GULF COAST DIOCESES PREPARE FOR RESPONSE TO HURRICANE HARVEY
August 28, 2017
Episcopal Relief & Development is partnering with dioceses throughout the affected areas in Texas and Louisiana as they assess the ongoing impact of Hurricane Harvey and prepare to respond.
Tropical Storm Harvey strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mile hour winds and made landfall in Texas on the evening of Friday, August 25th. It hit the Texas coast with devastating rains and flooding in the most powerful storm to hit the state in more than 50 years.
The National Weather Service called Harvey’s flooding unprecedented and “unknown and beyond anything experienced.” To date, there have been seven deaths reported and more than a dozen people have been injured. Hurricane Harvey has dropped more than 25 inches of rain on Houston, Galveston and the surrounding areas with heavy rains and flooding expected to continue for the next several days. Torrential rains and catastrophic flooding have destroyed towns along the coast and left thousands without shelter and access to emergency medical services. A total of 50 inches of rain is expected to fall by the end of the week throughout the area.
Episcopal Relief & Development staff is coordinating with the dioceses of Texas, West Texas and Western Louisiana on potential response efforts. Local church partners are checking on leaders and members and planning the use of church facilities and resources where available. Currently, assessments are limited due to safety concerns.
“Hurricane Harvey is not over yet,” said Katie Mears, Director of Episcopal Relief & Development’s US Disaster Program. “Heavy rains are expected throughout the week. Our team is in touch with affected dioceses while praying, gathering information and assessing potential local needs. Members of the dioceses are sheltering in place.”
Episcopal Relief & Development has partnered with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas to pilot the AlertMedia mass messaging system that was used successfully after the flooding in the Diocese of Louisiana last year. This platform has enabled the dioceses to communicate with staff and congregational leaders to share information and assess needs. “Obtaining the status of church leaders and their properties will allow the diocese to focus on those with the greatest needs and move more quickly and effectively in planning their response,” Mears said.
“Leaders in Texas and Louisiana have extensive and valuable experience with responding to disasters,” Mears continued. “While it is certainly a challenging time, this wealth of experience allows diocesan leaders to develop an effective response to present needs and compassionately provide critical information in the days and months to come.”
In response to the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said, “Long ago the prophet Malachi taught that we are all children of God by virtue of our creation by the same God. ‘Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us,’ he asked (2:10). Jesus taught the same thing when he told a story about a Good Samaritan. We are indeed all the children of God. And if we are all God's children, then we are all brothers and sisters,” he continued. “As you know, our brothers and sisters in Texas now need our help. Our support of Episcopal Relief & Development is a tangible, practical, effective and reliable way to do that, not just in the short term, but for the long haul. Thank you for whatever you can do for together we are the human family of God."
To enable Episcopal Relief & Development to provide critical support after the storm, please donate to the Hurricane Harvey Response Fund.
Please continue to pray for those impacted by storms and flooding, for first responders who are conducting search and rescue operations and for church communities who are reaching out to care for their members and neighbors.
A Prayer from The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas:
Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of that holy city where the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth devastated by Hurricane Harvey. Sustain those displaced by the storm with food, drink, and all other bodily necessities of life. We especially remember before you all poor and neglected persons it would be easy for us to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, and all who have none to care for them; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, we may ever be defended by your gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Diocese of Arkansas Receives Campus Ministry Grant
In June, The Episcopal Church announced the winners of this year’s Campus Ministry grants, and the Diocese of Arkansas received on of three Leadership Grants for the Hendrix College Chapel Choir, directed by Thomas Alexander.
The Hendrix College Chapel Choir is a student-led ensemble that offers weekly services of Choral Compline in Hendrix College’s Greene Chapel. The $12,000 leadership granted awarded from The Episcopal Church’s Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries will fund stipends for a group of student staff singers, allowing the choir to consistently offer high-quality worship services for the community.
Congratulations to Thomas and the choir (and the Revs. Teri Daily and Peggy Cromwell, who helped in writing the grant).
The Hendrix College Chapel Choir is a student-led ensemble that offers weekly services of Choral Compline in Hendrix College’s Greene Chapel. The $12,000 leadership granted awarded from The Episcopal Church’s Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries will fund stipends for a group of student staff singers, allowing the choir to consistently offer high-quality worship services for the community.
Congratulations to Thomas and the choir (and the Revs. Teri Daily and Peggy Cromwell, who helped in writing the grant).
St. Mark's, San Marcos, Texas
Receives Stewardship of Creation Grant
|
Eight grants, totaling $69,400, were awarded in the first round of grantmaking managed by the Advisory Council for the Stewardship of Creation and approved by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church at its February meeting.
Among the recipients was St. Mark’s Church, San Marcos, Texas. The parish will be developing a pilot Water-Spirit-Wisdom program around the estuary to the San Antonio Bay for local congregations. The pilot program will be tested and revised for broad-based sharing around the church. |
|
Ayesha Mutope-Johnson
|
Multicultural Relations and Racial Reconciliation Network Receives Constable Fund Grant |
The Episcopal Church Executive Council, at its February meeting in Linthicum Heights, MD, approved the recipients of the Constable Fund Grants, totaling $380,000 for seven projects. Among those accepted was "Building Bridges," a proposal submitted by Houston resident Ayesha Mutope-Johnson, chair of Province 7's Multicultural Relations and Racial Reconciliation Network.
The Constable Fund Grant Review Committee was chaired by the Rev. Tanya Wallace, an Executive Council member from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. The Constable Fund provides grants to fund mission initiatives that were not provided for within the budget of the Episcopal Church as approved by General Convention. Wallace explained, “The criteria used for the ranking, in conjunction with the expectations of the grant and its benefactor, were a clear focus on religious education, potential impact of the project, cost-effectiveness and clarity of budget, level of collaboration, and consistency with the priorities of General Convention and the Episcopal Church.”
Wallace said the Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee received 16 applications, which carried combined requests totaling over $1.2 million.
Recipients
The following seven projects receiving 2017 Constable Grants are:
The Constable Grants were named for Mary Louise Constable, who was a visionary philanthropist. In 1935, in the midst of economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression, Constable made a monetary gift to the Episcopal Church to establish the Constable Fund. Her desire and intent to add periodically to the fund during her lifetime was realized and culminated with a very generous final gift at the time of her death in 1951. The language of Constable’s will states that the fund exists “in perpetuity … to apply the net income for the purposes of the Society, preferably for the work in religious education not provided for within the Society’s budget.
The Constable Fund Grant Review Committee was chaired by the Rev. Tanya Wallace, an Executive Council member from the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. The Constable Fund provides grants to fund mission initiatives that were not provided for within the budget of the Episcopal Church as approved by General Convention. Wallace explained, “The criteria used for the ranking, in conjunction with the expectations of the grant and its benefactor, were a clear focus on religious education, potential impact of the project, cost-effectiveness and clarity of budget, level of collaboration, and consistency with the priorities of General Convention and the Episcopal Church.”
Wallace said the Executive Council Constable Grant Review Committee received 16 applications, which carried combined requests totaling over $1.2 million.
Recipients
The following seven projects receiving 2017 Constable Grants are:
- Building Bridges (Province VII): Support for creative multi-diocese Province VII antiracism project. $29,000.
- Red Shirt Table (Province VI): Support for convocation on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with Presiding Bishop's presence. $40,000.
- Province IX Youth and Young Adult Event Leadership Development (Province IX and Episcopal Church Office of Formation): Support for project to create Spanish language Episcopal Youth Event in Province IX. $40,000.
- Province II Forming Christians (Province II/Diocese of New Jersey): Support to create web-based interactive Christian formation videos for use in the home with families. $50,000.
- Love God, Love Neighbor (Episcopal Migration Ministries): Support for regional educational trainings designed to empower Episcopalians to be agents of reconciliation in the world as allies, advocates, and ambassadors for their refugee neighbors. $60,000.
- Episcopal Asset Map (Episcopal Church Office of Communications): Support to continue important work of the map through rebuilding the site, in partnership with the Episcopal Church and Episcopal Relief & Development. $60,000.
- Our Stories Speak of God (Episcopal Church Office of Evangelism and Reconciliation): Support for collaborative churchwide project to grow faith and relationship through stories (evangelism and reconciliation). $101,000.
The Constable Grants were named for Mary Louise Constable, who was a visionary philanthropist. In 1935, in the midst of economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression, Constable made a monetary gift to the Episcopal Church to establish the Constable Fund. Her desire and intent to add periodically to the fund during her lifetime was realized and culminated with a very generous final gift at the time of her death in 1951. The language of Constable’s will states that the fund exists “in perpetuity … to apply the net income for the purposes of the Society, preferably for the work in religious education not provided for within the Society’s budget.
