ELCA NEWS SERVICE October 29, 2004 ELCA Presiding Bishop Visits Florida-Bahamas Synod, Offers Thanks 04-205-JB TAMPA, Fla. (ELCA) -- Expressing thanks on behalf of "a grateful church," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), traveled here Oct. 26 to meet with leaders of the ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod in the wake of four hurricanes that struck this synod in August and September. Hanson and the Rev. Edward R. Benoway, bishop of the ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod, met here at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church with about 200 people, including pastors, professional lay leaders, disaster response personnel and representatives from church-related organizations. Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne struck various parts of the Caribbean and Florida, causing deaths and injuries, and property damage estimated at $18 billion. The bishops offered words of encouragement to the synod leaders, many of whom are still working with people adversely affected by the storms. They also led a worship service, which included a "Litany for Healing." Those who attended viewed a video describing the storms and the aftermath for some congregations in areas hardest hit, including Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Port Charlotte, Fla., and Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Haines City, Fla. In informal remarks to the leaders, Hanson reminded them that "nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of Christ Jesus," quoting a familiar Bible verse. Christ "meets us in places of suffering and death," he said. Hanson said after any disaster it takes considerable time to recover, and disaster response personnel are often still on the scene long after a disaster is no longer in the headlines. For example, he said, Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR), a partnership ministry of the ELCA and Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), LDR-New York and local Lutheran social service agencies are still working in the New York area more than three years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "We as Lutherans know that healing takes a lot longer than the culture will ever acknowledge," he said. The church's leaders on the ground in Florida had benefited from the "strength" of the LDR partnership of the ELCA-LCMS, Hanson said. "Despite our differences, we are united in our witness to the world." Hanson pointed out that many church members and church- related organizations from throughout the ELCA have provided people and money to help in the recovery. "You have been a part of an interrelated, interdependent Lutheran ecology in the aftermath of a disaster," he said. Funds from LDR are helping to rebuild throughout the synod, Benoway said. LDR's primary emphasis has been in providing counseling services to people adversely affected and to the caregivers -- those who are working with people "on the ground," he said. "We give thanks for your ministries in some very difficult times," Benoway said. "In all circumstances, everything is going to be okay because we are given the hands of God. But it won't be easy." Heather L. Feltman, director for LDR and ELCA Domestic Disaster Response, Chicago, was also present. She told the ELCA News Service that nearly $900,000 had been contributed by ELCA members in designated and undesignated funds for disaster response. In a sermon during worship, Hanson urged the professional church leaders to remember they must recognize their limits, particularly in times of great stress such as a disaster. Servant leaders often expect themselves to be "limitless" and the church to be the same, neither of which is true, Hanson said. Quoting the Apostle Paul, Hanson said: "'We have this treasure in clay jars, earthen vessels.' And just as jars become empty, so do human lives." St. Paul reminded people of faith that "we are not immune from being afflicted or perplexed, not safe from persecution or being struck down. And yet the promise is, in the midst of those realities, we will not be crushed, we will not be driven to despair, we will not be forsaken, we will not be destroyed," Hanson said. "We need you to help teach all the [professional] leaders of this church," Hanson told the congregation. "Remind us, challenge us to come to terms with the fact that we are all clay jars, earthen vessels, often empty, frequently fragile, sometimes in fact we're broken into pieces, shards left only to the grace and mercy of God in Christ to put back together again." "May the mercy of God and the peace of Christ be with you all," Hanson concluded. --- Texts of remarks by Presiding Bishop Hanson are available at http://www.fbsynod.org/ -- the Web site of the ELCA Florida- Bahamas Synod. DOMESTIC DISASTERS: Editors: When listing organizations receiving funds to aid survivors of major disasters inside the United States, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, please include: ELCA Domestic Disaster Response, P.O. Box 71764, Chicago, Illinois 60694-1764 Credit card gift line: 1-800-638-3522 Credit card gifts via Internet: http://www.elca.org/disaster For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news