wfn.org | NCCCUSA HAILS CNBC'S $6 MILLION MORE FOR BURNED CHURCHES

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252

NCC WELCOMES NEWS OF ADDITIONAL FUNDS
AVAILABLE TO REBUILD BURNED CHURCHES

NCC1/28/97                                                                    
         
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 NEW YORK, Jan. 28 ---- National Council of 
Churches General Secretary Joan Brown Campbell today 
welcomed the news that an additional $6 million has 
been made available for the rebuilding of churches 
burned for reasons of hate.  

The Congress of National Black Churches -- 
among the NCC's partners in a broad-based National 
Rebuilding Initiative Task Force and whose founder 
and chair both serve on the NCC-established Burned 
Churches Fund Grants Committee -- announced 
yesterday that it had received that amount from the 
Eli Lilly Foundation for the CNBC's new program to 
rebuild churches and prevent further arsons.

"This is good news for the congregations whose 
churches have been burned," said the Rev. Dr. 
Campbell.  "We are grateful that additional funds 
for rebuilding have been made available."  The Rev. 
Dr. Mac Charles Jones, the NCC's Associate General 
Secretary for National Ministries, said, "We look 
forward to working closely with the CNBC on 
rebuilding, arson prevention and racial 
reconciliation in the months ahead."

The National Council of Churches soon will 
complete "Phase One" of its Burned Churches Project, 
launched last spring.  The NCC played a key role in 
calling the attacks on houses of worship to public 
attention and in initiating an interfaith response, 
including rebuilding churches and addressing the 
racism that underlies many of the burnings.

 The blue-ribbon Grants Committee of the NCC-
initiated Burned Churches Fund to date has allocated 
$4.6 million cash and another half million in-kind 
for the rebuilding of 79 houses of worship, most of 
them African American churches.  In February, the 
NCC expects to complete detailed assessments of the 
needs of 124 burned churches and to recommend the 
final "Phase One" round of grants.  And the NCC soon 
will announce its "Christmas in April" mobilization 
of volunteers who will assist with rebuilding.

 "At that point, nearly all of the roughly $7 
million in cash raised since last May for the Burned 
Churches Fund, along with additional in-kind 
assistance available to us, will have been 
allocated," Dr. Campbell said.  "But we know of at 
least 30 other burned churches where hatred is 
suspected as the motive.  Thanks to the Lilly grant, 
these churches now have somewhere to turn for help.  
We are glad for that!"

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