Storms take toll on Louisiana Conference

Damaged UM churches
can’t pay pastor wages,
remit apportionments

United Methodist News Service
BATON ROUGE, La.—Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have taken a heavy financial toll on the Louisiana Conference, Bishop William Hutchinson said last month.
Destroyed churches can’t take collections, pay pastors or remit apportionments, Hutchinson said. Nevertheless, expenses funded by those payments continue.
“There is not a single church in New Orleans Parish that has not been impacted by Hurricane Katrina, and now some have been hit again by Rita,” Hutchinson said at a Sept. 26 meeting of Baton Rouge District pastors.


More than 90 pastors are without congregations, and the conference will need to pay their salaries plus a few other basic needs, he said.
“In the worst-case scenario, over the next four months, the conference will need to pay out $1.1 million,” Hutchinson said. “That is a huge undertaking, which the conference does not have in reserve funds.”
If pastors are not able to get churches rebuilt and their salaries have to be paid in 2006, the cost will rise to $3.3 million, he said.
Having more than 90 churches unable to pay salaries for their pastors also means those congregations will be unable to pay apportionments to the conference, Hutch-inson said. For the rest of 2005, that will mean a $700,000 shortfall, plus an additional $1.7 million if congregations still cannot pay anything in 2006.
The third large impact the conference faces is the cost of insurance deductibles for church property in New Orleans Parish, which is valued at more than $100 million, the bishop said.
Complicating the problem is that many of the district records were destroyed in the flood caused by Hurricane Katrina, and “many churches have disappeared,” Hutchinson said. Finding records of insurance and property values will be challenging.
The Louisiana Conference has set up a special bishop’s appeal to pay for the shortfalls and pastor salaries, Hutchinson said. The United Methodist Committee on Relief doesn’t deal with churches or pastors’ salaries, he explained. Relief committee money goes to humanitarian relief for communities affected by the hurricanes.
“We are asking churches in Louisiana to please direct funds to the bishop’s appeal if possible,” Hutchinson said.
Other conferences are beginning to place pastors, but they will not pay their salaries, Hutchinson said. The Texas Conference is providing placement for 14 pastors and will provide housing, utilities, clothing, etc. for them.
The North Texas, Oklahoma and North Georgia conferences have also placed some displaced pastors.
The Louisiana Conference’s Storm Recovery Center in Baton Rouge is using displaced pastors to run the disaster relief efforts.
The impact of Hurricane Rita on other parts of the state is being assessed, Hutchinson said.
Despite the bad economic news, he told the pastors many churches and individuals from around the world have sent money to Louisiana.
“We have had some incredible offers from people who want to help,” said Nanci Youngblood, a volunteer in the Storm Recovery Center. “The beauty of the United Methodist connection is working.”
The Rev. Don Cottrill, conference provost, said it would take five years at a minimum to recover fully from the storms.
“We can’t even start relief efforts for some of our churches yet because we can’t get into the areas,” he said.
Cottrill said the Rev. Tom Hazlewood, relief committee disaster response executive, predicted donations would top the $40 million collected by the agency after the Dec. 26 tsunami that struck in the Indian Ocean. But only about 30 percent of the money would go to Louisiana.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Cottrill said. “We are building the boat while we are still in it.”
Response to the needs of churches from pastors in the state has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Hutch-inson said. “The church has been the church.”