Clergy

The words surfaced again and again as Episcopalians described how their churches became distribution centers for relief supplies and sanctuaries of warmth and food in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which slammed the Northeast on Oct. 29. The storm swept away or flooded homes along the coasts of New Jersey and New York, disrupted transportation and telephone services across the region and left millions of households without electricity and heat, and in some cases water, throughout multiple dioceses.

Churches responded by opening their doors as warming, charging and feeding stations; collecting and distributing emergency supplies and meals; and dispatching volunteers to visit and inventory the needs of those most affected by the storm. In the process, their clergy reported, the churches offered new opportunities for service and built community within and beyond their walls.

One day after two beloved members of their parish died in a house fire, dozens gathered Sunday at St. James Episcopal Church to grieve and pray for a woman who was active within the church, and her “sweet” young son.

In between prayer and song, a few worshipers held hands with loved ones while they shed tears for Jeralyn Scibetta and her youngest son Daniel, 14, both killed Saturday morning in their Linden Avenue home.

For the Jews, Muslims, and Christians on a New Jersey interfaith mission to Israel, the low point of their weeklong trip was perhaps a visit to the Aida refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The towering security wall, the anti-Israel graffiti, and the unsmiling children were grim reminders of the ongoing enmity between the children of Abraham.

Reports are coming in from our churches of the work they are doing to help their neighbors after Hurricane Sandy.

New reports will be added here as they come in.

From The Rev. Sheelagh Clarke, Rector of St. Stephen's in Millburn, Nov. 9:

On Friday, November 9, we boarded the Ibrahim Dede with eighteen crew berthed at APM Terminal in Port Elizabeth — a visit that will forever be indelibly imprinted in our minds and souls.

[Episcopal News Service] “Ship ahoy!,” shouted a costumed boy racing up the stairs while trick-or-treating in the parish hall at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, New Jersey.

Halloween arrived on All Souls Day, Nov. 2, this year for Morristown youngsters when the church hosted children for trick-or-treating on its campus after the holiday was postponed in New Jersey due to dangerous conditions caused by Hurricane Sandy, which roared through the region and caused widespread power outages with downed trees and wires in the Morristown area.

Random acts of kindness really do have a ripple effect.

Take St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, for example.  On Thursday morning, a line of cars snaked in front of the church, inching its way to a distant gas station for precious fill-ups in the stressful aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Rector Janet Broderick and Assistant Rector Melissa Hall rolled a cart with tea and coffee to the bedraggled motorists on South Street. Melissa even car-sat for some of them while they dashed into the church for bathroom breaks.