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Dear friends in Christ,
This week I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. I just
returned from three days in New York City, one week following terrorist
attacks on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan and Washington D.C.
To put this week into words is impossible, like trying to summarize Dante's
Inferno in a few paragraphs. Let me share some images with you, as I
struggle to put some perspective to this week in my mind and heart.
Yesterday Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson (Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America), President Gerald Kieschnick (The Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod), District President David Benke (Atlantic District), Synod Bishop
Stephen Bouman (Metropolitan New York), Elaine Richter Bryant (LDR
Associate Director), and I were escorted by FBI chaplains and New York City
police into the heart of "Ground Zero." I can't describe the enormity of
the devastation. In one area hundreds of workers look for survivors in the
seven-story pile of twisted steel and building materials that once stood
110 stories tall. In the next block exhausted firefighters train hoses on
still-burning fires. Twisted girders are hauled away by huge flatbed
trucks. Choking smoke mingles with the stench of human decay. "Everything
is connected, nothing is connected. Everything fits, nothing fits,"
President Benke reflected during two packed worship services in Holy
Trinity Lutheran Church, West Central Park. "But the love of people is
around me. The love of Jesus Christ is around me. And nothing can
separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ."
We saw God's love, too. All through lower Manhattan people stand ready to
hand water and food to passing professional emergency workers. People
listen as strangers tell stories of lost sons and daughters, friends and
relatives, coworkers and colleagues. Heartbreaking photos of the missing
attract others who pause to look and pray. We saw firefighters and rescue
teams from Los Angeles, from Ohio, from Chicago on hand assisting their
exhausted colleagues. In worship we were surrounded by hundreds of pastors
and church workers, counselors and lay members already in ministry through
their congregations to their communities. "You are unique in the gifts you
bring," Bishop Anderson told the worshippers. "You have the words of
eternal life. We are seeing how the body of Christ works together when it
is wounded. We are part of God's mission to reverse human sin."
At the moment there are 5,700 missing or dead in New York City, and over
200 in Washington D.C. But the church is responding. President Kieschnick
spoke of the "overwhelming outpouring of love from around the world" he is
receiving by mail and e-mail from Christians in other lands. "There are
innumerable offers of help and support. But I want to thank you, to say
thanks to the local folks, for your outpouring of love in the enormity of
this devastation."
This morning David Miller (editor of The Lutheran magazine), Elaine and I
visited the impromptu memorials in Union Station Park. Hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of letters, notes, candles, photos, express the heartbreak, the
love, and the support of the people. Everyone you encounter has a story to
tell, a story of loss ("My office lost 50 people"), a story of joy ("My
missing cousin was identified as seriously wounded in the hospital_he's
alive!"), a story of perplexity ("How could something like this happen?").
"When you show up to hear someone's stories," said Bishop Bouman, "you are
manna, the bread of life. When you show up, God is there. We are living
out the liturgy on our streets. Our communities are our parish. We were
baptized for this moment."
The Church is responding. Lutheran Disaster Response (the cooperative
ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod) is responding. The response is multifaceted and
complex, but the pieces are already coming together. Here are some of
them:
ú Provide emergency assistance for affected people and families, including
emergency housing, as they come to seek the lost, visit the injured, or for
burial.
ú Help children cope with the trauma of this disaster. These include the
21,000 students in Lutheran schools in the New York City area, as well as
children in Sunday schools and in communities. "Camp Noah" - a weeklong
experience for disaster-traumatized children, is being modified for use in
this urban setting.
ú Care for the caregivers_for the front-line pastors, teachers,
deaconesses, church workers, agency counselors_is ready to be initiated.
This includes counseling for those who are providing care to others, and to
the people in the community.
ú Training to equip caregivers in their special ministry to their
communities as they "live the liturgy" in their parish settings.
ú Support for the ministries of the synod and district, as human resources
stretch thin by the demands of the situation.
ú Calling upon other church resources and staff to deal with issues of
racism and hate, community human development, advocacy.
The church will be ministering in this situation for the long haul. LDR is
still ministering to the people of Oklahoma City, six years after the
bombing. But for the church to provide a faithful and creative response,
to sustain its presence, and to meet the ever-changing dynamics of
recovery, your help is needed.
Your prayers are needed. The power of prayer in sustaining and upholding
the people of the metropolitan New York and Washington DC areas is stronger
than the powers of evil that caused this disaster.
Your financial support is a tangible way to provide direct help. Our
newspapers and media are full of fund requests, many of them very fine,
many questionable. If you want to support the church's efforts, please
send your contributions to
ELCA DOMESTIC Disaster Response - "September 11 Attacks"
PO Box 71764
Chicago, Illinois 60694-1764
Credit card gift line: 1-800-638-3522
Credit card gifts via the web: www.elca.org/disaster
LC-MS World Relief
P.O. Box 66861
St. Louis, MO 63166-9810
Credit card gift line: 1-888-930-4438
100% of your designated contributions will be used in this response.
There is more to tell, but this report is already too long. On a personal
note, I want to thank you for your many calls and e-mails of support and
prayer. We have all been affected and changed by these events. May God
help us to be the church, the body of Christ, as together we minister to a
broken world.
Yours in Christ,
Gil Furst
GILBERT B. FURST (written on Thu, Sep 20, 2001, 8:29 pm). Director for
ELCA DOMESTIC DISASTER RESPONSE (Division for Church in Society) and
LUTHERAN DISASTER RESPONSE (a cooperative ministry of the ELCA and LC-MS)
8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago 60631 PHONE: 773-380-2822 FAX: 773-380-2493
Please visit our website: www.elca.org/dcs/disaster
