Mennonite Central Committee

Local coordinators hired to work through churches to respond to Katrina

September 29, 2005

As MCC workers began talking with pastors of congregations displaced by Hurricane Katrina and with pastors whose churches were reaching out to others who had evacuated, a common thread emerged. Churches needed to be able to free someone to coordinate their efforts to respond to the disaster.

MCC, as part of an effort to work through local congregations to respond to the disaster, is providing funding to hire Hurricane Katrina response coordinators from several congregations.

In Houston, Tim Barr of Houston Mennonite Church will coordinate the church's work with evacuees. Blanca Mackay, who had fled to Houston with other members of Amor Viviente, her Metairie, Louisiana, congregation, has returned to Louisiana and will coordinate the church's response both to the needs of its own members and to the surrounding community.

In Meridian, Mississippi, Andrew Weber and Fern Diener of Jubilee Mennonite Church are working with the congregation's response to Hurricane Katrina.