wfn.org | NCC Group Joins Habitat for Humanity South Africa Build

["Nat'l Council of Churches" <nccc_usa@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2252/2227
news@ncccusa.org <mailto:news@ncccusa.org>; www.ncccusa.org
<http://www.ncccusa.org>
NCC5/22/02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A TIME TO BUILD UP: NCC GROUP JOINS HABITAT FOR HUMANITYS
JIMMY CARTER WORK PROJECT 2002 IN DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

May 22, 2002, NEW YORK CITY -- For many church people in the United States,
the Republic of South Africa feels a lot closer than it looks on the world
map - the result of decades of work with South African church partners,
first in the struggle against apartheid and now in building a democratic
society free of poverty and inequality.

That may be why the National Council of Churches easily filled all 45 places
in its ecumenical, intergenerational delegation to Durban, South Africa, to
participate in the June 3-7 culmination of Habitat for Humanitys Jimmy
Carter Work Project 2002 (JCWP). Together with Carter, his wife Rosalynn,
and some 2,000 other volunteers, the NCC contingent will help build 100
houses to shelter South African families who now live in shanties and other
substandard housing.

The NCCs general secretary, Dr. Bob Edgar, who will lead the ecumenical
group, noted that several of his predecessors paved the way for this moment
by standing against apartheid. For everything there is a season, he said.
There was a time to protest, to tear down apartheid. Now is the time to
build up, to gather stones together, or, in this case, to gather concrete
blocks together.

The story of one young participant in the NCC group illustrates U.S.
Christians longstanding concern for South Africa. John B. Wynn, who
graduated earlier this month from Tulane University, is following in his
grandparents footsteps by volunteering for the South Africa project. His
grandfather, the Rev. J. C. Wynn of Baltimore, Md., a Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) minister who was an early leader in the NCC, wrote, My wife,
Rachael, and I spent some four months [in South Africa] back in the
apartheid year of 1968, in the Quaker-inspired U.S.-South Africa Leader
Exchange Program. Now our grandson is volunteering to participate in the
Durban project.

Ranging in age from 18 to 82, members of the NCC group come from
congregations of mainline, historic African American, Orthodox and peace
churches in communities in 13 states and represent a wide range of
occupations in fields as diverse as the ministry, medicine, education and
the construction industry.

The group also includes eight seminary students sponsored by the
Atlanta-based Fund for Theological Education (FTE). The Fund offers several
fellowship programs and other initiatives to encourage diversity and
excellence in the churches and seminaries of North America.  The eight
students, who are FTE Ministry Fellows, are enrolled in Master of Divinity
programs and intend to enter the ministry.

The best young people going into ministry today carry an awareness that
they are citizens of a world bigger than the U.S., a world burdened with the
need for all kinds of reconciliation across racial, faith, class and wealth
divides, commented Melissa Wiginton, director of FTEs Partnership for
Excellence program. This experience gives the Ministry Fellows a chance to
unpack that awareness, name its components and begin to examine and practice
means for being agents of reconciliation. This is critical to their
formation for good ministry in this time and place."

All 45 participants plan to arrive in South Africa by May 28 to begin a
four-day pre-build tour in the Johannesburg area. The tour will include
opportunities to meet with representatives of the NCCs longtime partner,
the South African Council of Churches; to visit a local Habitat affiliate in
Oukasie Township, and to greet officials of the Umsobomvu Youth Fund.
Described as the single largest investment that the South African
government has made in support of the development of young people, the Fund
develops strategies to promote the economic citizenship of young people
hampered by lack of job skills and opportunities.

The group travels to Durban on June 1 and undergoes orientation before
participating in the blitz build of 100 houses in Durbans Sherwood area.
The land on which the new dwellings will be built is now vacant, but up
until the early 60s had been occupied by Indian and black South African
families. The former apartheid government forcibly removed them and
destroyed their homes in order to enforce racial segregation and to open the
area for white occupation.

The Durban build caps a continent-wide building effort-the largest in the
17-year-old Jimmy Carter Work Project history-that will construct 1,000
houses in 18 African countries. It marks the second time that the NCC has
participated in the JCWP event. Bob Edgar went to South Korea in August 2001
to join with volunteers from around the world to build decent housing for
136 Korean families.

Habitat for Humanity and the NCC have embraced a long-term series of joint
ventures to eliminate poverty housing in the United States and around the
world.  In its first 25 years, celebrated in 2001, Habitat for Humanity
built 100,000 homes worldwide, and half a million people now live in Habitat
homes. Habitat for Humanity's goal is to build another 100,000 homes by
2005.

The partnership is one in an emerging network of collaborative work against
poverty. Through its Poverty Mobilization, launched in November 2000, the
NCC is focused on making a measurable difference against poverty over the
coming decade in such areas as housing, child poverty, health care, public
education, environment and public policy, including welfare and budget
priorities.

-end-

A list of NCC-recruited participants in the Jimmy Carter Work Project 2002
Durban Build follows:

*Indicates members sponsored by the Fund for Theological Education.
Julian Allen, Oakland, CA
James Amadon, Chicago, IL *
Phyllis G. Belk, Philadelphia, PA
Ken Bensen, Lansing, MI
Marilyn Brill,Waynesboro, PA
David Brill, Waynesboro, PA
Marilyn Brunger, Claremont, CA
Harry Brunger, Claremont, CA
Kent Busman, Schenectady, NY
Samie Clowney, Atlanta, GA*
Marcia R. Cohen, Hastings-on Hudson, NY
Gary Dawes, Berkley, MI
Alfred T. Day, Jenkintown, PA
Kermit J. DeGraffenreidt, New York, NY
Edward Dempsey, Doylestown, PA
Whitney Dempsey, Bay City, MI
Robert W. Edgar, New York, NY
Joy K. Edmondson, New York, NY*
Mary Louise Ellenberger, Baltimore, MD
Paul Eppinger, Phoenix, AZ
Sybil Eppinger, Phoenix, AZ
Donald Flick, Taylorsville, NC
Jodi Flick, Chapel Hill, NC
Jo Anne Townsend Flick, Taylorsville, NC
Michelle Gavigan, Pasadena, CA
Ruth Goldthwaite, Chicago, IL*
Kay Grosch, Guilderland, NY
William Grosch, Guilderland, NY
Erik Haaland, St. Paul, MN*
Deborah Ann Hadjes, Metairie, LA
Bonita Hallam, Philadelphia, PA
Matthew Hardin, Decatur, GA*
Corliss D. Heath, Decatur, GA*
Allison Kirk, Claremont, CA
Quentin Knauer, Cambridge, Ohio
Mary Knauer, Cambridge, Ohio
Philip LaBelle, New Haven, CT*
Barbara Miller, Duarte, CA
Stanley R. Moore, Claremont, CA
Regina Pound, Media, PA
William Steenberg, Danville, CA
Rubin Tendai, New York, NY
Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III, Valley Forge, PA
John Wynn, New Orleans, LA
Janet Yang, Santa Clara, CA