Online Archives

BY CARRIE MADREN

United Methodists are being asked to contribute to two special offerings at the upcoming session of annual conference May 26-28 in Baltimore. The money collected will go toward relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti and Japan and area homeless ministries.

Offering to benefit disaster relief efforts

At the opening worship of annual conference, at 10 a.m. on May 26, an offering will taken to benefit on-going disaster relief efforts in Haiti and Japan.

"What happens after disasters, it gets off the front page very quickly — out of sight out of mind — but The Methodist Church is there for the long haul," said Sandy Ferguson, director of Social Justice and Missions. "There's still massive devastation … people are still in dire need and there is a tremendous need for the support."

In March, the Rev. Gail Annis-Forder, of Loch Raven UMC, went on a VIM  trip to Haiti. The group traveled to a small city in southwest Haiti called Les Cayes, where they set to work on a church building project. "The circuit there has 21 churches," said Annis-Forder. The team was tasked with building a church near Torbeck Methodist Church — a small, decrepit building— that will increase the capacity for churchgoers by three times. "They are hoping to host some activities and be like a central location for the various churches of that part of the circuit," said Annis-Forder.

Though teams such as Annis-Forder's can provide unskilled labor for construction projects where everything is done by hand, "what you really bring is money so that project can continue," she said. Her team's $3,500 was matched by UMCOR Haiti relief funds from last year's special offerings. "So it allows them to get a project done a lot quicker than they otherwise would be able to do them," she said. The project will likely require work — and the funds — of three more mission teams.

While there, she saw persistent needs that date back to even before the earthquake. "In some places it was obvious where the earthquake devastation was — in other places, you weren't sure if the destruction was from the earthquake or from life in Haiti," she said. "The tent cities are still very visible."

The Rev. Malcolm Frazier, soon to be executive secretary of mission volunteers at the General Board of Global Ministries in New York, recently led a spring break mission trip of 22 from Howard University to Jacamel, to make earthquake repairs and learn more about the people of Haiti. "There is progress, but it is so slow," Frazier said. "In order to rebuild, you have to remove the debris that fell during the earthquake, and it all has to be done by hand."

Since there are no bulldozers to clear debris, some of the mission group's work included forming bucket brigades 20-people-long to clear away rubble in order to rebuild. Workers — Haitians and missionaries — also must figure out where all this debris is going to go. 

"There is improvement, but this is a long term endeavor," Frazier said. Conditions in the tents communities, however, have not improved, Frazier reported. His group met with representatives from a women's organization that provides support to women rape victims. Such sexual violence is still occurring in the tent villages, where women are preyed on and food is scarce, Frazier said.

In addition to helping Haiti recover from the January 2010 quake, money will be going to Japan to assist in rebuilding efforts after the March tsunami and earthquake there.

Offerings taken for homelessness

At ordination, an offering will be taken to address homelessness in this region.

In D.C., there are more than 6,044 homeless individuals. More than 2,000 of those are chronically homeless; there are nearly as many homeless in Baltimore city and Baltimore County. Thousands of other homeless individuals and families are scattered throughout the Conference area, a problem that BWC is trying to address in many ways — from immediate relief through meals, to long-term help through permanent housing.

Last year, 57 members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference visited a program in New York City, where Roseanne Haggerty has led the non-profit Common Ground to move most of Times' Square's homeless into permanent supportive housing units set up in old hotels. Those who made the trip were convinced of the real possibility of ending homelessness within the conference.

"The face of homelessness has changed and is still changing," said Sandy Ferguson, director of Social Justice and Missions. Years ago, it was mostly men, but now there are so many women and children, "it's mind boggling to go into the shelters," she said. "One of the ways the conference is responding is to establish permanent housing." Facilities have already been designated — including churches that have been closed or empty parsonages. There are at least five development sites being considered for permanent housing projects.

Many groups and churches within the conference have begun projects aimed at ending homelessness. In D.C., Foundry UMC, with BWC and the Washington Interfaith Network has begun to build a permanent supportive housing building. The District's newest project, Calvary Place, will use the building of Calvary UMC in Columbia Heights, which was closed in 2010. The Calvary building, owned by the Baltimore-Washington Conference, will become a five-story, 40,000-square-foot apartment building adjacent to the preserved 1905 Calvary sanctuary. The 79 units at Calvary Place will be part of an effort supported by UM churches around D.C. to build 2,500 units of permanent supportive housing available to the homeless. Plans are in the works for a similar project in Baltimore City.

Other individual churches within the conference have been operating their own ministries to ease the needs of homeless individuals, such as Back River UMC's award-winning Streets of Hope shelter and Bags of Hope program that delivers bagged lunches to a nearby homeless camp in Essex.

The conference also provides funds for homeless ministries in the Western Region, coordinated by local churches.

The Conference's approach is "multi-faceted and comprehensive in responding to this issue," Ferguson said. "Together, working in Christ's name, we can end homelessness."