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A UMNS Feature
By Barbara Dunlap-Berg*
1:00 P.M. EDT June 10, 2011
Volunteers from Northern Light United Methodist Church in Juneau,
Alaska, repair a house damaged by Hurricane Katrina in this 2008 file
photo. The congregation is raising funds for a Habitat house in Phil
Campbell, Ala., where an April 27 tornado destroyed half of the town. A
UMNS 2008 file photo courtesy of the Rev. Phil Campbell.
View in Photo Gallery
How many United Methodists will get the chance to travel 3,600 miles
this summer to a town bearing their name and do good at the same time?
At least one will. He’s the Rev. Phil Campbell, who serves the Northern Light United Church, a 200-member United Methodist and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregation in Juneau, Alaska.
His destination is Phil Campbell, Ala., slammed by the April 27
tornadoes that ripped through much of the South and destroyed half of
the town, including the United Methodist church. In Phil Campbell alone, 26 people died.
It won’t be the pastor’s first trip to Phil Campbell. He went there
16 years ago when another Phil Campbell — a novelist from Brooklyn, N.Y.
— organized the first Phil Campbell convention in the Alabama town.
When the Brooklyn Phil Campbell was in college in 1993, he heard
about the town Phil Campbell on the TV show “Hee Haw.” He went to
Alabama the next summer and met the town clerk who kept a file of the
handful of Phil Campbells who had visited. He discovered the town was
named for Phil Campbell, a railroad work-crew leader and engineer in the
1880s.
He began contacting as many Phil Campbells as he could.
In 1995, one Phyllis Campbell and 22 Phil Campbells attended the
first Phil Campbell convention in Alabama. That’s not bad, considering
HowManyOfMe.com says that in the United States, there are 45 people
named Phil Campbell, 457 Phillip Campbells, 423 Philip Campbells and 470
Phyllis Campbells.
More than a reunion
Earlier this year, plans were under way for Phil Campbells from as
far away as Australia and the United Kingdom to descend upon the town
June 17 and 18 to help the town celebrate its 100th birthday. Then the
tornado hammered the town.
To draw attention to the plight of Phil Campbell, Ala., and to
signify hope, the residents decided to go ahead with the celebration.
They invited the town’s namesakes to be the marshals in the town parade.
This time, though, the Phils, Phyllises and similarly-named people won’t just have a reunion.
They’re trying to raise $70,000 to build a Habitat for Humanity house for someone left homeless by the twisters.
“We’re very serious about this. We want to make sure that no Phil
Campbell is left behind,” the Brooklyn Phil Campbell explained in a YouTube video he made with Phil Campbells from the United Kingdom and Australia.
A former faculty member at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, the
Rev. Phil Campbell started his appointment in Alaska last year. He was
hesitant to leave to go to Alabama.
“I had not planned to go,” he recalled, “but after the tornado
struck, (the convention) became more of a relief effort. With the
encouragement of the congregation, I decided to go.” Members raised
$4,000 “and still counting” for the Habitat project. He said the project
also has garnered at least three $5,000 corporate pledges toward the
goal. Fil Campbell, an Irish folksinger, will not make it to the event,
but she is soliciting donations.
‘It’s my chance to do good’
The Rev. Campbell said his congregation is very mission-minded. “It
has started a lot of the initiatives in Juneau for hunger and
homelessness,” he noted. “Members are active in international peace with
justice advocacy.” Mission trips are often on the agenda. A work team
from Northern Light and a neighboring church traveled to the U.S. Gulf
Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
The volunteers who go to Phil Campbell, Ala., will have colorful
T-shirt choices commemorating the building of a Habitat house.
A web-only photo courtesy of Rita Barton.
The Rev. Campbell praised the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
“UMCOR does a marvelous job of coordinating response,” he said. The
Habitat trip “is a way to help personally and directly.” To contribute
to U.S. Spring Storms, UMCOR Advance #3021326, go to http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/.
Donations for the Habitat house may be made online
or sent to Alabama Habitat for Humanity, P.O. Box 1488 311 N. College
St., Auburn, Ala. 36831, designated “Habitat House for Phil Campbell.”
All donations will go directly to Alabama Habitat for Humanity.
It’s a rare opportunity, the Rev. Campbell said, “when the
happenstance of my name can be of help.” Citing the “do all you can”
quote often attributed to Methodism founder John Wesley, he said, “It’s
my chance to do good.”
*Dunlap-Berg is internal content editor for United Methodist Communications.
News media contact: Barbara Dunlap-Berg, Nashville, Tenn., 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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