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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994                   TAG: 9405090123
SECTION: RELIGION                    PAGE: B-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFS

EMORY - The Southeastern Jurisdiction Historical Society of the United Methodist Church will meet July 12-15 on the campus of Emory & Henry College this year.

The program, expected to draw as many as 100 participants, will feature four major addresses on church history, a panel on record-keeping and church archives, and a tour of regional sites related to the history of Methodism.

The Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church spans an area from Chattanooga, Tenn., to Radford in Virginia. It was the conference that founded Emory & Henry in 1836.

The addresses will be on trends in Holston history, the uniqueness of the Holston Conference, its educational institutions and its contribution to the national church.

A bus tour will take participants to sites including Acuff's Chapel and the Edward Cox House near Bristol, the Keywood Marker near Saltville and the Madam Russell Church and house in Saltville.

Abingdon resident Henny Schuster, dressed in Revolutionary War period costume, will portray Madame Russell and tell her story. Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell was a sister to Patrick Henry and a Southwest Virginia resident who promoted the spread of Methodism in the late 1700s.

Registration is $25. Room and board on campus are available at additional fees. Further information is available from the college's public relations office.

Hunger walk

The annual World Hunger Walk supported by many Franklin County residents is scheduled to begin May 15 at 3 p.m. at Antioch Church of the Brethren near Rocky Mount. A second hunger relief activity, World Hunger Bike Ride, is planned for July 16 beginning at 6:30 a.m. It covers 75 miles from Antioch Church via the Blue Ridge Parkway to Camp Bethel Conference Center in Botetourt.

On Aug. 14 an auction of farm products, livestock, quilts and other handcrafted articles will take place at Antioch Church on Virginia 641. Though sponsored by seven Church of the Brethren congregations in Franklin, the events include participants from many other groups. Last year, according to the Rev. Gerald Baile-Crouse, Antioch's pastor, more than $30,000 was raised to alleviate world hunger. To participate in any of the events, call 483-2087 for more information.

Scholarship aid

Youth groups from Trinity Episcopal Church in Rocky Mount and St. Peter's Episcopal Church near Callaway raised $1,200 in a recent festival to provide some scholarship aid to graduates of Franklin County High School.

The effort has grown out of $75 each congregation received two years ago from the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia to begin a new ministry to people. Church members were challenged to make the gift grow into a continuing ministry.

SOS kits being used

Mary Mason, a Church of the Brethren missionary nurse now stationed in a border town in Uganda, has reported the use of SOS kits sent by Western Virginians to refugees from the war-torn Sudan. Members of Churches of the Brethren and Episcopalians in Western Virginia have prepared thousands of kits containing iodized salt and four bars of soap wrapped in a bath towel to be sent to Sudanese refugees through the ecumenical Church World Service agency.