October 8, 2005
By Mary Frances Schjonberg

The Episcopal Church is committed to accompanying the people of the Gulf Coast over the coming years as they recover from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

That was the message Church Center staff members involved in the relief efforts told the Executive Council as it began its fall meeting in Las Vegas October 7.

"That's really the operative word today: long term," said Robert Radtke, president of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD).

The staff members reported on the church's efforts up until now. They also explained the goals of "We Will Stand With You," the new name for an effort that began immediately after Hurricane Katrina to assess the needs of those hit by the storms and to coordinate ways of meeting those needs.

Those efforts began with simply fielding all the offers of help. The dioceses on the Gulf Coast, staffers said, initially felt overwhelmed with the offers of help.

"When people want to help, they want to help right now," said Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) director C. Richard Parkins.

"The heart of this church is huge and people really wanted to help," said the Rev. Jan Nunley, deputy for communication, one of the departments involved in the coordinating effort.

Church Center staff members acknowledged that some people and organizations have felt frustrated in past weeks as their offers of help were met with requests that they put those offers on hold. Gulf Coast dioceses were asking that people put their desires to help "in escrow," Nunley said, while they assessed what they needed next.

Many of the offers of help came from congregations and dioceses that already had relationships with their counterparts on the Gulf Coast. Those offers are wonderful, Nunley said, but they need to be augmented with deliberate coordination so that all areas receive aid and not just those with such previous relationships.

The Rt. Rev. George Packard, Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies, who proposed the title for the coordinating effort, has called for the effort to be an "enduring" and "relational" one, centered in Christ and grounded in prayer, Nunley explained.

Packard is concerned that congregations and individuals keep their own dioceses apprised of their efforts to help the affected dioceses, as a way of building "an accurate inventory of help."

"We Will Stand With You" has four phases, Nunley said. The first involves determining who needs help and who is offering help. That phase is currently underway. The second phase will involve matching those two groups. The actual work of those matches will begin in the third phase. Evaluation every 10 days and improvement is the last phase.

Church agencies have already responded to the destruction and dislocation caused by the storms, and some matching of needs with assistance have already happened.

EMM's Parkins told the council that his office is in the midst of that work. EMM staff members have talked with people in 56 dioceses and 166 parishes about their offers of help. They are talking both to dislocated people and parishes offering to house people in an effort to help everyone understand what sort of relationship and time commitment is involved.

ERD's Radtke said the disaster on the Gulf Coast is an "open situation; it's an ongoing crisis." He outlined four stages of disaster response. The first happens in the first three months following the disaster. It involves meeting basic needs such as food, housing and pastoral care. This is the current phase, he said, and ERD is helping dioceses to meet those needs while it helps the dioceses improve their capacities to help. That effort included finding local experts and, in some cases, helping the dioceses hire them to begin their response to the disaster.

The widespread destruction caused by the hurricanes created some unprecedented challenges. In the case of the Diocese of Louisiana, one of the challenges was the sheer destruction the diocese suffered. Radtke told the council that when he walked into Louisiana Bishop Charles Jenkins' temporary office in Baton Rouge days after Katrina, the bishop told him he felt like "a deer caught in the headlights."

"I said I am here to stand with you in the headlights," he said.

Parkins, during his presentation, spoke of EMM's offer of a relationship to those in need, rather than material assistance only. That relationship promises to help people through red tape and more. It is a promise "to enter into your suffering with you," he said.

The second stage of relief work, Radtke said, is a time of supplying technical support to the affected area. For instance, water in New Orleans is still unsafe to drink, so ERD has helped the diocese of Louisiana set up a water-purification plant at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans, according to Radtke.

The cathedral also announced October 7 that it has opened its doors as a distribution center for personal hygiene products, bottled water, household cleaning supplies and rubber gloves.

During this time, the church's relief efforts also try to address the future. "We are trying to plant the seeds so that the diocese has a seat at the table" as decisions are made about rebuilding New Orleans, Radtke told the council.

Six to eight months after the disaster is the third stage of relief, during which, Radtke said, victims of the storms will face the end of much of their initial aid and will come back to religious groups for more help. They will need case managers who can help them navigate through the next stage of government and private-agency relief programs.

The last stage of relief efforts can last as long as five years after a disaster, Radtke said. He predicted health issues will arise among survivors and aid workers. Some businesses will need what he called "micro-financing" to resume their work.

All of this requires funding and "it's not in any of our budgets to do relief work" on this scale, Nunley reminded the council.

Parkins said after his council briefing that EMM and other faith-based agencies are pushing to have the federal government use its expertise and release money to pay for the work.

"The Episcopal Church was there first and I know if the federal government doesn't come through, the Episcopal Church will still do this," he said.

He said that it is a matter of scale. It would take about $1 billion to do the work the agencies envision.

Episcopal News Service
Mary Frances Schjonberg is national correspondent for Episcopal News Service.