They came, and we are humbly thankful

Hello Massachusetts and Happy Thanksgiving. I have just finished my homily for tomorrow's service and stopped to check my mail before going to work in the kitchen. (My children are coming over from New Orleans and so I need to be "Mom" tonight.)

Thanksgiving is a reflective time for me as my memory of being in the "Pit" with The Rev Dn Daphne Noyes for Thanksgiving, 2001, is still very fresh - even after these six years. That year a group of National Guardsmen from Spartenburg, SC prepared and served dinner for us and the thousands of others who were working to remove the still smouldering wreckage. My gratitude to them for coming to serve is much like that expressed below. This letter to the editor of the Sun Herald came to me through email from the volunteer coordinator at Camp Victor, one of the volunteer housing sites in this area. I have pasted it here so that you who have traveled to MS and who will travel soon can get a glimpse into the depth of the gratitude that we here in MS feel toward those who have come to help.

"The following appeared in the Biloxi Sun-Herald newspaper on Tuesday, November 20, 2007. It is a letter to the editor from a grateful Gulf Coast resident. We believe it expresses the unspoken thoughts of so many people here. Happy Thanksgiving.

They came, and we are humbly thankful
When the wind died and the water receded, we were on our knees in prayer and despair — broken people with broken lives but thankful to be here still. Would we ever be able to rise again? So much work; too much work; where to begin?

Then they came out of their broken homes. Hand in hand, they came with chainsaws and trucks and chains and removed the barriers to our streets. Maybe we could, we thought, with help.

Then darkness fell again, so dark, so quiet, only questions and the sound of generators and helicopters. Sounds of life. Did anyone know of our plight? Would help come? They came.

They came by the hundreds, then the thousands. God had heard and we were thankful. They came — firefighters, military, police officers, doctors and nurses, linemen and engineers, truck drivers and preachers. They knew. They came. They all came.

The whole world came and we were thankful. They came and suffered with us. They came and lived in tents, slept on the ground, but they came and we were thankful. They clothed us and fed us. They sheltered us and tended our wounds.

They lifted our hearts and we were thankful. They came with full hearts and open hands. They sweated and cried with us, not knowing where tears ended and sweat began, and we were thankful. They lifted our spirits and helped us to our feet, and we were thankful.

They came — teachers and students and lawyers, craftsmen and laborers with strong backs and hammers and saws and brick and mortar. They came. They built our homes, our schools, our churches, our lives. Praise God, they came. They became us and we became them, as one.

With our wounds deep, our fears and memories fresh, they came. And as we heal, they come, still . . . still. With a full heart, I am thankful, we are thankful. Still. They come.

RITA DUFFUS
Gulfport"

Thanks to Massachusetts

Last night in Biloxi a cold front blew through. The temperature dipped into the 50s and the wind picked up significantly. Today dawned bright and clear, temps in the 60s, and a strong gusty breeze. I tell you this not to rub it in, but because cool temps and windy days in South Mississippi can only mean one thing…. Pecans! As I sat at my desk this AM I thought I was being attacked as the trees shed their bounty on the tin roof that covers the parish house. Bam! Bam! What a racket! So this afternoon we headed out into the yard to gather them up. We filled two large wheelbarrows and decided that our backs would prefer that we stop for the day. The abundant harvest of pecans reminded me of the hospitality and affirmation that I received in Massachusetts. It was beyond my wildest imagination and I will never forget it. Thank you.

Many of you know that thanks to the indefatigable effort of Tim Green I did not have to drive a truck back to Mississippi. Instead we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of an 18 wheeler filled with collected appliances and furniture. Thank you to all the folks in Wellesley who supported the project and to Tim for having the imagination and the energy to make it happen.

On several occasions while I was in MA I had the opportunity to speak about the importance of advocacy. The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act is before the Senate now. I received the following from Amelie Ratliff today:

http://www.colorofchange.org/s1668/?id=1834-142331

Saving Affordable Housing in New Orleans

"New Orleans public housing residents have been fighting for over two years to return to apartments that were minimally damaged by the storm. But the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has shut them out, because it wants to demolish most of the available public housing units--and replace them with far fewer mixed-income housing.[1] The vast majority of the most affordable public housing units, pushing thousands of mostly Black low-income residents out of the city.

S.1668 honors the right to return of all New Orleans public housing residents. It requires the re-opening of at least 3,000 public housing units and ensures that there is no net loss of units available and affordable to public housing residents. It also designates $1.7 billion for rental housing assistance and earmarks millions for community development programs, which will benefit an even larger segment of the lower income population. But the bill is in danger of dying -- because some senators are opposed to preserving affordable public housing."

Please take the time to ask your senators to support it and then spread the word.

Happy Turkey Day
Jane+

Heady times...

This is an exciting week at Redeemer. Today a photographer is coming to catch shots of us working with Camp Biloxi and other NGOs on the rebuilding effort and the ministry taking place here. All of this is an outgrowth of the House of Bishops meeting in NOLA and the work that the Diocese of Massachusetts and the Gulf Coast Partnership led by Bishop Cederholm is doing here. Bishop Tom Shaw is coming this weekend and we are making preparations for a Gulf Coast feast. Ron Edwards said that he would wear his best overalls. For those who do not know what overalls are – well you will just have to come and see….

I have moved a bit from my traditional reports on this blog to reflect on what the HOB meeting means for us in Biloxi. The newsletter article for our parish paper that I have pasted below is my reflection on the gathering ahead.


Rev Jane rambles on…

Have you ever considered what it is that makes us Episcopalians. I have a friend in Massachusetts who would say "the prayer book" She is fond of saying that we should not print the entire service out as it is just not an Episcopal service without using the BCP (Book of Common Prayer). Another might say it is John Hooker and the three-legged stool. For sure, at some point, we began to diverge from the path of our Roman brothers and sisters by adding reason to the foundational sources of scripture and tradition in meditating on our understanding of God. So scripture, tradition, and reason became the Anglican three-legged stool. But lately there is a sense of experience being a fourth leg. Does the inclusion of our experience of God moving in and around us make us less Episcopal? Another possible contender for differentiation might be adherence to the via media. For those who have yet to delve deeply into Anglican lore the via media is the "middle way". We are neither Roman Catholic nor fully protestant, neither liberal nor conservative, neither low church or high church. As Anglicans we strive to be open and attentive to diverse opinions, beliefs, and worship traditions. I have heard people say that Anglicans are wishy washy and will never take a stand on anything. That sense of being non-confrontational comes, I think, from our via media tradition. But I see a different way of looking at how we walk the middle road.

As Anglicans we do not have a statement of beliefs, we have a statement of faith. In that statement we affirm our faith in God who creates us, Jesus who redeems us, and the Holy Spirit who renews us. Sometimes in blessing I say "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" rather than "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". The former are really functional descriptions of the Trinity whereas the latter names the three persons. OK, perhaps I am just getting "churchy", but my reasoning is that it is not OK just to name something, one needs to know how it works, too - if one is to fully understand it. Biochemists love to give alphabet soup names to chemicals (DNA, BNP etc), but it is the analytical and physical chemists who learn how to understand and to use them.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in an address available at http://www.episcopalcafe.com/video/, says that, "Jesus says that when He is lifted up he will draw all, all, all into His incredible divine embrace so that God is all in all". I believe that the true essence of via media is being able to stand side by side with that all. All skin tones, all faiths, all denominations, all languages, gay, straight, rich or poor – we are all held in the same incredible, wide, loving embrace that exceeds our human ability to comprehend. I don't have to agree with you to stand at the Table with you. I just need to recognize God's face in yours. If I cannot, then I am the lesser for it.

Next week the House of Bishops will be meeting in New Orleans. Archbishop Rowan Williams is coming and there will be much debate about sexuality and schism and yes about the middle way. Whether or not we choose to walk together, unified in God's embrace is a question right now. But somehow I just think that God is looking at us and shaking her head and thinking: "they just need to grow up a little and learn to play together". I found a quote on the Via Media website from Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. In C.E. 258 he wrote, "We ought to hold firmly and maintain our [Christian] unity, especially those of us who are bishops presiding in the Church, thereby revealing the episcopate to be one and undivided. The episcopate is one; it is a unity in which each bishop enjoys full possession. The Church is likewise one, even though it is spread abroad far and wide, and grows as her children increase in number. Just as the sun has many rays, but the light is one; or as a tree with many branches finds its strength in its deep root; or as various streams issue from a spring, their multiplicity fed by the abundance of the water supply, so unity is preserved in the source itself."

The sun does indeed have many rays and the church does indeed have many members, but we are all of the same body in Christ (with deference to St Paul). There is much to be done in Mississippi, Louisiana, and everywhere else that people suffer. My prayer for the House of Bishops will be for them to move away from the things that divide us and focus on the things that unite us – our love of God, our desire to serve others, our willingness to turn away from sin, our commitment to prayer, our place with others in God's loving embrace. By the time this letter goes out we will know more about the mind of the bishops. Bishop Gray tells us in the video he made recently that no matter what happens in New Orleans, when it is all over there will still be an Episcopal Church, there will still be a Diocese of Mississippi, and there will still be Redeemer. God's work goes on regardless. I hope and pray that the bishops realize that also.
God's Peace be with you,
Jane+

Two years and counting

In our baptismal promises we commit to seek justice for all human beings, to love others as we love ourselves, and to proclaim the Good News. Those commitments of Justice, Compassion, and Hope were the foundation upon which the first of many somber services held across the Gulf Coast to remember the tragedy of Katrina was built. A couple of months ago I was asked to create a liturgy for an intefaith memorial service to mark the 2nd aniversry of Katrina. Many phone calls and google searches later a sunrise service was birthed. I had not seen the pictures of the service until I ran across them in the GCP blog (www.gracebook.org) . The day before we had rain - lots of it. I was afraid that Gulfside Assembly, where the service was to be held, would be a mud hole. I had images of cars stuck and tractors coming to haul them out - after all much of the town of Waveland is still a wasteland beside the now tranquil waters of the bay. But as you can see from the pictures it was beautiful. People came from Biloxi and from New Orleans to remember and to commit themselves to the task ahead, to plant the seeds of justice, compassion, and hope in the hearts of all who still suffer in the aftermath of Katrina’s wrath.

I have read a lot lately about the “competition” between Louisiana and Mississippi for federal and private sector funding. Mississippi accuses New Orleans of getting all of the attention and being more “interesting” than Mississippi’s devastation. New Orleans and Louisiana accuse Mississippi of engaging in partisan politics in the granting process. Louisiana says that Mississippi got more money per victim than Louisiana and Mississippi says that their proposal was better and too bad that Louisiana did not get their act together in time to make a valid plea for help. Back and forth – I have to say that sometimes I just want to say “Enough already – there is enough suffering for all – we need to stand together!” The complexity of these issues rivals the Gordian Knot and will probably require the same solution.

But the reality in Mississippi is that very little of the money that has been allocated has gone to assist the poorest of the poor. In New Orleans the reality is the same. Money has gone to restore infrastructure, businesses, federal projects, and middle income homes, but precious little is left over to go to the poor. The justice work that I am involved in here in MS is largely coordinated out of the Steps Coalition. I have written about this group before. On the surface it is a jumble of non-profits with very little power, but standing together we have forced the hands of the governor’s office to produce the date included at the end of this blog. Dry as it seems it is necessary to have such data in order to know for whom we must advocate and to whom we must make our case. The work is slow and frustrating, but it has its moments.

I came to Mississippi to help rebuild a parish and to be the “person on the ground” for Massachusetts, but more and more I see my work being the spark that ignites hope in those people who can do the most to rebuild, the people who live here. For sure none of the work we have done would have been possible without the help of volunteers, but in the end it is Mississippians and Louisianians who must create a future here. As for me I am working one person at a time. I am engaging the parish in the work. I have written before about some of our projects, but I think it is important to repeat that a major focus for me is to involve the people here in the work of rebuilding and then reaching out to help others. We are trying to live with a spirit of abundance in the midst of devastation because we know that it is not buildings or roads that make us rich – it is the relationships that we have gained in being served by the people of Massachusetts and elsewhere and those we have forged by reaching out ourselves. I am beginning to extend my work into New Orleans by helping St Anna’s to set up point of care testing for their free medical van. They are a wonderful group of committed Christians who do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God through the street of the Ninth Ward and Chalmette.

Homelessness, hunger, violence, all of these are increasing at alarming rates here. One of our parishioners is a case worker who points to the uncertainty that permeates our lives. She sees a lot of post traumatic stress. But she says the most common word used to describe the feeling now with hurricane season actively underway is fear. Fear makes people do strange things. It makes us distrustful, suspicious, and it turns on our self-protective mode. The fear that we on the coast have comes from not knowing when another storm will come and destroy all that we have built. It comes from not knowing if the government can be trusted - depended on to keep the infrastructure safe, support the needy, protect us from manmade or natural danger. Fear is the opposite of faith and it is a paralyzing condition. If I do nothing else while I am here except offer a source of hope and encouragement to those who are struggling each day to maintain faith and courage to go on, I will have done God’s work. In the end that work, done by the thousands of volunteers who came and continue to come is the much more important than how any nails are hammered or how many walls are painted. We must keep coming because we are the source of hope and hope is born out of our faith. As Christians we are bound by Christ in an undulating web of support. When my faith flags, your faith sustains me. Together we look forward to a time when the seeds we are planting now, will flower into tall oaks with branches to support generations to come.

Some interesting data:
The amount of money allocated by both federal and private sectors has been beyond comprehension. If that is true then why did the Holloway couple have to come to me today to ask for help to pay the electric bill for their FEMA trailer? Here are some statistics: 116 billion allocated for all of the Gulf Coast (AL, MS, LA, TX). Mississippi requested 34 billion and received grant of 23.5 billion. The GAO reports that FEMA lost 1 of every 6 dollars to waste, fraud, and abuse. Of the 23.5 billion to Mississippi: 10 billion went to the environment, 4.3 billion went to repair federal facilities, 1.04 billion was split among 14, 423 MS homeowners. The homeowners who were eligible were those making 80% to 120% of the average median income. In MS for a family of 4 that number is $58,000. Now you know why so many former homeowners have not been able to rebuild. They do not make $48,000 per year – not even close. In fact, the poverty rate in Mississippi in 2006 stands at 21%. In Harrison county the per capita income is just over $20,000. (data is taken from Sun Herald on various days. www.sunherald.com)

Photos: Steps Coalition Meditations at Sunrise

Photos from the Clarion-Ledger coverage of the Steps Coalition Meditations at Sunrise, A Time for Planting service at the Gulfside United Methodist Assembly on the second anniversary of Katrina's landfall.

Second Anniversary

Today is August 28, 2007. Tomorrow will mark the second anniversary of Katrina's landfall. I suspect that it will not come as news to many that recovery is a long way away for much of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. A ride through Lakeview, Gentilly, and the Ninth Ward lays bare the reality that only a small percentage of homes have been replaced or repaired in the areas that were flooded. Yet the population of New Orleans is approaching pre-Katrina levels, now over 300,000, while medical care operates at less than 50% of past capacity. On the Mississippi side of the lake the situation is not much better. In Biloxi the casinos have sped up the economic recovery for the working population, however the poor, the disabled, the homeless, the elderly are all still waiting for the promised help. In East Biloxi less that 40% of the homes have been restored. Businesses are still shut down, there is no homeless shelter, and only one place for a free meal once per day. Pass Christian, Bay St Louis, and Waveland have just now begun to replace the sewers, utilities, and streets that were destroyed. It is hard not to be despondent when the major feature of the landscape is "front steps to nowhere" .

So what are we doing? Moving forward resolutely!

Tomorrow at 6 AM I will join about 200 people at Gulfside Assembly for a Sunrise Service. Gulfside is a UMC facility and was the only retreat center in the region open to African American congregations until the civil rights era. It seemed an appropriate place to hold a service to emphasize Jesus' call to serve those who have been marginalized. Bishop Duncan Gray of Mississippi will keynote. The service in interfaith and so we will pray Muslim, Jewish, and Christian prayers and read Buddhist meditations. We will do this in English, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Hebrew. Such is common fare for New England, but not so familiar for Mississippi. The vision for the service is justice, compassion, and hope for all people.

Last night we hosted a dinner for members of an Indian delegation who were Tsunami survivors to look at the government response there and here and share stories of survival. One woman from Pass Christian told of being in a house with her two children and her mother. She had been frightened of water as a child, but had forced herself to take swimming lessons as an adult. When the water began to rise as the hurricane moved on shore, she was the only swimmer. She remembered being petrified of the water when she looked down from the second story as the waves washed in. Then the house collapsed and she was at once in the water. She told us of how she became peaceful and relaxed, knowing that God would care for her regardless of the outcome. She struggled to save both her mother and children. Just as she thought she would lose the battle a voice called out to her, "I will help you. I will get your mother, save the children." She told of how before the storm people in her neighborhood barely spoke, but after the storm they supported each other with tears, hugs, laughter and food. She told of trading some jambalaya she had made on a grill for cat food to feed the kitty. Simply one friend helping another friend and sharing the bounty. Sounds an awful lot like the feeding of the five thousand to me.

Jericho Road and Hallelujah Housing are both actively building new houses for poor familes in NOLA and in MS. More about those projects later. A news person asked me this morning if there was anything that I wanted to say about the anniversary. I offered that our hope is that we not be forgotten as time and distraction dim the memory of our country to what happened here. This was a disaster of epic proportions. We have had a response of epic proportions also, but there is a long way to go.

May God who cares for us give us the strength to go forward.

PS I have pics of the dinner. Will post when I download my camera. Stay tuned....

Pentecost 2007

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

As I write this, I am preparing to leave - yet again - to carry the hope that we on the Coast will not be forgotten by those whose lives were not torn apart by Katrina’s wind and water.  It is my honor to do so and yet I will miss my new home terribly and will be eager to return to celebrate with my parish family.  This coming Sunday is Pentecost, and I want to share my Pentecost reflection with you.

I suspect that you have seen the internet jokes that propose to determine one’s geographical region of birth by the name one calls certain objects.  For instance do you call that thing from which you drink water a “water fountain” a “drinking fountain” or a “bubbler”?   Chances are if you called it a “bubbler you are from Massachusetts.  How about those athletic shoes…  “sneakers”, tennis shoes, or “running shoes”?  If you are form Mississippi you probably say  “tennis shoes”, but in Massachusetts they are “sneakers”.  One more… “soda”, “coke”, pop”, or tonic”?  This is clearly a weird one because for me even Sprite is a “coke” but in Massachusetts they are all “tonic”.  Now there are lots more, but here is my point.  Language separates us.  It identifies us as belonging to one group or another.  Sometimes that can bring comfort, but at other times it can make us feel very much alone and at odds with our neighbors.

The Pentecost lessons from the Hebrew scriptures (Tower of Babel) and from the Christian writings (anointing of the Holy Spirit on the disciples) offer an interesting and enlightening dichotomy between separation due to self-centeredness and a desire for power versus togetherness that is born out of being united in love of God and compassion for others.  In the first, the writer tells us that all people were originally one in origin and one in language.  This Hebrew writer understood that such unity was a gift from God.  But the people who were one began to believe that their abundance was of their own doing and so they built grand structures that were intended to augment their power at the expense of their dependency on God.  And so God caused them to be separated by language, scattered abroad over the face of the earth, isolated and alone.
But scripture does not leave us in this place of isolation because from the Hebrew prophets to the writers of the Gospels and the Epistles we are reminded of God’s desire to draw us all together with God.  And so we hear in this wonderful story of the early church how the Holy Spirit came and lit up the followers of Jesus literally and figuratively.  They went into the streets telling Jesus’ story to anyone who would listen and they were understood by all except those who chose to be separated and apart.  To those who would turn their back on their brothers and sisters the voices were cacophonies of unintelligible sounds. 

And so I wonder, when are our voices unintelligible?  What is it that prevents us from hearing and being heard?  What is it that has the power to touch our tongues so that others might hear and understand?  The author of Acts tells us that it is God’s Spirit that fills us with love, compassion, and a willingness to reach out to our brothers and sisters, to listen intently to the stories of struggle, to speak truthfully and openly in telling our own stories.  When we open our hearts up to God and allow the Spirit to work in and through us then we are speaking the universal language of Love and we are able to be understood and to understand.   That is my prayer for the people of the Church of the Redeemer and the people of Massachusetts,  that we will open our hearts and minds to listen to each other and to seek our common ground of being agents of God’s mission in the world.

There are some exciting opportunities this summer.  Bishop Bud will lead a group of adults to NOLA in June to engage issues of institutional racism with the people of Trinity New Orleans.  Youth groups from Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey are all coming to work in Biloxi and Bay St Louis and to get to know the people of Redeemer.  One Massachusetts group is going to specifically struggle with racism and classism.  These young people from Marblehead and Lynn have committed to returning to Massachusetts equipped to “Build a Better America”.  For a long time now I have been convinced that our young people stand head and shoulders above the crowd in the willingness to lead us to the place of Love and compassion.  Lead on guys!  You are filled with the Spirit and travelling God’s Highway this summer!
God’s Peace be with you,

Jane+