Repair the Hopewell Baptist Church

Thank you for visiting this campaign - while we're no longer accepting donations, we want to keep sharing this story of support in the face of tragedy.

UPDATE, 11/10:

Hello everyone,

We the members and Bishop Clarence Green of the Hopewell Baptist Church family would like to thank God for your awesome support this week with your overwhelming acts of love shown toward us during this devastating tragedy of the burning of the House of God. Words do not express the gratitude we have for your acts of kindness, love and support you have expressed. Whether your gift was small or great ($1-10,000 or more) we are eternally grateful your act of love and kindness. We have a long road ahead of us, but we do have the faith in God that he will supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Phil.4:19). We are also soliciting your continual support in our rebuilding process.

For all who want to mail your contributions, the mailing address is:

Hopewell Baptist Church
936 Cedar Street
Greenville, MS 38701

Or: 

Hopewell Baptist Church
P.O. box 285
Greenville, MS 38701

We also would like to thank Blair Reeves for establishing the go fund me account. Thank you Blair and Laura for your support.

Again, words do not express our appreciation and gratitude you have shown toward us.

Yours In Christ,
Bishop Clarence Green


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Original post:

On Tuesday, November 1st, 2016, unknown criminals burned a predominantly black Baptist church in Greenville, Mississippi and scrawled graffiti on it: "Vote Trump". (Link to local news coverage.)

The animus of this election cycle combined with the potent racial history of burning black churches as a political symbol makes this event something we must not ignore.

Only two weeks ago, the internet came together to help repair a North Carolina GOP field office that had been burned by thugs. Justice demands we do the same now.

More details as they are available. Can we do this? Can we help show the world, the country, and most importantly, the churchgoers of Hopewell Baptist that we, as a society, are better than this?

Please give. Thanks.

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UPDATE, 11/2 11PM:

Holy crap, y'all - we're almost at $125,000 raised today. When I ginned up this page before my first meeting at work today, I had no earthly clue it would get so big. Thank you all so much.

Responses have been pouring in from all over the world, and they're truly extraordinary. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, atheists and many more, from all over the United States and many other countries. I've been tweeting out  some of the (anonymized) responses, and responding to questions about the campaign. Feel free to get in touch there.

UPDATE, 11/2 8:50PM:

I just got off the phone again with Bishop Green. He's had a very long day - up at 4AM and going ever since. We exchanged contacts, and we've started the process to get Hopewell Church registered with GoFundMe so that they can transfer all funds to the church's bank account. I also learned from him that Hopewell Baptist is 111 years old! 

He is overwhelmed at the response you've shown here. Thank you, very much. Love > Hate.

UPDATE, 11/2 6PM:

Spoke again by phone with Bishop Green from Hopewell. He has been on-site all day, but we exchanged email contacts so that we can begin the process of getting Hopewell registered with GoFundMe as a beneficiary. GoFundMe staff have also reached out to me directly, and will be assisting Hopewell with their registration.

Folks have asked about contributing directly to the church. That is best, of course, since it involves no overhead from GFM. Bishop Green has given his permission to use his personal address if you'd prefer to send a check:

Hopewell Baptist Church
936 Cedar Street
Greenville, MS 38701

Please make all checks out to "Hopewell Baptist Church."

As always, more info as I receive it.

UPDATE, 11/2 1:15PM:

I just got off the phone with Bishop Clarence Green from Hopewell M.B. Church, and let him know about this GFM campaign. He was very pleasantly surprised, and wanted to thank all the donors.

The Bishop is still on-site and has no access to a computer now, but as soon as he can, he will sign up Hopewell as an organization on GFM. This will allow GFM to wire all funds to their bank account directly. You can see the overhead that GFM charges here.

Thank you, so very, very much, to everyone who has donated. Your actions have shown that we are better than this.


UPDATE , 11/2 11AM:

We are working to get in touch with the Hopewell M.B. church leadership, and have already spoken to other church leaders in Greenville today. There is a press conference this morning at the Greenville Fire Department, where more information is being released. More details as they come.