The nation's largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, is expected to elect its first African-American president this June in New Orleans. His name is Fred Luter, and he says the SBC has "a heart for reaching people in difficult times."

"There's something happening inside of the hearts and minds of people that has brought us all together," says Rev. John Dee Jeffries of the First Baptist Church in Chalmette, Louisiana.

Listen to excerpts from our 2007 interview about Hurricane Katrina with jazz great Terence Blanchard, who says "there has to be something for us to learn from this."

Jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard spoke with us on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina about his CD, "A Tale of God's Will: A Requiem for Katrina," and writing hopeful music about hopelessness.

Read the complete transcript of our 2007 interview with jazz musician Terence Blanchard about Katrina, New Orleans, and the spiritual roots of his music.

"We're already practicing tikkun olam--repairing the world--in our day-to-day lives," says Jonathan Graboies, a resident of Moishe House in New Orleans, "so in a way we're being Jewish even without being in the synagogue."

In D'Iberville, Mississippi, near Biloxi, almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, volunteers from around the country celebrated the rebuilding of nearly a thousand homes.

Two-and-a-half years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed 475 homes and damaged many more in D'Iberville, Mississippi on Biloxi Bay, people are rebuilding.

Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard spoke August 17th with Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly about his recent CD, A TALE OF GOD'S WILL: A REQUIEM FOR KATRINA, when he was playing in Washington at Blues Alley.

Read more of Kim Lawton’s March 20, 2007 interview in New Orleans with the Rev. Lance Eden of First Street United Methodist Church.