"Katrina Can't Hold Us Down"

Rev. Bruce Russell-Jayne
February 22, 2009

Reading: Mardi Gras (Will Survive)
62 years ago, in 1947 Robert Tallant wrote:
 “Mardi Gras is a spirit. I believe it is an immortal one.  It is certain that it is at least as immortal as [our human] ability to make believe, to escape the dreariness of the everyday life…to have fun, to laugh, and to play.  In our generation we seem to be at the end of an era.  We are told that tomorrow there will be another kind of world and that it is highly probable it will be less pleasant than this one.  I think if there is any world left in which human beings still laugh and still, even on rare occasions, have fun, there will be a Mardi Gras, and that it will live through whatever catastrophes occur, as it survived the perishing of Greece, the destruction of Rome, the centuries of pain and plague we call the Middle Ages, the perilous journey to the end of the earth that turned out to be America, and all the wars. That is why Mardi Gras is not a trivial matter but a very important one.  In a way it is a symbol of the art of being human and wherever people are still human, wherever they enjoy living, Mardi Gras will exist in some form.”

Sermon: Katrina Can’t Hold Us Down                
This coming Tuesday is Mardi Gras Day, also called Fat Tuesday.  It’s the end of the Carnival season, all of which is also called Mardi Gras.  Mardi Gras season is a different length each year.  It always begins at the same time, on January 6th, Epiphany, also known as the 12th day of Christmas.  You can figure out when Mardi Gras ends this way.  Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday is 40 days before Easter.  Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.  I have a Mardi Gras prize for the first person who repeats that back to me after the service.
Although Carnival is celebrated in countries all over the world, today we celebrate Mardi Gras in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in New Orleans.  Many are still suffering the effects of Katrina and the flood afterward.  We’ve all heard many horrific stories about this calamity.  This morning, I’ll use our sister churches there to demonstrate what it means for people in the city to reach this 4th Mardi Gras after Katrina.

Rev. Marta I. Valentín, called to be the minister of First Church of New Orleans Unitarian Universalist, arrived there on August 1st, 2005.  New Orleans is a long way from New York and Massachusetts where she had lived previously.  She was excited that her new congregation was making plans for visioning a revitalization of the church.  Then, less than a month into her new ministry, Katrina struck on August 29th.  For the next weeks, she and most of the congregation would struggle to contact each other, frantic to know if everyone survived.  It was a month after Katrina before people were allowed back in to see their church.  After a muggy southern Louisiana September, congregants returned to find that wind and water, mud and mold had ruined the lower floor and had claimed piano, organ, hymnals and sheet music.  First Churchers called it “The day the music died.”

When Katrina struck, Community Church Unitarian Universalist of New Orleans and their minister’s home, located within blocks of the breached floodwall, were inundated with 8 feet of floodwater.  Many members lost their homes, jobs, and schools, and all experienced an enormous sense of loss.  About thirty miles to the North above Lake Pontchartrain, Katrina blew the roof off North Shore Unitarian Universalist Society’s sanctuary and destroyed most of their pecan tree grove.  Many members experienced damage to their homes, and a few lost everything. Overnight, jobs no longer existed. Thirty percent of the members, including the recently hired DRE had to leave the area permanently. The congregation, like everyone affected by the storm, was in a state of confusion and shock.

By October, 2005, several members of Community Church and First Church had returned to the city and they began joint worship services at Jefferson Presbyterian Church.  Over the next year, Rev. Valentín did quite a bit of long distance ministry and fund raising.  UUs from across the country donated generously to the Unitarian Universalist Association and UU Service Committee fund for the relief of Katrina victims and for helping rebuild UU churches there.  First Church of New Orleans gutted their building in preparation for it’s rehabilitation.  In February 2006, with most members still displaced and  chaos still pretty much the rule, North Shore’s minister resigned.    Fortunately, North Shore’s insurance policy paid for repairs to the sanctuary and with generous help from partner UU churches, North Shore was able to regroup and continue meetings in its building.  The UUA assisted the three New Orleans area UU congregations to create a strategic plan for a strong UU presence in New Orleans.  They formed a cluster named Greater New Orleans Unitarian Universalists, (GNOUU) which works to help members revitalize their faith while they help to rebuild their city.

By January of 2006, the spotlight was still on New Orleans.   It was still a huge mess, and across the country the question arose, “Will there be Mardi Gras this year?”  The answer from New Orleanians was “Of course,” and “We have too.”  And so it went on, not as usual, but with gusto and in defiance of the odds.  That year’s Mardi Gras was not the first one to be held under duress.  In 2002, fears of terrorist attack delayed the playing of the Super Bowl in the Super Dome, and Mardi Gras parades were held on the weekend before and after it with surveillance helicopters hovering overhead.  In 2006, Homeland Security was in New Orleans in a different capacity, and the revelers acknowledged FEMA in their special, irreverent, Mardi Gras way.

In a sermon that February Rev. Valentín said, “During the Great Depression Mardi Gras continued because the town needed something to cheer about, just as it does now.  Mardi Gras defines New Orleans and brings people together in ways that defy description.  It represents our tradition, our culture and our diversity.  Parades are moving theater, featuring music, dance, costuming and masking.  Some cities guard their treasures in museums; New Orleans shares hers on the streets.  Admission is free.”

Now that we are at the 4th post-Katrina Mardi Gras, here’s a brief inventory of the state of UUism in New Orleans.  The pain of displacement has been great for members of all the New Orleans churches.  40-50% of their members chose or were forced to leave the area permanently.    First Church met in joint services with Community Church for over a year in the Jefferson Presbyterian Church across the street from their building.  After completion of mold and mildew remediation they now hold worship services in their own sanctuary.  For three years they hosted the UUA/UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Volunteer Center on the second floor of their Religious Education wing.  They also had staff turnover and have welcomed as their consulting minister, Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger, a native New Orleanian and former First Church administrator, as well as my former minister.  They now report 92 Active Members.

After the year of joint services with First Church, Community Church began holding individual worship services  back in their Lakefront neighborhood in first one rented space then another.  An architect created plans for renovation of their flooded church building, but because FEMA required them to rebuild at an elevation 30 or more inches higher than where the building was, it became necessary to demolish their original church building.  While developing plans for a permanent church building they bought and renovated a house, and in July of 2007 they held a triumphant, tearful, celebratory first worship service there.  A member of the Tallahassee, Florida UU church restored the tapestry which had hung in their original sanctuary, and now beautiful and inspiring, it hangs once again in their worship space.  In May 2008 Community Church celebrated its 50th anniversary with worship, a party on the lawn with a jazz quartet, champagne; and a memory book covered in gold.  Community church has been the site for monthly lectures, sponsored by the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal, the nonprofit arm of the Greater New Orleans UU cluster.  As their Lakeview neighborhood slowly began to repopulate, their numbers increased from a post storm low of 53 to 67 members.

North Shore has also taken many giant steps toward recovery. They have an almost new and fully functional building and a lovely parsonage.  The garden with a labyrinth is again a welcoming place.   They have rebuilt their leadership with a full board and committee structure and now report 66 Active Members.
UUs have been answering the call to help rebuild New Orleans since Katrina struck.  Over $3 Million dollars was raised in the month after the hurricane.  Two-thirds of that money went directly to community based partners and programs, and one third went to help Gulf Coast UU churches.  The UU church in Baton Rouge created a Hurricane Relief and Social Justice project through which over 2000 UUs have volunteered.  The UUA and UUSC took over administrative support for that project in 2007.  The Greater New Orleans UU cluster created the Center for Ethical Living and Social Justice Renewal, and works with community partners to aid those who are struggling in these difficult times.  A program of the Center is the New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Program, which provides volunteers a holistic approach to their work, educating them in the effects of racism and classism during the storm and flood and during the recovery period.  Every volunteer leaves New Orleans a different person with a basic understanding of the problems in the area and better equipped to be advocates for the Gulf when they return to their own communities.

The New Orleans churches are determined to keep Unitarian Universalism alive and active in shaping justice in their communities.  Each church has a vision for its future which includes an inviting, accessible church building which is a nurturing place for children to learn and grow.  Each of the churches is committed to helping address the great needs of their communities.   They have architectural plans and are raising money for the rebuilding.  If you are interested, you can see all this on the Greater New Orleans UU website.   Last summer at General Assembly, there were booths and workshops to educate folks on the rebuilding efforts and justice issues in New Orleans.  There was even a FEMA trailer in the parking lot so we could see and smell what displaced people were living in for so long.
The UUs in New Orleans are hardy souls.  They have come a long way, but there is there is much work still to be done, and they still need our help.  They have begun a capital campaign to put the three churches where they need to be, and the estimated cost is $2.7 Million dollars.  So far, they have $820,000 in pledges, about 30 percent of their goal.  With only a little over 220 members total for all three churches, they can’t do this alone.  I know this is a tight economic year for all of us, and I am not asking us to do a fund raiser today, but if anyone is interested in raising money for New Orleans UUs, will you please contact one of our Trustees?

Besides donating money, there are other ways to help out.  Northern Hills could become a partner church with one of the New Orleans UU churches.  You can also volunteer to work in the Gulf region.  Yes, 4 years after Katrina volunteers are still needed.  Gutting of buildings is pretty much done, but many kinds of skills are in short supply.  You can learn what is needed through the UU volunteer website.  In our Order of Service today is an announcement of a work trip leaving from our Heartland District in July.  Will you please let me know if you are interested in going?

At the Rebirth Center volunteers have had the privilege of sharing home-cooked meals by Jyaphia Cristos-Rogers. Cristos-Rogers said, "When you come to New Orleans to help rebuild, you take your place at the table and in our hearts. You are family, invited into a relationship of solidarity. It starts with one visit, but the connections last much longer. Together we are bending the arc of Gulf Coast recovery toward justice."

Rev. Valentín’s words in 2006 proved to be prophetic:  “We must all realize and be committed to the knowledge that this is not a sprint we are doing, but a long distance run. We must pace ourselves, be strategic with our resources and energy, and never forget a good dose of compassion and understanding can carry each of us a long way.  And when we've temporarily run out of that, let humor help us complete the journey.  If there are any messages that we "hear" let it be the one that tells us we are on the right track in our desire to re-create a spiritual home that will serve us all well, and those in the surrounding community that we have not met yet.  If we build it, they will indeed come, for we are the ones they've been looking for.”

So, while we can’t swing a hammer today, we can do something just as important.  We can signal our solidarity with UUs and other brave folks of  New Orleans by celebrating Mardi Gras with them.  There’s a reason so many have struggled to bring New Orleans back, and that’s the attitude toward life exemplified by Mardi Gras.  It says life is to be lived to the fullest, come what may.  Is says we are all in this boat together, and the best way to survive the flood is to have a party as soon as you are able to afterward.  Yes, the road to recovery is long, as we predicted it would be given the initial response to the catastrophe, but we shouldn’t give up.  Let us celebrate in our sanctuary this morning, in hopes of  better days to come,  knowing the people of New Orleans are doing the same.