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Presiding Bishop's Fund Responds to Earthquake Disaster in Turkey

Episcopal News Service. September 14, 1999 [99-131]

(ENS) When a powerful earthquake rumbled across northwestern Turkey last August, the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, the Episcopal Church's agency for international relief, knew who to contact. In a country almost entirely Muslim, the Episcopal Church had a special friend, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, who had received an Episcopal delegation at his Istanbul headquarters only a month earlier.

"It was natural that we send condolences to the Patriarch because of the recent visit," said Sandra Swan, executive director of the Presiding Bishop's Fund. With that letter, she said, went an emergency grant from the fund and a request for a description of ways in which the Episcopal Church could help deal with the disaster, which killed more than 15,000, injured hundreds of thousands more and reduced entire city blocks to rubble.

The patriarch quickly responded, she said, urging the Episcopal Church to work with the Churches of Turkey Steering Committee, an ecumenical response group based in Turkey that works closely with the Middle East Council of Churches, the Armenian Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church and the European Conference of Churches.

The committee is guiding the efforts of Church World Service, which is working through Action by Churches Together (ACT). Both groups have recently received relief aid from the Presiding Bishop's Fund, Swan said.

Recalling a visit

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, recalling his visit to Istanbul in mid-July, said, "Our prayers and support are with the people of Turkey at the time of this almost unimaginable devastation. I am grateful to those around the church who have responded to this tragedy through the Presiding Bishop's Fund."

He added that it was especially poignant "to be sending, such a short time after the visit, not simply a note of thanks for the patriarch's hospitality but a check for such an emergency."

Griswold and his delegation received a warm welcome from Bartholomew, "first among equals" of the 16 independent Orthodox churches with a membership estimated at 250 million. Earlier, during the same trip, Griswold also met with Alexy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The visit marked what was described as "a new era of cooperation" between the Episcopal Church and Orthodox Christians.

The August earthquake has drawn relief efforts from many U.S. churches. Many organizations are using monetary donations to purchase emergency relief supplies -- most of which are available in Turkey -- for survivors. ACT currently is seeking a total of $1 million for supplies and for temporary housing for the thousands who now are homeless.

Tents replace buildings

Tent cities are now stretched end to end throughout western Turkey, where more than 300 aftershocks have been recorded since the August 17 quake. A second major shock hit Izmit, about 50 miles southeast of Istanbul, on September 13, killing at least six people and injuring at least 200. Izmit suffered serious damage in the August quake.

Even though the search and rescue phase of emergency efforts has ended, thousands of bodies remain buried under the debris. Nearly half of Turkey's population lives in the area affected by the quake. Thousands are still sleeping outside, many in muddy tent cities, afraid of aftershocks, building collapses or explosions caused by ruptured gas lines and electrical cables.

Swan indicated that the Presiding Bishop's Fund will stay in touch with the coalition of Christian churches in Turkey to provide funds and to learn ways to help in redeveloping the area after the bodies have been recovered and the wreckage of buildings has been cleared.

This look at the possibilities in long-range plans fits the fund's new emphasis on development, Swan said, noting that work is going well at the fund's first large development project site in Honduras, where the first 100 homes of a projected 500 are being built for people rendered homeless by Hurricane Mitch last fall.

Contributions to aid victims of the earthquake in Turkey may be sent to The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief, P.O. Box 12043, Newark, NJ 07101. Checks should be designated for Turkey Earthquake Relief.