wfn.org | DNS -- Two Disciples members feared dead, Church responds to

["Wilma Shuffitt" <wilmas@oc.disciples.org>]

{ SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1}Title:  Two Disciples members feared dead, Church 
responds to national tragedy
Date:  September 18, 2001
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: cmiller@cm.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

01a-49

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- At least two members of 
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregations were still 
missing Sept. 18 after the Sept. 9 collapse of the World Trade 
Center in New York City. The Rev. Pablo Jiminez, Disciples 
National Hispanic Pastor, reports that Eliezer Jiminez, a 
member of Iglesia la Evangilica  (Evangelical Christian 
Church), Bronx, is among the missing. He worked at the 
Windows on the World restaurant, atop the north tower. The 
Disciples Northeast Regional Office reports that Jose Peqa, a 
member of Iglesia Cristiana la 
Tercero (Third Christian Church) 
in upper Manhattan, also is 
missing after the attack on the 
Trade Center.

	Esmerlin Salcebo, 36, the 
son of a member of Iglesia 
Cristiana la Tercero, is missing 
after the Trade Center collapse 
as well. And Todd Weaver, the 
son of Dennis and Marilyn 
Weaver, members of 
Community Christian Church, 
North Canton, Ohio, is among 
those missing in New York. 
Weavers office was on the 96th 
floor of one of the Trade Center 
towers. 518 of his colleagues 
escaped alive but he and 81 of 
his colleagues are unaccounted 
for.

	While a number of members 
of Disciples congregations work 
in and near the Pentagon, the 
Capital Region of the Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ) 
reports no Disciples killed or 
injured in the attack there.  

	Once again, the United 
States finds itself the target of 
unspeakable acts of terrorism, 
said the Rev. Richard L. Hamm, 
general minister and president, 
Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ). Our hearts go out to 
those who were killed or injured 
and to their families and friends. 

	Thousands of Disciples 
congregations held special 
prayer services on the day of the 
attacks and on the days that 
followed. Regional ministers 
issued pastoral letters to their 
pastors and congregations. 
Sunday sermon plans were 
altered across the life of the 
church.  

	Let us pray for one another 
and draw closer to one another 
that we may live our lives in the 
confidence and hope made 
available to us by the love of 
God, wrote the Rev. Jack 
Sullivan, Jr., regional minister, 
the Northwest Region of the 
Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ). 

	As we come together at the 
Lords Table this week, we offer 
our most eloquent answer to 
this attack -- that community 
has not been destroyed, and our 
confidence in Gods resurrecting 
power is intact, wrote the Rev. 
Richard Spleth, regional 
minister, Christian Church 
(Disciples of Christ) in Indiana. 

	Right here in this little 
corner of America, I want to talk 
to you about one big question 
that has come out of this ... why 
did God allow this to happen? 
preached the Rev. Theodore J. 
Nottingham, pastor, Smartsburg 
Christian Church, Crawfordsville, 
Ind. Friends, Im here to tell you 
loud and clear, God did not 
allow this to happen. Why do we 
pray Gods will be done on 
earth? Because it is not done 
on earth, and we witness the 
result today.  Our God is not a 
God who is some big puppet-
master, he preached Sunday, 
Sept.16. 

	Calling up a popular image 
of Jesus carrying a lamb on his 
shoulder, Nottingham 
interpreted, that picture, of the 
one who goes to find the lost-- 
who leaves the others to find the 
one lost -- is a picture of our 
God ... a God of compassion 
and love and care for the 
smallest person, the smallest 
being, Nottingham preached. This is a time when Christians 
are called to be true to their faith, to be followers of Jesus even 
in the midst of evil and confusion, he said. 

	Remember -through worship, constant prayer, study and 
service - that God is a caring Creator, Redeemer, and 
Sustainer whose heart is broken just like ours, who has 
promised to be with us through all times and events, and 
whose love always has and always will have the final say in 
human affairs, wrote the Rev. Robert Hill, pastor, Community 
Christian Church, Kansas City, Mo., in a pastoral letter to his 
congregation.  

	Several Disciples military chaplains have been serving the 
needs of those affected by the attack on the Pentagon. 

	Chaplain Col. John B. Ellington, Jr., a Disciple whose 
home congregation is Indian Lake Community Church, 
Russels Point, Ohio, is chief of the Air National Guard 
Chaplain Service.  He works at the National Guard Bureau, 
Washington D.C., about six blocks away from the Pentagon. 
Its only because of a 10-year Pentagon remodeling plan that 
he wasnt at work in the building that was attacked.  In fact, 
he says that Pentagon casualties were fewer than first 
expected because the plane exploded in an area that was 
being remodeled. Ellingtons work in the crisis was to locate 
and deploy to the Pentagon and other Washington locations 
all available chaplains of various Christian traditions, Rabbis 
and Imams of the Muslim faith.  

	Other Disciples who have been serving in the wake of the 
Washington attack are: Chaplain Lt. Col. Bob Chance, State 
Area Regional Command Chaplain for the Army Guard in the 
District of Columbia, and pastor, Aspen Hill (Md.) Christian 
Church; Chaplain Maj. Lonnie Southern, Army National Guard, 
District of Columbia, and pastor, Fairfax (Va.) Christian 
Church; and Chaplain Maj. Andrea Foster, Army National 
Guard, District of Columbia and member, Aspen Hill Christian 
Church. 

	Chaplains minister through presence, care and hope, 
Ellington said.  For Christians, its about the resurrection. 
Death cannot destroy the life God created. Even in the midst 
of death we have hope.  We bring the hope to people. But the 
hope is also shared through the chaplains of other faith 
traditions. Whether its a Rabbi, Imam or a Christian chaplain 
... we are the symbol of hope.  Were there representing God.  
In a tragedy the most important thing people cling to is the 
hope of God.  

	Disciples disaster response has been through the Week of 
Compassion and Church World Service (CWS).  Week of 
Compassion is responding to a CWS appeal for monetary gifts 
to fund present and 
future relief and assistance efforts.  Gifts to Week of Compassion can be 
sent to: Week of Compassion, P.O. Box 1986, Indianapolis, IN 46206.  
To designate a gift, write NY/DC Disasters on the check.  Donations 
also can be made online at: 
{
  
 HYPERLINK "http://www.weekofcompassion.org"; 
}
www.weekofcompassion.org.
 

	General Minister and President Hamm offered a broader 
perspective in his message to the church. We must do more than pray 
for the victims of violence.  Indeed, individually and collectively, we must 
renounce violence as a means of imposing the will of some upon all.  We 
must seek justice for all everywhere, recognizing that if any are 
oppressed, none are truly free. I remain with you in prayerful watch, said 
the GMP. 

{The full text of Dr. Hamms statement can be found at 
{
  
 HYPERLINK "http://www.disciples.org"; 
}www.disciples.org/rlhstate.htm}

                        -- end -- 

Disciples News Service releases 
are available at http://www.disciples.org/dns/index.htm