Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408220063
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
United Methodists of the Roanoke District, which includes the Roanoke and New River Valley areas, will sponsor their third annual Old Fashioned Camp Meeting Sept. 9-11 at Camp Alta Mons near Shawsville. This year's event will include preaching from a hay wagon and sawdust-strewn outdoor pavillion. The Rev. Dr. Carl Douglass, a retired pastor most recently in Bedford, will preach on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 and on Sunday afternoon at 3. Activities for the family will have a focus of church life several generations ago. Call 268-2409 for more information.
Building campaign
Trinity Ecumenical Parish, a unified congregation of Episcopalians, Lutherans and Presbyterians which serves the Smith Mountain Lake area, has begun a campaign to erect its own building. It will use 13.9 acres on Virginia 122 south of Hales Ford Bridge. Charles Lunsford II will chair the fund-raising drive, The congregation has been using Resurrection Catholic Church since its organization in 1987 but has now grown from the 68 who were charter members to about 200. Since its organization the ecumenical parish has been served by clergy of all three denominations. The current pastor is the Rev. Gary K. Scheidt, a Presbyterian. The new building, designed for use of the Smith Mountain Lake community, will be built by Lionberger Construction Co. of Roanoke. The architect is Hughes and Associates of Roanoke. Call 297-2628 for information about the church or the campaign.
Writer dies
George W. Cornell, veteran religion writer for the Associated Press, died Aug. 10 at his apartment in New York. Cornell, whose stories often appeared in the Roanoke Times & World-News, was 74 and had covered religion for more than 40 years.
Sites considered
Five American cities, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver and Washington, are being considered as the site for new headquarters for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. The board, the largest unit of national United Methodism which administers many areas of church work, currently is in New York. The move, which has been studied for many years, is intended to bring the church on the national level closer to members outside the heavily populated and expensive Northeast. The five cities, all of which have populations of 1 million or more in their metro areas, will be further studied and one will be chosen by September 1995. The choice then will be recommended to the General Conference which meets the following year.
Singles on the rise
GREENVILLE, S.C. - An increasing number of people filling the pews on Sunday morning are single, sending some South Carolina churches a message that they need to do more for people without spouses.
``By the year 2000, it's projected half of the adults will be single,'' said Tim Cleary of the Southern Baptist Convention. ``Do you choose as a church just to minister to half of the adults in your community or do you see your mission and Christ's mission as speaking to all the adults?''
Cleary, who is a single adult ministry specialist for the Convention, notes that Jesus was single. ``The single lifestyle is as viable as the married lifestyle, and the Bible certainly bears that out,'' Cleary said.
Officials say Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and other churches now are catching up to an era in which marriage isn't considered the only way to go. Meanwhile, singles' social and prayer groups are popping up in Roman Catholic churches.
But, Cleary said, churches need to be careful not to think of themselves as a ``marriage bureau.''
``Some churches think `Let's get these poor single adults together and meet somebody and get married and be happy and be a whole person,''' he said. ``The church needs to be showing single adults how to live their lives as whole people.''
by CNB