ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990                   TAG: 9003232429
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: N8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RELIGION BRIEFS

THE ANNUAL CLOTHING APPEAL, sponsored for many years by the ecumenical Church World Service agency, will be discontinued this summer. Instead, supporters are requested to supply kits filled with supplies for personal health, school, sewing or infants. Purchased or handmade blankets also are sought. United Methodist, Disciples of Christ and Churches of the Brethren are among the major supporters and can supply lists of kit items.

\ THE REV. DR. VINSON SYNAN, Synan chairman of the North American Renewal Service Committee, will speak Friday at 8 p.m. at Holiness Tabernacle Church of God in Christ, 1130 Melrose Ave. N.W. Synan, a national Pentecostal leader, also has worked with other churches involved in charismatic renewal.

He will be in Roanoke for the Churches of God in Christ of Virginia's annual workers conference through Sunday . A free concert by musicians from Virginia churches is scheduled at the Roanoke Civic Center Saturday night at 7. Speaking at the closing session Sunday at 11 a.m. at the civic center will be Bishop Samuel L. Green Jr., spiritual leader of the Second Jurisdiction.

\ LENTEN LUNCHEONS on Wednesdays at noon will begin next week at Huntington Court United Methodist Church, Williamson Road at Huntington Northwest. Programs Wednesday and April 4 and 11 will be led respectively by the Rev. George Gravatt, the Rev. Eugene Carter and the Rev. Dr. Harold S. Moyer..

\ A SKIT AND TESTIMONIES will be the program for the Roanoke Day Chapter of Women's Aglow, a charismatic Christian group, when it meets Wednesday beginning at 9:30 a.m. A $4 continental breakfast will be served at the Hidden Valley Country Club, Salem. A nursery will be available. Call 366-9054 or 774-0702 for reservations.

\ A VEGETABLE GARDEN, maintained by church members, will be a service project this year of Buchanan Baptist Church. Produce will be given to needy in the community and to frail senior adults of the church.

\ THE REV. KIRK H. LASHLEY, who recently became executive director of the Roanoke Valley Association of Southern Baptist congregations, will address the annual luncheon April 7 for nursing-home volunteers from these churches. The luncheon will be at the Baptist Childrens' Home and Family Services in Salem at 12:15 p.m.

Baptist Visitation Ministry, whose volunteers the luncheon honors, has been in existence for 17 years. During that time more than 87,700 visits have been made. Of the 71 congregations in the association, 48 sent at least one volunteer during the year to be matched with a shut-in. The 1989 roster shows that Oakland, with 40 visitors, led the number with other large groups coming from Bonsack, Villa Heights, Melrose and Waverly Place. The Baptist volunteers currently work in 17 nursing homes and with 550 residents.

\ "GROWING OLD GRACIOUSLY" is the theme of a Sunday evening radio program being carried each week at 5:55 on WRIS-AM. The program is presented by the Rev. Dr. F. Bernadette Turner, a former Roanoker who returned recently for retirement and will be a volunteer counselor for St. John's Episcopal Church.

\ A BLACK AND WHITE MUSICAL PROGRAM, featuring gospel music, will be presented Sunday at 5 p.m. at Jerusalem Baptist Church by the J. Eugene Young Mass Choir. The church is at 1014 Norfolk Ave. S.W.

\ THE REV. CHARLES FULLER will be one of six recipients of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary distinguished alumni awards this summer.

Fuller, pastor of First Baptist Church, 515 Third St. S.W., received a bachelor of divinity degree from the Forth Worth, Texas, seminary in 1957.

He has been pastor of First Baptist since 1961. He was chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Peace Committee and its Radio and Television Commission. He has held numerous other national, state and local denominational offices and memberships.

The award will be presented June 13, during the national Southern Baptist Convention meeting in New Orleans.

\ THE 123RD ANNIVERSARY of the founding of First Baptist Church in Salem will be marked Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at 226 S. Broad St. A program, "The Triune God," will include organ and other instrumental music. Sharon London and Karen Brewer are directors.

Deadline for religion briefs for Neighbors is Thursday. Material must be delivered to Neighbors Religion Briefs, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010, by noon in order to run in the following Thursday edition. 


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