Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130038
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
BRIEFS
Couple to lead Zen workshop in RoanokeAn all-day "Introduction to Zen" workshop is scheduled March 27 in Roanoke.
Jack and Marianne Miller, longtime practitioners of Zen Buddhism, will lead the workshop at the Stone Mountain Zendo, which is in their home.
The 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. workshop will include lecture discussion and practice in Zen meditation, Buddhist philosophy and everyday practice. A vegetarian lunch is included.
A $10 donation to cover the cost of lunch and materials is being requested.
Reservations are required by March 24 by calling the Millers at 345-8209.
-Staff report
Gospel concerts
Faith Lutheran Church at Whitetop in Grayson County has scheduled two concerts of Blue Grass gospel music March 21 and 28 when visitors flock to the community for the annual Maple Sugar Festival. The church is on U.S. 58 across from the Mount Rogers School, and its pancake breakfast also will welcome worshipers, according to its pastor, the Rev. John G. Strecker-Baseler.
On March 21 at 11 a.m., the Grayson Highlands String Band will perform on the first Sunday of the festival. On March 28 music will be by Miss Ellie and the South Fork Ramblers. The church also provides a storytelling hour for children. -Staff report
Easter retreats
Personal spiritual retreats for the Lenten and Easter periods will be offered this year by the Society of St. Andrew, an ecumenical Christian community based at Big Island in Bedford County. Limited to six adults, they will be held at the home of Ken and Jean Horne near the Peaks of Otter. Participants will be expected to fast for the day, which begins at 8:30 a.m., and a donation of $7 is requested for the pre-Easter days of today, March 18, 22, 30 and April 9.
Jean Horne will be retreat leader on each occasion, and the prayers and meditations will have specific themes.
After Easter, four quiet days for reflection will be offered on April 17, May 5 and 20 and June 1. Call Jean Horne at 1-800-333-4597 for more information. -Staff report
Methodists to train
Representatives of United Methodist churches in the Holston Conference west of New River will gather March 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a Vision 2000 rally at Emory & Henry College at Emory. Keynoter will be Dr. George Morris, a faculty member of Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. The training event is part of the national United Methodist effort to bring more people into churches by the beginning of the new century. Small-group topics include welcoming newcomers, motivating volunteers in a day of fewer homemakers but more retired people, appealing to young adults and personal sharing of faith. -Staff report
Upgrading for disabled
R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church in Lexington has approved a plan to make the building fully accessible to those with physical disabilities. Central to the program is installation of a commercial-weight elevator to give access to all five levels of the building as well as adding a ramp and restroom for those in wheelchairs.
Graham in Germany
MINNEAPOLIS - Evangelist Billy Graham has scheduled a "Pro-Christ '93" crusade in Essen, Germany, Wednesday through March 21, his first in a reunited Germany. The stadium seating will be comparatively small, but the reach will be wide.
Using a "live-link" television technique developed by the Graham organization, his sermons from Essen's 7,000-seat Great Hall will be carried direct by satellite to nearly 1,400 locations across Europe.
While the Essen audience won't match the 70,000 who overflowed a Moscow stadium last year, Graham's organization says the outreach will be the largest in the history of the continent and the largest satellite audience in Graham's 50 years of ministry. The broadcasts are expected to be seen by 2 million people per night.
Regarding the relatively modest auditorium, the evangelical weekly Christianity Today reports German church leaders say they "do not like mass rallies," and it's better to bring unchurched people to neighborhood meetings reached by satellite than to huge, crowded stadiums.
- Associated Press
Jews' rural effort DALLAS - Reform Jewish leaders have launched efforts to help small congregations, often in rural areas or small towns to survive in the comparatively isolated Jewish environments.
A "small-congregations conference" here brought out that some of them lack resident rabbis and some can't afford a Torah, the decorative scroll of key books of Scripture that is a centerpiece of Jewish worship.
B.J. Tanenbaum, a Hot Springs, Ark., businessman who was honored for his longtime activity on behalf of small congregations as head of a committee for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, says:
"We cannot allow our small congregations to die. We need a program under which large synagogues provide leadership, financial assistance and professional help to small congregations in danger of disappearing."
About half of the UAHC's 860 congregations fall in the "small congregations" category. Tanenbaum, regional director of UAHC's Southwest Council since 1979, formerly lived in the small Arkansas town of Dumas, which has no synagogue.
"Every Jew in every small town in this country has a right to be nourished Jewishly," he said.
- Associated Press
Sexual harassment
LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. - The United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women says the major focus of its work for the next four years will be deterring sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in the church.
- Associated Press