Rebuilding God's broken world

Struck by messages such as "I comfort others with the comfort I have been given," "I bless your home" and "God loves you, hope you will like the house" written by earlier work groups on the walls framing the Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative home, Klusmeyer noted, "These prayers will continue to be received long after the walls have been closed off. God is in this place."

Carrying hammers, power drills, shovels, and paint brushes, members of the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops and their guests fanned out across New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, adding to the long chain of volunteers who continue to make a difference to those whose lives and communities were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

After two days of intense conversation with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the bishops welcomed the opportunity to "work together in a different way, different than talking theology or structure, but instead making a physical difference as well as a spiritual difference in people's lives," Connecticut Bishop Andrew Smith said.

Donning an Atlanta Braves hat, Atlanta Bishop J. Neil Alexander wielded a large power drill, placing a series of holes in building studs for running wires between the boxes that will hold electrical receptacles. Such work is nothing new to him. "I got started building cabins at camp and have helped people put on an addition to their home," he said. "I tend to like the electrical work that needs to be done."

Volunteers quickly learned there was work for all skill levels. "All I can do is labor," said Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan, working with a crew installing insulation and sheet rock in a home in the Gentilly neighborhood. "I'm quite happy to fetch. I feel a great sense of solidarity with my fellow bishops and their spouses as we engage in corporate work, doing something creative and useful instead of talking. This is constructive work. It is good for my soul."

House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson, hanging sheetrock in the same small house as Morgan, was inspired to work even harder after meeting and praying with the homeowner, who lives in a FEMA trailer parked on his tiny front yard. "We stopped what we were doing to pray with and lay hands on [the homeowner and] his long time companion and caregiver," she said.

Morgan added: "Meeting the owner helped me to realize what he and others have had to put up with for the past two years. The effects [of Katrina] will be with them forever."

The sense that people had and will live in these homes was great. "Nailing subflooring this morning, I found myself wondering 'who will live here?'" said Central New York Bishop Gladstone 'Skip' Adams. "While I may never know, God knows. This is the same as bringing a cup of cold water to Jesus, only in the form of a new house."

While painting a New Orleans East kitchen a warm orange, Mary Page Jones, spouse of retired Bishop Bob Jones of Wyoming, and co-founder of Rag Dolls 2 Love, found herself thinking about the circumstances that forced the family to flee their home. "Seeing a faded, fabric Christmas tree on the patio reminded me of what had happened to this family," she said. "I wanted to finish this work so the family could return home." The house was gutted several months ago, a project of the Diocese of Louisiana's Office of Disaster Response. Other teams added studs, applied sheetrock, and then sanded and primed the walls preparing it for paint.

Lynn Alexander, a pediatric nurse practitioner married to Atlanta's bishop, J. Neil Alexander, her face splattered with paint after coating a ceiling, said: "I wish we could stay and finish the job. You really get invested in your work. The best thing was having the bus driver who brought us out here ask, 'Can I paint too?'" She noted that "the colorful walls will be a welcome sight to the school administrator and her husband who own the home when they stop by later in the day."

Southern Ohio Suffragan Bishop Kenneth Price, Jr. and his spouse, Marianne, planted vegetables, butterfly bushes, and flowers in a community garden in Lakeview, near the St. Paul's Homecoming Center. Many homes in the immediate neighborhood remain boarded up; still bearing the "bathtub rings" of water scum and debris across the windows and doors -- a reminder of the six feet of water that flooded the entire neighborhood and stood stagnant for six weeks. Organizers of the project said that residents returned to plant gardens even before they started gutting their homes. For many, the new life springing from devastation was a symbol of hope. "There is new life springing up here," said Price. "This is an outward symbol for us of the resurrection."

For the Prices, the work day was not only an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and help the people of New Orleans; it also was an opportunity listen to their stories. "It was refreshing … to be with the people of New Orleans. We too often get wrapped up in our internal things and lose sight of the importance of this work."

Former Southern Virginia Bishop John Buchanan and his wife, Peggy, volunteered at the Mobile Loaves 'n Fishes program, a ministry of Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans. They made sandwiches then loaded up the donated canteen truck with chips, fruit, and beverages before driving to the work sites across the city to feed the work crews as well as other hungry people in New Orleans' many neighborhoods affected by Katrina. As she handed out sandwiches, Peggy Buchanan remarked, "Even though we are retired, ministry doesn't stop."

Installing sheet rock on the ceiling of another small house in Gentilly, former Bishop Douglas Theuner of New Hampshire, found himself asking, "How do we mend something so destroyed?" He was reminded of the story of Brother Geoffrey Tristram, SSJE, chaplain to the House of Bishops, shared earlier in the week, relating what happened when artist John Constable's son tore one of his father's canvases: The father said to his son, "My dear, how shall we mend this?"

Working alongside Theuner, Tristram, power drill in hand and sweat staining his shirt and face, explained why he shared this story. "As Christians, it is our role to share with God the work of reconciliation to mend God's broken world," said Tristram. "In the same way as young Constable having torn his father's canvas might expect punishment, we, having torn God's beautiful world, might also expect punishment. Instead, God sent us Jesus, his only son, to help reconcile us to God. This work, spending time mending something terribly broken and damaged, is ministry in practice."

In Mississippi, bishops and spouses toured Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian before lunching at Camp Coast Care. John Rabb, bishop-in-charge, Diocese of Maryland remarked, "It is amazing still to see so much yet to be done, and also heartening how faith-based communities have absolutely been in the forefront of rebuilding. Without them this progress could not have been. Part of the success in Mississippi can be attributed to Camp Coast Care. Its evolution from emergency center to a redevelopment center has gone exceedingly well. The support to the entire region from the Episcopal Church is evident throughout."

After a debriefing, the group split into three work teams and headed to work sites in Pass Christian and Gulfport. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori chose to work in one of the Gulfport homes, part of a large crew charged with hanging dry wall in a modest home. In a moment of reflection after speaking casually with a spouse and Jefferts Schori, Lauren Auttonberry, coordinator of communications for the Diocese of Mississippi, made an observation concerning the value of the bishops' work.

"You saw how much we accomplished in three hours with a large crew in a small house," said Auttonberry. "Imagine, though, how long it would take a couple or a family with two teens to make the same amount of progress. Don't underestimate the value of the time you spent here today: it truly did make a difference to a family trying to get back into their home."

Charles Woods, supervisor of construction at Camp Coast Care, concurred. "I am at a loss for words at how hard these bishops and their spouses worked today," he said. "In just two and a half hours, three crews painted an entire three-bedroom house, sheet rocked half a house, and strapped ceiling trusses, windows, and doors, and finished the electric in a third house."

The day proved transforming for many. "Dozens and dozens of people from the Diocese of Virginia who have spent time working here have told me how much their lives had been changed by this work," said Virginia Bishop Suffragan David Jones. "Working on this house, I can see why. I've wanted to be a part of this and am so grateful the House of Bishops has taken a day to do this."

For Bishop Gary Lillibridge of West Texas, this was a return trip to New Orleans. He had come with a group of about 40 young people and adults this past December to work on a damaged church. "I see progress being made," he said, "but it is slow. We need to have a continuing presence here."