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

DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993                   TAG: 9304240101
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFS

The Bishop's Convocation on Religion and Race, a United Methodist fellowship to promote racial integration within churches, is in session today from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church in Salem. Bishop Thomas B. Stockton of Richmond will speak at the morning worship service. A Roanoke District unit, part of the Virginia Conference group, meets monthly for fellowship and has an ecumenical membership from the Roanoke and New River Valleys.

Auction at church

Fairway Baptist Church near Bassett has scheduled an auction May 8 at 11 a.m. in its new activities center known as Monroe Koger Hall. Proceeds from the sale will be used to complete construction of the building, which has recreation facilities for youths and adults of the community. Fairway Baptist is on Virginia 57. The sale will include furniture, tires and appliances as well as crafts and food.

Walk for hunger

A walk to combat world hunger is planned May 16 in Franklin County, the first of three seasonal events to raise money for the starving and malnourished. It will begin at Antioch Church of the Brethren on Virginia 641 at 2:30 p.m. and will cover a six-mile loop. On July 24 the church will sponsor a bike ride for hunger and on Aug. 14 its countywide auction.

Roanoker to perform

Joani Tabor, a Roanoke gospel singer, will perform on July 9 at the closing session of the North American Christian Convention in St. Louis, Mo. Tabor's music will be part of the theme, "A Focused Church in a Fragmented World." An estimated 50,000 people are expected at the meeting in the Cervantes Convention Center.

More dialogue urged

CHICAGO - Participants in an ecumenical dialogue between the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are encouraging members of the two churches to get to know one another better.

At a recent meeting in Chicago, members of The AME-ELCA Dialogue Commission said the goal of future meetings should include preparing a guide for local congregations to use to "introduce each communion to the other," according to a report from the Lutheran denomination.

Lutheran Bishop Robert W. Kelley of the Northeastern Ohio Synod in Akron said the guide "would be very valuable because we would be moving from that little group around the table in Chicago to a lot of people out there who conceivably might begin to know their neighbors a little better."