05012
January 6, 2005

PDA contributes $320,000 for tsunami relief

Officials meet in Geneva to discuss faith-based response

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE — Presbyterian Disaster Assistance  (PDA) has sent $320,000 to areas impacted by last month’s epic tsunami in Southeast Asia, as church partners gathered this week in Switzerland to discuss further plans for humanitarian assistance.

       PDA officials have channeled the One Great Hour of Sharing money through faith-based agencies that are providing immediate relief to tsunami victims. The contribution includes funding to help ship health kits and medicine boxes to affected areas.

       PDA, which coordinates the Presbyterian Church (USA)‘s disaster-response operations in the United States and around the world, hopes to raise at least $2.5 million in relief funds though a churchwide appeal.

       More than $500,000 has already been received by PDA in response to the crisis, according to Stan Hankins, PDA’s associate for U.S. disaster response. 

       The PC(USA)’s disaster assistance arm has been active in the tsunami relief effort since it began, working with partner churches around the world after earthquake-triggered tsunamis swept through coastal communities from Thailand to East Africa on Dec. 26, killing more than 150,000 people, including 50,000 children, according to early estimates.

       Meanwhile, Susan Ryan, the PDA coordinator, was meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland with members of Action by Churches Together International (ACT) — a global alliance of churches and church-based agencies.

       “Church leaders from the affected regions will be attending the meeting to provide situation reports and needs within their region,” Hankins said. “They’re formulating the worldwide church response even as we speak.”

       Ryan, who serves on the ACT board, could not be reach for comment on Thursday.

       The tsunami relief effort represents one of the biggest aid efforts ever that has mobilized governments, international aid organizations, churches, armies and ordinary citizens. It is expected to last a long time following the magnitude-9.0 undersea quake, the strongest in 40 years, that triggered the killer waves.

       In Sri Lanka some 30,000 people were killed by the tsunami and nearly a million have been made homeless. In neighboring India more than 15,000 people were killed, but the worst hit was Indonesia where more than 94,000 people have lost their lives.

       Some of the money dispatched so far by PDA has been used by relief agencies in such countries as:

INDIA

       Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) is trying to help 50,000 families in three states: Andrah Pradesh, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. CASA is a related agency of the National Council of Churches in India and includes 24 Protestant churches in its membership. Both the Church of North and South India are active in CASA.

       Utilizing materials and food that were pre-stocked in CASA warehouses throughout the country, immediate food distribution has been set up through nine member church denominations located in the affected areas. Prepared meal programs are being implemented in 10 centers across three states.

       Other assistance includes blankets, clothing, utensils, matches, candles, and plastic sheeting for immediate shelter.

       The Council of Churches of Sri Lanka (CCSL) is providing dry ration food to 25,000 families.  They are also constructing 100 temporary shelters for the worst hit regions.  Each shelter will accommodate 10-15 families. They have also begun distribution of non-food items, such as blankets, plastic sheeting and other supplies.

       PDA has provided $20,000 to Church World Service in support of a shipment of 500 family shelter kits and 75 disaster medicine boxes to Sri Lanka. The family shelter kits consist of a tent, plastic cover sheeting, and a ground sheet.  The medicine boxes include medicine to support a community of 1,000 people for one month.  Both medicine and shelter supplies are in critical shortage in Sri Lanka.

       PDA is responding through Yakkum Emergency Unit (the emergency arm of the Christian Foundation for Public Health), Yayasan Tanggul Bencana (the emergency program of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia), and Church World Service. All are focusing on the islands of Sumatra, Aceh, and Nias.

In other developments:

     The Rev. Peter Holden, a retired minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, has completed an adaptation of a six-year old hymn written by a Presbyterian minister in wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Asia and Africa.

       Holden’s adaptation of the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette’s “The Storm Came to Honduras” changes some of the verses while keeping other lines.

     Holden, served as pastor of the Jakarta Community Church in Indonesia before recently retiring to Australia. 

       The new hymn, “O God, that Great Tsunami,” also keeps well-known tune of “Passion Chorale” by Hans Leo Hassler (1601) that was harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1729 and is associated with the popular hymn “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.”

     Gillette, who is currently co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Pitman, NJ, wrote the hymn in November 1998 in response to Hurricane Mitch’s devastation in Central America. The hymn was used by congregations around the country and overseas to encourage support for what the United Nations described as the “worst natural disaster in western hemisphere in the 20th century.” 

       The hymn was widely shared on the Internet, posted on numerous denominational and ecumenical web sites and featured twice on national PBS-TV.

     Contributions for tsunami relief may be sent through normal mission giving channels. Gifts by credit card can be made by calling PresbyTel at (800)872-3283 or online at http://www.pcusa.org/pda. Checks payable to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) can also be mailed directly to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Individual Remittance Processing, P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.