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Note #9025 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05618
Nov. 17, 2005

Gulf Coast Presbyterians rising,
Phoenix-like, from hurricane rubble

For many decimated congregations, the way forward is as clear as mud

by Evan Silverstein

NEW ORLEANS - After the toxic floodwaters receded, the Rev. Michael Mann
entered hurricane-damaged Lakeview Presbyterian Church, breathing air that
smelled like mold and sewage, stepping over hymnals plastered with mud and
mildew. 

	A layer of silt coated the floors and walls, compliments of nearby
Lake Pontchartrain, which was unleashed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita to
fill the church and much of the rest of city known as "the Big Easy."

	A stench had set in since the storms slammed the Gulf Coast region in
August and September.

	"We can't stay long," said Mann, the interim executive of South
Louisiana Presbytery. "The air isn't safe to breathe, with the mold."

	For nearly three weeks, the church on Canal Boulevard marinated in
filthy water as much as eight feet deep.

	Water reached the top of the church's pulpit. Wooden pews bobbed in
the sanctuary. Now a muddy ring serves as a grim reminder of how high the
floodwaters rose.

	The pastor's study, the church office, the library, the Sunday school
classrooms - all were destroyed. The whole first floor must be gutted and
rebuilt, said the Rev. Neale L. Miller, Lakeview's pastor. An adjacent
building that housed the day school program flooded to the ceilings and
probably will have to be demolished.

	Two members of the congregation were killed.

	Lakeview has been holding worship at Carrollton Presbyterian Church
in New Orleans. It had about 300 members before Katrina. Now, a turnout of 50
for Sunday services is good news.

	"My concern for our church is the devastation wrought on the entire
neighborhood," Pastor Miller said. "Several city blocks of people ... who are
not here. Period. Gone. Businesses gone. A lot of people without work,
without homes, without real prospects."

	Across the street, New Orleans' Korean Presbyterian Church took on
eight feet of water. A car washed up in the driveway, then a tree fell on top
of it. The building's mold-infested interior was filled with scattered pews
and assorted flotsam.  

	Lakeview was just one of many dreary stops on Mann's tour of
Presbyterian churches in New Orleans late last month.

	Historic Canal Street was like a surreal movie set, part of a ghost
town. Debris and rubble lined the wide street, piled next to gutted houses
and strewn about the parking lots of storm-battered businesses.

	Neighborhoods became bizarre landscapes of mangled cars, uprooted
trees, houses knocked off their foundations, houses that seemed to have
stopped in mid-collapse. Boats were beached in front yards like harpooned
whales. Dead refrigerators and rotting furniture cluttered sidewalks next to
downed power lines and poles. 

	Signs advertising "house gutting" and tree-removal services were
everywhere.

	"You drive and drive and drive, and the damage goes on and on," Mann
said as he crossed an intersection where a traffic light wasn't working.

	Lakeview wasn't the only Presbyterian casualty. Peace Presbyterian
Church filled up with five feet of water. Canal Presbyterian Church had a
foot of water in a sanctuary once known for hosting a jazz band in worship.

	Presbyterian churches on the nearby North Shore, in Bogalusa,
Slidell, Pearl River, Mandeville and Covington, all had varying degrees of
storm damage.

	In hard-hit St. Bernard Parish, a broken steeple dangled from the
roof of Carolyn Park Presbyterian, a mess of muddy hymnals and fallen ceiling
tiles.

	More than 35 of the 67 churches in South Louisiana Presbytery, most
of them in metro New Orleans or along the North Shore, were damaged or
destroyed. Sanctuaries that were full of putrid water for weeks after the
hurricanes may have to be bulldozed.

	According to South Louisiana Presbytery officials, some New
Orleans-area congregations have lost two-thirds of their members, which makes
it especially tough for pastors and sessions to keep the church doors open
and pay the bills.

	The presbytery has established a special 12-member administrative
commission to help keep churches open. The commission was granted
extraordinary powers to encumber church property and borrow money for
churches.

	Recovery has been hampered by the fact that many parts of New Orleans
and St. Bernard are still without power, 10 weeks after Katrina. 

	Miller said city leaders haven't made clear how much help they'll be
able to provide. He said there's no firm information about which buildings
the city will allow to be rebuilt.

	"All of this is so open that it's extraordinarily difficult to make
any kind of plans, or to really collect enthusiasm and traction to move on,
to get serious about rebuilding," he said. "I think a lot of people are
frustrated with all the ambiguity."

	At least a half-dozen members of Presbyterian churches were killed,
according to ministers. Others are still unaccounted for.

	Experts say full recovery will take at least five years. A Tulane
University economist has estimated that as many as 60,000 New Orleans
businesses may never reopen. Because of a diminished tax base, the city
believes it will be forced to eliminate about 3,000 jobs. State government
expects to lose about 18,000 jobs.

	Despite all the hardships, Presbyterian congregations are moving
forward, rising Phoenix-like from the ashes to do ministry - often without
members who fled the storms and haven't returned.

	Presbyterian clergymen and -women and members are donning surgical
masks and work clothes, cleaning up church grounds, trying to plan for the
future, in some cases starting to rebuild.

	"I put on my mask more than I put on my robe," said the Rev. Jim C.
Murray, pastor of Metairie Ridge Presbyterian Church in Metairie, a New
Orleans suburb.

	Most Presbyterian congregations in the area have reopened for Sunday
services or found alternate locations for worship. New Orleans-area churches
are partnering with other congregations, raising money for repairs,
organizing work teams, clearing debris. 

	Some Presbyterian churches that survived are providing meeting space
for congregations from other denominations and other faiths who lost their
own churches. 
 
	Session meetings are being held by conference call. Volunteer workers
are camping out in spare church rooms.

	"All the churches are trying to make efforts to get up and
functioning at whatever level they're capable of ... at this point in time,"
said the Rev. Harry Brown, pastor of Metairie's John Calvin Presbyterian
Church. "How an individual church is functioning depends ... on the level of
damage it experienced."

	Brown said Katrina left three inches of water in his church's
sanctuary and fellowship hall and six inches in a classroom building.

	Leaders of about 20 Presbyterian churches are meeting monthly to
discuss the recovery process.

	"We're getting updates," said Brown, who chairs the Greater New
Orleans Area "cluster" of PC(USA) churches. "We're working together trying to
coordinate work teams and recovery efforts (and) avoid duplication."

	St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans is trying to
make a difference with a new community outreach ministry, Rebuilding Hope in
New Orleans (RHINO). The church, which is west of the business district in an
area called Uptown, sustained minimal damage; it now serves as a coordinator
and host for volunteer work groups.

	With the help of a network of church partners, RHINO is cleaning up
debris; feeding and clothing people in need, and housing some of the
displaced, according to the Rev. Paul Seelman, an associate pastor who is
coordinating the program.

	"The damage to our church was nominal, compared to some other
churches in town," Seelman said. "We feel really blessed. That's one reason
why we feel so called to service at this point. We really do feel blessed,
and wanted to redirect the mission of the church outward, toward the city -
because that's really where the needs are great now."

	Volunteers of all ages are working in flood-damaged Presbyterian
churches and homes of storm survivors. RHINO members have organized food
pantries and clothes closets and are working to find temporary housing for
evacuees. A home adjacent to the church is being used to house volunteers who
sleep on cots and air mattresses. 

	The RHINO program has collected more than $57,000 in donations from
individuals and congregations nationwide.

	First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans is holding Sunday services
under its own roof, thanks to work crews, including volunteers from
University Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, who helped clean out the
building last month. Six workers from a Pennsylvania church visited earlier
this month to help. Groups from North Carolina and New Jersey are expected in
the next few weeks at First church, which is in the Uptown area.  

	For 12 days, the sanctuary was two feet deep in floodwater. Only the
top four inches of the pews stayed high and dry. Gusty winds damaged a Gothic
tower, evicting the historic congregation, founded in 1818, until Oct. 30. 

	"We've got it gutted and all dried out," said Nunn. "We're basically
letting it dry out and treating it, and then we'll go back to sheetrock."

	Forty-six pews, 184 hymnbooks and 92 Bibles were destroyed. A large
communion table with a marble top came apart; it's now held together with
rope. The chancel lectern was damaged. Some of the destroyed furnishings
dated to the 1920s.

	Also flooded was the nearby house of the Rev. Cliff Nunn, the pastor.
He and his wife, Nieta, have a small trailer in the churchyard that now
serves as their residence, church office and meeting place. Aside from Sunday
worship, no other programming is yet taking place.

	The good news is that all but 12 of the church's 67 members are
expected to return, eventually. The preschool is scheduled to reopen in
January. Two people have expressed an interest in joining the congregation.

	The congregation has been worshipping in a second-floor fellowship
hall and hopes to move back into the sanctuary by next spring.

	First church eventually plans to host a number of work teams,
according to Nunn, who has already started refurbishing his residence. 

	A Unitarian Universalist church across the street is holding services
at Jefferson Presbyterian Church in Jefferson, LA. 

	That's just one case in which people of different faiths are coming
together for the common good.

	Work teams from the Southern Baptist Convention have been helping out
at Metairie Ridge Presbyterian, where two preschools recently reopened. All
five church buildings sustained some damage. An education buildings is
missing half its roof.	

	"Most of our work ... has been volunteer work, and the Baptists have
helped us the most," said Murray. "They've been very helpful ... tearing out
walls and tearing out ceilings and tearing out flooring."

	Metairie Ridge's main sanctuary was spared by the storms, so worship
continues. So far, about 50 of 170 members have returned from exile, Murray
said. 

	Parkway Presbyterian Church, another Metairie congregation, is
helping storm survivors with donated clothing, food, bedding and toys for
children. It also has also provided office space for the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), and about 60 volunteers from Clemson University and
Converse College devoted their fall break to helping Metairie residents clear
debris and start fixing their homes. 

	"We anticipate having numerous groups in," said Parkway's pastor, the
Rev. Thomas Oler. "Our session has literally opened the doors to the church
and said whatever supervised groups want to come in, we will try to
accommodate them."

	Presbytery officials are cautiously optimistic, but warn that
rebuilding is a long-term matter.

	"Yes, I'm pleased with the response level," Mann said. "... I hope
the enthusiasm for help will not wane, that the desire to continue to help
will remain as long as is necessary."

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