washington;day 5

           Met with Cassandra Carmichael this afternoon of the National Association of churches, an umbrella grouping of 35 church denominations in the US. They unite particularly around the issues of peacemaking, poverty and caring for God’s creation.

     Our conversation mostly focused on the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and particularly the work being done still infact by faith communities in New Orleans, especially with such a poor government response to the disaster. There were 900 places of worship destroyed in the hurricane and even two and a half years later many are not restored.

       My heart particularly went out to the pastors some of whose stories I heard about today, hearing from one on DVD. Men and women who had lost their own homes, their church buildings and were caring for the thousands of people in the churches who had also lost everything. Incredible stress. I was then particularly struck by something Cassandra said, that many of the pastors could not come to terms with getting involved with community development after the crisis. To give community leadership and get a vision to rebuild their communities. I have found myself asking the question, what does it mean for a pastor and for a church to be involved in transforming their community?? What does that look like, where do you even begin? 

      The journey continues.

 

Gordon  McDade