Disaster Ministries
The goal of our Disaster Ministries Team is to educate churches about local disaster and traumatic event protocols. We will help our churches and pastors with preparedness tools; and, if necessary, assist as they move through response and recovery toward a new normal.
Disasters and traumatic events manifest in many forms from those that affect individuals, families, and local communities to natural or a human-caused calamities potentially affecting large numbers of people.
Traumatic events may include an accidental death, a house fire, vehicular accident, diagnosis of a life-threatening condition, and loss of livelihood. For those most directly involved, such traumatic events may be as threatening to individual well-being as natural disasters such as a hurricane, tornado, ice-storm, blizzard, flood, or wildfire; or an act of destruction caused by a variety of technologically-created events or acts of human violence.
Many local churches and pastors have experience in responding to traumatic events as well as disasters. To reach the goal of educating churches, we seek (1) to share the wisdom and experience of local congregations in the Maine Conference; and (2) to draw upon and share best practices of churches nation-wide and world-wide.
Disaster Ministry Resources
Preparedness
Volunteer in Disaster Recovery
- UCC National Disaster Ministries
When A Disaster Has Occurred
Considering Overnight Guests?
Could your faith community assist families during Maine’s housing crisis? It’s a question many are asking.
Your Disaster Resource and Response Team wants you to know that if you’re considering sleeping people at your church, you should obtain the proper permit from the state fire marshal’s office. In order to have people sleep at church, the church should have a sprinkler system, fire alarm, smoke detection, and carbon monoxide detection.
If you think you may want to have overnight guests, a conversation with your local fire department is a good start. In fact, we urge you to establish a relationship with your local emergency manager and often that person is the local fire chief or police chief.