wfn.org | Pastors of burned churches find support

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 5, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-31-71B{184}

NOTE: This story is the second of two parts. It is accompanied by a sidebar,
UMNS story #185.

By United Methodist News Service

Five years ago on Palm Sunday, Red Oak United Methodist Church in
Stockbridge, Ga., was deliberately set on fire.

With the help of denominational connections, the congregation has nearly
made a full recovery from that devastating event. Immediately after the
fire, members of First United Methodist Church in nearby Jonesboro offered
the use of their fellowship hall for worship. 

"It's just like we were at home," said the Rev. John Pace, Red Oak's pastor.
"We never missed a beat."

Red Oak had an ample insurance policy but still needed more to rebuild the
sanctuary and fellowship hall. Through loans and various means of
fund-raising, such as selling barbecue, the 340-member congregation came up
with additional money. Now, only the interior of the fellowship hall must be
completed. 

"We have built and paid as we have gone along," Pace explained. "When we
finish this building, we won't owe a penny on it." 

Pace recently received a $30,000 grant through the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries, which he estimates will cover about half the cost.

But while Red Oak's story has a happy ending, it did lose a few members
along the way. 

"One of the problems a preacher has when a church burns is keeping people
together," Pace said. He was lucky "the Lord gave me the wisdom" to be able
to preserve most of the congregation, he said.

Since its establishment in October 1997, the National Coalition for Burned
Churches and Community Empowerment has supported pastors such as Pace and
their congregations. The organization's board of directors and advisory
council consists of pastors whose own churches have burned.

Its executive director, the Rev. Terrance Mackey, an African Methodist
Episcopal minister, said the United Methodist Church "has done a remarkable
job" providing resources and assistance for rebuilding. When Methodists make
commitments to the individual churches affected by arson, they keep those
commitments, he said.

United Methodists also have supported two youth retreats held by the
coalition in the past, he said. A larger retreat, drawing 2,000 youth for
three and a half days, is being planned for August 2000.

The coalition aims to get at least 80 percent of the burned churches
reconstructed in the next few years. While rebuilding is an important focus,
the organization also wants to place the issue back on the national agenda.
Coalition representatives plan to meet with Congressional members, Attorney
General Janet Reno, and members of the Clinton Administration in June to air
their concerns.

One concern is pinpointing why arsonists continue to torch churches that
vary in their racial makeup. Pace sat through the trial where two young men
were convicted of setting his church and several other churches, housing
both predominantly black and predominantly white congregations, on fire.

He said the two men, who were volunteer firefighters themselves, gave no
particular reason for their acts and never expressed remorse, "not even in
the courtroom."

Mackey has heard a Ku Klux Klan leader predict the advent of a "race war" in
2000 and state that if Klan members have to burn down white churches as well
as black ones to incite such a conflict, they will. "Their mindset is to the
point where they think they can cause this to happen," Mackey said.

In his opinion, though, the church burnings have had an opposite effect,
bringing together white and black congregations that previously had little
contact. He added that the burnings also conflict with an overall American
sense of freedom of religion and so rally people against the arsonists.

For more information about the National Coalition for Burned Churches, call
Mackey at (843) 853-5363 or send an e-mail to ncfbccp@aol.com. 

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