Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 14, 1993 TAG: 9308140129
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Picnic to promote interracial events
A potluck picnic for those who wish to promote interracial events under sponsorship of the church is scheduled Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. at the Roanoke United Methodist Home.
It is sponsored by Religion and Race Conversations, an ecumenical group supported by the Roanoke District of United Methodists that meets monthly for dialogue. Call 989-3335 for more information.
Episcopalians schedule leadership conference
An adult leadership conference, the first of its kind and known as Michaelmas Ministries Faire, is scheduled Oct. 8 and 9 by educators in the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia.
It will be held at North Cross School. Featured will be Bruce Stewart, a specialist in creative forms of worship. He will present a Friday night program at 7:30. Out-of-town participants will be housed free in homes. Registration is requested by Sept. 15; call 342-6797 for more information.
The Faire program on Saturday will last from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will include workshops on a variety of church activities ranging from altar flower arrangement to insurance and legal issues and singing contemporary liturgical music.
Registration cost is $10.
Clergyman leaving staff of Council of Churches
The Rev. Myron Miller, a Church of the Brethren clergyman, is leaving the staff of the Virginia Council of Churches after 38 years with the ecumenical agency based in Richmond.
Miller retired from the position of director of the council in 1984. For four more years he was director of program ministries, and later continued to be a consultant with the Head Start program for migrants.
Commenting in "Bridges," a publication of the council, the Rev. James F. McDonald, present director, said that though the ecumenical movement has been described as in a "winter" decline compared to its vitality of a generation ago, cooperative work among churches is expanding annually in Virginia.
He said many church activities, such as using the same Bible readings on a given Sunday or following similar rituals for baptism, are now taken for granted by worshipers active in their mainstream American congregations.
Southern Baptist pamphlet to be reprinted
The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention has ordered the denomination's Historical Commission to reprint a pamphlet called "Who Are Southern Baptists?"
The pamphlet included a statement that "Some churches also give money for missions, education and other causes through such channels as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship."
Conservative leaders who control the executive committee asked the commission to delete all references to the Fellowship, which is run by "moderate" dissenters in the convention.
The commission decided to comply with the request, but said it would discuss the "issues involved in this matter" and respond to the executive committee request next month.
It cost $1,800 to print 40,000 copies of the revised pamphlet, which says Southern Baptists may use unspecified "other channels" to support missions.
Grahams celebrate wedding anniversary
Ruth and Billy Graham celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Friday at their home near Asheville, N.C.
The Grahams have three sons, two daughters, 19 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
"When one partner is away from home as much as I have been, it is both a honeymoon and a readjustment period every time we get back together. Ruth's knowledge of the Bible, sense of humor and her shared commitment to my ministry have been an anchor in our marriage," Billy Graham said in a statement from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Graham, 75, continues to hold his trademark crusades around the world. In the next year he will preach in Columbus, Ohio, Tokyo and Cleveland.
Workshop on misconduct of clergy set in Roanoke
A workshop for congregational leaders on "Clergy Misconduct: Sexual Abuse in the Ministerial Relationship," is scheduled to be held in Roanoke Feb. 9.
It is one of four being planned throughout the state with the support of the Virginia Council of Churches. Leaders will be United Methodist clergy Jeanne T. Finley and Richard B. Faris.
Materials will be from the national consulting and training agency Center for the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence. More more information call 804-321-3300.
Church of Brethren to hold revival services
The Rev. Bruce Noffsinger, pastor of Hollins Road Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, will conduct revival services Sunday through Thursday nights at 7:30 at Bethlehem Church of the Brethren. Nursery will be staffed.
The church is in Franklin County on Virginia 739 three miles west of Boones Mill.
by CNB