UUA News & Events: UU Response to Hurricane Katrina: Resources

Faith in the Face of Disaster: UU Response to Hurricane Katrina

Statement from the International Council of Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists

UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund Update:

At the end of 2006, the relief fund has received $3,622,250, thanks to the matching grant offered by the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock. Thank you for your generosity! To date, $2,366,387 has been spent to directly serve those in need.

How to Make a Donation to the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Relief Fund
Your Donations at Work: List of Grantees and Grants

September 9, 2005

Dear Fellow Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists,

It's been some days since we heard of the awful news of Hurricane Katrina in the southern states of the USA and we have followed the news of the tragedy from a distance, trying to feel with you what life is like for you all. Newspaper reports can never give one a sense of what it's really like but we nevertheless reach out to you all in great love and compassion for the huge loss of life, the suffering and the trauma that has come upon so many communities affected by the hurricane.

Each day has carried press reports of countless major and many minor tragedies that have befallen the citizens of your State, and we feel so much for you all. Our morning paper here in Cape Town yesterday carried a front-page photograph of a citizen of New Orleans, carrying rescue equipment, wading knee-high in water on a suburban street, alongside a house burning furiously due to residents using candles to produce a little light in their lives. It was such a moving picture and my heart went out to your people.

So, I write on behalf of my colleagues on the Council and the Executive Committee of the International Council of Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists and on behalf of Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists worldwide, to let you know that you're in our thoughts and prayers. We pray that your cities, towns, homes, schools, offices and factories will be restored to normal as soon as possible...and that you will recover very soon from this most traumatic and tragic experience.

May God be with you all as you gather your lives together in the aftermath of so much suffering, pain and terrible loss.

Rev. Gordon R. Oliver
President
International Council of Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists
Cape Town
South Africa

Faith in the Face of Disaster: UU Response to Hurricane Katrina

In the Eye of the Storm: Resources and Commentary following Hurricane Katrina

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