DISASTER RELIEF COMMITTEE

SUMMARY OF WORK

1. The Disaster Relief Committee drafted a letter to all EPC churches. 

2. We drafted a vision summary for the EPC Disaster Relief Committee.

3. We drafted our mission purpose statement for the EPC Disaster Relief Committee. 

4. We drafted a threshold to identify the impact upon an EPC congregation after a disaster occurs. 

5. We established programs and services to assist EPC geographical areas as needed.

6. Working with the Office of the General Assembly in preperation of establishing a DRC informational page on the current EPC website.        

7. The committee assisted in the re-roofing of ten (10) homes in Selma, Alabama in February 2024 with Reverand Steve Burton and committee member Toni Harris, leading the project.  

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The Disaster Relief Committtee has no recommendations for the 44th General Assembly.

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WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

PROACTIVE DISASTER PREPAREDNESS FOR CONGREGATIONS

Every congregation should be prepared for the possibility of a disaster impacting their community. Church leadership should proactively discuss and establish a response plan for such events. Consider the potential effects on your church campus, members’ homes, and the surrounding community. While preparing for hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, or wildfires can be challenging, it is far better than reacting without a plan. Our Disaster Relief Committee is here to assist you with the planning process.

WORK IN SELMA, ALABAMA

Our biggest action as a committee this year was to assist Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (Rev Steve Burton) with financial assistance to put ten roofs on homes in Selma, Alabama in January and February 2024.  Our EPC Domestic Disaster Fund contributed $60,000 along with three churches: Hope Presbyterian, First Presbyterian Baton Rouge, and Cornerstone Presbyterian contributed $60,000.

This project between two churches in Selma, Alabama was a beautiful picture of the body of Christ loving our brothers and sisters who needed roofs for their homes. We are proud of the work Toni Harris did in leading this roofing project.

DEAR EVANGELICAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Every disaster is a call to prayer.  This is the one thing that we can all do.  As your Disaster Relief Committee (DRC), we feel the need to remind each other that although every disaster deserves a Christian response, we do not have the capability or the capacity to respond with material relief in every situation.  However, this does not mean that our response is apathy or lack of caring.  Prayer is the primary tool of the Christian to shape the world, so we must pray.

We face a challenge.  Sometimes we have the capacity to give to a disaster, but we may not have the capability to provide clear direction for our giving.  At other times we may have the capability to help but we do not have the local capacity to deliver that care.  In disasters, our desire to help meets our finite abilities and capacities.  We are a small denomination and as such we must carefully choose our times to act in addition to prayer.

As such we have set the following guidelines:  Prayerfully, we will enact EPC Disaster Relief efforts where we have a local EPC congregation that has been seriously affected; showing the compassion of our Father to the world. We are convinced that good stewardship calls us to mitigate needs through the local expression of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.  We recognize that many disasters will occur where we do not have a local EPC presence, in those cases we call on all congregations to pray and respond as they are moved.  Your giving to the EPC Domestic Disaster Relief Fund is always appreciated.

The EPC Vision statement states: “To the glory of God, the EPC family aspires to embody and proclaim Jesus’ love as a global movement of congregations engaged together in God’s mission through transformation, multiplication, and effective biblical leadership.”

Caring ministry begins with prayer and continues with the family of God helping those in need. 

In His grip, the Disaster Relief Committee of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church

ESTABLISHING THE COMMITTEE

The DRC had five zoom calls in our first year to establish our mission purpose statement and vision for assistance with natural disasters. We drafted a threshold to identify the impact upon an EPC congregation after a disaster occurs along with establishing programs and services to assit EPC geographical areas as need. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Our Disaster Reloef Committee called the 16 Presbytery Stated Clerks to give them insight about the Disaster Relief Committee during the months of January and February 2024. We wanted them to know that we will reach out to all churches in 2024 with Disaster Relief Plans for hurricanes from two of our EPC Churches.

Whitney Alexander met on a zoom video call in early February with Ritchey Cable and Gianna Lazzaro to discuss creating an EPC Disaster Relief page on the EPC website by the end of the summer, 2024. We also discussed highlighting the Disaster Relief work around the country with a few of our churches with articles for the EPC Connection.

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RECOMMENDATIONS (DETAILED)

The Disaster Relif Committee has no recommendations for the 44th General Assembly.

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COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Paul Gorny (Co-Chairman)
Presbytery of Florida and the Caribbean

Cliff Mansley
TE, Presbytery of the West

Toni Harris
Presbytery of the Central South

Hans Othmer
RE, Presbytery of the Gulf South

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MEETING DATES

August 21, 2023: Video Conference
August 31, 2023: Video Confernece
October 12, 2023: Video Conference
November 21, 2023: Video Conference
January 15-17, 2024: Office of the General Assembly (Orlando, Florida)

Paul Gorny, Co-Chairman
June 2024

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