Hurricane relief

As the Gulf Coast from Texas to Alabama began to pick up following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Episcopalians across the nation offered aid and comfort even as coastal churches lay in ruins.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold observed “profligate acts of generosity” and compassion by Episcopalians in the dioceses of Louisiana and Mississippi while visiting hurricane-impacted churches along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans and witnessing local relief operations Sept. 19-20.

During his first visit to the region since Hurricane Katrina made landfall Aug. 29, Griswold commented on the incredible faith and determination of Gulf Coast Episcopalians, and noted with awe the resiliency and “deep compassion” of the local community.

“Even the people who’ve lost everything ... are reaching out beyond themselves for someone else who may have suffered more deeply,” he said. “It’s really an example of God’s generosity made incarnate in men and women, and this is what gives us so much hope.”

Griswold visited four churches and a relief operations center in Mississippi and five churches in New Orleans.

And only weeks after the devastation caused by Katrina, eastern Texas and western Louisiana braced for the impact of Rita, a storm that caused less damage to church structures but scattered parishioners across the region.

Episcopal Relief and Development reported donations of more than $6 million in the first month after the storms hit as Episcopaliams rallied to help wth financial contributions large and small. Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis gave $500,000 to ERD, the largest single gift in the agency's history.

How to help

Give to Episcopal Relief and Development

On the web: www.er-d.org

By phone: 800-334-7626, ext. 5129

By mail: ERD, c/o Hurricane Katrina Response Fund, P.O. Box 12043, Newark, NJ 07101

Canon to the Ordinary Jo Ann Ford is the diocesan contact person. Contact her at canon@episcopal-ks.org.

Visit www.episcopalchurch.org/help for information.

Gather names of people who might be willing to serve on works crews in the Gulf Coast once needs are known.

E-mail the information to er-d@er-d.org

Is your parish in shape to help should a disaster strike your community?

David Lynch, a member of St. Michael’s, Mission and chief of education and development with Johnson County Emergency Medical Services, will visit your parish to talk about needs and solutions. E-mail him at dlynch2@kc.rr.com

Donations also came in from Anglicans around the world. The Church in El Salvador, itself the scene of the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, pledged the donations from all its churches during the month of September to ERD for hurricane relief.

ERD’s aid allowed the Diocese of Louisiana to create an Office of Disaster Relief and hire staff members to link people in need with resources to help them. The diocesan offices in New Orleans have been relocated to Baton Rouge, as staff members were forced to evacuate before Katrina hit. The diocese received temporary quarters at St. James’ Church, which also was housing staff from Trinity Church and Christ Cathedral, both in New Orleans.

Louisiana Bishop Charles Jenkins noted that all his staff there had become displaced person, saying, “We are the wounded attempting to minister to those more wounded.”

The offices of the Diocese of Texas also were forced to evacuate, from Houston, this time in the days leading up to the arrival of Rita. Bishop Don Wimberly and some members of his staff headed to the diocese’s Camp Allen, located northwest of Houston.

There they were joined by residents of a diocesan retirement community and a local nursing home, who also had been evacuated to the camp for safety.

Parishes and individuals around the country wanted to help, but the devastation in the region made it impossible for dioceses to receive work crews or hands-on efforts at the current time.

But a coordinated response already has created a system for dioceses, congregations and institutions to establish companion relationships with congregations affected by the hurricanes.

Led by the Office of the Suffragan Bishop for Chaplaincies, “We Will Stand With You” will help match needs with available resources as well as provide for partner parishes.

Bishops were asked to name liaisons for this program from each diocese. Bishop Dean Wolfe has named Canon to the Ordinary Jo Ann Ford as Kansas’ contact person for parishes wanting to participate.

More information on this program also is available through the new web pages of the “Hurricane Emergency Links Portal,” at www.episcopalchurch.org/help.

Episcopal Relief and Development began its help to the region immediately after the storms hit. Its assistance is stretching across the Gulf Coast to cities and congregations affected, but it also is providing financial help to dioceses, including Western Kansas and Missouri, that are housing evacuees in their locations hundreds of miles from the storms’ paths.

ERD has played a key role in funding Louisiana’s Office of Disaster Relief. Its other efforts have centered on financial aid to dioceses and parishes that are working hard to meet the needs of evacuees, many of whom are staying in Episcopal churches or conference centers.

Robert Radtke, president of ERD, said the $6 million in donations for hurricane relief is outpacing giving from last winter for victims of the South Asia tsunami. “We know that the sums necessary to restore lives in the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans will be considerable,” he said, “and we are committed to long-term recovery in the region.”

He said ERD will expand its help to include such things as trauma counseling, psychosocial care and help with other unmet needs of area residents.

Information on ERD’s work is available on that agency’s web site, www.er-d.org.

With many residents scattered across the state and beyond and its offices evacuated from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, the Diocese of Louisiana was both a provider of ministry and a recipient, as Episcopal Relief and Development and the Society of St. John the Evangelist sent resource people to help the diocese with planning in disaster response and communications.

The new Office of Disaster Relief began hiring staff members to coordinate how the diocese would respond to the needs in its 54 congregations and the cities they serve.

Students at the many Episcopal schools in the diocese were invited to attend classes at a number of private schools, including some in far-flung states. Most were offered tuition waivers to get their studies back on track.

Diocesan clergy and their spouses participated in a day of reflection hosted by Bishop Jenkins and Bishop George Packard, Suffragan Bishop for Chaplaincies, on Sept. 16.

Bishop Jenkins also issued a call for the Diocese of Louisiana to spend a month in prayer and discernment. He called for a 24-hour diocesan vigil to be held in homes and churches between sunset Oct. 22 and sunset Oct. 23.

This period of prayer and reflection is designed to help people better discern what God is calling the church to do as it rebuilds, Jenkins said. It will culminate with a strategic planning session on Nov. 15.

Additional information about the Diocese of Louisiana is at www.connectedola.org.

Some of the most dramatic images from Katrina come from Mississippi, where six church buildings along the Gulf Coast were completely destroyed.

Bishop Duncan Gray visited each of those six locations early on Sunday after the storm, some of which were marked only by rubble, and planted an Episcopal church flag on the property to help people find their way for services that day. “Those small points of color and movement were literal beacons that there was life at the six sites,” said Lauren Autonberry, diocesan spokeswoman.

Through Lutheran Episcopal Services, an ecumenical social service agency, the diocese was providing a variety of relief efforts to affected communities, including supplies and housing.

Texas Episcopalians were active in providing shelter to thousands of Katrina evacuees when they themselves were forced to flee the expected path of Rita only days later.

Parishes across the diocese, headquartered in Houston, offered help to evacuees, including those that were bussed from New Orleans to the Astrodome. Church buildings were used as shelters, and Episcopalians pitched in to provide food, water and clothing to those seeking refuge in their communities.

In the midst of those relief efforts, Hurricane Rita hit the coastal area of the diocese. Reports showed only minor damage to church buildings, some of which served as storm shelters during the height of the hurricane’s fury. Inland churches and schools also served as evacuation sites for those fleeing Rita’s path.

Communities in this portion of the state were hard-hit by the effect of Hurricane Rita, but churches in the diocese sustained only minimal damage, according to Bishop Bruce McPherson. That was good news for the Katrina evacuees who were in church-owned facilities. McPherson reported the diocesan camp and conference center was filled to capacity with people needing temporary shelter after the huuricane hit.

Additional information on the Diocese of Western Louisiana is at www.diocesewla.org.

Efforts by churches in the diocese, which includes portions of Alabama and Florida, centered on providing aid to neighbors in Mississippi and help to evacuees in its cities. That region itself still is struggling to recover from last year’s hurricanes that hit Pensacola.

For more information on the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, see www.diocgc.org.