Gulf Coast Interfaith Prayer Service

by Terry Trahan, Jr.

Local church leaders are clinging to faith in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, which killed 11 men and spawned the largest oil spill in U.S. history on April 20.

On July 30, exactly 100 days after the rig first started pumping crude into the Gulf of Mexico’s open waters, Bayou Interfaith Shared Community Organizing plans to host a Gulf Coast Interfaith Prayer Service at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center. The service begins at 7 p.m. and features 20 pastors from area churches offering prayer, backed by a community choir.

“We’re asking people and the country to pray on that day,” says Sharon Gauthe, executive director of BISCO, whose mission includes 18 congregations from the area.

BISCO started in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew made landfall over south Louisiana. Organizers recognized the need for locals to have a voice in response to the devastation, and the multidenominational interfaith group became the medium to accomplish the goal.

“We taught them how to have a voice,” Sharon says. “No matter what faith you are, you may have the same issues.”

The organization has started classes for special needs children and trained leaders to go to Washington, D.C., to meet with congressmen and other elected officials. The City of Thibodaux has also helped BISCO to donate swimming lessons to low-income families in need of educational resources.

An issue currently on their agenda is the Gulf oil spill, which has impacted many lives and jobs throughout Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. The organization hopes that the prayer service brings a sense of strength and unity to those affected by the offshore spill.

“Our prayer will not be fruitless,” says Margie Scott, a community organizer for BISCO, “because it will strengthen the people.”

Margie says church leaders have been meeting to discuss the fear, depression and anxiety felt among their congregations. Together, they believe prayer creates an understanding of each other, regardless of race or ethnicity. That’s where unity comes in. The Gulf spill impacts the entire coast—anyone who wishes to help should have the opportunity without having to worry about gender or skin color.

Prayer achieves just that.

“We’re expecting between 2,000 and 3,000,” Margie says, noting the influence of church leaders in building the number. “They’re bringing members from their churches. We want it filled.”

Recently, BISCO held meetings and invited leaders to experience firsthand the effects on the coast.

“They saw what used to be land and now is water,” Margie says. “We have realized that we need to pray.”

She compares the current situation in the Gulf to a popular biblical story. Noah trusted that the flood would come, so he built an ark. Margie says that trust in prayer may lead to divine intervention in finding a solution to the spill without raising the negative impact on local communities.

Through the prayer service’s multidenominational outreach, BISCO plans to plant seeds of strength and unityóseeds that take root in local soil and mature into a chorus of voices that speak of a better tomorrow.