Mennonite Weekly Review

If the churches in New Orleans rebuild, people will come back. That’s a main idea behind Churches Supporting Churches, an ecumenical effort supporting African-American churches in New Orleans through congregational partnerships, resourcing pastors and fundraising for needs the communities identify.

Sylvia Shirk Charles, left, pastor of Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship, visits with Denise Parker and Pastor Leonard Parker of New Orleans Bible Fellowship. The two congregations are partnered through Churches Supporting Churches. — Photo by Melani Susanti

Steven Brown of Hampton, Va., vice president of the CSC board and social justice coordinator for the African-American Mennonite Association, appreciates what Mennonites have done to aid people in the Gulf, but believes congregations can do more. Brown has traveled monthly to New Orleans for the past three years. He believes it is the duty of Mennonites to be involved, noting that many of the 100,000 families in New Orleans made homeless after Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 have not returned.

“The Mennonites have a long history of mutual aid, of being a peace church, and a long history of living out what Jesus said,” Brown said. “It is incumbent upon the Mennonite church to be as aggressive to see New Orleans come together as a community as they are on the position on war, the position on peace and overseas missions.”

CSC formed three years ago with the urging and leadership of C.T. Vivian, a civil rights activist and contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr. CSC recognized that rebuilding black churches would be integral to rebuilding communities in New Orleans, Brown said. Pastor Dwight Webster of Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, president and CEO of CSC, said Katrina, Rita and Wilma destroyed entire areas where pastors and their members lived and worshiped.

“Even after three years, there are still parts of the city that look like a war zone,” he said.

Many churches have only seen 30 to 40 percent of their members return, even when church doors are open, he said.

“We yet have pastors who have lost all income,” Webster said. “Ministers have died, people have died because they simply did not have access to health care.”

Another of CSC’s main goals is supporting the pastors. It does so in part through monthly pastors’ institutes, which have for the past three years provided training in leadership, advocacy and community development.

“We are able to have fellowship and share with one other,” Webster said. “We can share joy and pains.” Because so many pastors suffered trauma after the hurricane, CSC held a healing retreat in June 2006 for pastors and their spouses.

Phil Jones, director of Brethren Witness/Washington Office of the Church of the Brethren, which is involved in CSC, said many pastors need support to be able to return to New Orleans.