Episcopal News Service Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Remembering Katrina: St. Paul's parishioners 'find their vision' with rector's help
By Ann M. Ball
[ENS, NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana] St. Paul's, New Orleans, lay dormant for weeks after Katrina's storm surge burst through the 17th Street Canal, dumping eight feet of Lake Pontchartrain into the church, its school and the new gymnasium. The first visitors inside the church saw a picture of desecration, with molding, upended pews, prayer books, and hymnals scattered in heaps at the sanctuary steps and a grimy water line coating the beautiful marble angel font, as mold crept up the stone walls of the nave.
The church and surrounding Lakeview area homes were so completely devastated -- along with the other 70 percent of New Orleans -- that the early months following the storm seemed hopeless. It was so daunting that the newly instituted rector of St. Paul's resigned.
But in early 2006, the picture became much brighter with the arrival of the Rev. Will Hood, who came to serve as interim rector. Initially, Hood said he "held parishioners' hands," to calm frayed nerves. Then he helped parishioners find their vision. He gave them the compass they needed to move in the right direction to begin the recovery of their church and school. But they didn't do it alone.
Full story and photographs:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_77432_ENG_HTM.htm
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