Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993 TAG: 9305010029
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The new Peace Presbyterian Church in the Blue Ridge area of Botetourt County is on the verge of taking a major step forward.
It will install its first permanent pastor next week and is moving forward on plans for construction of a permanent building.
In a service on May 16 at 3 p.m. the congregation will install G. Wilson Gunn Jr., as permanent pastor. He also was the pastor who organized the congregation about three years ago. The church is on Cloverdale Road near U.S. 460 east.
The church's building committee has announced that it will ask the congregation Sunday for approval of plans and a proposed contract for a permanent building. The plans also will include a new parking lot .
Since its organization about three years ago the congregation has been using a modular building. -Staff report
\ Catholic spirituality to be workshop theme
"Spirituality in the 1990s and Beyond" is the theme for a weeklong workshop this month at Resurrection Roman Catholic Church in Moneta.
Though led by a group of Catholic scholars from the Thomas More Center for Preaching and Prayer in Webster, Wis., the workshop is ecumenical in approach, organizers say.
The week will begin May 15 with a pig roast and conclude May 22 with a "Celebration of Spiritual Awareness."
Topics such as "Relationships with God," "Forgiveness," and "Obstacles to Praying" will be covered in the two-hour sessions, which will be held twice each day. Though connected, the sessions also are self-contained and participants may attend as many as they wish.
Registration and more information are available by calling 703-297-5300 or 703-297-7282. -Staff report
\ New pilgrimages urged
NEW YORK - The top leader of Reform Judaism wants to revive an ancient Jewish tradition of pilgrimages to Israel as a religious obligation.
Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of American Hebrew Congregations, said travel to Israel should not be "mere trips to an exciting land" or a place "endeared by memory and affection."
Rather, he said, "visiting Israel should be seen as a sacred journey, a quest to be spiritually invigorated."
He said Reform Judaism should give a "far greater religious significance to the land of Israel, its sanctity, its holiness."
-Associated Press
\ Lutherans aid Habitat
MINNEAPOLIS - Lutheran Brotherhood, a fraternal benefit society serving Lutherans across the country, contributed $1.46 million in 1992 to Habitat for Humanity projects
The brotherhood also says about 19,000 members donated 81,844 volunteer work hours in support of 625 Habitat projects.
-Associated Press
\ Gang summit to be held
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Baptist Peace Fellowship has urged special prayers for a summit in Kansas City this weekend of urban gang leaders from communities torn by gang violence.
An estimated 100 African-American and Latino gang leaders from 30 cities were invited to the summit at Kansas City's St. Stephen Baptist Church.
\ Catholic women backed
LONDON - Inspired by the Church of England's decision last year to allow female priests, a group of British Roman Catholics have announced formation of a Roman Catholic group to back women's ordination.
Sister Myra Poole, one of the founders, said that when the Vatican called the Church of England's decision a "new and grave obstacle" to unity, "many of us felt we wanted to disassociate ourselves from that statement."
"We decided that the alternative voice of the Roman Catholic Church needed to be heard," she added.
-Associated Press
\ Liberal journal folds
NEW YORK - Christianity and Crisis, a fortnightly journal that carried the banner of liberal Protestantism for a half century, has been forced by escalating costs to shut down.
The magazine was founded by the late theologian-ethicist Reinhold Niebuhr in 1941 to encourage American intervention in the war against Nazism.
Taking on various social issues in the years since, the magazine has included such contributors as Karl Barth, Margaret Mead, Jacques Maritain, Lewis Mumford, Paul Tillich and Alan Paton.
The current editor, Leon Howell, cited steep increases in costs of postage, health insurance and rent as necessitating the magazine's cessation.
-Associated Press
by CNB