More than 900 houses of worship on the Gulf Coast have been destroyed, seriously damaged or force... Congregations Reaching Out

More than 900 houses of worship on the Gulf Coast have been destroyed, seriously damaged or forced to suspend services by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, leaving many clergy without salaries.

Even as Monday's Gulf Coast damage from Hurricane Wilma begins to be assessed, Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups are spearheading efforts to help congregations affected by the previous hurricanes.

"One reality of these storms that is different from other recent hurricanes is that many of our churches will not be meeting for several months," wrote Robert H. Bohl and Rick Ufford-Chase of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a fund-raising letter.

One of the biggest challenges is providing salaries for clergy. That's why megachurch pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren is leading an initiative that involves 500 small groups from his Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. Each of them is adopting an affected church and paying the pastor's salary for at least six months.

"It's very easy to raise money for bottled water," said Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," in an interview. "It's very easy to raise money for blankets. Nobody wants to pay the salary of a pastor. Our philosophy is help the caregiver so that they don't have to worry about themselves."

Bohl and Ufford-Chase, both former moderators of the Presbyterian Church (USA), recently wrote a letter to the denomination's larger churches to encourage them to contribute to a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance fund that will provide salary support for pastors and other church staffers. They estimated about 62 Presbyterian churches were severely damaged in the two hurricanes.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has raised more than $1 million for relief efforts, including tens of thousands of dollars to supplement clergy salaries.

"These pastors have been driven out of their place of leadership in the community and there's a void," said Bishop C. Garnett Henning, leader of AME churches in Louisiana and Mississippi and manager of his denomination's hurricane response.

"Pastors in the convention, like myself, have committed to taking a part of our salary and giving that to a fund that the convention has that provides a supplement for pastors who are not receiving a salary at all," said the Rev. Stephen J. Thurston, whose denomination is based in Dallas.

The Rev. Major L. Jemison, president of the Washingtonbased Progressive National Baptist Convention, said his denomination has placed some affected clergy in pulpits where interim pastors have been needed, and it is working with other groups to pay their salaries.

Sayyid Syeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America, found on a mid-October trip to New Orleans that 10 mosques had "different degrees of devastation," and only three were able to function. He said he hopes to appeal to the Muslim community to help.

"Just like they helped in the relief activities of the American mainstream, they will have to come forward to see that these mosques are revived and rebuilt," said Syeed, who is based in Plainfield, Ind. "Mosques are a part of the local community."

The Rev. William Maestri, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, said about 70 of its 151 parishes were operating by mid-October.

Rabbi Marla Feldman, director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, said difficult issues are facing the four Reform synagogues in the New Orleans area.

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