wfn.org | CHICAGO INTERFAITH GROUP GIVES $112,000 FOR BURNED CHURCHES

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Internet: c/o carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

NCC10/18/96                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHICAGO INTERFAITH GROUP CONTRIBUTES MORE THAN
$112,000
TO TWO CHURCHES THROUGH BURNED CHURCHES FUND

 CHICAGO, Oct. 15 ---- An interfaith coalition
here today contributed more than $112,000 to the
Burned Churches Fund, established by the National
Council of Churches and supported by a broad
ecumenical and interfaith community.  The funds will
go towards rebuilding two churches destroyed by
arson.

The interreligious coalition included the
Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Committee
(AJC), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago,
the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, and the Northern
Illinois Council of the United Methodist Church.
Richard Weinberg, president of the Chicago chapter
of the AJC, presented the check to the Rev. Dr.
Albert M. Pennybacker, NCC Associate General
Secretary for Public Witness at a ceremony held in
AJC offices.

Dr. Pennybacker thanked the group for its
cooperation in this effort and announced the two
churches who were chosen by the NCC to be recipients
of the funds.  The recipients included Beacon
Baptist Church in Yazoo City, Miss., and the New
Hope Baptist Church in Seattle, Wash.  The pastors
of the two churches, the Rev. Charles Thomas (Miss.)
and the Rev. Dr. Robert Jeffrey Sr. (Wash.),
accepted checks for $53,000 each from the Burned
Churches Fund.

The Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones, NCC Associate
General Secretary for Racial Justice who heads the
Council’s effort to rebuild the churches and address
the underlying causes of racism, also spoke at the
presentation.  "If we don't rebuild community in
America, we will forever be rebuilding churches and
mosques and synagogues," he said.

"We are grateful for both the many individual
contributions and the foundation and corporate gifts
to the AJC fund," Weinberg said.  "We are proud to
say that from acts of bigotry and hate, something
heartening and positive has resulted."

Weinburg quoted a Catholic donor who enclosed
the following note with his contribution to AJC's
Church Fund: "When the Catholic Archdiocese gives
the address of a Jewish organization which is
collecting contributions in order to help rebuild
Protestant churches, we have come a long way towards
brotherhood."

-end-
-0-