Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990 TAG: 9005120023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
About 700 are expected at Bast Gymnasium of Roanoke College for the Friday afternoon through Sunday morning gathering. Clergy and lay delegates will come from 161 congregations in all of Virginia except three suburban Washington counties.
Interpreting the program from the national church office in Chicago will be the Rev. Morris Sorenson, an assistant to Bishop Herbert Chilstrom. He will speak Friday at 4:30 p.m. and on Sunday morning. Several workshops for delegates will focus on aspects of the Mission 90 program.
Keith Brown of the synod headquarters staff in Salem said four persons are expected to be ordained this year at the annual worship service May 19. It will be held at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke with Bishop Richard Bansemer presiding.
Candidates for ordination are Anthony Brewton, who will organize a multi-cultural parish in inner-city Richmond; David McCoy, who will become pastor of Reformation Church in Culpeper;, and Darla Kincaid, who will be an associate at St. Paul Church of Strasburg. A fourth candidate's name was not released because she has not yet been officially called to a pastorate.
In Lutheran church polity, ordination does not take place until a seminary graduate has received and accepted the invitation of a church or related institution. Action is expected Sunday on the fourth graduate, Brown said.
Appointments affirmed
Delegates to Presbytery of the Peaks recent meeting in Danville affirmed the appointments of the Rev. George C. Goodman, the Rev. George M. Wilson and the Rev. G. Wilson Gunn Jr. to church positions.
Goodman joins the staff of the Lynchburg headquarters as an associate to work with church professionals. Wilson will become stated clerk of the presbytery, the person who sets up the agenda and follows up on the business of quarterly meetings of the decision-making body. Gunn is designated as an evangelist to develop a fellowship of Botetourt Presbyterians into the Peace Presbyterian Church. All three are expected to be on the job by July.
The presbytery renewed an international partnership with CELEP, a Central America church cooperative that members of the old Fincastle Presbytery have supported over the past decade.
It also agreed to continue the two-cents-per-meal offering for hunger relief. A program of aid to two Haitian institutions formerly supported by the old Blue Ridge Presbytery also will be kept and will receive some of the hunger funds.
Edith Patton, a presbytery staff member, noted that committees are active in studying the future site of presbytery headquarters and in deciding the eventual use of the two conference centers now owned by Peaks church members.
The present Lynchburg headquarters, which formerly served the old Blue Ridge Presbytery, could be moved to a more central community; some objection has been expressed over the distance New River Valley members must travel.
Patton said "the committee is fully open - we're not trying to support any particular plan" about Camp Hat Creek near Brookneal and Camp Fincastle in Botetourt. Both have rustic facilities dating back more than 30 years. More recently an all-season center has been in use at Hat Creek.
Swaggart to preach here
Jimmy Swaggart, former nationally broadcast television evangelist who now directs a evangelistic ministry from Baton Rouge, La., will be in Roanoke June 1 through 3.
He will preach on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 and again on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Roanoke Civic Center. Music will be led by members of the Jimmy Swaggart Crusade Team. The services are free.
Ashcraft retires
The Rev. Dr. Morris Ashcraft has retired as acting president of the proposed Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
Ashcraft is a former dean of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. He resigned from that school after its board of trustees became dominated by ultra-conservative nominees of the Southern Baptist Convention leadership.
The proposed Richmond seminary, which will be operated ecumenically and emphasize non-literalistic interpretation of Scripture, is expected to open in 18 months. Its headquarters are at Northminster Baptist Church, Richmond.
by CNB