined a few years ago. The CLP gives us a forum to speak first-hand with prominent persons in their field of study, and then we try to discern what the Church’s response should be to a rapidly changing world. The second segment will have Dr. Brent Coffin as the speaker. Dr. Coffin is the executive director of the Center for Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard Divinity School. He will lead us in a discussion about how religious ethics informs public policy debates – especially as they apply to welfare.
What really makes these sessions so lively is the diversity of the participants. You can easily imagine the way we experience the world and the church here in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is far different from someone who lives in Los Angeles, Boston or Chicago. For me, it’s an opportunity to expand my vision and experience the world in new ways by interacting with my peers who live different lives from mine. The time spent at the CLP will be a time of new challenges and of new growth. It will be an opportunity for me to exercise my mind and keep it sharp. All of that, I believe, will make me a better parish priest.
I’m grateful to the vestry and to this parish for funding my participation in the Clergy Leadership Program. I look forward to relating to you my thoughts and experiences when I return home at the end of the week.
God’s Peace,
Mark+
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