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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993                   TAG: 9306100291
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: E-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BY FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RELIGION BRIEFS

BETH LANE, minister of music at Vinton Baptist Church for the past five years, will leave the staff June 15. Lane said she will enter nursing school in the fall. She has directed several choirs for children, youth and adults, including a group that sings in nursing homes.

\ THE REV. THOMAS E. PLEASANT will be installed as the new pastor of Mount Moriah Baptist Church Sundayat 3 p.m. The installation sermon will be preached by the Rev. James A. Braxton of First Baptist Church in Salem. The choir of that church will provide music. Mount Moriah is at 3521 Orange Ave. N.E.

\ THE REV. GENE HAGENBERGER will leave the pastorate of Ninth Street Church of the Brethren on June 30. He has been at the church since 1984. He will become pastor of the Church of the Brethren at Roaring Spring, Pa., in the Altoona area on July 15.

\ THE CITY RESCUE MISSION is preparing to celebrate 45 years of serving the poor of the Roanoke Valley. The focus of the Aug. 7 celebration will be the construction of a log lodge at Jubilee Acres on Broadshaw Road. The mission staff operates a day camp and farm on the land.

The mission will hold a dinner Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Roanoke Airport Marriott. During that time, contributors will be able to sign logs that will be used to build the lodge.

Call 343-7227 for more information.

\ CONSTRUCTION HAS STARTED on the new Peace Presbyterian Church, 4365 Cloverdale Road. The new worship center will seat about 120 and is expected to be finished by September. The current modular building will be divided into education space. The Rev. Wilson Gunn Jr., pastor, said about 70 regularly attend services.

\ BETHANY CHRISTIAN CHURCH (Disciples of Christ) has presented $1,000 to the ministry of the Rev. Richard Harris, a Lutheran pastor employed by the Roanoke Valley Ministers Conference to serve inmates of the Roanoke City and County jails and patients at the Roanoke City Nursing Home at Coyner Springs.

The grant, part of $15,000 made available for Virginia programs, is from a national Disciples Fund for Reconciliation, which supports many projects to help disadvantaged people. Harris' ministry is estimated to reach 20,000 people annually.

\ THE REV. DR. JEFFREY B. SPENCE of Richmond will discuss "A Retreat from the Edges" Friday at 8:15 p.m. at Temple Emanuel, 1163 Persinger Road S.W.

Since 1980, Spence has been executive director of the Virginia Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. A United Church of Christ minister, Spence is a Washington and Lee University religion graduate.

\ SEEDS FOR CROATIA, a mission project of Virginia Southern Baptists, resulted in more than 500 congregations sending 67,000 packets of seeds to war-torn areas of the Balkans where hunger is widespread this spring. The seeds were distributed by a representative of the Baptist World Alliance to church workers in areas of greatest need.

The deadline for religion briefs for Neighbors is Thursday. Material must be delivered to Neighbors Religion Briefs, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010, by noon in order to run in the following Thursday edition.

by CNB