The Rev. Morris Thompson already has begun his first major undertaking as incoming bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana: listening.
Thompson, 54, moved to New Orleans from Lexington, Ky., in March to take the place of Bishop Charles Jenkins. He will be ordained May 8 as the diocese’s 11th bishop at Christ Church Cathedral.
What Thompson is especially good at, his resume and acquaintances say, is pastoral care, the kind of psychological and spiritual therapy he made a specialty as a hospital chaplain in Kentucky and his native Mississippi.
So far, Thompson has toured some of the 55 congregations in his diocese, which covers most of Southeast Louisiana. He said his listening tour is likely to go on for a year or more, until he begins to distill a sense of where his diocese of 18,000 Episcopalians is, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and what he thinks it needs.
I would guess that the Bishop-elect has inherited a rather healthy diocese. Its 2002 through 2008 experience was rather average with Members down 11 percent, ASA down 17 percent, and Plate & Pledge adjusted for inflation down 6 percent. Using these data, I ranked the diocese at 45 of 95 considered. Also, the hurricane disaster is slowly fading into history. And the diocese appears well positioned for the future. Rather youthful with 288 Infant Baptisms and 203 Burials in 2008. And for Money there were 26 of its 48 churches with Plate & Pledge below $150K in 2008 which means that each “rich” church has only one “poor” church to help. The new bishop may indeed have fair winds and a following sea. Statmann
Listening’s great, but time will tell whether or not he can run the show.
I knew Bishop James Brown (9th Bishop?? think) when I was parishioner at CCC in NOLA back in the 90s. The diocese was largely orthodox then but now, who knows? I hope that this Bishop can address their very real needs as a diocese as well as Bishop Lawrence has addressed ours.
Looking at that picture, I am glad that beautiful place is still around.