RESEDA : South-Central Pastor Addresses Clergy

When he was asked to speak on “rebuilding Los Angeles” at the monthly Clergy Network lunch in the San Fernando Valley, the pastor and community leader from South-Central Los Angeles demurred Wednesday and said that he preferred to talk about “building” instead.

“Rebuilding is like remarrying,” said the Rev. Cecil (Chip) Murray of First African Methodist Church of Los Angeles. “If the same people come back together, they are going to have the same problems they had before.”

Murray, lauded two years ago during and after the rioting in Los Angeles for leading conciliation efforts, told nearly 50 clergy meeting at Woodland Care Center that new programs are needed to boost the economic productivity of the black community.

As indicators of what can be done, Murray cited nonprofit programs connected to his 9,000-member church that have made more than 60 loans to small businesses, received large corporate donations from Disney and Arco to help with jobs and the training of entrepreneurs, and employed former prisoners in a project making low-flush toilets.

Murray praised revitalized relations in recent years between African American pastors and Jewish rabbis.

“The black-Jewish coalition must stand,” Murray said, adding that only a minority of black churches deal in community action programs.

The minister said, in answering a question, that he holds Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in high esteem although Murray said he wishes Riordan would do more things to directly aid poor people.

“Being a corporate person, he’s hoping there will be a trickling down,” Murray said. “(Riordan) agrees with me, but I don’t know if the public will let him do much besides making the streets safe.”