Crossings CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS � EPISCOPAL

875 COTTON STREET, SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Holy Eucharist Sunday: 9:30 and 11:00 AM

Saturday: 5:00 PM Wednesday: 12:15 and 6:00 PM

Nursery Sunday

9:45 AM – 12:30 PM

Choir Practice Sunday: 9:45 AM

The Vestry Ginger Paul, Senior Warden

Gerry Brooks, Jr. Warden

Becky Snodgrass, Secretary Monty Walford, Treasurer

Melissa Fowle Stephanie Hamblin Robert Henley

Christine Hennigan Kendall Raymond

Contact Information Telephone: (318) 222-3325

Fax: (318) 681-9506 Email: holycrossshrv1@bellsouth.net

Please visit our website www.holycrossshreveport.org

Deadline Material for Crossings must be received by 12:00 Wednesday.

Please send to lynn.walford@lsus.edu

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Next Tuesday: Bishop and Deputies Here to Discuss General Convention

Next Tuesday our Bishop and Deputies to General Convention will be at Holy Cross to talk to our Convocation about the actions of General Convention. The Monroe and Alexandria Convocations are invited to come

also. I urge all Holy Cross parishioners to be here to learn more about General Convention and what was done this summer.

Tuesday, September 15, 6:00 PM Holy Cross Nave

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The Eucharistic Community

Last spring, talking with the clergy, our Bishop made the distinction between celebrating and sharing Eucharist together and being a Eucharistic Community. I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, and I’ve found it worth pondering. Every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday we offer worship centered in sharing Holy Communion. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer has made the Eucharist the center of our life with God in the community of the

church, and most, if not all of our parishes have come to this understanding. There is much value in it: we share Jesus’ Body and Blood and receive individually and together the grace of being forgiven and receiving a new life. These values in our corporate worship have overshadowed something that is primary in our life as the Body of Christ.

I was taught as a girl that these are the elements of worship: prayer, praise, hearing God’s word, instruction and

reflection, and going out into the world to serve God. Granted, that was the 1950s, when the Communion, as we said then, was offered only on the first Sunday of the month at the “main” service. The 1928 Prayer book had not made sharing Communion so primary. Be that as it may, in the teaching about

worship we were told that coming to church and spending time there was only the beginning. True worship of God is to carry into the world, into life, the grace we have received and to share it with others, serving as Jesus taught us: as servants.

To do this is to be the Eucharistic Community. We receive Christ’s Body and Blood so we will become, as well as we can, Jesus’ Body in the world. That’s what the Church is called, isn’t it? The Body of Christ. Each of us is a member of the Body; each of us is a minister in the world. To be a Eucharistic Community is to embody Jesus in all the pain and joy of the world. I’m afraid this part of the teaching has fallen into shadow. Most churches are known not by the work of reconciliation among those who do not worship together, but by the building in which they worship and even by ministry within the Body. Rather than being the center that sends its members out, the church has become a place that seeks to draw people in.

This fall I want us to think about what it means to be a Eucharistic Community. Surely there is more than worshiping once or twice a week in church, keeping up the church building and grounds, resting comfortably in the funds that have been faithfully built up for ministry. To be the Body of Christ we need to understand that more literally. We have a vibrant ministry in our community, and just as there are always more needs, we can never rest. There is always more for us to do. In doing, we are always becoming—hopefully—more and more like the One whose Body we are. But to grow into that Body we need to put our hearts and hands and feet on the street as the Body of Christ. Each of us, individually.

Please pray about this. How can we more faithfully, each of us and all of us together, embody Christ? How might we become more of a Eucharistic Community?

The Rev. Mary B. Richard

To remain neutral, in a situation where the laws of the land virtually criticized God for having created [people] of color, was the sort of thing I could not, as a Christian, tolerate.

Albert Luthuli

Holy Cross Day Celebration and Bishop Owensby’s Visitation

September 13 is an important day for us: the celebration of Holy Cross Day, and our Bishop’s

annual Visitation and Confirmation. To make this day special, we have postponed The

Continuing Feast, normally celebrated on the first Sunday of the month, to this day so we can

offer a feast to the bishop and celebrate with our Confirmands.

Because of the ongoing construction in the kitchen, bring cold dishes as for the past two

feasts, and take your serving dishes home to wash.

Music in Celebration of

Holy Cross Day and the Visitation by the Rt. Rev. Jacob Owensby, IV Bishop of Western Louisiana

In addition to the always beautiful music of our choir and organ, this Sunday we will have a special treat to

celebrate Holy Cross Day (September 14), and Bishop Jake’s Visitation: music from flautist Meredith

Owensby and violinist Steve Snodgrass.

Meredith Owensby, flute Steve Snodgrass, violin

September 19: Training for Lectors to Lead Morning Prayer

If you came into the Episcopal Church after 1979 you may never have experienced Morning Prayer. Yet this is one of the ways we are distinguished as Anglicans. Designing the first Prayer Books, Thomas Cranmer combined the seven monastic prayer times of the day into “Offices,” orders given for worship in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Morning Prayer was the usual service at the main worship time on Sunday in Episcopal churches before 1979. Did you know that lay people can lead Morning Prayer? Yes, they can! You do not need a priest to worship God in this way. Lessons, prayers, and canticles are provided, and the lessons follow a lectionary written in two cycles. The canticles are beautiful—and we almost never sing them unless we make a substitution or the lectionary provides that we read one instead of a psalm in Holy Eucharist. Mary’s great song of praise; Zechariah’s blessing; Simeon’s benediction; songs of praise and prayer. These we have almost lost, as we don’t say or sing them in worship anymore. We don’t want to lose them. We also don’t want to lose Morning Prayer (and the other Offices) as valid and meaningful ways to worship God. We do not have to celebrate the Eucharist to be a Eucharistic Community. That is why Sally is offering training to lead Morning Prayer to the people of the eight churhes that make up the Shreveport Convocation. If we have enough people to lead Morning Prayer at Holy Cross, I would like to offer the service at 11:00 once each month. Learning to appreciate something “new” is always an adventure. In Morning Prayer we join Anglicans of five centuries in this form of worship. Come and see if you might like to be a Leader!

Saturday, September 19,10:00 AM – noon in the Nave

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This Saturday: Why We Are Anglicans

It’s not too late! Make your reservation online today to attend the fourth Congregational Vitality Institute at Camp Hardtner. The sessions have been interesting, and the fellowship with people from all over the diocese is great. There’s no charge; simply register on the diocesan website: http://www.diocesewla.org.homepage.htm/ at the “CVI

Session 4” button at the bottom of the page. And please let Mary know you are going so we can arrange carpools.

Saturday, September 12, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM Camp Hardtner

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Wednesday Night Classes to Resume!

Sometime this month we will resume our suppers, Eucharist, and discussion on Wednesday nights. A change of subject has been proposed: We will study the Gospel of Mark, our oldest and sparest Gospel, for the weeks leading to Advent. We will begin with supper at 6:00, celebrate the Eucharist while still at the tables, then we will begin our study and discussion. Watch Crossings for the date—it will be whenever the kitchen is ready. We look forward to the usual lively and interesting discussions and a wonderful time together!

Daily Feast: Meditations on the Word, Year B

Louisville: Westminster, John Knox Press, 2012

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 19, September 13 Proper 20, September 20

Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 116:1-8 Wisdom of Solomon1:16-2:1, 12-22; Psalm 54 James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37

(James 3:1-12) The most frequent reason given by those (Mark 9:30-37) Not only is Jesus himself said to honor and who steer clear of churches is the duplicity of Christians. welcome a mere child (v. 36), but the saying in verse 37 equates Many of these people can tell you the exact details of one’s welcome of such a child with welcoming Jesus himself— how many times they have showed up at springs marked and even more, with welcoming the God who sent him. This “Fresh Water” with cups in hand, only to end up with passage, then, is far from a saccharine scene in which Jesus mouths full of salt water. You can remind them that no cuddles sweet little children and welcomes them to Sunday one is perfect. You can tell them that churches are made school, as it is often misrepresented. Instead, it is a powerful up of human beings, after all, and that there is always and even shocking depiction of the paradoxical values of God’s room for one more hypocrite. They still have a point. will and reign, which confront the dominant values of human James knows they have a point. If God’s word does not societies and assign worth and importance to every person. . . . show up in the flesh of a congregation—if those who The disciples’ lives will mirror the one to whom they are hear the word do not also incarnate the word—then the committed. Instead of leaping immediately to examples of tongue has worked a wicked spell on them. “Why do you Jesus’ glory and power as their models, however, they need to call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” recognize that Jesus is first and foremost anointed to suffer at (Luke 6:46). In this same vein, tongue toxin is at work the hands of the world’s powers. In accepting such a life when people of faith indulge in glib speech, making what contrary to the world’s wisdom, they will share in the is difficult sound easy, or what is mysterious sound plain. resurrection that is God’s final word on Jesus’ life. Churches worried sick about waning membership can Sharon H. Ringe sometimes make the gospel sound like the South Beach diet: try it and see how good it makes you feel. This is the language of the world, not the Church. Barbara Brown Taylor

Prayer List

Bill Alexander Wanda Allen Margaret Boudreaux Charlie Campbell Jay Colvin Patricia Conly Evelyn Corley Ron Dean Jean Dooley Elizabeth Eglin Shirley Enani Floyd “Buzzy” Farrar

Jackie Free Lady Martha Garner Austin Gleason Kenneth Jordan Elizabeth Joyce George Love Mim McCoy Paige McCranie Trish Peyton Ila Riggs Laura Rhoades Sandra Robinson

Brady Sessions Jack Theurerkauf Gary Thomas Jane Thompson Robert Todd Cliff Townsend Mattie Washington Charlotte Webb Bill Wright Larry Wright Mary Wright

If you would like to request an addition to the Prayer List, please call the church office, 222-3325. Our practice is to keep names on the list for six weeks. If we have an update at that time requesting that we continue to pray for the person, we will leave the name on the list. If not, we will remove it. You can always call if you would like us to add it again.

We pray for those who serve and are served by Hope House; for President Jimmy Carter and his family; for guidance in our cities as we seek to end violence;

for all who are homeless or hungry; for the people of Mexico, the Middle East and Ukraine; for people in all the places where there are war and tension; for all who seek peace;

for the people of our country, that we may find together the way of compassion and peace from our prejudices and racial tensions; for law enforcement officers and the people they serve;

and for our President and Congress, that they may work together to pass legislation to lessen the danger of violence and injustice in our country and provide for the needs of the most vulnerable.

In our Diocesan cycle of prayer we pray for Non-Parochial and other Clergy: the Rev. John Campbell (Sarah), the Rev. Stephen Caudle, the Rev. Andrew Comeaux (Eydie), the Rev. James Benbrook (Becky), the Rev. Mark McDonald (Joni),

the Rev. Jon Roberts (Lynne), the Rev. Don White (Kathryn), and the Rev. Kenneth White

Lord of heaven and earth, deepen our faith in You, so that we may be witnesses to the world of divine love. When we grow cynical and jaded on the hard road of life, help us rediscover the simple joys that surround us as signs of God’s grace and presence. May our childlike faith emanate to those around us, revealing God’s presence in the here and now. Amen.

Welcome!

Jon Aiden McNeil Huddleston

“Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body, the Church” (Book of Common Prayer)

Last Sunday at the 11:00 service, with the Rite of Holy Baptism, Jon Aiden McNeil Huddleston became the newest member of the Holy Cross family. Below are pictures of Jon Aiden with Priest Mary, his proud parents Maddie and Cameron, and other members of his equally proud family.

Lay Ministries

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 13, 2015 September 20, 2015 Sat. 5:00 PM: Sat. 5:00 PM: Larry Wright, Lector, Eucharistic Minister Trish Peyton, Lector; Larry Wright,Eucharistic Minister Sun. 11:00 AM: Sun. 11:00 AM: Lector: Nathaniel Means Lector: Reid Raymond Prayers of the People: Reid Raymond Prayers of the People: Reece Middleton Eucharistic Ministers: Herschel Richard. Kendall Raymond Eucharistic Ministers: Ginger Paul, Monty Walford

Acolytes: Patrick Raymond, Herschel Richard, Hannah Wallace Acolytes: Steve Snodgrass, Hannah Wallace Ushers: Tommie Sue Brooks, Gerry Brooks Ushers: Lynn Walford, Bill Richard Altar Guild Sat. 5:00: Margaret Heacock, June Kirkland Altar Guild Sat. 5:00: Margaret Heacock, June Kirkla Altar Guild Sun. 11:00: Tommie Sue Brooks, Becky Snodgrass Altar Guild Sun. 11:00: Becky Snodgrass, Tommie Sue Brooks

If you wish to donate altar flowers in honor or memory of a loved one, please call Laurie, 222-3325, and tell her. This is a beautiful way to contribute to the beauty of our worship and give to the glory of God!

Calendar for September

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Wednesdays Holy Eucharist (Enriching Our Worship) 12:15 PM Chapel

Thursdays Holy Eucharist 11:00 AM Hope House Back Yard

Saturdays Holy Eucharist 5:00 PM Chapel

Sundays Informal Eucharist 9:20 AM Rose Garden or Chapel

(depending on weather)

Choir Practice 9:45 AM Church Nave

Holy Eucharist II 11:00 AM Church Nave

Saturday, September 12 Congregational Vitality Institute 10:00 AM-3:00 PM Camp Hardtner

Sunday, September 13 Holy Cross Day celebration with 11:00 AM Church Nave

Bishop’s Visitation, Confirmation,

and Continuing Feast 11:00 AM Nave and Undercroft

Tuesday, September 15 Discussion of General Convention with

Bishop and Deputies 6:00 PM Church Nave

Saturday, September 19 Convocational training to lead Morning Prayer 9:00-noon Church Nave

Please watch for the date when Wednesday Night Study will resume.

The Bible as Explained by Children

(with thanks to Jnanne Zepeda of St. Matthias, from whom this was shamelessly lifted)

� Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark.

� Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.

� Unleavened bread is bread made without ingredients.

� Joshua let the Hebrew in the Battle of Geritol.

� Moses went to the top of Mt. Cyanide to get the Ten Commandments.

� The Seventh Commandment is “Thou shalt not admit adultery.”

� Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.

� The Epistles were the wives of the Apostles.

� A godly person should have only one wife. This is called monotony.

Church of the Holy Cross � Episcopal P. O. Box 1627

Shreveport, LA 71165-1627 Website: www.holycrossshreveport.org

E-mail: holycrossshrv1@bellsouth.net Return Service Requested

Mission Statement: The Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport, Louisiana, strives to be the presence of Jesus Christ in our community and beyond, through worship of Almighty God, open inquiry, sharing fellowship, valued diversity, genuine inclusiveness, and servant leadership—encouraging all to exercise God’s gifts and calling as we share the Gospel of Hope in programs, to serve without regard for religious affiliation, race, or economic status.

Hope House: There is an ongoing need for coffee, sugar, creamer, laundry detergent, disposable razors, and personal size hygiene products (soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc.). Donations can be taken to 762 Austen Place or to the church office. Thank you for your continued support.

Forward Day by Day for August, September, and October, in both standard and large-print editions, is available in the Narthex and the Undercroft.

If you cannot get to church and would like to receive Holy Communion or a visit at your residence or the hospital, please call the church office at 222-3325, and Communion will be brought to you.

Crossings is now also available via email. Simply send or call in your email address to the office.

�

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Ph.D. XXVI Presiding Bishop The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jacob Owensby, Ph.D., D. D. IV Bishop of Western Louisiana The Rev. Mary B. Richard Rector The Rev. Sally M. Fox Assisting Priest The Rev. Kenneth W. Paul Rector Emeritus The Rev. Donald D. Heacock Director, Holy Cross Child Placement Mr. Bruce Power Organist-Choirmaster Mr. Ron Dean Organist-Choirmaster Emeritus Mrs. Laurie Connell Office Administrator Mr. Charles Alford Sexton

Non Profit ORG US Postage PAID Permit No. 1197 Shreveport, LA