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New York, NY
MDS gives funds to New York churches


Mennonite Disaster Service has sent funds to New York churches in an effort to spread comfort and peace. Twenty congregations, including Mennonite and two Brethren in Christ churches, each received $1500 US from Project Restoring Hope, the MDS response to the attack at the World Trade Center.

In sending this gift, MDS is sharing the outpouring of contributions from individuals and congregations across North America who want to help heal the city’s emotional, spiritual and financial scars, said Tom Smucker, MDS executive coordinator.

“We felt it was important to get some kind of support to the churches as soon as possible,” he said. “We wanted to show them that people outside the city are supporting them, to tell them ‘we are with you.’ ”

Constituents have contributed over $250,000, he said. MDS has budgeted $150,000 for the first year, with the possibility of budgeting the remaining contributions by extending the project for up to three years.

MDS has invited congregations to use these initial funds to minister to their local communities, he said. Plans so far include renovating space for peace activities, providing after-school programs, sponsoring multiethnic workshops, paying utility bills at church, helping the unemployed with mortgages and doing community outreach.

An advisory committee consisting of members from the New York City Council of Mennonite Churches, MDS personnel and a part-time staff person will help direct the funds and administer longer-term, city-wide projects. Those projects will include grief workshops and counselling, programs for parents, children and seniors, bilingual seminars on healing and reconciliation, other peace witness activities, and community outreach. The congregations may also create singing and drama groups that will travel from New York to other regions to share stories of survival and faith.

But until those programs begin, congregations are grateful for the jump start into more immediate projects and MDS’s quick response.

To respond to people losing jobs, First Mennonite Church, a Hispanic congregation in Brooklyn, will use the money to renovate its fellowship hall to provide space for computer training and English classes.

North Bronx Mennonite Church in the Bronx is considering using its $1500 to sponsor coffee houses and community interchanges with an interfaith and multiethnic focus.

Pastor Ruth Yoder Wenger said, “We want to sponsor some interchanges, especially with the Muslim community, since so many Muslims in our neighbourhood have been threatened after the attack. We also want to offer grief support. I think we’re going to see a lot of post-traumatic stress syndrome, with an increase in depression, sleeplessness, anxiety. We need to be in this for the long haul.”

Children are some of the most vulnerable people in the communities, said Monroe Yoder, pastor of Seventh Avenue Mennonite Church in Manhattan.

With its funds, the church plans to create an after-school safe centre in the church building. It will purchase room dividers and furniture and perhaps employ young people from the church to join volunteers in helping children with homework and conducting Bible classes.

“This gives us a chance to do our part in helping protect the children,” Yoder said. “There are quite a few after-school centres which have discontinued because of budget cuts. And it’s helping us, as financially strapped congregations, to do things we couldn’t have done otherwise and to spread the message of hope.”

Another project includes renovating space at King of Glory Tabernacle, in the Bronx, to create the Olive Branch Sanctuary that will offer peace education and provide community reconciliation activities.

Other congregations are sponsoring community outreach by providing meals for families of firefighters, some of whom are still being called to duty for 12-hour shifts at Ground Zero, said Joe Steiner, MDS project coordinator from Syracuse, N.Y.

MDS began soliciting funds for the project on September 12. MDS is no longer soliciting, but people can still contribute through December 31.

Many creative fundraisers have already taken place. For example, Penn View Christian School, Souderton, Pa., raised $20,000 by selling 10,000 sandwiches and receiving a matching grant from a local bank. Refton (Pa.) Brethren in Christ Church held a men’s basketball tournament. Many Sunday schools and congregations took collections.

The emotional and spiritual trauma people are facing in this terrorist-induced disaster is surprisingly similar to what happens after natural disasters such as tornadoes, according to Smucker. But how MDS will help restore the city from the destruction of the World Trade Center is different, he said, adding, “Instead of looking for carpenters, we’re going to need mental health volunteers.”

Ministering to the pastors’ mental health and spiritual needs as they guide their people through trauma is an MDS priority. Despite the stress pastors face, they are using the pain as an opportunity to bring the message of peace to the city, Smucker said.

“They are taking a huge negative and turning it into a positive by telling the story of peace and reconciliation. In the months ahead, MDS wants to do all it can to help them achieve their goals in fulfilling the vision for that.”

 – adapted from a report by Laurie L. Oswald in Mennonite Weekly Review

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Last modified December 7, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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