NEWS STORY: The Rev. Mac Charles Jones, National Council of Church official, dies at 47

c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ The Rev. Mac Charles Jones, a prominent African-American minister who played an instrumental role in responding to the spate of arsons at mostly black churches in the South, died suddenly Thursday (March 6) after taking ill at a Texas airport. Jones, 47, the former pastor of St. Stephen […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The Rev. Mac Charles Jones, a prominent African-American minister who played an instrumental role in responding to the spate of arsons at mostly black churches in the South, died suddenly Thursday (March 6) after taking ill at a Texas airport.

Jones, 47, the former pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday had begun his new post as deputy general secretary for national ministries at the National Council of Churches (NCC).


Friends and colleagues, shocked by the suddenness of his death, talked about Jones’ ability to bring together people from a wide range of backgrounds for discussion, education and to work for justice.

Although known recently for his work in bringing the church burnings to national attention, Jones’ career included a broad range of cooperative efforts.

He helped gather African-American, Latino and white gangs for a Kansas City summit on urban violence in 1993. He also worked with the World Council of Churches, an international ecumenical organization, representing historically African-American churches and advising its Urban Rural Mission activities.

Jones, a Phoenix native, died at a moment in his life that was filled with excitement and newness, friends said. Just days before he had married Jannella Johnson Jones in a private ceremony. They had scheduled a larger celebration to take place Saturday (March 8) with family and friends in Tucson, Ariz.

The same week, Jones took on the responsibilities of his new post with the NCC in New York City, which were to include continued assistance to the burned churches and programs on education, advocacy and evangelization.”In a tragic, sudden moment. The Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones has passed from us and we are deeply stricken,”said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary.”His ministry was to be to the whole nation. The loss is enormous.” Jones had arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport from New York on Thursday afternoon and was headed to El Paso, Texas, for a meeting of the NCC’s Racial Justice Working Group.

He collapsed at the airport and was taken to a hospital. After first responding well to treatment, doctors said he died of an embolism, the obstruction of a blood vessel by a blood clot, later that evening.

His friend of 13 years, the Rev. Sam Mann of Kansas City, had traveled throughout the Southeast with Jones visiting burned churches before the situation gained national attention.”He was the consummate prophet that forever kept the justice issues on the agenda of both the church and the nation,”said Mann, pastor of St. Mark Union Congregation, which is dually aligned with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ.”He was tireless in his efforts.” Jones’ and Mann’s churches co-hosted the Urban Peace and Justice Summit that brought the various gangs together in 1993.


Jones also was active in his denomination, the National Baptist Convention of America, and a pioneer among the black Baptist churches of Kansas City in ordaining women.

Gaylord Thomas, a lead organizer for the NCC’s Burned Churches Project, said Jones worked to make sure the voices of groups as diverse as women, homosexuals and Native Americans were heard.”He was the prophetic voice to carry us into the next century,”said Thomas.”His hallmark was that he had a concept of setting tables where all voices could be heard, where there was an honest true struggle for the common good.” Jones’ death leaves a”gaping hole”in the black community, said Thomas, director of community development services for the church and society division of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Rev. John Boonstra, executive minister of the Washington (State) Association of Churches, said that although Jones’ leadership was significant in the black community, his efforts for justice also were global in nature.”Mac was totally absorbed in the interrelationships between the struggles of all different kinds of racial (and) ethnic communities and saw them as absolutely, non-negotiably, fundamentally linked,”said Boonstra, who worked with Jones in both the World Council of Churches and the NCC.

In addition to his wife, Jones is survived by his mother, a brother, a sister, a daughter and a son.

Jones’ body will lie in state from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday (March 11) at Lawrence A. Jones and Sons Funeral Chapel in Kansas City, Mo. His memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday (March 12) at St. Stephen Baptist Church.

Future memorial services are planned in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

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