wfn.org | Denounces Church Burnings

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2999 notes).

Note 2999 by SUSAN PEEK on June 7, 1996 at 12:14 Eastern (4632 characters).

SEARCH: churches, fires, Carolina, resolution, black, racism

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CONTACT: Linda Green                        285(10-21-31-71){2999}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470              June 6, 1996

United Methodists denounce church burnings;
establishes recovery fund to help congregations

By Allison Askins*

     COLUMBIA, S.C. (UMNS) -- South Carolina's United Methodists
spoke out against the burning of African-American churches in the
state and across the Southeast, and established a statewide fund
to assist affected congregations during the annual meeting of the
state's United Methodists, May 26-29.
     The South Carolina United Methodist Annual (regional)
Conference is urging people of all faiths in the state to use
worship services on the weekend of June 29-30 as a "Sabbath of
Support" for congregations that have lost their places of worship.
     According to the state's Law Enforcement Division statistics,
33 houses of worship and one mosque have burned in South Carolina
since 1991, Most of the churches that burned were rural black
churches.
     A June 1 report in the Columbia (S.C.) State newspaper quotes
the National Council of Churches as saying that tolerance for
white supremacist ideology is to blame for the fact that South
Carolina leads the nation in the number of black church fires.
     The fires at the churches in South Carolina were denounced by
members of the jurisdictional conference delegation -- clergy and
lay people who will elect bishops for Southeastern conferences of
the United Methodist Church next month -- in a resolution passed
by the annual conference session. 
     "We felt that the South Carolina Conference should send a
message of love and healing to those congregations and to send a
call to our own churches to reach out with gifts of time and
money," said Rhett Jackson, a layman from Columbia who helped
write the resolution. 
     "We lament the fact that there still is too much tolerance
for racism and bigotry in our state and we hope this resolution
will be a call to our own clergy to speak out on the evils of
racism and intolerance, and for all of us, lay and clergy, to
become a part of the healing and reconciling of all human beings."
     In an amendment to the resolution, conference members
established a fund through the church's Ethnic Local Church
Concerns Committee (ELCC) that will help distribute money to
churches burned by arson. That action resulted from concern that a
resolution guarantees little action whereas a fund can help make a
concrete difference.
     The resolution asks the South Carolina Christian Action
Council (CAC), which has been tracking information about the
fires, to help the ELCC committee determine the most needy of the
burned churches. 
     The CAC also is calling on religious communities throughout
South Carolina to use worship services on the weekend of June
29-30 as a "Sabbath of Support." 
     "We have chosen this particular date because it immediately
precedes the Fourth of July celebration during which our nation
will remember and rejoice in its common heritage and announce
again, 'E Pluribus Unum,' 'for many one,'" the council said in a
prepared statement. 
     "In the face of these attacks on houses of worship, we are
asking the religious community to provide the leadership for all
Americans to proclaim their unity."
     South Carolina United Methodist Bishop Robert H. Spain is
among religious leaders who signed the statement.
     "We deplore the bombing and burning of churches in South
Carolina and elsewhere in the United States. We stand united as we
condemn these acts of violence and destruction, which give
evidence of lingering racism within our state and nation," the
statement reads.
     Religious groups joining in the CAC effort include the
Columbia Jewish Federation, the Church of God, Church of the
Nazarene, Episcopal Dioceses of South Carolina and Upper South
Carolina, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Greek Orthodox
Diocese of Atlanta, Presbyterian Church in the USA, Reformed
Episcopal Church, Roman Catholic Church, Quakers, Southern Baptist
Convention and Wesleyans.
                               # # #
     * Askins is the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist
Advocate, newspaper of the South Carolina United Methodist Annual
Conference.

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