wfn.org | "Project Rebuild" Is Honored by the NCC

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

19-December-1997 
97480 
 
                  "Project Rebuild" Is Honored by the NCC 
 
                            by Julian Shipp 
 
WASHINGTON, D.C.--A broad-based initiative in the Springfield, Mass., area 
to rebuild a burned African-American church in Barnwell, S.C., and foster 
racial reconciliation nationally was honored here recently by the National 
Council of Churches (NCC). 
 
    Project Rebuild of the Council of Churches of Greater Springfield 
(CCGS) was selected Nov. 13 as a recipient of the NCC's 1997 
Ecumenical/Interfaith Service Award during the NCC's General Assembly. The 
CCGS's efforts, which culminated in the rebuilding of Rosemary Baptist 
Church in Barnwell, are part of a nationwide program of the NCC. 
 
    This year, four ecumenical/interfaith service awards were given to 
projects responding to burned churches and/or addressing racism in special 
honor of the memory of the Rev. Mac Charles Jones, the NCC's former 
associate general secretary for racial justice, who died suddenly in March 
of 1997. CCGS received one of these special awards for its unique response 
to the church burnings. 
 
    "With more than 450 ecumenical and interfaith organizations in the 
United States, you can well imagine the vast array of programs and 
ministries which are so worthy of recognition," said the Rev. Joan Brown 
Campbell, NCC general secretary. "The decisions are always very difficult 
and the criteria are carefully considered." 
 
    Accepting the award were the Rev. Morris Stimage-Norwood, pastor of 
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Presbyterian Church and a CCGS board 
member, and the Rev. Ann E. Geer, CCGS executive director, both of 
Springfield, Mass. 
 
    Credited as being a "driving force" in galvanizing his community's 
response to the rash of  burnings of black churches nationwide, 
Stimage-Norwood was also honored as an "Unsung Hero" in the June 1997 issue 
of "Presbyterians Today" magazine. 
 
    Emotionally compelled and spiritually led to combat the racism that 
fueled the fires, Stimage-Norwood's determination to help victimized black 
congregations resulted in CCGS becoming a convener for Project Rebuild. 
When CCGS received the NCC's appeal about the church burnings, it responded 
with fund-raising, advocacy and a press conference. It also found a 
connection to Rosemary Baptist Church and committed to rebuild the church 
by forming coalitions in Springfield with South Carolina partners. 
 
    Rosemary Baptist Church was rededicated on Oct. 3. Stimage-Norwood 
preached during the rededication ceremony. 
 
    "[Rosemary Baptist] church has expanded its outreach, its witness and 
its ecumenical relationships as well," Stimage-Norwood told the 
Presbyterian News Service. "There was a pulpit exchange [in November] 
between First Presbyterian Church of South Aiken and Rosemary Baptist 
Church. Also, in the city of Barnwell there have been some potluck kinds of 
things that residents have attended. There have been some further steps 
there in race relations." 
 
    Similar events are taking place in Springfield, Mass., as well. An 
award service for the Project Rebuild volunteers was held recently at 
Western New England College. Phase two of the CCGS's initiative involves a 
workshop on race relations being implemented in "study circles" throughout 
the school system and various branches of the municipal government. 
Moreover, a proposal for a joint UCC/PC(USA) forum on race is also being 
discussed. 
 
    "This is `a tale of two cities' in a sense," Geer said. "As both 
communities have bonded together, we have realized that we are dealing with 
the same issues, and we have established dialogues that are leading into 
friendships." 
 
    Geer said the PC(USA) especially can be proud of the fact that it 
served as the pacesetter denomination in the campaign to rebuild Rosemary 
Baptist Church. Geer told the Presbyterian News Service the CCGS received 
$8,400 in January 1997 from donations made by Presbyterians across the 
country. Geer said the money, which was distributed by Presbyterian 
Disaster Assistance in the Worldwide Ministries Division (WMD), was used to 
provide housing for the volunteer work teams. 
 
    "When you're launching a big project, it's always the pacesetter that 
gets you going," Geer said. "Certainly the Presbyterian Church was the 
pacesetter so that once that happened, I was able to in turn seek out some 
additional funding from other sources. But the Presbyterians were right 
there." 
 
    Yet while Project Rebuild volunteers and organizers bask in the glow of 
their success, since June 1996 approximately 128 other African-American 
churches have been burned, few of which have started to rebuild, according 
to the Rev. Harold B. Confer, executive director of  Washington Quaker 
Workcamps of Washington, D.C. 
 
    Stimage-Norwood said this is why working to improve race relations is 
an essential part of rebuilding the burned churches. 
 
    "I feel that the church needs [better race relations] and America needs 
[them]," he said. "That's precisely why God called Project Rebuild into 
being and why it is an important effort in our history. To send volunteers 
in to rebuild a church is wonderful. But to go back home without having 
your conscience really pricked or without seriously discussing from a 
biblical and from a Christian perspective why this is happening leaves 
something out of the equation." 
 
    Presbyterians who want to help burned churches rebuild can contact Stan 
E. Hankins, the WMD's associate for disaster response in the United States, 
at (502) 569-5797. 

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