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	Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori trims a window in a Mississippi house destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Photo by Lauren Auttonberry, Diocese of Mississippi

Bishops roll up purple sleeves for hurricane recovery

By Nancy Davidge
Episcopal News Service

Carrying hammers, power drills, shovels and paint brushes, members of the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops and their guests fanned out across New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi Sept. 22, adding to the long chain of volunteers who continue to make a difference to those whose lives and communities were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

After two days of intense conversation with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the bishops welcomed the opportunity to “work together in a different way, different than talking theology or structure, but instead making a physical difference as well as a spiritual difference in people’s lives,” Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith said.

Donning an Atlanta Braves hat, Atlanta Bishop J. Neil Alexander wielded a large power drill, placing a series of holes in building studs for running wires between the boxes that will hold electrical receptacles. Such work is nothing new to him.

“I got started building cabins at camp and have helped people put on an addition to their home,” he said. “I tend to like the electrical work that needs to be done.”

Volunteers quickly learned there was work for all skill levels. “All I can do is labor,” said Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan, working with a crew installing insulation and sheet rock in a home in the Gentilly neighborhood.

“I’m quite happy to fetch,” Archbishop Morgan said. “I feel a great sense of solidarity with my fellow bishops and their spouses as we engage in corporate work, doing something creative and useful instead of talking. This is constructive work. It is good for my soul.”

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, hanging sheetrock in the same small house as Morgan, was inspired to work even harder after meeting and praying with the homeowner, who lives in a FEMA trailer parked on his tiny front yard. “We stopped what we were doing to pray with and lay hands on [the homeowner and] his long time companion and caregiver,” she said.

Morgan added, “Meeting the owner helped me to realize what he and others have had to put up with for the past two years. The effects [of Katrina] will be with them forever.”

Southern Ohio Suffragan Bishop Kenneth Price, Jr. and his spouse, Marianne, planted vegetables, butterfly bushes and flowers in a community garden in Lakeview, near the St. Paul’s Homecoming Center. Many homes in the immediate neighborhood remain boarded up, still bearing the “bathtub rings” of water scum and debris across the windows and doors — a reminder of the six feet of water that flooded the entire neighborhood and stood stagnant for six weeks.

Organizers of the project said that residents returned to plant gardens even before they started gutting their homes. For many, the new life springing from devastation was a symbol of hope.

Former West Missouri Bishop John Buchanan and his wife, Peggy, volunteered at the Mobile Loaves ‘n Fishes program, a ministry of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans. They made sandwiches, then loaded up the donated canteen truck with chips, fruit and beverages before driving to work sites across the city to feed the work crews as well as other hungry people in New Orleans.

As she handed out sandwiches, Peggy Buchanan said, “Even though we are retired, ministry doesn’t stop.”

In Mississippi, bishops and spouses toured Waveland, Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian before lunching at Camp Coast Care. After a debriefing, the group split into three work teams and headed to work sites in Pass Christian and Gulfport.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori chose to work in one of the Gulfport homes, part of a large crew charged with hanging dry wall in a modest home.

Lauren Auttonberry, coordinator of communications for the Diocese of Mississippi, described the value of the bishops’ work there.

“You saw how much we accomplished in three hours with a large crew in a small house,” said Auttonberry. “Imagine, though, how long it would take a couple or a family with two teens to make the same amount of progress. Don’t underestimate the value of the time you spent here today. It truly did make a difference to a family trying to get back into their home.”

The day proved transforming for many. “Dozens and dozens of people from the Diocese of Virginia who have spent time working here have told me how much their lives had been changed by this work,” said Virginia Bishop Suffragan David Jones. “Working on this house, I can see why. I’ve wanted to be a part of this and am so grateful the House of Bishops has taken a day to do this.”

Nancy Davidge is director of communications for Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and was in New Orleans as part of a mission trip by members of Episcopal Communicators.