GROUPS PLAN HOLIDAY-NAMES FORUM APRIL 19

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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060142
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short
GROUPS PLAN HOLIDAY-NAMES FORUM APRIL 19
Groups on opposing sides of the school holidays controversy will sponsor a forum on religion in the public schools April 19.
The forum will attempt to extend discussion beyond the naming of school holidays.
It's scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Christiansburg High School auditorium.
The recent dispute pitted the Christian Coalition, which favored "Christmas" and "Easter," against the Coalition for Community, which supported "winter" and "spring," as designations for school holidays in Montgomery County.
Other forum sponsors include the Montgomery County Council on Human Relations, the Montgomery County Public Schools, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Christiansburg and Blacksburg ministerial associations.
Moderating the forum will be Oscar Williams of the NAACP. Williams is director of the Institute for Leadership and Volunteer Development at Virginia Tech.
Speakers will include Melanie Davis of Charlottesville, a lawyer with the nonprofit Rutherford Institute, which is concerned with First Amendment issues; John Lichtenstein, a Roanoke lawyer representing the B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation League; Rabbi Bonnie Margulis of the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center; the Rev. Charles McHose of St. Paul United Methodist Church, Christiansburg; and Raylyn Terrell of Blacksburg, a member of the Christian Coalition.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB