Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993 TAG: 9304060144
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FAITHFUL REPRESENTATION
IT'S one thing to read that the Roanoke Valley is a religiously diverse community. It's something else to see it.That's what the Roanoke Valley History Museum has attempted to show in a new exhibit called "Places of Faith."
The collection, which will continue through June 5, documents a range of religious belief from Baptist to Buddhist.
Exhibit curator Bonnie Jacobs said she wanted to "celebrate the histories that had already been collected" by some religious congregations and denominations, and "stimulate others to start collecting their histories."
The idea for the exhibit came from museum volunteer Lorana Moomaw, Jacobs said.
When Jacobs and museum Executive Director Nancy Connelly actually started to figure out how to pull things together, one man came to mind: "Alvord Beardslee started us off," Jacobs said.
Beardslee is an inveterate collector of religious artifacts whose apartment is something of a museum itself.
As it turned out, Beardslee was willing to lend a number of the pieces he's collected over the last three decades, and he helped direct Jacobs to other local sources of history.
One of the most extensive existing collections - aside from Beardslee's - is maintained by the Roanoke Valley Catholic Historical Society.
"It was very generous" of that group to lend some of its most beautiful pieces for the History Museum exhibit, Connelly said, since it meant leaving "holes" in their collection for the next two months.
The eye-catching display of vestments, Eucharistic vessels and other items is used, in part, to attract museum visitors from the door to the "Places of Faith" exhibit.
From there, the visitor moves into the main exhibit space, where the juxtaposition of items from different faiths seems to emphasize their peaceful coexistence in the Roanoke Valley.
For instance, on one wall is a picture of the Islamic holy city of Mecca just above photos of important figures of the Baha'i faith. Visitors can rest on an old pew from one of the valley's oldest Baptist churches, Enon, that sits just underneath the pictorial display.
There is a collection of Christian crosses from around the world; items related to the practice of Zen; communion vessels from St. Mark's Lutheran; a bishop's chair from the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia; offering plates from First Presbyterian; a hymnal from Raleigh Court United Methodist; an 1873 pastor's salary book from College Lutheran; and an old Torah scroll, which had been desecrated, from Beth Israel Synagogue.
There are photographs, works of art and brief historical explanations of many items.
Lacking from the exhibit is a display from any of the predominantly black churches in the Roanoke Valley.
Jacobs said the exhibit was to have included items from one such church, but that the arrangements fell through at the last minute.
The Roanoke Valley History Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Sunday from 1 until 5 p.m. Admission is $2 for adults, $1 for children 6-12 and senior citizens ages 60 and older, free for children 5 and under and museum members.