As the Waters Recede, Faith Groups Take Stock

c. 2005 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Jewish groups from Baton Rouge, La., descended on water-logged New Orleans to save precious Torah scrolls from destruction. In Bayou La Batre, Ala., floodwaters sent a statue of St. Peter _ the patron saint of fishermen _ halfway down a church aisle but left it intact. Across town, Vietnamese […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Jewish groups from Baton Rouge, La., descended on water-logged New Orleans to save precious Torah scrolls from destruction. In Bayou La Batre, Ala., floodwaters sent a statue of St. Peter _ the patron saint of fishermen _ halfway down a church aisle but left it intact. Across town, Vietnamese Buddhists assessed damage to their temple, which has become an important community center. And from Oregon, “Pastor Mary” swooped in with a personal caravan to rescue evacuees.

Across the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, faith groups are starting to assess the damage, tally the blessings and ponder life after Katrina. Here are a few of their stories:


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BATON ROUGE, La. _ The Jewish community of Baton Rouge topped off a week of rescue missions into New Orleans on Saturday (Sept. 10), the Jewish Sabbath, with a successful collection of more than 25 Torah scrolls from four New Orleans and Metairie congregations, the Hillel Foundation at Tulane University and the New Orleans Jewish Day School.

The Torah is a handwritten scroll containing the first five books of Scripture, written in Hebrew, and is read during Jewish Sabbath services.

“The Torah scroll is the central sacred object of Judaism,” said Rabbi Stanton Zamek of Beth Shalom Synagogue in Baton Rouge. “It’s almost not a book, but a living teacher.

“Leaving them alone in an empty synagogue is an unbelievable thought,” he said.

Several scrolls used by congregations in New Orleans survived the Holocaust during World War II in Germany or other occupied countries in Europe.

A convoy of seven cars and vans carrying Reform rabbis from Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the Washington, D.C., office of the Union of Reform Judaism, as well as officials of the Baton Rouge and New Orleans Jewish federations, was escorted to New Orleans at 7 a.m. Saturday by off-duty deputies of the East Baton Rouge sheriff’s office.

They collected Torahs from Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation, Congregation Gates of Prayer and the New Orleans Jewish Day School in Metairie; and from Touro Synagogue, Temple Sinai and the Hillel Foundation _ the Tulane University Jewish student center _ in New Orleans. The convoy was back in Baton Rouge by 12:30 p.m.

He said the rescues were conducted at Jewish institutions for which keys or individuals with access were available.


Torahs at Beth Israel, Congregation Anshe Sfard, and the Chabad House in New Orleans and the Chabad Jewish Center in Metairie, all Orthodox Jewish congregations, were not collected on Saturday because officials there did not want to break their rules against working on the Sabbath.

Rabbi Martha Bergadine said the importance of their mission touched her the most at the day school.

“I was carrying a children’s Torah and the wrapper came off and I saw that it had been written by children,” Bergadine said, tears running down her face.

Some of the Torahs will be taken to Houston, where members of several New Orleans congregations have taken up temporary residence.

_ Mark Schleifstein

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BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. _ The Rev. Tim Evans returned to his 96-year-old St. Margaret Catholic Church fearing the worst, knowing the muddy waters hurled inland by Hurricane Katrina would rise into his stately wood-and-brick sanctuary in the heart of the city.

St. Margaret is home to the annual “Blessing of the Fleet” celebration each May. It has about 400 members, many of Vietnamese ancestry, whom he calls “diehards” in their faith in God. Amid the destruction and attempts to provide solace, Evans knew he would be the lightning rod to oversee the cleanup of his church.


The stained glass windows survived, despite several sheets of heavy, 3/4-inch marine-grade plywood ripped from security bolts in the church’s outside walls. The bell tower’s new shingles, put on just three days before Katrina struck to replace those damaged by Hurricane Ivan a year ago, probably will have to be replaced again. Swelled hymnals lay in a pile outside; a few remained stuck in the hymnal racks of wooden pews splitting due to water saturation. The pews will have to be discarded, too.

Yet when Evans walked into his dim, hot sanctuary, he was relieved. A 4-foot-high statue of St. Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 disciples and patron to fishermen, stood upright in the middle aisle.

“It was in the lobby and floated in on the floodwaters, then landed there when the waters receded,” Evans said. “It was almost like you put it there. I looked at it and knew we were going to be OK.”

Evans has conducted Mass in a pavilion outside the church the last two Sundays. About half the congregation has attended. But he said none has asked, “Why us?”

“It’s part of living here,” he said. “We take the kicks as well as the good days. I’ve been buoyed by the outpouring of support from people and from Catholics all over the country. I’ll pick up the phone and it will be someone from Detroit or New Jersey offering help. It has been wonderful.”

_ Alan Clemons

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BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. _ Shaded by a lotus leaf, the statue of the Buddhist character Bodhisattva Quan Am rose 20 feet high at the edge of the temple Chua Chanh Giac in Bayou La Batre, looking out at the hurricane-ravaged surroundings with a serene gaze.


Inside the temple Sunday, Lingthong, a Buddhist monk, cleaned up debris from Hurricane Katrina with the help of congregants.

“We’ll get by,” said Jack Davis, 47, an unemployed welder who was born in Saigon with the birth name Tuoi Tran and fled Vietnam on a boat when he was a teenager. As he fixed the door of the temple where he regularly worships _ Sunday services have been canceled because of Katrina damage _ he said there was hope that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would give the temple money to rebuild.

If not, he said, hammering away, “We’ll do it step by step.”

As the monk, Lingthong, stepped outdoors, donned her prayer robe, and walked toward the religious statue, she explained, in halting English, that she was based at another temple, in Ohio, and had only just arrived in Bayou La Batre.

A calm woman with a shaved head whose own family came from war-torn Vietnam as refugees a generation ago, Lingthong said she traveled south from Ohio to help out because the monk in charge had to leave town. The Bayou La Batre monk, she explained, was going to other Buddhist temples to seek aid. “She is getting donations to help this temple,” said Lingthong.

Danny Vo, another out-of-work welder, said the donations would help restore the temple, which acts as an important center for the Buddhist Vietnamese. They are part of the larger Vietnamese community of different faiths that constitutes a sizable part of the local population.

As Vo looked about at storm-beaten walls and figures of the Buddha on the half-empty altar, he said that, concerning long-term employment, “We will wait.”


_ Roy Hoffman

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PORTLAND, Ore. _ Armed with a rented Suburban, cases of bottled water and barbecued ribs, Anna Forbes went house to house in a Mississippi neighborhood, knocking on darkened doors to see who wanted to leave.

The victims of Hurricane Katrina _ sleeping on the floor, without water and food, some without roofs _ must have thought she was crazy.

“I said, `No, seriously, get in the car. You don’t need no clothes; let’s just go,” she recalled saying. “I said, `We’re going to Oregon. Pastor Mary’s going to pay for everything because the government is taking too long.”’

Pastor Mary is Mary Overstreet, Forbes’ mother and the spiritual leader of the Powerhouse Temple Church of God in Christ in Portland. She also is the woman who mobilized a private army to move families to Portland from hurricane-stricken Gulfport, Miss.

An exhausted Forbes, who lives in Jackson, Tenn., arrived Friday evening at Portland International Airport accompanied by the first group of evacuees: a frail 65-year-old, her 18-month-old grandson and her 45-year-old caregiver. The others were scheduled to arrive on a Greyhound bus.

In all, 11 evacuees were scheduled to arrive by Sunday (Sept. 11). Forbes planned to return to Tennessee and Mississippi for more.


How quickly the Powerhouse church members kicked into action seems all the more astonishing given the federal government’s difficulty finding homes for hurricane victims.

The church will pay for the families to stay in apartments furnished with donated items from Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette. They also have lined up job training and placement options for evacuees.

Forbes said her mother called her last week and told her to quit her job and drive to Gulfport, where she had family. Her mother told her to find anyone who needed help.

Forbes rented the eight-seat SUV, loaded it with food, water and 22 jugs of gas, and drove to Mississippi. Once she got there, she discovered her family members didn’t want to leave their homes. But she found 22 people who would, and they crammed into the Suburban.

She left half of them in Jackson, found bus tickets for the others and booked airfare for Loretta Collins, her grandson and her caregiver.

Back in Portland, her sister had found four small apartments for the evacuees _ one for each family. Workers and volunteers from Goodwill Industries unloaded tables, chairs, pillows and blankets.


As rain spit outside, a small one-bedroom apartment in southeast Portland slowly filled with clean furnishings. “Boy, they’re bringing in a microwave,” said Josie Carter-Holmes, who arranged the donations. “Lord, this is nothing but a blessing.

_ Janie Har

KRE/PH END RNS

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