OPPORTUNITY
FOR MINISTRY
EMERGENCY RELIEF & DISASTER
RESPONSE -
Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Gulf Coast
Hope
Shall Bloom – United Church of Christ Hurricane Recovery
Katrina / UCC Frequently
Asked Questions, 8/31/05
What has the UCC given so far?
Initially, the UCC's One Great Hour of Sharing fund sent $25,000
through Church World Service and pledged $5,000 to UCC-related Back Bay
Mission of Biloxi, Miss. Updates are available from the disaster relief
page of the UCC website, www.ucc.org/disaster/ .
What
is the money being used for? What are we actually
doing "on the ground" in the affected areas right now?
Initially, the money is being used through Church World Service
to (1) deploy up to 11 persons known as "disaster
response and recovery liaisons" to the hurricane-affected areas,
and (2) provide relief through some 20 local
interfaith disaster-recovery groups in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama,
Tennessee and Kentucky. The liaisons are meeting with federal
officials to identify what immediate materials Church World Service
might provide through Gift of the Heart kits and its blanket program,
and to identify additional long-term recovery needs of vulnerable populations. (3) In
the UCC, our Conference-based disaster-relief coordinators in the affected
region are Alan Coe from the South Central Conference, and Will Rabert
from the Southern Conference.
Other than sending money, what can our church do?
(1) Work groups will be needed
eventually, but are not needed yet. Individuals and groups interested
in information about future volunteer opportunities in the affected
areas should send an e-mail to Mary Schaller Blaufuss, Executive for
Volunteer Ministries, UCC Wider Church Ministries, blaufusm@ucc.org. (2) Watch
for updates at www.ucc.org/disaster on
how churches may participate in helping meet specific material needs. (3) Please
pray. UCC General Minister and President John Thomas has offered,
for use in churches, a prayer
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
What do we know about our churches and institutions in the
affected area?
Conference Ministers Bill Royster (South Central) and Tim
Downs (Southeast) are leading the efforts to contact our congregations
and institutions. Little detail is yet known, in part because some
of them are in areas that were evacuated and it is not yet possible
to return and inspect the situation. The UCC has 16 congregations in
all of Louisiana and 1 in Mississippi. But we also have related institutions
such as Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, MS., Tougaloo College in Tougaloo,
MS., and, in New Orleans, both Dillard University and the Amistad Research
Center at Tulane University. An update
on Back Bay Mission already appears at the UCC website, and more
will be posted there as they become available.
Return
to Hurricane Relief page
Return
to NCNCUCC home page
Go
to most recent Disaster Relief news page on ucc.org
HURRICANE
KATRINA: CONTRIBUTE ONLINE
(This takes you to the UCC's secure online donation page. If you are a
member of a UCC congregation, please be sure to fill in the name and location
of your church.)
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