wfn.org | New Jersey pastors get trauma training

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 20, 2001  News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-71B{417}

By Linda Bloom*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Within a week and a day of the World Trade Center tragedy,
all but one of the nine districts of the United Methodist Greater New Jersey
Annual Conference had held briefing sessions for pastors on trauma pastoral
care.

The last session, for the Capital District, is set for Sept. 24.

The quickly organized sessions were an example of how well the new
conference - created by a merger of the Northern and Southern New Jersey
conferences in the summer of 2000 - works together, according to Bishop
Alfred Johnson. During strategy sessions, church leaders considering how to
react to the Sept. 11 tragedy recognized "that our pastors have not been
trained in this type of trauma response," he said.

Johnson and his cabinet were at a retreat center to consider goals for the
remainder of the year when they learned of the terrorist attack on the World
Trade Center. "Suddenly, we had one major focus at the retreat," the bishop
recalled.

Although they dispersed that day, due to concern for family members in New
York and Washington, the group met the next day for strategy sessions.
Besides the briefing sessions on trauma pastoral care, they determined
several other immediate responses:

7	Distributing guidelines for pastors, children and youth workers and
lay leadership to help them deal with the questions being raised after the
tragedy.
7	Developing after-school programs, in cooperation with local schools,
to help children deal with those questions.
7	Making special worship resources available online at www.gnjumc.org,
the conference Web site.
7	Coordinating an ongoing program of "family coping seminars" through
the conference's disaster response team.

Most, if not all, of the conference's more than 600 congregations
participated in or held their own prayer and support worship services after
the tragedy.

In a Sept. 19 interview with United Methodist News Service, the bishop said
it was too early to know how the deaths of those caught in the collapse of
the twin towers would affect New Jersey churches. When he made church visits
on Sept. 16, Johnson said he prayed with two widows and spoke with two
children who had lost their father in the attack. He also met with churches
in the Jersey City area, where many of the wounded firefighters and rescue
workers have been treated.

The bishop reported that Christ United Methodist Church of Jersey City,
which he described as an international, diverse congregation, had some
windows broken, possibly because of Arabic writing on them. The church
temporarily is without an assigned pastor.

Johnson stressed that the primary role of churches in the aftermath of the
terrorist attack is to become peacemakers. 

"It's a horrible thing to think of 5,000 people dead, but we've also had
thousands dying around the world," he said. "I think God is pushing us to
find shalom."

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*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.

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United Methodist News Service
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