Action by Churches Together (ACT) reported that contact had been made, after an AsiaNews report that he was “marooned somewhere in the jungle”.

In an update, the general secretary of the CNI, the Revd Enos das Pradhan, said that even government transport could not reach many of the 572 islands. Most of the people were fishermen, and their thatched houses and small boats have been devastated.

The Bishop’s family and the diocesan secretary, Mr Appolos, were also reported as among the survivors. More than 4000 were now in relief camps, Mr das Pradham said. The Church was yet to receive reports from other small islands where it had congregations.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Port Blair, the Rt Revd Aleixo Dias, said that his diocese had lost 10,000 people, though the figure was unconfirmed, and a rise of 5000 was expected. “We are doing our best to help in the relief work. . . Thousands of people have been evacuated to the Nicobars by planes and ships and are being brought to Port Blair,” he said.

The destruction of the Anglican cathedral in Car Nicobar was confirmed in the report by AsiaNews. A statue dedicated to Bishop John Richardson, the founder of the diocese, and a stadium named in his memory, were to have been dedicated this year.

In Thailand, the Vicar of Christ Church, Bangkok, the Revd Andrew Dircks, has been in Phuket with a team of six from the church, flown in free with other teams of volunteers by one of the airlines.

Shortages in the devastated areas had not been food and water — amply provided by big corporations and NGOs, Mr Dircks reported before his flight to Phuket — but items such as sanitary pads, underwear, babies’ and children’s clothing, face masks, latex gloves, and certain medical supplies. The team had bought supplies in addition to those donated, and were taking them to Phuket.

Vanloads of donated clothes have also been distributed to survivors, and, because of its long-term work with slum communities in Bangkok, Christ Church has been equipped to function as a centre for donated clothing.

“Often even the clothes that people stood up in had been shredded by the ordeal; in quite a few cases, the raging waters left people naked,” Mr Dircks said in a message, which also appealed for money to be sent through the Anglican mission agency USPG. “Specifically, it will be used to purchase goods that are not being donated, and to transport the goods to the point of greatest need for distribution.”

Mr Dircks named a target of £6000 for the first stage of relief operations. USPG says that it initially encouraged people to donate through the Disaster Emergency Committee’s website, but is now requesting donations to its own Emergencies Fund.

The Bishop of Colombo, the Rt Revd Duleep de Chickera, was not contactable by phone this week. In a communiqué a week after the disaster, he said that teams from the Anglican Church and from the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka were visiting all the affected areas, and that he had visited the Trincomalee and Batticaloa districts in the east, and was planning to move on to districts in the south.

“We were able to provide some immediate relief in the form of dry rations for cooking, sleeping mats, babymilk powder, drinking water and cooking utensils.”

He described the visits as also “an act of solidarity with both the affected of all ethnic groups and faiths, as well as the many clergy and lay persons who are actively involved in bringing comfort and relief to the displaced”.

The needs were enormous, said the Bishop, and relief would have to continue for at least six months. Houses had to be rebuilt for most of the affected, and there was also a need for paramedical and trauma-counselling personnel who could assist local voluntary efforts. Long-term rehabilitation in the form of replacing destroyed fishing boats, restoring farmlands and rehabilitating small businesses was going to be the biggest challenge, he said.

Donations to the Bishop’s own appeal fund can be made to Bishop of Colombo a/c no. 01-102324101, Standard Chartered Bank, Fort Branch, Colombo.

The Bishop of Kurunegala, the Rt Revd Kumara Illangasinghe, who chairs the National Christian Council in Sri Lanka, has described the relief and rehabilitation of people in the affected areas as a “gigantic task”.

The Council, a grouping of eight Anglican and Protestant Churches on the island, has co-ordinated the sending of 50 truckloads of food, medicine and shelter material across the island, and is also purchasing relief material and receiving planeloads of medicines and other material from church charities abroad. It has deplored attempts to loot and plunder possessions in the aftermath of the disaster.

END