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PC(USA) receives letters of consolation Korean Presbyterian church contributes $30,000 for Katrina relief
	Expressions of sympathy and support from partner churches, ecumenical agencies and institutions around the world have begun pouring in to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the wake of catastrophic Hurricane Katrina. About 20 email messages expressing grief had been received by Friday from officials of denominations including the United Church of Christ in Japan, the Evangelical Church of Niger and the Church of Scotland. Various ecumenical agencies, including the World Council of Church, also sent condolence messages to representatives of the PC(USA). Some church staff members also received personal email expressing sorrow over the tragedy from overseas ecumenical contacts.

The sheep that are lost – by Alexa Smith / PNS Presbyterians in Gulf area wonder where friends, parishioners are
	Ford Deith is trying to find the roughly 300 parishioners who worship at Parkway Presbyterian Church in Metairie, LA, on the outskirts of New Orleans. So far, he’s found about 40, and he figures they’ve heard from about 40 others since Hurricane Katrina roared through on Aug. 29. “About all I can say is, I don’t know where my people are,” says the Rev. Tom Oler, who has been working at the South Louisiana Presbytery office in Baton Rouge because he can’t stay at his house in Metairie and there’s a tree on the roof of his church.

A church in diaspora A New Orleans pastor takes care of his scattered flock from Houston. Interview by Rob Moll / CT
	Mike Hogg is pastor of Canal Street Presbyterian Church, located in New Orleans's Mid City neighborhood. Nearly everyone in the church fled the city before Hurricane Katrina hit last week, and now Hogg is pastoring his scattered church members over the telephone and the internet from Houston. Knowing that it may be a long time before they are able to return to what is left of their homes and church, Hogg is helping to arrange for his congregation's immediate needs while he and his family move temporarily to Arizona. Meanwhile, radio host Hugh Hewitt, popular blogging pastor Mark D. Roberts, and others have singled out Canal Street Presbyterian in their recommendations for giving.

Presbyterian opportunities to help Katrina victims
	• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance • Medical Benevolence Foundation • Outreach Foundation • Presbyterians for Renewal Wee Kirk Katrina relief plan

Scripture lessons for today from the lectionary Today in the Yearbook for Mission and Study Australia and New Zealand
	"Young Ambassadors for Peace (YAP), a program of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA), brings hope and new skills for people caught up in some of the most serious conflicts in the Australian region..." "The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (PCANZ) aims to make Jesus Christ known,” writes the Rev. Richard Davis. “The context for this mission work is a society that is increasingly ethnically and religiously diverse..." Sunday's Minute for Mission:Christian Education Week


News of all churches. in the USA and worldwide. and their interaction with the world around them. Included: opinions, resources Voices from the entire spectrum

A new meaning for 'organized religion': It helps the needy quickly By Michael Luo and Campbell Robertson / The New York Times
	From sprawling megachurches to tiny congregations, churches across the country have mobilized in response to Hurricane Katrina, offering shelter, conducting clothing drives and serving hot meals to evacuees, many of whom have had difficulty getting help from inundated government agencies. "You just walk in," said Ethel Wicker, 57, who fled the Ninth Ward in New Orleans ahead of the storm that flooded it, as she dug into a Styrofoam container of oriental chicken in the gym of Florida Boulevard Baptist Church. "They have clothing. They have drinks. They have candy. And they treat you very well." In the areas hard-hit by the hurricane, churches were often the first places that opened as shelters, taking in victims who would later be transferred to the shelters managed by the Red Cross.

Churches are sending help to Katrina victims through NCC's Church World Service
	As of September 7, CWS had shipped more than $300,000 in donated material assistance, including18,100 CWS Blankets, 14,335 "Gift of the Heart" Health Kits, 1,000 "Gift of the Heart" School Kits, and 500 CWS Heart-to-Heart Kids Kits. CWS has also processed a shipment of 20 Interchurch Medical Assistance Medicine Boxes to Louisiana. The teams and senior CWS staff will work closely with leadership of state councils and conferences of churches in their efforts to coordinate the work of faith community across the affected states.

Christian Emergency Network acts as umbrella/conduit for disaster recovery information, resources and donations
	The Christian Emergency Network (CEN), a grassroots, volunteer coalition of 5,000 relief organizations, ministries and media outlets, and 47,000 churches is becoming a place for reliable information and specifics how to pray, volunteer, give and share their faith during the crisis. Website visits have gone to 33,000 a day, from 200 a day. CEN was founded in 2001 after the 9-11 tragedy by several leaders of the Mission America Coalition, an organization of 500 mostly evangelical ministries and 80 denominations. CEN partners include: Mission America, The Salvation Army, the Christian Broadcasting Network/"Operation Blessing," the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritan's Purse, Campus Crusade for Christ, Zondervan Press and the Southern Baptist Convention.

Churches try to find scattered flocks, assess damage from afar By Adelle M. Banks and Suleman Din / RNS
	Assessments of damage from Hurricane Katrina on faith-related institutions are hard to come by and people are dispersed so widely that some pastors have no clue how their congregants are doing. With communication breakdowns, official counts on deaths and damage often are not yet available, denominational leaders say.

Hurricane survivors: 'We felt forsaken, but now we are not' World Vision staff report
	After six harrowing days in the Superdome in New Orleans, Shiprah Benlevi Downing and her husband Lloyd Coffey Jr., along with their 4-month-old infant, were airlifted to Baton Rouge. They were boarded on buses with no idea where they were going. Exhausted and traumatized by the ordeal in the Superdome, they arrived in Mesquite, Texas, just east of Dallas. In both Mesquite and Baton Rouge they were met by loving volunteers who reached out to show them love and support. "The welcome we have received began to wipe away the loss – we don't know where we are going, but we are going to survive," said Lloyd. To date, World Vision has provided emergency supplies for more than 10,000 evacuees. Truckloads of emergency supplies and other products from World Vision warehouses in Dallas, Denver and Pittsburgh are on their way to stricken areas. Goods will be distributed through a network of local churches, faith-based organizations and other partners.

Parable of the Good Church – *A Christianity Today* editorial Neither the fury of Katrina nor inefficiencies of government can stop the people of God.**
	"A group of people were walking to and fro, from Mobile to New Orleans, and they fell into the hands of a robber named Katrina, who beat on them with waves and winds and floods, stripping them of everything they owned, leaving them half-dead in the New Orleans Superdome. "Now by chance, a journalist passed by with a television camera in hand..."

New Orleans executives plan revival By Gary Rivlin / The New York Times
	In the cramped offices and hallways of this building, called the Capitol Annex, and continuing into the evening at bars and restaurants around Baton Rouge, New Orleans's business leaders and power brokers are concocting big plans, the most important being reopening the French Quarter within 90 days. Also under discussion are plans to stage a scaled-down Mardi Gras at the end of February and to lobby for one of the 2008 presidential nominating conventions and perhaps the next available Super Bowl.

Hurricane disaster will affect a whole generation of survivors By Michele M. Melendez / RNS
	Generational scholars already are monitoring the nation’s very youngest, tracking how the country’s response to tragedy influences the next generation’s mind-set. These children won’t remember the events themselves, but they will inherit the outcomes: heightened airport security, metal detectors in schools, sex-offender registries, disaster plans. The result may be overprotective parents and a conformist, risk-averse generation.

What the waters have revealed – by Jim Wallis / Sojourners
	"...the waters of Hurricane Katrina are washing away our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty, our reluctance to admit the still persistent connection of race and poverty in America, and even the political power of a conservative ideology that, for decades now, has seriously eroded the idea of the common good... "The critical needs of poor and low-income families must become the first priority of federal and state legislatures, not the last. And, the blatant inequalities of race in America, especially in critical areas of education, jobs, health care, and housing which have come to the surface must now be addressed..."

Broken yardstick – by Nicholas Eberstadt / The New York Times Using reported household income as a benchmark for poverty is unreliable
	"...The profound flaws in our officially calculated poverty rate are revealed by its very intimation that the poverty situation in America was "better" in 1974 than it is today... "The soundings from the poverty rate are... belied by information on actual living standards for low-income Americans... "In the Labor Department's latest Consumer Expenditure Survey (2003), the average reported income for the bottom fifth of households was $8,201, while reported outlays came to $18,492 – well over twice that amount...."

National Association of Evangelicals: 1 Year after Bush administration declared Darfur violence a “genocide,” progress is minimal
	“It is time to move the Darfur genocide from a talking point to an action item. President Bush must put this issue on the top of his inbox,” said Richard Cizik, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals.

Israel must ask Palestinian Authority to care for Gaza synagogues, court rules – by Michele Green / ENI
	JERUSALEM — Israel’s highest court ordered the government to ask the Palestinian Authority to protect and care for synagogues left behind in the Gaza Strip after Israel completes its withdrawal later this month. The government intended to blow up the synagogues to eliminate the risk that they would be desecrated after the withdrawal. But Jewish groups appealed to the Israeli High Court.

WCC chief calls for UN reform / ENI
	The Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), said the United Nations needs to be reformed so that it can deal better with major world challenges ranging from AIDS to under-development. Kobia, preparing for a large gathering of international leaders at UN headquarters in New York starting Sept. 14, said an “inclusive approach involving the global South and the global North” is needed in a reformed UN. He called for “a reform that empowers and strengthens the UN and achieves better representation, so that the world organization can successfully address the global challenges facing humanity: wars, conflicts, nuclear arms, environmental degradation, AIDS and other diseases, under-development, extreme poverty and acts of terror.”

African Archbishops fault Anglican church on new policy on gays and lesbians – by Richard N. Ostling / AP
	NEW YORK -- Anglican Christianity's split over homosexuality worsened Thursday as Africa's two most important archbishops joined to criticize a new Church of England policy on gays and lesbians. Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola and Ugandan Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi each assailed a July 25 announcement from England's bishops that said gay priests who register same-sex partnerships under a new civil law will remain in good standing so long as they promise to remain celibate. The English bishops also said that lay Anglicans who register civil unions will not be denied the sacraments. "If England adopts a new faith, alien to what has been handed to us together, they will walk apart. Simple as that," Akinola said at a Thursday news conference. Last month, he accused Anglicanism's mother church of an "outrageous" departure from biblical teaching that is "totally unworkable (and) invites deception and ridicule." Orombi said that Akinola "speaks for all of us" who lead the self-governing Anglican branches in Africa. "We see a different direction taking place" in England, Orombi said, and "we can only pray and hope they do not walk away." The continent of Africa, whose Anglican council is chaired by Akinola, is home to half of world Anglicans.

Team finds stem cells in heart tissue / AP
	Japanese researchers gathered heart tissue from 50 patients suffering heart disease and were able to culture stem cells from the samples that developed into different types of cells, including heart muscle cells, blood cells and neurons.

Ohio: Parental consent law ruled constitutional
	U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith declared Ohio's 7-year-old abortion law, that requires 24-hour waits and parental consent for minors, constitutional on Thursday, ending a lawsuit filed shortly before it was to take effect in 1998. The law requires consent of at least one parent, not just notification.

No separation of students from prayer on campus Clubs gather to worship at public schools such as Arcadia High with the blessings of their principals and the U.S. Supreme Court By K. Connie Kang / Los Angeles Times
	Every morning, Arcadia High School seniors Catherine Yao, Lucy Li and a dozen of their schoolmates get up at 5 a.m. so they can be at school by 6 to pray before classes begin. Gathering in the center of the public school campus, they form a circle. They pray – some quietly, others aloud. Then they do a "prayer walk" around the campus. Sometimes they pray for a specific student or teacher. They also pray for Arcadia, Los Angeles, the nation and the world. Such prayer groups in schools have become more common since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990 upheld the Equal Access Act of 1984, in which Congress said schools accepting federal aid must not discriminate against groups based on the "religious, political, philosophical or other content of the speech at such meetings."

More college students are choosing religion – as a major By Jeff Diamant / RNS
	The number of religion majors increased 26 percent from 1996 through 2000, and that total enrollment in religion classes rose 15 percent. Professors cite three main reasons for the increases: 9/11 spurred many students to learn about Islam and their own religions; recent immigration has made Americans more curious about their new neighbors' faiths; and Christian evangelical students seem more comfortable studying religion on campus. Even non-majors are taking more religion classes to round out their courseloads.


Letters from readers – email us
•	Karen C. Sapio, Jody Harrington and Becky Ardell Downs: "The first recommendation in the recently published report on The Taskforce on Peace, Unity, and Purity of the Church is for, "every member of the Presbyterian Church, USA to witness to the church's visible oneness." "The recent catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina has presented us dramatically and immediately with an opportunity to do exactly that... "Over the next twelve months, let Confessing Churches and Covenant Network Churches, More Light Churches and Presbyterian Coalitian Churches sponsor joint service teams to greater New Orleans and Coastal Mississippi. For the next year, let these efforts take precedence over further debates or legislative efforts regarding ordination standards..."
•	Michael Kruse "...I agree with Mr.O. Benjamin Sparks that the response [to Katrina] was poor but to put place this on the back of free markets or their advocates is nonsense."
•	Walter L. Taylor "t is profoundly ironic that Jerry Andrews wrote a review of R.R. Reno's "In the Ruins of the Church" about the time of the release of the PUP Task Force report... "The irony... is this. Since the publication of this book in 2002, Reno left the Episcopal Church..."
•	Richard Hong "I am incensed by Earl Tilford's letter regarding the victims of Hurricane Katrina where he states that he is "amazed at the political buzzards who are quite willing to provoke racial discord in their attempt to undermine the President." "Provoke racial discord?? Racial discord is being EXPOSED by this tragedy... The fact is that by and large the people who drowned died because they were poor, and by and large they were poor because they were African-Americans..."
•	Robert A. J. Gagnon "Rev. Art Seaman makes a number of problematic assertions in his letter of Sept. 8 . But perhaps we can use this an occasion for thinking through some important issues..."
•	James D. Berkley "I am writing concerning Art Seaman’s letter on September 8, in which he suggests, “One has to wonder why Robert Gagnon has made a career out of fighting homosexual ordination. One has to wonder about his passion about the issue.” "What a cheap shot!... "Would that we ALL burned with Professor Gagnon’s passion for God’s will! But one might want to wonder about the ethics of Art Seaman!..."
•	Tom Hobson "...If we did ethics by the polls, thank God we don’t have 60% of us who beat our spouses... Who are we to pass judgment on them, if Jesus’ teaching is to be overruled by the crowd? "Art Seaman has described reality, true enough. But it is a mistake to equate “is” with “ought.” Our objective is to follow Jesus Christ..."
•	Bruce Byrne "Nestled in the middle of his letter of September 8, 2005, Rev. Seaman writes: "One has to wonder why Robert Gagnon has made a career out of fighting homosexual ordination. One has to wonder about his passion about the issue."... "If turnabout is fair play, I might suggest that one has to wonder why Rev. Seaman argues for a greater acceptance of sexual behaviors which scripture calls abominations..."
•	Dave Pepper "...Does [Rev. Art Seaman] really mean to argue that since... people can’t keep from sinning, we should redefine their behavior as no longer sin?... "...does he realize it’s been nearly 2000 years since Jesus told us to love one another, and it hasn’t been all that successful?..."