Lutheran Services Carolinas (LSC) Disaster Director Paul Dunn describes Pastor Greg Moore as an Earthly angel.
“His heart desires good for all,” Dunn said. “Greg inspired and motivated our entire team.”
It’s that heart and inspiration that led Dunn to nominate Moore for LSC’s 2021 South Carolina Worker of Wonders (WOW) Award. He was announced as the winner of the award in September 2021.
“I’m kind of shocked,” Moore said. “I’m honored LSC thought we did something that they wanted to recognize. It feels humbling because there are so many people who do so much in South Carolina.”
Moore is a retired pastor of the ELCA South Carolina Synod. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and was ordained in the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada in 1979.
His last full-time call brought him to the Columbia, South Carolina area. When he retired from ministry, he continued serving part-time in Presbyterian and Lutheran churches while working for the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
Through that work, he got to know the Catawba Indian Nation, and made it his mission to help them.
In 2019, Moore created the Indigenous Peoples Accompaniment Network that is part of the ELCA South Carolina Synod. The vision of the Indigenous Peoples Accompaniment Network (IPAN) is to learn and educate churches and other groups about the need to seek truth, justice, and reconciliation with all
Indigenous Peoples in South Carolina, and practice accompaniment with Indigenous Peoples.
“His passion and compassion for our Indigenous neighbors is so refreshing,” Dunn said. “Once a pastor, always a pastor. He carried out his calling, even if he is now retired.”
When a South Carolina Indigenous community was severely harmed by numerous and deadly tornadoes in April of 2020, Moore reached out to LSC Disaster Services seeking collaboration to provide disaster recovery to those affected.
He coordinated survivor case management and assisted LSC with obtaining recovery items and provided spiritual guidance and healing. He also helped LSC create and build rapport with tribal leaders so it could assist the community with medical clinic equipment, resources for housing needs, and other resource
contacts.
“They (disaster team and partners) took us to the locations so we could see the damage. We met the people, heard their stories, and found out the help they needed,” Moore said. “If there’s something I can do as a Lutheran pastor and to work with and help LSC, I’m glad to do it.”
