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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993                   TAG: 9302080241
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

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BRIEFS

Mormons move out headquarters

Roanoke is no longer the headquarters of Latter-day Saints missionary work in Virginia. Growth of Mormon congregations throughout the state has resulted in an empty headquarters building on Brandon Avenue Southwest with the division of the state into two administrative units.

Albert F. Turner, president of the stake - a Mormon regional division of individual congregations - said the lay missionaries who formerly worked out of Roanoke under the direction of a president now are centered in either Richmond or Charleston, W.Va.

Presidents, who are appointed from international headquarters in Utah to three-year terms and are usually laymen who can afford to give this time in unpaid service to their church, now will live in the two headquarters cities, Turner said.

He continues to coordinate part of the work of congregations known as wards. His territory is on the eastern edge of the area with headquarters in Charleston.

Over the past 40 years Mormon congregations have grown from one to five in the Roanoke Valley. Turner said he also oversees groups in Bedford, Lynchburg, Amherst, Gretna, Martinsville and Covington.

Regarding the Brandon Avenue property, which adjoins a tract with several Lutheran facilities, Turner said it probably will be sold, but no buyer has been selected. A Southwest area congregation uses a building between the headquarters and the Lutheran nursing home, Turner noted. -Staff report

Brethren shift seminary

Bethany Theological Seminary, the only theological graduate school of the Church of the Brethren, will be relocated from the Chicago suburbs to Richmond, Ind., next year. It will join with Earlham School of Religion, which trains Quaker leadership.

At a recent meeting the boards of the two seminaries discussed financing the move and its gradual implementation. About $4 million worth of bonds will be sold to Brethren and the general public. The Brethren will begin soon construction of a classroom building on the Earlham campus. The Brethren also maintain a satellite program in Susquehanna, Pa. -Staff report

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