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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3097 notes).

Note 3095 by UMNS on Aug. 1, 1996 at 16:08 Eastern (3532 characters).

SEARCH: Flight 800, disaster, emergency, connection, ministry, 

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Ralph E. Baker                          381(10-71){3095}
          Nashville, Tenn.  (615) 742-5470            Aug. 1, 1996

United Methodist connection responds
following Long Island plane crash

                        A UMNS News Feature
                       by Kate SantaColoma*

     As news broke that TWA flight 800 to Paris had gone down off
the coast of Long Island, nearby communities were thrown into the
role of playing host to emergency and media personnel.
     With throbbing helicopters overhead and the flash of lights
searching the water, the United Methodist connection went into
action.
     The Rev. Kenneth Prill, pastor of the Center and East
Moriches United Methodist Churches and chaplain to the East
Moriches Fire Department, immediately went to the firehouse. "I
had just gotten back from the movies with my wife Sylvia and
turned on the news," he said.
     At that point, according to Prill, the firehouse was the
command center. "I shepherded other clergy who were arriving," he
said.  "We thought we could help as survivors were brought in;
unfortunately that was not to be."
     At 4 a.m. the clergy were allowed on the Coast Guard dock.
"We stood 30 feet from where bodies were being unloaded and prayed
for their souls and for all those on board that flight," Prill
said. He said there were five Hasidic rabbis and a Roman Catholic
priest with him there. They "prayed together as one" regardless of
the faith they represented.
     Later that morning the Rev. Warren Beaven, pastor of the
neighboring Bellport United Methodist Church, learned that five of
the French club students aboard the flight were from Faith United
Methodist Church, Montoursville, Pa. He called Faith Church to
offer help and was told two chartered busses of victims' family
and friends left at 4 a.m. for New York. Beaven was able to tell
them the hotel where victim's families and friends were being
housed near the airport and left his telephone number if they
needed help.
     Soon the Rev. Robert Logan, traveling with the Montoursville
group, called. "He wanted to know what I knew about the
situation," said Beaven, "How many bodies had been recovered?
Where were they being kept? I was able to tell him 10 bodies had
been recovered and were being kept in refrigerated trucks at the
Coast Guard station later to be taken to Happaugue for autopsies."
     Beaven also arranged for 19 homes in the Bellport parish to
take in relatives and friends of crash victims who needed a place
to stay.
     In a telephone call to Prill, the Rev. Bruce Fisher, pastor
of Faith Church, Montoursville, told him of one family staying at
the hotel near the airport who was in particular need of pastoral
care. A call to the Rev. Wilmert Wolf, Long Island East district
superintendent, sent the Rev. Thomas Searfoss of the Rockville
Center United Methodist Church, on the way to minister to that
family.
     "Within 30 minutes of my contacting him, Searfoss was with
the family," said Wolf.
     In events around the crash of flight 800, "a connectional
church is not just a buzz word," said Prill, "it's who we are."
                              #  #  #
     * SantaColoma is editor of The Vision, monthly publication of
the New York Annual Conference.

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