participate in National Commitment Sunday, September 18, to help ensure one of the largest Christian aid efforts in US history following Katrina, America’s worst hurricane in living memory.
The Salvation Army (SA) and the Christian Emergency Network (CEN), a platform of 5,000 relief organizations, ministries and media outlets as well as 47,000 churches, said they organized the National Commitment Sunday to "ensure that Christians nationwide will continue to pour out their time, talents, and love to Hurricane Katrina victims" as long as necessary.
"After 125 years of providing personal and worldwide response to disasters, the SA is now mobilizing for the largest response to a natural disaster since it began. Consequently, we understand the importance of joining with CEN to call on Christians to respond to this disaster with a message of prayer-care-share," said SA US Commissioner Todd Basset.
Despite wide spread criticism over the federal government’s perceived slow response to the crisis, Basset said the SA was closely cooperating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as well as the less controversial Congressionally-mandated American Red Cross.
LEADERSHIP ROLE
The SA has provided leadership for several non-governmental agencies and faith-based groups as well as shelter, food, clothing, and financial aid. Christian officials say the SA is "well-suited" for the next phase of recovery because of its infrastructure of 1,330 service centers which were reportedly in place before Hurricane Katrina struck, killing at least hundreds of people in New Orleans alone.
"As our nation unites and bows before Almighty God in prayer this week for the victims and grieving families, let us also seek Him for unified strength and love to care for those afflicted from Hurricane Katrina in Biblical proportion," Basset said.
"We call upon each Christian to commit to what they will do or are already doing together as one Body of Christ on National Commitment Sunday, September 18," during and after church services.
CEN CEO Mary Marr stressed her organization had opened special e-mail address commitment@cen911.com to enable Christians to pledge their commitment and promote unity among churches, which have often been at odds over how to cooperate. "Because our response to this tragedy is a reflection on our Lord, it is essential that we recognize that those impacted by our help influence their view of Jesus," she said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife News Center.
SPIRITUAL UNITED
"This is a time for the Body of Christ [the church] to unite in biblical proportions to serve the needs physically and emotionally – but more important spiritually – throughout the months and days ahead," Marr added.
The National Commitment Sunday come just two days after President George W. Bush declared a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Katrina’s victims. Speaking to the nation Thursday, September 16 from Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans 17 days after Hurricane Katrina churned the city and displaced a million people, he suggested he was impressed by the faith and compassion shown by church organizations and other individuals.
"These trials have also reminded us that we are often stronger than we know with the help of grace and one another. They remind us of a hope beyond all pain and death — a God who welcomes the lost to a house not made with hands," said Bush, a self declared evangelical Christian.
IMPROVING RESPONSE
He promised financial aid and to improve the federal response which he admitted had been inadequate.
But, he said, "the streets of Biloxi and Gulfport will again be filled with lovely homes and the sound of children playing. The churches of Alabama will have their broken steeples mended and their congregations whole. And here in New Orleans, the street cars will once again rumble down St. Charles, and the passionate soul of a great city will return."
There is "a custom for the funerals of jazz musicians" in New Orleans Bush noted. "The funeral procession parades slowly through the streets, followed by a band playing a mournful dirge as it moves to the cemetery. Once the casket has been laid in place, the band breaks into a joyful "second line" — symbolizing the triumph of the spirit over death. Tonight the Gulf Coast is still coming through the dirge, yet we will live to see the second line." (With BosNewsLife News Center and reports from the United States).
