Racial Appeal Set for 1956
Diocesan Press Service. January 8, 1965 [XXVIII-9]
For the second consecutive year, the Executive Council has set up a racial fund and appealed to the nation's 3 ½ million Episcopalians for a sum of $100,000 to be raised during 1965.
The fund, among other things, will be tapped by clergymen and other churchmen who are caught in local situations demanding emergency measures. Already, the women of the Episcopal Church have contributed a sum of $75,000 to be used for this purpose during the next three years.
In calling for the continuation of the racial fund, the 40-member Council stipulated that Episcopal priests participating in projects supported by the fund must receive the approval of the bishop whose jurisdiction is concerned.
At the December meeting of the Council, it was also announced that during 1964 more than $80,000 was contributed by individual Episcopalians for support of race-related projects across the country. As of Dec. 1, total receipts amounted to $80,111.64, with $73, 677.44 allocated for racial projects; only $6,433.20 remains on hand.
In making the report, the Rt. Rev. William H. Marmion, Bishop of Southwestern Virginia and chairman of the Department of Christian Social Relations, said that the largest single allocation--$40, 000--went to the National Council of Churches' Commission on Religion and Race.
The second largest sum of $5,600 was divided between the dioceses of California, Lost Angeles and Northern California, all of which initiated educational programs to help defeat Proposition 14, an amendment to the state constitution that called for the abolishment of fair housing laws in California. The majority of Californians, however, voted for the amendment in the Nov. 2 balloting. It presently is being contested for unconstitutionality at the state government level.
A sum of $5,000 was sent, through the office of the Bishop of Mississippi, the Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray, to an inter-faith committee charged with raising funds for the rebuilding of burned churches in Mississippi. There were a number of small allocations.