Letter From Michael Caine
How Can I Help With Disasters?
By Regional Conference Minister Michael Caine
What with the hurricanes and earthquakes and rain and winds—someone I least expect wondered the other morning if maybe the end is drawing near.
Our hearts, prayers and assistance are going out to folks, here in the U.S. and around the world whose lives have been affected by disasters and whose plights the media has perfected bringing home to us.
The New York Conference and the Metro and Suffolk Associations have tried “to push” information about relief efforts and how our congregations and people can respond. But some of you have been frustrated that our websites have not always provided the information you needed.
To which I respond by asking you to think about UCC structure and polity. Our variety of settings are not hierarchical. But they are functional. We ask different settings to do different ministries. And we do not have sufficient resources to duplicate ministries or information. Instead of having different settings stumble over each other trying to the same thing, or to coordinate efforts, or to all provide the same information, we need to direct ourselves to the right setting for the ministry we are seeking.
And disaster relief efforts are handled by “Wider Church Ministries.” You can find frequently updated information on disasters and church relief efforts by going to http://www.ucc.org/disaster/.
A number of our congregations and leaders are organizing specific efforts to be of assistance to places harmed by disasters. And, in our very free system, they are able to do so in conjunction with Wider Church Ministries or on their own. As we hear of these, we will try to share the news in case there are ways that our folks might work together.
Finally, the Florida Conference is asking for help rebuilding homes damaged in the recent hurricanes, and each one of the New York Conference Ministry Team has been asked to head up a work team to Florida . It's a mission trip, not a vacation—think Habitat for Humanity. Each participant will cover his or her own costs of travel, food and shelter (but the Florida Conference has organized inexpensive dormitory housing and New York Conference will make arrangements and collect trip costs). I am tentatively scheduled to go Holy Week 2006, and would love to start compiling a list of folks interested in going on this mission trip. Look for more information (including the weeks when my colleagues will be leading trips) coming soon from the NYConference office.