<p>Veteran civil rights leader the Rev. C.T. Vivian and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young toured churches and communities still devastated almost a year after Hurricane Katrina, and announced plans to engage churches nationwide in a new recovery initiative.</p><p>Vivian, of Atlanta, said the program, dubbed "Churches Supporting Churches," would enlist the help of U.S. churches to adopt New Orleans congregations in heavily damaged neighborhoods, with a focus on churches with predominantly black congregations. Adopted churches, in turn, would serve as anchors for the redevelopment of their communities, he said.</p><p>"Our focus is not simply to build churches but to build neighborhoods and the city," Vivian said Wednesday during a bus tour that wound through bumpy city streets and once-flooded neighborhoods still showing scars from the hurricane.</p><p>In one area, a person in a white haz-mat-type suit and face mask stood on a green front lawn; in other areas crumpled houses stood next to heaps of trash or rubble.</p><p>"How do we bring the city back into being?" Vivian said.</p><p>Young, a New Orleans native, described himself as numb after seeing the damage at the East Jerusalem Baptist Church in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward. Young stepped over debris and nearly stumbled trying to get into the front door of the church.</p><p>"I don't know what to think," said Young, once a close associate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.</p><p>This isn't the first effort aimed at helping rebuild churches in the region. For example, a charity established by former Presidents Bush and Clinton had $20 million earmarked for hurricane-affected churches on the Gulf Coast.</p><p>The hope of Churches Supporting Churches, Vivian said, is to go beyond putting buildings back up. Pastors need assistance with health insurance or other costs, and congregants need a community cornerstone, he said.</p><p>He doesn't worry about people's good will wearing out, but the Rev. Dwight Webster does.</p><p>"There are people saying, 'Get over it,' as if nothing this catastrophic happened," said Webster, who's been commuting from the Oakland, Calif.-area to hold occasional services at Christian Unity Baptist Church.</p><p>One of the biggest challenges for Churches Supporting Churches, organizers say, is finding church leaders who scattered across the country like many of their congregants, or, as in the case of the Rev. Hall Kelly Jr., aren't sure whether they'll be able to rebuild here.</p><p>Kelly, who said he returns to what's left of East Jerusalem Baptist at least once a week to pray, said his "hopes and dreams" are to rebuild. Most of his scattered congregants want to return, he said, but there are hurdles. "There's no place to stay," he said, citing high rental costs.</p><p>"We're not going to give up," he said, fighting back tears. "It's going to be all right."</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc508)</p>
