wfn.org | Church Leaders Meet with Pastors of Burned Black Churches

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25-July-1996 
 
 
 
96270       Church Leaders Meet with Pastors of Burned 
          Black Churches and Witness Rebuilding Efforts 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
BOLIGEE, Ala.--Taking his first official action as moderator of the 208th 
General Assembly (1996), the Rev. John M. Buchanan led a delegation of 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) officials July 17-19 on a journey to witness 
the painful effects of racial hatred and the determined efforts of people 
of faith from all over the country to stamp it out. 
 
     Traveling first to Charlotte, N.C., the group visited 
Matthews-Murkland Presbyterian Church and Memorial Presbyterian Church on 
July 17 for conversations with clergy and laity on anti-racism initiatives 
and racial reconciliation. Destroyed by a 13-year-old white girl on the 
night of June 6, Matthews-Murkland is among the more than 40 Southern black 
churches burned during the first six months of this year. 
 
     Meeting July 19 at the Greene County Courthouse in rural Boligee, 
Ala., nearly two hours southwest of Birmingham, the delegation discussed 
with local leaders the recent wave of African American church burnings and 
witnessed Presbyterian and ecumenical rebuilding efforts that are paving 
the way toward racial reconciliation. 
 
     "The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) wants very much to be in solidarity 
with brothers and sisters in Christ who are confronting this evil and this 
tragedy," Buchanan said. "And beyond that, we'd like to be ambitious enough 
to think that maybe God is going to use this whole experience to do 
something new and to bring a new day in racial reconciliation, harmony and 
peace in our country." 
 
     The 208th General Assembly (1996) in Albuquerque adopted several 
commissioners' resolutions condemning the burning of black churches and 
calling for specific actions. To date, more than $18,000 has been received 
by Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery in Birmingham and distributed to the 
Greene County Emergency Fund for use in the purchase of building supplies 
for three local black churches burned between Dec. 22, 1995, and January 
11, 1996. 
 
     Donations have also been received from many Presbyterians and churches 
beyond the presbytery. 
 
     Total Presbyterian contributions for rebuilding exceed $125,000. The 
victimized congregations in Green County -- Mt. Zoar, Little Zion and Mt. 
Zion Baptist churches -- estimate that additional funding in the amount of 
$135,000 will be necessary to complete rebuilding, which tentatively is 
scheduled for late August. The churches, modest chapels located in secluded 
wooded areas, were not sufficiently insured to replace their buildings. 
      
     But on that sultry July 19 morning, the group witnessed the fruits of 
Christian love and cooperation as they visited Little Zion and Mt. Zoar 
Baptist churches, which are being rebuilt with donated funds and volunteer 
labor. Work at the sites is being coordinated by Mennonite Disaster Service 
(MDS), based in Akron, Pa., and Washington Quaker Workcamps (WQW), based in 
Washington, D.C.  
   
      
     In addition to Buchanan, the group consisted of the Rev. Clifton 
Kirkpatrick, stated clerk; the Rev. Curtis A. Kearns, Jr., director of the 
National Ministries Division; Pamela Anita Worthy, Kearns' senior 
administrative assistant; Stan E. Hankins, associate for disaster response 
U.S.A. in the Worldwide Ministries Division; and the Rev. Eugenia A. 
Gamble, associate executive presbyter of Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery. 
 
     They were accompanied by the Rev. Levi Pickens, pastor of Mt. Zion 
Baptist Church; the Rev.  Woodson Lewis, pastor of Little Zion Baptist 
Church; and the Rev. Arthur Coleman, pastor of Mt. Zoar Baptist Church. 
 
     They gazed incredulously at the modern sanctuaries being resurrected 
before their eyes.  Transcending the cacophony of hammers and circular saws 
was the building of community among volunteers diverse in both their faith 
and communities: Unitarian Universalists, Quakers, Baptists, Jews, 
Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Episcopalians and others who 
committed time and/or money to support the project worked in flawless 
harmony. 
 
     The volunteers ranged from children to family groups to retirees. 
 
     Spiver Gordon, Alabama state coordinator for the Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference, clearly understood the outpouring of love that has 
made tiny Boligee such a favored "vacation" spot this summer. 
 
     "It is the rejection of a very, very ugly attempt to revisit the 
church burnings of the 1960s," Gordon said. "The good and the beauty of 
this is that we have blacks and whites, women and men, boys and girls who 
are coming from all over the country and saying no to the violence and the 
mean-spirited acts of burning these churches, but saying yes to working 
together with faith, dedication and commitment to brotherhood and 
sisterhood." 
 
     "The experience we have had here has been profound," said the Rev. 
Chandler B. Stokes, a WQW volunteer and pastor of First Presbyterian Church 
in San Anselmo, Calif. 
 
     "There is an outpouring of energy to work for a new and better pattern 
of racial and community relationships," Kirkpatrick said. "The [black 
churches] have a leadership role in this nation and this world." 
      
     "We're mobilizing as Christians with Christians," Gamble said. "And 
however we live out our faith, we're standing together to say there are 
some things which are intolerable in our environment." 
 
     "It's an amazing testimony to the work of Christ," Kearns said. 
      
     Other Presbyterians working to rebuild the churches in Greene County 
are the Rev. Frank Jackson, a WQW volunteer and pastor of Faith 
Presbyterian Church in Oakland, Calif.; the Rev. Vincent Mok, a WQW 
volunteer and associate pastor of Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church in 
Lafayette, Calif.; and the Rev. A. David McChesney, pastor of First 
Presbyterian Church in Livingston, Ala. 
 
     "There are 33 of us from about 12 faith groups," Mok said. "I say that 
because there are two Jewish synagogues as well as different Protestant 
[churches] and one Catholic church. We feel like we are among those who 
really have a sense of justice and it's a deep, spiritual experience that 
we've had.  The spirit of God has moved among us." 
 
          Harold Confer, WQW executive director, said it's important that 
volunteers and others be "as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves" by 
taking a community approach to addressing the church burnings crisis, since 
only the members of the affected communities can relate their needs to the 
relief workers and organizations offering assistance.  
 
     "It's important for us to realize that we're not doing this as 
charity," Confer said. "We're helping the local communities rebuild their 
own churches." 
 
     Even so, Confer said he is moved by the generosity and support 
extended to him and other volunteers by Greene County residents. For 
example, he said, local restaurant owners have provided meals for the 
volunteers and several businesses have donated camping and other supplies 
for the laborers, indicating that the majority of residents do not condone 
burning black churches or other racist activity. 
 
     "Many of our volunteers were leery of coming into what they perceived 
to be a Southern racist environment," Confer said. "But we have not had a 
single racial incident since we came here. It's a different Alabama than it 
was 30 years ago and I'm glad to be able to say that."  
 
     Echoing those sentiments was the Rev. Arthur Coleman, who for seven 
years has served as pastor of  the 40-member Mt. Zoar Baptist Church. 
 
     "It's just incredible," Coleman said of the nationwide attention the 
town has attracted. "We up here at Mt. Zoar are just so happy that people 
are coming from all over the country to help us rebuild." 
 
     The Rev. Woodson Lewis, 92, who has served as pastor of Little Zion 
Baptist Church since 1950, said he never thought he'd live to see his 
church rebuilt to specifications beyond his dreams. New amenities at his 
church include central heating and air conditioning, plush carpeting and 
updated bathroom facilities. 
 
     "It's just amazing how the Lord has a peculiar way of doing things," 
Lewis said. "The devil did the burning, but the Lord has brought men and 
women from all over the country to build the church back." 
 
     "I feel good about the program of rebuilding the churches," said 
Pickens, pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. "But we're just hoping that 
this kind of thing doesn't happen again." 
 
     A wish surely in the back of everyone's mind that day and one perhaps 
best captured by an inscription written with a permanent marker on a wooden 
window frame of Little Zion Baptist Church: "Burned with Hate, Rebuilt 
Stronger with Love July 4, 1996." 

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