wfn.org | NCC Offers Holy Week Bulletin Insert on Tsunami Asian Follow-Up

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

March 16, 2005, New York City
For Immediate Release

NCC Offers Holy Week Bulletin Insert on Tsunami Asian Follow-Up

The media blitz is over, but the pain of thousands of tsunami survivors goes
on.  Shanta Premawardhana, the National Council of Churches USA's Director of
Interfaith Relations, has prepared two resources to help U.S. churches that
want to continue to be engaged with Asians in rebuilding their communities. 

A Good Friday-Easter Bulletin Insert is available on the NCC Web site -
www.ncccusa.org -  in Adobe Acrobat PDF format and is suitable for
reprinting.   This reflection guide on the three-month anniversary of the
Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami is designed for use Good Friday to Easter
Sunday 2005.

The Bulletin Insert complements the more thorough guidelines for churches -
entitled "Listening to, Learning from and Living into Asia's Pain" â?? that
were prepared in consultation with ecumenical leaders in Sri Lanka and
Indonesia and informed by Premawardhana's own experiences as a native of Sri
Lanka. 

The needs remain especially severe in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province and
Indonesia's Aceh Province, where recovery will take years. 

The Rev. Premawardhana says that "building relationships through religious
institutions seems to be one of the best ways" to maintain a continuing
commitment to the rebuilding effort. There are practical ways for churches to
get involved, advocacy concerns, cautions about the use of money, background
on Asian Christianity, and even several denomination-specific ideas.  

Following are the specific Web addresses for these two resources:

Bulletin Insert: www.ncccusa.org/interfaith/AsiaPainBulletinInsert.html

Guidelines for Churches:
www.ncccusa.org/interfaith/churchguidelines-tsunami.html

-end-

NCC Media Contact: Carol Fouke, 212-870-2252; cfouke@ncccusa.org