wfn.org | Burned Churches Get Grants

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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 (3352 notes).

Note 3347 by UMNS on Dec. 19, 1996 at 16:02 Eastern (2480 characters).

SEARCH: church burnings, NCC, United Methodist, arson, fires
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Bloom                          635(10-31-71B){3347}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    Dec. 18, 1996

Two United Methodist churches
get NCC rebuilding grants

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Two United Methodist churches -- New
Shiloh in Humboldt, Tenn., and Cypress Trails in Spring, Texas --
recently were approved for grants from the National Council of
Churches (NCC) Burned Churches Fund.
     The fund's purpose is to help rebuild houses of worship
destroyed by fire. A number of the churches were deliberately
burned for reasons of hate and the fund helps address the racism
that underlies such attacks.
     The building for New Shiloh, which will receive a $30,000
grant, burned to the ground on Dec. 12, 1994 -- the first of six
West Tennessee churches destroyed in suspicious fires over an 18-
month period.
     During rebuilding, New Shiloh has received assistance from
congregations of different racial/ethnic and denominational
groups, including Salem Missionary Church, an African-American
congregation three miles away. When that church burned a year
later, New Shiloh sent its own donation.
     On Aug. 19, 1996, President Bill Clinton and Vice President
Al Gore and their families visited both churches to show support.
Plaques presented by the President to the Rev. Bill Vaughan of New
Shiloh and the Rev. Daniel Donaldson of Salem included Clinton's
engraved statement that "We must come together as one America to
rebuild our churches, restore hope and show the forces of hatred
they cannot win."
     Arson was determined as the cause of a Jan. 27, 1996, fire
that destroyed a building housing Sunday School classrooms and
staff offices at Cypress Trails United Methodist Church. The loss
was estimated to be at least $300,000, according to the Rev.
Sandra Smith.
     Cypress Trails, which will receive a $20,000 NCC grant, is in
the process of rebuilding a 10,000 square-foot facility. The
congregation numbers around 500 members.
     No one has been arrested in the Cypress Trails arson and
Smith said the congregation has no idea why it was targeted. She
said that another church, about three miles away, had a fire the
same night.
                              #  #  #

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