Bishop Duckworth and Deacons Receive Awards at AED Triennial Conference
July 3, 2025

National honors from the Association of Episcopal Deacons (AED) were awarded to Bishop Shannon Rogers Duckworth, Archdeacon Charles deGravelles and Deacon Michael G. Hackett for their work in promoting the work and mission of the diaconate. The awards were presented at the AED’s Triennial Conference in San Antonio, Texas, June 5-8, 2025.

Bishop Duckworth was the recipient of the Bishop George Harris Award, presented to one person of any order for their work in supporting and promoting the diaconate. Archdeacon deGravelles received the award on her behalf and read a letter of thanks from Bishop Duckworth. In her letter accepting the award, the Bishop said, “It gives me great hope for the church to see the beautiful ways that [deacons] strive to bring the needs and concerns of this hurting world back to their communities and congregations. They are involved in everything from ministry to the unhoused, emergency response, recovery ministry, prison ministry, food distribution, and restorative justice. They push me to be a better bishop, and I am better for their loving and faithful presence.”

AED President Kristi Neal presents Deacon Michael Hackett with the Stephen Award as AED Director Carter Hawley looks on.

Archdeacon Charles deGravelles accepts the Ormonde Plater Award.

Deacon Michael G. Hackett received the Stephen Award, presented to one deacon in each of the nine provinces of the Episcopal Church for their outstanding community service and Diakonia.

“Michael is ‘retired’ in name only,” said Archdeacon deGravelles. “He continues his decades-long ministry at Angola prison, his work as a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Chaplain, and, most importantly, he inspires and recruits lay and clergy alike to participate in servant ministry. Among his colleagues, he is known as a ‘deacon’s deacon.”

Archdeacon deGravelles received the Ormonde Plater Award, presented to one deacon who represents the diaconate to the church and the world, raises the deacon profile, and has increased respect for the diaconate.

“I am so proud to receive an award that bears the name of Deacon Ormonde Plater,” deGravelles said. “He was a pioneer and architect of the modern diaconate as a distinctive ministry in the church and a scholar whose books have educated generations of new deacons. For me, he was not only a mentor but a role model and a hero.”

The four-day conference featured Presiding Bishop The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe as the keynote speaker and celebrant of the first Eucharist of the event. A wide variety of workshops on diaconal ministries were available to the participating deacons from around the country. “But it’s not just about the workshop content,” said Deacon Hackett, “it’s about reconnecting with friends and colleagues and making new ones. It’s about networking to see what we have to share with one another.”

You belong. You are children of God. No exceptions.

Bishop Duckworth’s sermon called us to remember the UpStairs Lounge fire in the French Quarter, a violent act of deadly arson that killed 32 gay men in nineteen minutes. In the aftermath, no church in the city would bury the dead. The exception was St. George’s Episcopal Church. Its rector, the Rev. Bill Richardson, did what he knew Jesus called him to do — he buried those men. He did so not without cost: he faced active condemnation from the larger community, but also from within his own congregation and from within our own diocese.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of two pivotal resolutions from the 1976 General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Resolution 1976-A069 and Resolution 1976-A071 declared that “homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church,” and that LGBTQ+ persons “are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens.” While we can celebrate many clear advancements for the full inclusion of our LGBTQ+ community in church and community life, the work is ongoing.

It has not always been a straight path. The church is human, and humans stumble. But consider how far we have traveled: from a church being rebuked for praying over the dead, to bishops wearing rainbow stoles given as gifts by LGBTQ+ Episcopalians at ordination. From closed communion tables to fully open sacramental life. From whispered exclusion to the joyful, public, Spirit-filled worship we offer tonight.

In our own Diocese of Louisiana, the transformation has been remarkable. Inclusive Louisiana, our network of LGBTQ+ Episcopalians and their allies, has been a light in this region for years — marching in Pride parades, offering pastoral care, and equipping congregations to proclaim God’s all-inclusive love. And here at St. Anna’s, you have led the way: becoming the first congregation in this diocese to celebrate same-sex marriage.

Bishop Duckworth’s conclusion made plain that actively creating a joyfully inclusive church is what we are called to do:

Not someday. Not when things are more comfortable. Not when the political climate improves. Today. The work of liberation is always a present-tense call.”

To speak that truth in this moment is not a partisan act. It is an act of Christian faithfulness. It is what prophets do. It is what the Church, at its best, has always done — even when it cost us something.

We serve a God who said: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” That includes everyone. Everyone is a child of God.

The Rt. Rev. Shannon Rogers Duckworth

Bishop Duckworth offered the Prayer for Travelers from the Book of Common Prayer for Deacon Luigi, who is relocating to Chicago. His contributions to Inclusive Louisiana, St. Anna’s, the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana, and the broader community have been immeasurable. We are grateful for all he has given us, and we trust that though he leaves us physically, what he has created here will continue to grow.

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