BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, a special Easter report. Last year at this time, we profiled two pastors in New Orleans. Both were in their first years at their churches when Katrina hit. They were working hard to comfort their congregations and help rebuild their communities, all while dealing with their own losses. Given the lack of progress in so many areas of New Orleans, we wanted to check back with those same pastors. Kim Lawton asked them how they are reflecting on the themes of the Easter season this year.

KIM LAWTON: Palm Sunday in the Broodmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Members of the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation are remembering Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem just before the crucifixion, and they are praying for the renewal of their own city. Rector Jerry Kramer says it’s a bittersweet time here.

Reverend JERRY KRAMER (Rector, Church of the Annunciation): Good things are happening, and we need to dwell on those things, but we still have an incredible road in front of us. And I just -- there’s no way people around the country have any clue what we’re dealing with here, and the uphill fight that we’re enduring right now.

LAWTON: Across town at First Street United Methodist Church, Pastor Lance Eden says day to day his people still feel stuck between the suffering of Good Friday and the hope of Easter Sunday.

Reverend LANCE EDEN (Pastor, First Street United Methodist Church): Saturday where you’re just waiting and waiting and waiting, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any movement, anything happening. When will Sunday come?

LAWTON: Nineteen months after Hurricane Katrina, recovery in New Orleans remains painfully slow. Residents are more frustrated than ever by the official response at the city, state and federal levels. In that context, Eden and Kramer say, themes of the Easter season resonate in new and poignant ways.

Last year, Church of the Annunciation was worshipping in a doublewide trailer. Only about half of the congregation members had returned. Their church had been ruined by the waters that had flooded it for weeks after Katrina. They had planned replace it with a new modular building. But then they realized it would be cheaper to try and salvage the old church. So they’ve begun worshipping there again, even though there’s still no electricity or heat, and the cross on the roof still hasn’t been repaired.

Rev. KRAMER: You know, it is home even without power and flooring and walls and things like that. We’re home.

LAWTON: The congregation now has more people worshipping with them than there were before the storm. Many new members were drawn by Annunciation’s active role in relief efforts and community rebuilding. They’ve started renovating part of the old building in order to house the faith-based volunteers who still come in steady streams. They’re calling the project Resurrection House.

Rev. KRAMER: God didn’t cause this storm. Where God comes in is in the redemption of it, and in the resurrection, which again doesn’t mean resuscitation. It means something new. It’s a new environment here, and you have to adapt to be relevant to bring the Gospel forward in this environment.

(speaking to volunteers): This is where you saw people on the rooftops being pulled off and “Help us, help us.” All in here. Every patch of green that you see had a house on it pre-Katrina.

(to young woman): Where did you live?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: My mother was right around the corner here.

Rev. KRAMER: Okay.

LAWTON: In addition to working in the Broadmoor neighborhood, Annunciation and its teams of volunteers have been active in the devastated predominantly African-American Lower Ninth Ward, where many churches were destroyed. They have a new mission church there called All Souls. It was started to meet the spiritual needs of the few who’ve come back.

Rev. KRAMER: You know, pre-Katrina I would have had no business going down to the Lower Ninth Ward. I didn’t know where it was. Now I have friends there. I mean, that’s grace, and that’s something God is up to in this mess.

Rev. EDEN (preaching): You may be sick, busted, and disgusted. Produce anyway.

LAWTON: First Street United Methodist Church, which suffered little damage during the storm, has also grown. The congregation has almost tripled, in part because of nearby church closings, and in part because of the church’s increasingly visible role as a community organizer.

Rev. EDEN: But we’ve had a large influx of persons who are of other denominations, who are not United Methodists, who have become a part of our church and are looking for a church that’s really doing something.

LAWTON: Last year the church partnered with a secular non-profit group, the Hands-On Network, to host and organize volunteers. Temporary housing was put up in the church’s multipurpose room. A year later the bunk beds, now well-worn, are still there, while the network looks for a more permanent home. The volunteers have gutted and repaired thousands of homes and helped clean up the community. But rising crime in their neighborhood is placing new pressure on ministry.

Rev. EDEN: From that corner to this corner is where a lot of the shootings happen, and as the church and the Hands-On organization, we’ve had to pay $6,000 a month to continue to keep a police officer on guard to protect the volunteers and the people in the community.

LAWTON: Eden had been out of seminary only a couple of months when Katrina hit. He says he’s learned a lot about being a leader.

Rev. EDEN: As a pastor, learning how not to take the mess of church folk and put my foot down -- being 28 years old and some of them are twice my age -- and say no, it’s not happening that way; that’s not what God has called us to do.

(speaking at conference): But we are in transition, and transition means that we’re going somewhere.

LAWTON: He has also become a prominent voice calling for more grassroots action to fight for social justice in the city.

Rev. EDEN (speaking at conference): I’m crazy enough and radical enough to believe that we do have hope here today. I’m not counting it out. It’s not over ’til God says it’s over.