Divinity School Raises Funds for Displaced Pastors, Coordinates Church Partnerships for Relief and Rebuilding
September 9, 2005
Duke Divinity School is gathering contributions to support Gulf Coast-area pastors (and their families) whose parsonages or churches were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
“Like others affected by the storm, pastors and their families have suffered terrible loss and displacement,” said Duke Divinity School Dean L. Gregory Jones. “ Duke Divinity School can serve as a conduit to help these pastors recover so they can continue the vital work of ministering to their congregations in this time of great need.”
Anyone interested in aiding this effort may make out checks to Duke Divinity School and write either “Katrina” or “Benevolent Fund” in the memo line. Checks should be mailed to Cheri Benjamin, Duke Divinity School, Office of Student Services, Box 90965, Durham, N.C., 27708.
The school also is working with its Board of Visitors as well as the United Methodist bishops of Mississippi and Louisiana, both Duke Divinity School graduates, to help coordinate church partnerships that will aid in restoration of damaged churches and communities.
Dean Jones has appointed a task force of faculty, staff and students to develop plans for long-term efforts in this area. Bishop Kenneth Carder, who retired from the episcopacy of Mississippi last year to join the divinity school as director of the Center for Excellence in Ministry and professor of the practice of pastoral formation, chairs the task force.
For more information, contact Carder at 919-660-3423.