In the aftermath of Katrina, prayer and a new sense of purpose
Published: September 16, 2005
The Rev. Rob Dewey saw them on the streets of New York after Sept. 11, 2001, and he is seeing them again amid the wreckage of the Gulf Coast —- everywhere, signs of faith.
Religious groups posting signs offering spiritual support. A man walking through the area with a piece of paper that says “clergy” stapled to his shirt. Churches turned into shelters.
Religion can be found in every dimension of the destruction from Hurricane Katrina: in descriptions of an “apocalyptic” storm of “biblical proportions”; in the tens of thousands of volunteers from religious groups helping the homeless; in the local congregations wiped out and the countless others nationwide opening their doors to evacuees; and in prayer —- from survivors and from those who witnessed their suffering.
Dewey is a strong believer in the solace of prayer: He has prayed with relatives of murder victims during 15 years as a law enforcement chaplain in his Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, and with families identifying their dead as chaplain for the U.S. Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team.
But he understands that not all survivors appreciate a heavy emphasis on religion, and he is careful to be sensitive to those who reject prayer as a means of coping.
“Down here, I’ve seen a lot of religious groups come and offer ministry,” said Dewey, in a phone interview from the Gulfport, Miss., area, where he is with the morgue team. “But as I tell my chaplains back in Charleston, offering prayer too quickly is going to hurt the person (who doesn’t want it) and hurt the family, and we want to be very, very sensitive to where those spiritual needs are.”
Frank Phinney, a volunteer with PRC Compassion, a pastors’ group aiding hurricane victims, went to the New Orleans airport at the height of the evacuation to pray with people fleeing.
But when he arrived and saw the chaos, he and the others with him switched gears. Over two days, they took out garbage, changed diapers of elderly patients and sat with the dying in a black tent set aside for the worst-off evacuees.
It’s not traditional prayer, perhaps, but Phinney saw this work as making a connection with God. He called it, “washing people’s feet, in a figurative sense.”
“They were being herded like cattle through the airport,” said Phinney, who is studying counseling at Southeastern Louisiana University and was eventually able to pray with some of the homeless. “The humanity had been lost because of the overwhelming amount of people. Just to be there and express some encouragement and warmth was important.”
Mary Woodward of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson, Miss., said ritual, as much as prayer, has been important to Catholic evacuees in her city, who filled the cathedral for Mass the Sunday after the storm.
“Everybody who went to Communion was crying,” Woodward said. “In spite of everything, at least they had one sense of normalcy in their life.”
Kimberly Boudreaux, 35, who fled her New Orleans home with 10 relatives in two cars, is a Baptist, but found herself holding hands and praying with Methodists at a shelter at the First United Methodist Church in Dumas, Ark. They knew she was anxious about her elderly aunt, Marion Gooden, whose whereabouts are unknown.
“We were asking God, please, somehow send a message to us,” Boudreaux said in a phone interview from the shelter. “I’ve always been a believer that prayer works.”
At the First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., church members held a prayer meeting for the 70 or so evacuees who have been using the building as a shelter.
The Rev. Bill Shiell, pastor of the church, said churches involved in the relief effort are experiencing a spiritual awakening —- about social service as well as faith. Church members now have a new sense of purpose and are making connections with people they never would have met otherwise, Shiell said.
The Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest and author of “The Purpose-driven Life,” toured Gulf Coast churches over several days and said he was struck by the level of cooperation between black and white churches. One church that is providing shelter said it held its first wedding ever for a black couple, both evacuees.
“This has changed our church,” Shiell said. “Revival here has already happened, by virtue of our hunger to do something. When the Red Cross called, we were ready. If that isn’t revival, I don’t know what is.”
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