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Texas-Louisiana
Gulf Coast Synod
A network of growing, Christ-centered, outwardly-focused
congregations passing the faith to the next generation
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Lisa's
Pieces: Creation Care Tips from the Synod Lutherans Restoring
Creation Team
The mission of
Lutherans Restoring Creation is to promote incorporation of care for
creation into the full life and mission of the church, working in five areas: worship,
education, discipleship, building & grounds, and public
ministry/advocacy. For some timely tips in these areas, Read more...
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COVID,
the Environment & Justice: A Faith Panel Discussion
Join an online panel of
speakers from diverse faith traditions to explore the connections between
COVID, the environment and justice. Each speaker will address this topic
from the perspective of their faith. Once we've heard from all the
speakers, we'll open up the discussion to questions and comments from the
virtual audience. Note that the start time is tentative at this
time, but will definitely be in the afternoon of Sunday, January 10. Read more...
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Faithful Resilience: A Study on Climate Resilience for Faith
Communities
Tuesdays, January 12 - February 16, 6:00 p.m., online
Faithful Resilience is
a six-part study on climate resilience for faith communities. The climate
crisis has arrived. Faith communities must not only react, but also
prepare. Over the last decade, hurricanes have intensified, wildfires
have burnt stronger, and heat waves have baked our cities. These events
can only be expected to get worse in the next decades. Most of our faith
communities are not ready for these climate-driven disasters. Read more...
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Sunday
Evening Conversations on Creation Continue...
The synod Lutherans
Restoring Creation Team invites you to a monthly environmental education
web meeting series whose theme in 2021 is Healthy Planet = Healthy People
= Healthy Economy.
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Steve Stelzer,
Program Director, Houston Green Building Resource Center
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Being Healthy in a
Toxifying World
Sunday, January 31, 6
p.m., online
In January, join Steve
Stelzer, Program Director at the Houston Green Building Resource Center,
as he discusses the many paradoxes we face as global citizens regarding
staying healthy in a world where business insists on dumping toxic wastes
into our air and water supply. Read more...
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The Houston Climate
Action Plan & Faith Communities
Sunday, February 14, 2021, 2:00 p.m., online
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Lara Cottingham
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Join Lara Cottingham,
Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Houston, to learn about the
Houston Climate Action Plan (CAP) and how faith communities, houses of
worship and their members, can get involved. Lara will cover the goals of
the CAP in the areas of transportation, energy transition, building
optimization & materials management, including the strategies &
actions to be employed in reaching the goals. Read more...
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"Prayer changes things. It has for
us. Thank you!"
By Chris Markert, Bishop's
Associate for Mission
 On
August 27, the area of Lake Charles, Louisiana was devastated by
Hurricane Laura. Thousands evacuated out of the way, including the
family of Ms. Shonda, who headed to Dallas. After a couple of weeks in
Dallas, she was bused to Katy, where she, her three daughters, and two
grandchildren have been staying in a local hotel since September. She
has only been back to Lake Charles twice- to assess the damage to her
home and to salvage what she could from what was left.
Upbring's Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response was
working with Ms. Shonda on receiving housing assistance through FEMA
when it was discovered that the family had evacuated with only a change
of summer clothes (it was August, after all), and now the weather was
getting colder. LSS Disaster Response contacted our synod's Disaster
Team to see if we could assist. The Disaster Team immediately reached
out to the conference dean and a local pastor to see how they might
help. Read more...
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Reading "Mayflower Chronicles: The
Tale of Two Cultures", by Pastor Kathy Haueisen
By Bishop Michael Rinehart
 Imagine
writing a novel about historical events involving one of your
ancestors. Now imagine that 1620 Mayflower passengers William and
Mary Brewster were your ancestors. What if some of your
grandchildren are Native American? I would imagine the research alone
would be its own reward, but we should be grateful that Pastor Kathy
Haueisen has turned this into a book for us. Dedicated to her mother,
Elizabeth J. Brewster Ross Hieber (1914-1882), who introduced her to
the stories, Kathy's book is readable and relevant.
I have known Pastor Kathy Brewster Haueisen for 34 years,
since my internship in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, where she also
served as an associate pastor in the same conference. For the last few
years, she has served as chair of our synod candidacy committee, just
having stepped down. Kathy is a bit of a Renaissance woman, having
authored six books, served as an interim camp director (preceding
Evan Moilan at Lutherhill), and having directed capital fund appeals
with a remarkable amount of success across the ELCA and our synod.
Pastor Haueisen takes us to her ancestors in England,
helping us understand why they had to leave. She traces their exile in
Holland, then she brings us to the Pokanoket Nation to give us a
picture of life prior to the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. Read more...
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Three Lenten Possibilities
 By
Bishop Mike Rinehart
For many of us, the Christmas decorations from this unique
pandemic Christmas have not yet been packed away for another year. So
how does it feel to think about Lent? Too soon?
Ash Wednesday is February 17, 2021, not the earliest Ash
Wednesday can fall (February 4), but early enough. Lent will begin six
weeks after Epiphany this year. Have you chosen a theme for your
Wednesday services yet?
The Sunday morning Revised Common
Lectionary texts are as follows:
Lent 1 (2/21/21): Mark 1 - Baptism of Jesus, Temptation,
arrest of John
Lent 2 (2/28/21): Mark 8 - Peter's confession and rebuke
Lent 3 (3/7/21): John 2 -Cleansing of the Temple
Lent 4 (3/14/21): John 3 - Just as Moses "lifted up" the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, For God
so loved the world...
Lent 5 (3/21/21): John 12 - Greeks. Sir we wish to see Jesus.
Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies...
If you're in the Narrative Lectionary,
you're in Year 3 (Luke):
Lent 1 (2/21/21): Luke 10:25-42 - Good Samaritan
Lent 2 (2/28/21): Luke 13:1-9, 31-35 - Lament over Jerusalem/Fig
Tree/Siloam Tower
Lent 3 (3/7/21): Luke 15:1-32 - Lost Sheep, Coin, Son
Lent 4 (3/14/21): Luke 16:19-31 - Rich Man and Lazarus
Lent 5 (3/21/21): Luke 18:31-19:10 - Zacchaeus, healing
appointment, I came to save the lost.
But what about Wednesday Lenten services this year? It's
hard to say what Lenten services will look like this year. As I'm
writing this in December, it appears that the vaccine will not be
distributed sufficiently to allow us to dispense with physical
distancing. Some will have small services with social distancing.
Others will do online services or devotions on Wednesdays. Some may opt
for a series of small group studies.
Either way, we will need to plan. Now is the time to get
ready. Read more....
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Meet Deacon Beth Harfiel, Chair, Gulf
Coast Synod Candidacy Committee
By Tracey Breashears Schultz, Bishop's
Associate for Leadership
Up until December 2020, the chair of the synod's Candidacy
Committee was Pastor Kathy Haueisen, who served faithfully for five
years. This month, Deacon Beth Hartfiel begins as the new chair. This
change in leadership offers a good time to introduce you to our chair
and to the work we do together.
Those who are preparing for leadership in the ELCA journey
along two parallel paths. One is the academic, seminary work. The other
is Candidacy. Each synod has a Candidacy Committee. Ours is made up of
dedicated people - both lay and ordained - who walk alongside our
students and who make time to read their essays and to reflect
thoughtfully with them about what they're learning and what God is
doing in their lives. There are three major candidacy milestones along
the way: Entrance (the first), Endorsement (usually before internship),
and Approval (just before first call). After these interviews, we take
notes and submit them using a churchwide database. With seminaries, we
accompany candidates and see them through a rather laborious and
transformational journey.
As you might imagine, this ministry requires attentive
leadership, careful administration, and regular communication. Deacon
Beth Hartfiel exemplifies these gifts. Read more...
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Sabbaticals: A Gift for Those in
Ministry
 By
Chris Markert, Bishop's Associate
for Mission
In 2019, the Synod Council generously approved a
three-month sabbatic
al for me in 2020. Due to the pandemic, I will begin my
sabbatical in January 2021. Originally, the plan for my sabbatical
included traveling to England, Ireland and Scotland, as well as a visit
to the Iona Community. Instead, I will begin an executive master's
degree in hospitality management at the University of Houston.
Sabbaticals are a gift to those who serve for years in
ministry. They are meant to be a time of rest and renewal, as well as
for professional, spiritual, and personal growth. Per our synod's
compensation guidelines, every congregation should consider having an
established sabbatical policy.
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Living the Change Weekly Discussion
Group
Thursday, February 4 - Thursday, April 29, 6 p.m.,
online
In fall 2017, at the COP23 UN Climate Change
Conference in Bonn, Germany, spiritual leaders presented the Walk
on Earth Gently multifaith statement to world leaders. Now
we're asking Texans of faith to join us in accepting the Walk on
Earth Gently invitation and committing to a sustainable
lifestyle. Walk on Earth Gently invites people of faith
into a journey of Living the Change that the world needs.
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