c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Congress of National Black Churches (CNBC) announced a $12 million initiative Monday (Jan. 27) to address the rash of recent church fires by aiding in their rebuilding and creating programs to foster multiracial and ecumenical harmony.

Under the plan, called the Church Rebuilding and Arson Prevention Initiative, the CNBC intends to help rebuild 50 churches over the next three years.

But officials of the CNBC, made up of eight predominantly African-American denominations, said it is important to develop a comprehensive plan to address the causes as well as the results of the fires, many of which have occurred at churches of its member denominations.

Bishop John Hurst Adams, CNBC’s founder and chairman emeritus, speaking at a news conference at which the initiative was unveiled, said he hopes the effort will contribute to ending the spate of fires before the start of the 21st century.”We hope that we can begin the new millennium without this issue being a threat to either persons or property in the future,”he said.

Over the next three years, the ecumenical and racially inclusive program will be implemented in 13 mostly Southern states. Initial pilot programs are planned in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Other states the CNBC plans to reach are Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia.

CNBC leaders estimate that the entire initiative will cost $12 million. It will be be funded in part by a $6 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, an Indianapolis-based foundation that is one of the nation’s largest funders of religion research and scholarship.

The rest of the money will be raised by the CNBC, which is working with a variety of private and governmental partners on the effort. Among the partners are black police and firefighter organizations and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The new initiative is not the CNBC’s first foray into the rebuilding effort. It also is a partner with the National Council of Churches, an ecumenical agency of 33 Protestant and Orthodox groups, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the National Rebuilding Initiative that provides loans and other assistance to burned churches.

The additional effort announced Monday, however, will focus not only on rebuilding and reconciliation, but also on education about security and fire prevention techniques as well as creative projects for young people.

Juveniles have been charged in a significant percentage of the church fires.

Adams said the new effort is just a sign that”more than one coalition”is interested in helping the affected churches.”We are not in competition with each other,”he said.”We are in support of each other.” Larry Doss, a retired partner of the accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand and a principal consultant on the new program, said that, on average, a church has a $150,000 shortfall between the amount of money needed to rebuild and the amount of money the church has available from insurance and other resources for new construction. The CNBC hopes to provide each church with approximately $75,000.

Doss estimated that about 85 percent of the 50 churches that will be assisted are predominantly African-American and the others are multiracial.

In addition to the church rebuilding efforts, the CNBC also hopes to prevent church arsons by educating churches on effective security systems and the use of fire retardant materials. A third component of the efforts is a series of forums, writing contests, and other activities promoting exchanges across religious, ethnic and age groups.”This program is comprehensive,”said the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, CNBC board consultant.”It attempts to go beyond the building to the reconciliation of relationships.” The National Church Arson Task Force, a cooperative effort of the U.S. Departments of Treasury and Justice, recently reported it has investigated 328 arsons, bombings or attempted bombings that occurred at houses of worship between Jan. 1, 1995, and Jan. 7, 1997. It found 43 percent of the arson-related arrests in the last two years have been juveniles between the ages of 7 and 17. At least 138 of the 328 investigations have been at African-American churches, with the majority of those in Southern states.

The eight denominations belonging to the CNBC, which was founded in 1978, represent 65,000 churches and about 20 million members.

The member denominations are: the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; the Church of God in Christ; the National Baptist Convention of America; the National Baptist Convention, USA; the National Missionary Baptist Convention of America; and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

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