Methodist Bishops Focus Attention on Rebuilding : Cities: National program will debut in Los Angeles in effort to involve church in commitment to nation’s urban needs.

A major nationwide effort to rebuild urban America will be launched in Los Angeles on Monday by more than 130 bishops of the United Methodist Church from the United States, Europe and the Philippines.

Known as the Shalom Zone initiative, the program was first endorsed by the national church in the midst of last year’s Los Angeles riots, one of the most destructive civil upheavals in the nation’s history. It is intended to involve the church more directly in urban rebuilding and to encourage a “massive recommitment to rebuilding our cities” by all levels of government.

The bishops hope that efforts in Los Angeles will become a model for urban outreach programs in other cities.

Many Christian denominations, as well as other faiths, have long been engaged in urban ministries. Many of those efforts have been stepped up since the riots. But never has a single denomination sent so many of its leading clergy to revitalize and expand such programs. The presence of the Methodist bishops was intended to signal the commitment by the nation’s second-largest Protestant church to urban healing.

“We have United Methodist churches in every city in the United States, and they reflect the wide variety of racial and ethnic traditions that exist in this nation,” Los Angeles Bishop Roy I. Sano said. “We want to challenge and assist those local churches to become models of racial harmony and cross-cultural understandings.”

Seven guidelines have been established for Shalom Zones. They include community-based participation in decision-making and planning, the promotion of self-sustaining local developments, and a systematic transition from charitable approaches aiding the inner city to efforts that lead to self-sustaining enterprises.

Job creation and training, private and public investment in the inner city, venture capital for minority businesses, and neighborhood enterprise development are also priorities.

Bishop Felton E. May of Harrisburg, Pa., who chaired a 12-member church committee on the initiative, said bishops will ask Methodists this fall to financially support the program. Volunteers will also be asked to give their time to rebuild selected neighborhoods in Los Angeles and across the country.

The prelates will tour projects and programs in Koreatown, East Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley and Long Beach before joining in a noon outdoor rally at West Pico and South New Hampshire streets.

The visit is in conjunction with the bishops’ semiannual national meeting in San Diego, May 1-7.