wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Presbyterians dig deep to help pay salaries of

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8963 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05551
Oct. 13, 2005

Presbyterians dig deep to help
pay salaries of storm-tossed pastors 

Congregations 'adopt' damaged churches; 
PDA appeal has netted $5 million so far

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterians around the country are organizing efforts to help
pay the salaries of pastors and other church workers whose congregations are
unable to support them in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

	The back-to-back storms damaged about 45 Presbyterian churches along
the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving many church buildings
unfit for worship services and many congregations unable to support full-time
ministries. 

	Some churches won't be passing collection plates for months; and many
won't be collecting mission or per-capital dollars for some time, either. 
 
	Nearly 30 churches in South Louisiana and Mississippi presbyteries
are believed to lack the money to continue paying clergy and other employees.

	"We have congregations that are not meeting now, and are not likely
to be meeting for a number of months," said the Rev. Gary Torrens, the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s coordinator for middle governing body
relations. "Until the long-term strategy is worked out for each of those
churches, their employees are without funds."

	Scores of residents forced to leave the area have not returned to
their homes or home churches, leaving congregations with poor attendance and
depleted coffers. Some Presbyterians lost everything in the storms, and may
never return.

	Church leaders say the financial fallout will be felt for years by
church staffers in congregations across the region.

	Congregations like Westminster Presbyterian Church, in Gulfport, MS. 

	Forty-three of Westminster's 103 families lost their homes to
Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29.

	"When that happens, when 40 percent of your congregation loses
everything, you know your income is going to drop drastically," said the Rev.
David Snellgrove, interim executive of Mississippi Presbytery. "It's going to
affect their pastor and their staff quite heavily, I'm sure."

	However, an outpouring of support from Presbyterians around the
country is easing the financial burdens of those in the hurricane zone. 

	Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has created an account for
pastoral and church-staff salaries as part of its $10 million appeal. U.S.
Presbyteries and congregations are "adopting" storm-hit pastors and
congregations, chipping in funds to keep the paychecks coming and help with
other needs.

	"Presbyteries are sponsoring churches, churches are sponsoring
churches, churches are taking on the responsibility for paying a pastor's
salary," said the Rev. John Robinson, PDA's national associate. "We're trying
to get that coordinated, so the help going to the church is appropriate and
sufficient for that need."

	Robinson said dozens of churches from coast to coast are partnering
with affected congregations in Mississippi, providing volunteer work teams
and money for salaries.  

	PDA's appeal, which by last week had netted more than $5 million (for
all of PDA's Katrina-related accounts, not just that for pastors' and
workers' salaries), is part of the largest domestic disaster response ever
mounted by the denomination.

	Last month, PDA turned property at a Presbyterian church in hard-hit
Gautier, MS, into a camp for disaster-relief workers. 

	Two other "volunteer villages" have opened along the Mississippi Gulf
Coast, one near Gulfport, the other in D'iberville, MS, both near Biloxi.
Other PDA-supported camps are in the planning stages.

	As many as 7,000 residents of D'iberville were left homeless after
Katrina leveled entire neighborhoods there. Large yachts were tossed about
like toys, carried from marinas into residents' debris-littered yards.

	The Presbytery of South Louisiana has established an administrative
commission to oversee the presbytery's response, which includes an effort to
provide money to pay pastors and staff. The commission's goal is to help the
churches get back to operating at full strength as soon as possible. 

	"We're doing our best to put them back to work as pastors of their
flock. Even though they may be in the dispersion, they're still the pastors,
and they still have congregations; they just may be scattered," said the Rev.
Michael Mann, the presbytery's interim executive. "What we're trying to do is
enable them to go back to ... administering to the needs of their
congregations."

	Mann said the Rev. Neale Miller, pastor of destroyed Lakeview
Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, held worship last Sunday at a church in
Baton Rouge, LA, to which many of his congregants had fled before the storms.

	Some other congregations from damaged or destroyed churches are also
meeting in borrowed quarters, Mann and Snellgrove said.

	South Louisiana Presbytery's administrative commission has asked the
sessions of hurricane-stricken churches to determine their operational costs
through next year and to identify available resources to cover those
expenses.

	Sessions were also asked to identify PDA resources that could be
tapped to cover shortfalls, and to identify resources and personnel to work
in relief and recovery efforts.

	In a churchwide letter dated Sept. 30, three denominational leaders -
Rick Ufford-Chase, moderator of the General Assembly, the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick, the Assembly's stated clerk, and  John Detterick, executive
director of the General Assembly Council - said the response of Presbyterians
so far has been "most gratifying," and urged "immediate contributions" to PDA
for pastor and staff salaries.

	The Synod of the Sun and the Synod of Living Waters, whose areas
include Louisiana and Mississippi respectively, will transfer funds from PDA
to presbytery and local church treasurers and maintain transparent financial
records, Torrens said.

	He said presbyteries in the Synod of Living Waters are taking up
collections for some congregations. 

	"It's sort of like a presbytery 'X' has adopted congregation 'Y' kind
of thing," Torrens said.

	Torrens said one church in Pascagoula, MS, has received word from
another PC(USA) congregation that "we'll partner to pay your salaries of your
employees, as long as we need to." 

	The Presbyterian Board of Pensions (BOP) provided emergency funding
for pastors and church workers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and has
followed up with additional grant money, according to Peter Sime, BOP's vice
president of assistance and retirement housing.

	BOP provided $50,000 each to South Louisiana Presbytery and
Mississippi Presbytery (through the Synod of Living Waters) for distribution
to pastors and other workers in $1,000 increments. Additional grant money is
being provided on a case-by-case basis, Sime said.

	The board is a Philadelphia-based corporation related to the
PC(USA)'s General Assembly that manages the denomination's major medical and
pension plans for ministers, missionaries and other workers. It also
administers retirement housing and other special programs for church workers
and retirees.

	"The way we view the funds we have (is as) a way to get in and fill a
gap until other support can come in," Sime said. "Our hope was that we could
do that and with time ... FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration)
money and PDA money and other monies would come in to help sort out the
longer-term, bigger issues."

	Last year, BOP provided emergency assistance to survivors of four
hurricanes that hit Florida. Sime estimated that BOP has spent about $150,000
in aid since hurricanes Katrina and Rita and a tropical storm that hit
Florida earlier this year.

	"The feedback we've had from the presbyteries is that it has been a
help to get people on their feet and able to keep things going until some of
these issues can be dealt with," Sime said, noting that BOP has also waived
pension and medical plan dues for hurricane-impacted churches.

	The Rev. Ted Roeling, treasurer of South Louisiana Presbytery, said
about 20 churches in his presbytery are unable to meet payroll demands; he
said some pastors have not been paid since Hurricane Katrina. The churches
also employ about 40 other staff members such as church administrators,
Christian educators and custodial staff. 

	Roeling said 13 churches in his presbytery are not operating at all,
while others are holding services at alternate locations. He said he believes
eight or nine churches may be total losses and about 30 others were damaged
to varying degrees by high winds and water. That's roughly half of the
presbytery's churches.

	He said three or four churches in western Louisiana were
significantly damaged by Hurricane Rita, which made landfall on Sept. 23.

	Roeling said six to 10 pastors have been forced from their homes by
the storms, and are living with other clergy or with relatives. Some pastors
are separated from their families, having stayed with their flocks while
loved ones moved to safer quarters.

	In Mississippi, 10 Presbyterian churches near the coast were damaged,
one so seriously that it may not be salvageable, Snellgrove said, and another
may not reopen because so many members have not returned to the area. Only
two congregations in Mississippi Presbytery are not meeting regularly, he
said.

	Snellgrove thinks seven of the 10 churches will likely have problems
paying clergy and staff. The three others are smaller congregations that do
not have installed pastors or regular staffs to pay. He said the presbytery
already has paid the salaries of two pastors of damaged churches.

	Four Presbyterian pastors in Mississippi Presbytery lost their homes
and everything in them. Two are staying in campers, one is with a church
family, and the fourth is in a church-owned home. 

	Presbyterian pastors and church staffers in Alabama and Texas
breathed sighs of relief after the hurricanes struck those states but did not
cause enough damage to hinder church operations for long.

	The good news is that most of the damage to congregation members is
very light, as well as it was for the churches," said the Rev. Shane Whisler,
associate executive for communications of the Synod of the Sun, which
includes churches in Texas. 

	Whisler said the normal routines of some Presbyterian congregations
have been interrupted by power outages in parts of eastern Texas, but the
churches shouldn't be hampered for long.

	"There's an interruption for at least the month that it takes to get
the electricity back on," he said.

	 mission-giving channels. Designate gifts for account DR000161
(pastoral and church staff salaries). Contributions can be made by credit
card by calling PresbyTel at (800) 872-3283, or visiting the PDA Web site at
www.pcusa.org/pda/donate/accounts.htm. Checks payable to the PC(USA) can be
mailed to: Presbyterian Church (USA), Individual Remittance Processing, P.O.
Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.

	The text of the letter Detterick, Kirkpatrick and Ufford-Chase wrote
to the church:

Sept. 30, 2005 
 
Dear Friends in Christ, 

We continue to thank God for the partnership we have with you in the mission
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Your collective response to our sisters and
brothers in the path of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is most gratifying. We
continue to hold all of you in our prayers. 

We are writing today to lift up a need that is unique to this disaster. A
large number of our church buildings are totally unusable and members are
scattered all around the nation.

These congregations will not be meeting anytime soon.  This leaves them
without an income stream and, for many, without funds to pay their pastors
and other employees. 

We are writing to urge your immediate contributions to the special
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) account set up for salaries of pastors
and other church employees.  These funds will be administered directly by
local church treasurers to their employees.

The Synod of the Sun and the Synod of Living Waters will be transferring
funds from PDA to the treasurer and will keep transparent financial records. 
The money contributed to the Katrina Relief efforts (which now also includes
Rita) supplements the disaster funds from the One Great Hour of Sharing. 

Our PC(USA) goal for Katrina Relief is $10 million.  You can learn more about
the relief efforts from the PC(USA) Web site (www.pcusa.org/katrina/).	If
you choose to give to the "Pastoral and Church Staff Salaries," use account
DR 000161. 

May God continue to bless you in your ministries and especially strengthen
our church leaders in the disaster areas. 

Yours in Christ, 

John Detterick, Executive Director of the General Assembly Council
Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly
Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly (2004)

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org