Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 7, 1992 TAG: 9203060317
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The ecumenical spirit gets a boost tonight and Sunday as a group of Newport News youngsters puts on performances of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."
Members of St. Andrews Episcopal, Trinity Lutheran and Hilton Presbyterian congregations in Newport News will stage the show tonight at 7:30 at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Roanoke and Sunday at 10 a.m. at Trinity Church in Moneta.
The Moneta church has a special interest in the group since its membership also is made up of Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians who bonded together for a first-of-a-kind joint congregation.
Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley will benefit from the Christ Lutheran performance of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
Western Virginia Mormons will join fellow believers around the country by satellite March 14 in celebration of the 150th birthday of the church's women's organization - the Relief Society.
The noon satellite broadcast will be viewed at regional centers in Salem, Pembroke and Bassett.
At its organization in 1842, church organizer Joseph Smith commissioned it "to help in looking to the wants of the poor - searching after objects of charity and in administering to their wants."
That mission remains essentially intact today, church publications say.
There are about 3.1 million members worldwide, the church estimates. Celebration activities will continue throughout the year.
A group of Southern Baptists near Danville is seeking the ouster of a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Danville.
A 70-year-old retired real-estate broker, Austin E. Jones Sr., wrote to newspapers and to Virginia's members of the seminary's board of trustees calling for Professor Mollie Marshall's ouster.
Marshall spoke to an Averett College audience late in January and was quoted in a newspaper as having said male-only references to God presented "a deformed image" of the deity - something that might be harmful to girls.
Jones, who said his group includes about six members, said Marshall had violated the trust placed in her as a seminary professor and called for her immediate dismissal.
T.C. Pinckney of Alexandria, a lay leader among Southern Baptist ultraconservatives, said that although Jones' group is small, its position on Marshall's speech would be widely held among Virginia Baptists.
Marshall has said she was incompletely quoted, and Averett and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary officials have come to her defense.
A leading Roman Catholic peace advocate will speak at Resurrection Catholic Church in Moneta at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of Detroit since 1968, was founding president of Pax Christi USA and has been involved in a host of peace organizations.
His address "will explore . . . how the gospel calls us to include Gumbleton the poor in our critical decision during this election year," according to church promotional material.
A $10 donation is requested of those attending.
Registration deadline is Tuesday for one of the most widely respected religious-education experiences offered in the Roanoke Valley.
Lay School '92 is sponsored by the Roanoke College Office of Church Relations, Roanoke College Center for Church and Society and Lutheran Cooperative Ministry.
Five four-week long classes will be offered this year. They run concurrently so participants must pick only one to attend. The cost is $5.
Classes this year include "Cancer Care for Body and Soul," led by a religion professor and cancer specialist who have written a book on the subject; "Ordinary Saints: A Lutheran View of Christian Ethics," led by Robert Benne; "The Fourth Gospel," led by the Revs. Jim Mauney and Danny Whitener; "The Spiritual Life of Children," led by the Rev. Jean Bozeman; and "Dying and Rising with Christ," a course for pastors led by religion professor Ned Wisnefske and Bishop Richard Bansemer.
Additional information is available by calling 982-8334. All classes meet at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church.
by CNB