September
1, 2005
Quick
Church Responses in Katrina’s Wake
by Jon
M. Sweeney
The
magic of the Internet is made clear when congregations still
stand at their homepages, even as their houses of worship have
tumbled into the sea. Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Biloxi,
Mississippi (at 610 Water Street), is destroyed, but its Web
page is still standing. These presences are eerie reminders of
what was, but also of what remains. You would never know that
something catastrophic had happened in the Gulf States if you
simply read the Web sites of those congregations that have been
far too busy with life-threatening matters to take the time to
update them with messages that services are cancelled for this
week.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ville Platte, Louisiana, still
has at the top of its homepage a simple “Prayer for Hurricane
Season.” It actually asks God for rain. “Our Father
in Heaven, through the intercession of Our Lady of Prompt Succor,
spare us during this hurricane season from all harm and protect
us and our homes from all disasters of nature; we especially
pray that our farmers have the rain they need for their livelihood.
We ask through Christ our Lord. Amen!”
The large, multi-ethnic, Pentecostal congregation, Carisma Church
in New Orleans has on its homepage two short reflections from
Pastor Tony Silveira: “5 Ingredients of a Holy Character” and “The
Da Vinci Code—My Book Report.” One wonders how those
ingredients may have changed over the last week. We also wonder
where Pastor Tony is just now, and if he is alright.
In a letter to his flock posted on the Internet August 30, the
United Methodist bishop of the Louisiana Conference urged all
to practice hospitality, now more than ever before. “You
can serve as shelters for those who are trying to find some semblance
of order in their otherwise chaotic lives, and you can offer
counseling to those who have come to your communities as refugees
from the storm.”
Nearly every nationwide religious organization in the United
States has set up relief efforts for those impacted by Katrina.
United Jewish Communities invites you to contribute at www.ujc.org;
United Methodists at www.methodistrelief.org; Episcopal Relief
and Development at www.er-d.org;
Catholic Charities USA at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org; Islamic
Relief at www.irw.org/katrina; even witches are trying
to do something—“The Witches’ Voice,” a
neo-pagan Internet network, invites its members at www.witchvox.com to contribute to the Red Cross.
Other church organizations are already working together with
government disaster relief officials to help. Heather Feltman,
director for Lutheran Disaster Response, which unites ELCA and
Missouri Synod Lutherans, says: “Keeping people alive is
the primary task this day. We are identifying retired military
personnel, fire fighters and others with search and rescue skills
and referring them to appropriate officials.”
Denominational groups are quickly undertaking very practical
means of help. Trinity United Methodist Church in Ruston, Louisiana,
outside of New Orleans, is serving as an overflow shelter for
the Red Cross. The congregation is housing and feeding almost
200 refugees in the church gymnasium. In their Mississippi Conference,
United Methodists have placed information on their website for
those interested in volunteering, once public access is granted
into the most devastated areas: www.mississippi-umc.org.
Mennonite Disaster Service announced from their headquarters
in Akron, Pennsylvania, that they would have a “leadership,
investigative team” on the ground in Mississippi by Thursday,
September 1. “Starting in Macon, Mississippi, the team
will move south to Meridian, where the Mennonite Pine Lake Camp
is located, and eventually reach Gulfport. Another team will
enter the region along the Gulf shore, joining the other MDS
investigation in the Gulfport area.” (www.mds.mennonite.net)
Other Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican/Episcopal denominations
and congregations are quickly giving money to the Church World
Service—an ecumenical, cooperative relief organization.
CWS’s disaster response specialists are teleconferencing
with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) officials each
day now, in order to identify material resource needs and storm-affected
areas where CWS will concentrate its efforts. (www.churchworldservice.org)
Copyright ©2005 Jon
Sweeney
Jon Sweeney is an author and editor living
in Vermont. Hismost recent book is THE LURE OF SAINTS: A PROTESTANT EXPERIENCE
OF CATHOLIC TRADITION. More
by Jon Sweeney.
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