So, I am definitely going with the student group from CSUN to New Orleans over Holy Week to do cleanup and building. Sooooo excited!!
While, there I would love to take them to an Easter Vigil (something traditional) and a nice Easter morning service (preferably more "gospel southern").
So help me out, national readers!! If anyone has any suggestions for a good parish to contact about this, let me know. We're not a huge group - 24 students, 5 leaders - but I want to go someplace not too small or too big (don't want to dominate yet don't want to be lost). Many of the students are not Christians and this will be their first exposure to these services.
Just email me at stasigrace at gmail dot com with suggestions. Also, I'm going to ask the parishes about this, but if you know of any materials already out there on justice and racial reconciliation particularly pertaining to New Orleans, that would be lovely. We want to have a session on that. Even a guest speaker from the local community would be great!
Many thanks!
I've lived in New Orleans for about 30 years
ReplyDeleteand understand that St. Stephens Gospel church
would likely be the coupe de gras of gospel
services.
Here is their info:
Greater St Stephen Full Gospel
2308 S Liberty St
New Orleans, LA 70113-2555
(504) 244-6800
While you and your group are here you should
not miss the chance to see St. Alphonsus...
http://www.neworleanschurches.com/stalphons/stalphonsus.htm
You can see a film I made about St. Alphonsus here:
http://www.katrinafilm.com/alphonsus.wmv
Our neighborhood group has had a couple of successful
cleanup events. We would love to work with you! You can see films of the events here:
http://www.katrinafilm.com/fsjna.wmv
http://www.katrinafilm.com/2ndcleanup.wmv
Thank you for helping New Orleans and I hope you have a great time while you
are here in the Crescent City. The tourist
areas are all "good to go" so a great time
will be had by all those wishing to do so.
Of course, St. Louis Cathedral would be the obvious choice for a traditional Easter vigil. However, from your description
of what you were looking for, St. Patrick's on Camp Street would likely fit your group better.
Here are the links to both:
St. Louis Cathedral
http://stlouiscathedral.org/index.htm
St. Patrick's Church
http://www.oldstpatricks.org/
Welcome to New Orleans
and enjoy your stay!
Many people want to know how things are going here.
For the most part it is business as usual for the
population that has returned... less than half
before the storm.
Downtown New Orleans, the affluent section of the
Garden District (St.Charles Ave) and the French Quarter were largely unaffected.
These are the areas most tourists see and therefore
tourists may be dismayed at what all the fuss is about.
The problem is, the staple of any community ... the working class neighborhoods, were devastated. Lakeview, Chalmette, New Orleans East, Broadmoor, and the much publicized 9th Ward
were all inundated not so much from the storm itself but the failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to do its job properly. See www.levees.org for more info.
I recently did a short tour of Chalmette and the 9th Ward to see the progress. I went there on March 17th. Here is a film of what I saw: http://www.katrinafilm.com/2007March17.wmv
Thanks for helping New Orleans!
Charlie London
Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) in the Garden District probably will be having a Vigil. Their website is woefully out of date but they've had one in years past. Contact info:
ReplyDelete2919 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70115
(504) 895-6602