Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

IP Donating Lumber For Rebuilding

International Paper, the world's largest forest-products company, will work in partnership with the National Council of Churches (NCC) to supply enough lumber, paneling and other wood products for the Council's entire program to rebuild churches burned to date, the NCC announced today.

International Paper chairman executive officer John T. Dillon also has encouraged the company's employees to give to the NCC's Burned Churches Fund, promising that the Internation Paper Company Foundation will match each contribution dollar for dollar.

The NCC is leading a major effort to investigate racially motivated attacks on houses and promote community dialogue about racism. As part of its program, the Council is in the process of conductiong a detailed assessment of burned churches' rebuilding needs. A blue-ribbon panel of religious and civil rights leaders, including Andrew Young, will set cirteria and determine disbursements.

"Because the National Council of Churches is working directly with the pastors of the burned churches to coordinate a relief effort, you are in the best position to help us identify those churches that can use our help and to estimate the amount of material they will use," Dillon of International Paper wrote the NCC's general secretary, the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell.

In the letter, Dillon said he and his company's employees were "deeply saddened by the sight of churches across the Southern United States being burned. This tragedy is particularly distrubing for us because many of our major facilities and much of our land are in those same states."

Dr. Campbell commented, "The generosity of International Paper gives great hope to the pastors of the churches that have been burned and is evidence of an America that will not remain silent in the face of attacks on houses of worship."

The Rev. Dr. Rodney Page, executive director of the NCC's international humanitarian response ministry, Church World Service, also thanked International Paper for its "magnanimous gift" and said "this one single gift will go a very long way in the reconstruction efforts. International Paper has our deep and abiding gratitude for the lumber and for encouraging their employees to consider giving a gift of their own."