wfn.org | NCC TEAM ADDRESSES BLACK CHURCH BOMBINGS

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

39NCC4/19/96               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC TEAM, IN ALABAMA ADDRESSING FIREBOMBING OF BLACK
CHURCHES, URGES PARTICIPATION IN BROADLY ECUMENICAL
EFFORT

 BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 19 ---- A National
Council of Churches ecumenical team will visit
Alabama April 21-22 to assess the burnings of black
church buildings.

 The visit marks the latest step in a broad
effort led by the NCC to combat the rising incidence
of firebombings of African American churches in the
South, offer spiritual support to pastors and
congregants, pursue legal restitution, bring the
perpetrators of these racist attacks to justice, and
assist the firebombed churches to rebuild.

 The team visit is led by Dr. Diane Porter of
The Episcopal Church and hosted by Bishop Richard O.
Bass Sr. of the Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church's Fifth District, Birmingham, Ala.

 "This is an issue of such magnitude and
seriousness that it demands we all work together,"
said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC General
Secretary.  "We note the Christian Coalition's new
attention to this issue, and we hope it will join in
the larger coalition already at work."

 The NCC's work is coordinated with the Atlanta-
based Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR), which is
conducting an independent investigation of the
firebombings, and the New York-based Center for
Constitutional Rights (CCR), which is exploring
legal strategies, including possible litigation, to
combat the rising number of attacks.  Work is being
carried out in close working relationship with the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the
NAACP.

 The NCC visited one of the firebombed churches,
the Inner City Church in Knoxville, Tenn., on March
6 and met with other pastors in Atlanta, Ga., March
27.  (The CDR released its preliminary report on the
firebombings during that visit.  The CDR found a
"strong connection between church attacks and white
supremacist groups."  For a copy, call the CDR: 404-
221-0025.)

 NCC team visits to the rest of the more than 40
firebombed churches are being scheduled for May.  On
June 9-10, the NCC plans to convene pastors of all
the firebombed churches in Washington, D.C., for a
Day of Action.

 Dr. Campbell and the NCC's President, United
Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert of Sacramento,
Calif., wrote U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno April
19 asking her personal attention to the church
firebombings, asking her for "any information or
data which can be shared with us" and for an
indication of her "disposition and willingness to
work with us to end these attacks and to redirect
the investigations."

 In their letter, they said, "Both local and
national ATF and FBI officials have asserted that
these incidents show no evidence of being racially
motivated.  Such comments are contrary to evidence
which identifies links to white supremacist
organizations, and are contrary to racial epithets
and other indications at the sites of the destroyed
churches.

 "The National Council is committed to
addressing these attacks on our congregations.  Each
of our 33 denominations are participating in this
nationwide effort -- for if one of our churches is
damaged, all are spiritually injured."

 According to the CDR's preliminary report, as
many as 45 African-American and interracial churches
in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina,
Louisiana and other states were bombed, burned or
defaced between January 1990 and March 1996, with
escalating frequency.  Subsequently, additional
attacks have been reported.

 33 U.S. Protestant and Orthodox denominations,
with a combined membership of 52 million people,
work together on common concerns through the NCC,
which has its headquarters in New York.

 Besides The Episcopal Church and the Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church, others of those
denominations, all supporting the work against the
firebombings, include The United Methodist Church,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, United Church of Christ,
Progressive National Baptist Church, African
Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist
Episcopal Church, National Baptist Convention U.S.A.
Inc., and the National Baptist Convention in
America.

 Heads of NCC member denominations pledged their
support to the work against the firebombings during
an evening conference telephone call on April 18.

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