wfn.org | [PCUSA News] Interfaith Group Donates More Than $112,000 to NCC's Bu

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

Title:Chicago Interfaith Group Donates More Than $112,000 to NCC's Burned 
Churches Fund 22-October-1996 
 
 
96423       Chicago Interfaith Group Donates More Than 
              $112,000 to NCC's Burned Churches Fund 
 
                          by Carol Fouke 
 
CHICAGO--An interfaith coalition here Oct. 15 contributed more than 
$112,000 to the Burned Churches Fund, established by the National Council 
of Churches (NCC), and supported by a broad ecumenical and interfaith 
community. The funds will go toward 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. Albert M. Pennybacker, NCC associate 
general secretary for Public Witness, at a ceremony held in AJC offices. 
 
     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, 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. Mac Charles Jones, NCC associate general secretary for Racial 
Justice, who heads the council's efforts to rebuild the churches and 
address the underlying causes of racism, also spoke during 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." 
 
     Weinberg quoted a Catholic donor who enclosed the following note with 
his contribution to the 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." 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

--