Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9408160049
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: from staff and wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The India Heritage Society of Roanoke Valley will present a discourse on ``Bhagvad-Geeta,'' a religious classic of both metaphysics and ethics.
The talk will be conducted in English on Monday from 7-9 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Roanoke. Param Pujya Shri Rameshbhai Oza, who has conducted Shrimad Geeta pilgrimages around the world for 20 years, will speak. He also will conduct a Geeta Gyan Yagna in Roanoke at Cave Spring High School this weekend. Admission is free for these events, but donations are accepted. For more information, call 989-7446 or 772-0186.
Talk on near-death
Rick Bradshaw, an internationally known speaker on near-death experiences, will speak tonight at 7 in Parlor A of the Salem Civic Center. Bradshaw will describe how a near-death experience changed his life and religious beliefs. He was named the American Medical Association's Trauma Victim of the Year and has helped establish the International Association for Near-Death Studies.
New youth director
Chris Carr, a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church at Callaway, has been named director of youth ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. The part-time lay minister began work July 1. A recent graduate of Ferrum College, Carr grew up in West Virginia. She fills a position requested by many church members in a long-range planning study over the past three years.
Church addition
Completion of an addition to Holy Name of Mary Catholic Church in Bedford is expected by fall. The new church costing $500,000 incorporates the previous structure, which was built in 1954. Currently the congregation of 280 families is using a Bedford funeral home for services. The Rev. James Begley, pastor for the past six years, said the renovation was needed because of steady growth of the parish that includes many retired Smith Mountain Lake area residents. Other members work in Lynchburg and Roanoke but have moved to Bedford for its small-town life, he said.
New bishop
Members of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America are scheduled to get a new bishop in 1995. Bishop Herbert W. Chilstrom, 62, has announced that he will not seek re-election after his six-year term ends next year; he has served the church as national leader since 1987. The new bishop will be chosen from 17,000 pastors in the largest branch of the denomination. The bishop is the church's chief executive officer and international ecumenical representative.
Bible school turns 100
Vacation Bible school is celebrating its 100th anniversary this summer. The concept was developed by Mattie Miles, the wife of a Methodist pastor in Illinois.. Today more than 100 Christian denominations sponsor VBS, and millions of adults and children participate each summer. A United Methodist spokesman, James Ritchie Jr. of Nashville, Tenn., said church leaders have learned that the concentrated lessons and activities lasting for five mornings or evenings offer a more hands-on ministry than the often-sporadic Sunday morning classes. Ritchie noted that many Bible schools now are held in the evening to accommodate employed mothers and the increasing number of adults attending.
Brethren adopt papers
When delegates to the recent Church of the Brethren national Annual Conference met earlier this month in Wichita, Kan., they adopted a position paper "to relate the denomination to Native Americans" and issued a statement on violence in North America. The convention also approved a query urging Church of the Brethren congregations to start implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act and named a committee to encourage Brethren to follow a simpler lifestyle.
The paper on Indians grew out of a 1992 Brethren youth event that attempted to educate church members on the continuing need to recognize the civil rights and human values of a minority group that regards it self as native American. The paper is titled "Community: A Tribe of Many Feathers."
Delegates elected the Rev. H. Fred Bernhard of Arcanum, Ohio, as its next moderator, succeeding Judy Mills Reimer of Roanoke. Next year's Annual Conference will be in Charlotte, N.C., and the one in 1996 in Cincinnati.
Director elected
A Richmond evangelist, Howard Baldwin, who has preached in the Roanoke area, has been named interim executive director of a conservative Baptist fellowship in Virginia. Baldwin, 59, was elected earlier this month by the executive committee of Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, an organization formed last year to counter what its founders believe is a weakening of ties between the Southern Baptist Convention and the more moderate Baptist General Association of Virginia. Many Virginia Southern Baptist congregations now send considerable financial and moral support to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group that opposes what it considers ultra-conservative polices of the SBC. The group Baldwin heads will seek to keep churches allied fully with the convention.
Catholic growth
Reflecting on his 20 years as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Walter F. Sullivan notes in The Catholic Virginian that 31 new parishes have been established during that time. The Catholic population has grown to 165,000. Sullivan said he has emphasized the use of lay leadership, new liturgies and adult education that relates faith to daily life through several educational programs. The bishop also reiterated his commitment to social justice for the underdogs of society and inclusion of people of every race and ethnic group into church life.
Money for refugees
The United Methodist Committee on Relief has contributed more than $80,000 to assist Rwandan refugees working through church agencies in Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania as well as the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation Appeal and Church World Action-Rwanda.
The UMCOR also has established a project involving 2,000 young people in Zenica, a city in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where classes are being offered "in everything from computer training to music lessons and sports and games." The idea is to get community life moving again, according to a news release from United Methodist Communications. In the same city a public kitchen is serving 3,000 meals daily to residents whose homes were destroyed in the civil war.
by CNB