Western North Carolina Bishop José McLoughlin (center) raises a chalice during the Sept. 27 “Bearing Witness” service that marked one year ater the diocese was hit by Hurricane Helene. Standing with McLoughlin are (from left) the Rev. Kelsey Davis, bishop’s deputy for disaster response; Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe; Western North Carolina Archdeacon Brenda Gilbert; the Rev. Augusta Anderson, canon to the ordinary; and the Rev. Michael Ashmore, deacon at the Cathedral of All Souls in Asheville. Photo: Katie Knowles
[Episcopal News Service] On Sept, 27 the Asheville-based Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina hosted a service to remember the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene, which after plowing through Florida and Georgia damaged homes and 23 churches across the diocese.
More than 350 people gathered under a tent in a field at the diocese’s Lake Logan Conference Center for a service of Holy Eucharist. Western North Carolina Bishop José McLoughlin was the celebrant, and Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe preached.
The service, along with a lunch afterward, formed an event entitled “Bearing Witness,” which was described as part of the diocese’s effort to continue to heal and rebuild together.
Ahead of time, the diocese had asked people to share their stories about the storm, from how churches helped their neighbors to how individuals dealt with the aftermath. Fourteen of those stories, with photos, were shared on large posters inside the tent, forming what the diocese called “stations of remembrance.”
Katie Knowles, the diocesan missioner for communications, told Episcopal News Service the stations represented the evolution of the diocese’s recovery, including a home lit by candles as the area was without power, the distribution of food and bottles of water at supply stations, and examples of pastoral care.
In his sermon, based on Luke 24:13-34, in which disciples encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, Rowe likened the people of Western North Carolina to the disciples after their eyes were opened by meeting him. “One year ago, you experienced your own Good Friday, your own walk,” he said. “You’ve come together in extraordinary ways to bear witness to the promise of the risen Christ.”
A woman looks at two of the 14 “stations of remembrance” that describe and illustrate some of the experiences of people across the Diocese of Western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene hit one year ago. Photo: Katie Knowles
Saying the term “the hands and feet of Jesus” is an overused phrase, he noted, “For real this time, you’ve been the hands and feet of Jesus. You provided housing support, household goods, food, medical expenses, relief from rental debt, home repairs, helping people return to work.”
McLoughlin thanked the diocesan staff for their work over the past year, especially noting the work of the Rev. Kelsey Davis, bishop’s deputy for disaster response, and for the staff’s help organizing the day’s events. He hoped the anniversary service would be “a bold reminder that even in the midst of disaster, God’s creation is still here, and we are still committed to the work.”
Addressing the struggles of the past year, he told those assembled, “Thank you for your courage. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for staying together.”
He added, “This year, as I’ve traveled and spent time with you, I know the stories, I know the struggles, I know the challenges, and as I said some weeks ago to the cathedral community, sometimes what I’ve learned is simply the greatest act of faith is showing up.”
The service featured four sets of ceramic communion vessels made by Joan Kennedy, an Asheville potter who lost her home and studio in the flooding caused by Helene and a member of the city’s Cathedral of All Souls. Afterward a set of vessels was given to two diocesan churches – the cathedral and the Church of the Transfiguration in Bat Cave, another set was given to Rowe, and McLoughlin said the other would be used in the diocesan office’s chapel.
The field at Lake Logan where the service took place is itself an example of recovery, Knowles told ENS. One year before, it was covered with fallen trees, silt, sand and boulders that were left after floodwater from the swollen West Fork of the Pigeon River receded.
Kanuga, a conference center about 30 miles south of Asheville, saw damage to some buildings as well as trees across its 1,400-acre campus, but it was able to open for summer camps that served a variety of ages. It also will host the Oct. 20-21 meeting of The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council.
In June ENS reported on the differing levels of recovery of churches across the diocese. Bat Cave’s Church of the Transfiguration was able to open five months after the storm, even though its surrounding area was still largely inaccessible. Even as Asheville, the area’s largest city, is seeing the reopening of many of the businesses and restaurants that were closed by flooding, the Cathedral of All Souls still is working to get its building fully repaired and restored.
It faces difficulties not only because of the scale of the work and delays in getting necessary items, but also because of its historic nature at the center of the city’s Biltmore Village. It hopes to reopen in December 2026.
The challenges of rebuilding are being felt not only in churches but also in communities across Western North Carolina. Homeowners have reported difficulty in getting housing assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some of them still have mortgages on houses that were washed away by the massive rainfall that cascaded down the area’s hills and mountains.
And for the state’s most medically fragile residents, a cut in federal funding is leaving them without a state program that has provided nutritious food, safe housing and transportation for doctors’ visits to help them stay out of the hospital. Earlier this fall, state lawmakers chose not to renew the program because of the Oct. 1 reductions in federal health care spending as a result of legislation known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.