wfn.org | New York City churches continue Sept. 11 response

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 6, 2002       News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{346}

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Nine months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Cheryl
Holt-Andrews asked the children at the after-school program at Tremont
United Methodist Church to write - or, if they were under 5, draw - about
their feelings of the events of that day.

She was horrified that, months later, the children still drew pictures of
the World Trade Center's twin towers under attack by airplanes and engulfed
in flames. "That had the most impact on me," she says. "The older children,
they can talk about it; these (younger) children have been holding it in all
this time."

Tremont, in the Bronx, is one of the many United Methodist churches in New
York City's five boroughs that are continuing to respond to people affected
by the events of Sept. 11. The denomination's New York Annual (regional)
Conference has allocated $1 million in grants to help fund local church
programs. The conference received the money from the United Methodist
Committee on Relief's "Love in the Midst of Tragedy" Sept. 11 fund-raising
appeal.

The Rev. Charles Straut, Jr., coordinator of the conference's Sept. 11
disaster response task force, says it makes sense to use UMCOR resources
from faithful church members "in places like New York, where street-level
ministry is needed now." The conference has been gratified by the financial
support from the denomination, he adds.

Strategically, "the whole local church initiatives concept was chosen
because we knew that the local church is really the most important social
service agency in our society," Straut explains.

So when funds became available to help New York congregations respond to the
aftermath of Sept. 11, the conference encouraged churches "to use their
imaginations to devise new ways of reaching out to people in need who are
outside their doors."

In New York, the Sept. 11 fallout has spread far beyond the direct victims
in the World Trade Center to others who have been affected both economically
and psychologically. Those experienced with disaster situations also point
out that the indirect effects "not only continue for a long time but
sometimes increase in severity as time goes by," Straut notes.

That's why the largest single grant of $250,000, for example, will be used
to help expand the food pantry program at the United Methodist Church of St.
Paul and St. Andrew on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Called the West
Side Campaign Against Hunger, the program has provided food for 725,000
meals to 80,500 people in the first half of 2002, compared to 523,000 meals
to 80,500 people for all of 2001. It was one of 15 programs honored in June
by the New York State Department of Health for "serving a significant role
in advancing the health and well-being of our children, families and
communities."

The Rev. James Karpen, pastor at St. Paul and St. Andrew, says the number of
people using the basement food pantry was expected to drop after hitting a
plateau during the winter, but instead it has increased again to the number
seen directly after Sept. 11. By the end of summer, the numbers are expected
to be higher than last fall, he adds.

"Getting that grant helped us to move ahead with drafting the construction
documents for that project," he says. The expansion will mean quick service
rather than the two-hour wait that can sometimes occur these days, he says.
"It will allow us to continue to provide some additional service to them,
such as counseling and referral to other agencies, in a more respectful and
dignified manner."

Other grants to local churches are being used for counseling services,
children's programs, clergy workshops and multicultural and interfaith
programs. Some projects are new, while others are incorporated into ongoing
programs.

The United Methodist City Society has provided funding and technical
assistance to local churches for specialized after-school programs since
1997. April Callender, the society's associate executive director for human
services and program development, says that after Sept. 11, she and the
directors of those programs talked about how they should respond. "A lot of
us kind of underestimated what they (the kids) saw, how they processed it,"
she explains.

With a $33,500 grant from the conference, the city society worked with the
program directors to help them recognize the signs of trauma and learn how
to deal with it, and to try to gauge whether the current programs could
handle the extra needs. "We also used some of the money for creative outlets
for the kids," Callender says.

She encouraged the directors to apply for New York Conference grants for
their own programs, and some did. Tremont, for example, where the year-round
program now draws 154 to 172 children daily, received $45,000.

Holt-Andrews, whose husband escaped from the World Trade Center covered in
soot, says she didn't begin to comprehend the impact of Sept. 11 on New York
schoolchildren until about a month later. In Harlem, where she teaches
school, a fire evacuation that was not conducted in a routine way left the
sixth-graders so traumatized that they had to be sent home. That's when she
conferred with Callender about how to address effects of Sept. 11 in the
Tremont program.

Part of Tremont's response included making a trip to Washington, to show a
group of children that the events of Sept. 11 affected areas outside New
York. Holt-Andrews also has received advice from the Red Cross. "Before the
end of the summer, we're going to have rap sessions with counselors," she
adds.

The Chinese United Methodist Church in Manhattan's Chinatown, less than two
miles from the World Trade Center, also has responded to the trauma caused
to children in that neighborhood, according to the Rev. James K. Law.

The church's Chinese Methodist Community Center serves about 175 students
through its after-school programs and day care services. About half of the
children attend P.S. 1, directly across the street, and many P.S. 1 students
were on the playground when the attacks occurred. "These children witnessed
the attack firsthand in its entirety, from the (first) plane crashing into
the towers to the destruction of both towers," Law says.

Center staff members are making psychological assessments to identify
children and staff who need counseling. A $14,000 grant from the New York
Conference will fund the assessment and follow-up counseling sessions.

Law points out that Chinatown itself - which suffered disruptions for weeks
after Sept. 11 - remains deeply affected by the terrorist attacks. "Many
low-wage workers became unemployed, and many small-business owners worried
about their firms' prospects," he says, noting that 23 percent of all
workers in Chinatown were laid off in the three months after Sept. 11.

On some levels, the trauma remains citywide. That's why the Rev. Taka Ishii,
pastor of Metropolitan-Duane United Methodist Church on West 13th Street,
wants to keep his listening post open.

"We've never closed our building since Sept. 11," he says. "Our ministry is
to continue to be present here and listening to those people that come in."

Current conference funding for the listening post continues through
September. Ishii hopes to get another grant from UMCOR to extend through
March. He estimates that the listening post costs $85,000 annually.

Open from noon to 6 p.m. weekdays, the listening post provides a place to
express grief or pause for reflection. Spanish- and English-speaking prayer
partners are present, and an on-site bilingual case manager is available on
Thursdays to assist community members with basic issues of housing, food and
employment. Counseling referrals are made if needed. The pastor notes that
many of the 40 or so who show up each day are not residents but work in the
area and live in different parts of the city.

Members of Park Slope United Methodist Church in Brooklyn are involved in a
different type of listening. Although "The Dialogue Project," drawing
Muslims, Jews, Christians and others into conversations about Middle East
conflicts, started in March 2001, its significance has increased since Sept.
11, according to the Rev. Elizabeth Bracken, pastor.

Bracken, whose dialogue group had met two days before the terrorist attacks,
says she was particularly grateful for the initial contact it had provided
with the Muslim community. Her group met again just before the United States
invaded Afghanistan. "The significance of being in that grouping at both of
those times was just incredible," she adds.

Marcia Kannry, a community activist and Jewish woman who had lived in
Israel, started the Dialogue Project, which received a $32,325 grant from
the New York Conference. She says she approached Bracken because the Park
Slope church "has a history of being open" to the community. "Liz was the
first person who let me come to her church and speak from her pulpit,"
Kannry recalls.

With the church funding and other fund raising, the project has grown from
one dialogue circle to five operating circles and two developing circles.
The groups of 15-30 people meet monthly. For those who find it difficult to
talk with others about the issues of Middle East conflict, the project also
has sponsored interfaith events that "allow people to relate in a very
different way," she says. 

Bracken notes that concerns for local Arab communities immediately after
Sept. 11 led to the realization that "we need to understand these
communities better." A group called "Brooklyn Bridges" was formed to find
ways to work together with the communities, and Bracken also secured an
$18,350 grant to initially fund the "Coney Island Avenue Project," which
connects specifically with the Pakistani community.

More information about the Sept. 11 response of New York Conference churches
is available by contacting the Rev. Charles Straut Jr. by telephone at (212)
206-8930 or sending an e-mail message to nyacdart@aol.com.

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*Bloom is news writer in United Methodist News Service's New York office.

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United Methodist News Service
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