Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505230015
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A four-day conference on Christian psychiatric services is being scheduled in Roanoke from June 7 through 10 at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
Sponsored by Medical Group Missions Psychiatric Services, the conference is open to mental health workers, pastors, physicians and psychiatrists. It will provide 30 credit hours of continuing education credit for physicians.
Among the workshop leaders will be Dr. Paul Meier, co-founder of the Minirth-Meier Clinics and author of 40 books, and Dr. Donald Gents, director of the psychiatric division of the Christian Medical and Dental Society.
Participants will discuss case studies and such topics as strengthening marriages, relieving true guilt, treating sexual disorders, and relieving depression.
General registration is $495; minister and student registration is $295. Hotel accommodations are $75 per night. Information is available from MGM Psychiatric Services, 5372 Fallowater Lane, Suite A, Roanoke, 24014 or by calling 703-297-3755.
Religion in cyberspace
Roanoke-based National and International Religion Report, a bi-weekly religion newsletter, is headed into cyberspace.
Beginning May 29, each issue will be distributed free via E-mail to anyone with an electronic mailbox, according to publisher Steve Wike.
There are indications God has begun a worldwide revival, Wike said in announcing the new service. He receives more requests for reprint permission for stories on worldwide spiritual activity than any other topic, he said.
Information on the new service is available by calling 989-7500. It may be more appropriate, though, to make contact by computer at any of the following addresses: ReligTodayAOL.com; 71736,702CompuServe.com; or http://www.cs.moravian.edu/NIRR.
Baptist Restructuring
Fallout continues to spread from a proposed restructuring of Southern Baptist Convention agencies - and a perceived slight to the independent auxiliary Women's Missionary Union.
The denomination's Foreign Mission Board, based in Richmond, has applied for a trademark on the name "Lottie Moon Christmas Offering," the name used for the annual Christmas season drive to fund the foreign missions program.
Some members of the Women's Missionary Union, which traditionally has been the driving organizational force behind the fund drive, suspect the conservative national Southern Baptist leadership may move to limit the women's group's right to use the name.
Foreign Mission Board President Jerry Rankin denied the trademark application was an attempt to "betray the WMU" or that the Southern Baptist leadership is planning to punish the women's auxiliary for refusing to distance itself from the rival Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of so-called moderate Southern Baptists.
The Lottie Moon offering was begun by the Women's Missionary Union in 1888, according to Associated Baptist Press. In 1956, the group turned over authority for allocations from the offering to the Foreign Mission Board.
Female ordination
There is continuing resistance to women in the pulpits of conservative Judaism and Christianity, though changing attitudes are being noted in both religions, according to recent reports.
The 60 women rabbis of Conservative Judaism this month celebrated the 10th anniversary of female ordination, but reported that they are still largely excluded from congregational leadership, though that may be changing.
The Rabbinical Assembly, the national association of Conservative Jewish congregations, passed a strong resolution supporting equal "respect, rights and privileges" for female rabbis.
There is some evidence that some congregations are now actively seeking female applicants for rabbinical positions, however.
About the same time the rabbis were discussing women's ordination in their ranks, the Barna Research Group of California reported that there is growing support for women ministers among evangelical Christians.
In a recent national survey, pollster George Barna concluded that 45 percent of those identified as evangelical Christians said they could accept a woman pastor. Evangelicals were described as those who have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as Savior, believe God is all-powerful, and believe the Bible is "accurate in all its teachings."
When the category was expanded to include opinions from all "born-again" Christians, the result was 67 percent in favor of women pastors.
"While many conservative churches and denominations will hold out (against women's ordination), they are already in the minority," Barna said. "A major reason for precluding women from the pastorate is doctrinal - an argument few Christians understand and which millions reject. Churches can expect this issue to persist in its intensity and significance."
In observance of the 10th anniversary of the approval of the ordination of women to become rabbis in the Conservative branch of Judaism, 60 female rabbis reflected on the event at the national Rabbinical Assembly held in Kiamesha Lake, N.Y. They noted that many women are now engaged as spiritual leaders of congregations or are working as educators, chaplains and directors of Jewish institutions. Like male rabbis, they are living with a tight job market in pastorates and about 30 percent of the ordained are carrying on non-profit work.
However, Rabbi Susan Grossman, who heads a congregation in Tuckahoe, N.Y., reminded that there is still considerable resistance to calling a woman when pulpit committees are seeking a new leader. Children as early as kindergarten age perceive that men are usually spiritual leaders and carry that impression into adulthood. She urged educating the young to accepting women reciting certain prayers and wearing prayer shawls.
Beth Israel Synagogue of Roanoke is among those in the Conservative group.
Church auditing urged
In response to an investigation into Episcopal Church national treasurer Ellen Cooke embezzling $2.2 million in mission funds before her January resignation, Bishop A. Heath Light of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia has told the diocesan executive board that the scandal prompts all church agencies to have their accounts audited. This is not always done, he noted, in small congregations which find it too expensive to hire a professional auditor.
At the Annual Council of the church in January and again at several board meetings, Light urged churches to keep careful track of their finances through yearly professional audits of all accounts. He has also disclosed all sources of funds kept in diocesan accounts.
Responding to the financial scandal, the board approved a motion to require two signatures, that of the bishop and the treasurer or another authorized person if necessary before any church funds are dispensed.
National Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning, who fired Cooke for poor management skills before her embezzlement became known, has issued a statement that the church is fully cooperating with federal agencies for prosecution. The church also is trying to recover the funds by acquiring for sale two properties Cooke bought with the stolen money, he said.
75th anniversary
Boones Mill Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will observe its 75th Anniversary with a celebration June 4 at 11 a.m. Guest speaker will be the Rev. R. Woods Kent II of Lynchburg, regional minister for Virginia. Dedication of a picnic shelter on the grounds on Virginia 919 will take place at a noon luncheon. Afternoon service will begin at 2. The Rev. Coretha Morra led the congregation in relocation from downtown Boones Mill to a site west of town two years ago.
\ Women ministering
A seminar to help women minister in their homes, church and community will begin June 1 at Stone Church of the Brethren, Forest and 22nd Streets in Buena Vista. Led by Shirley Bruffey, the seminar, "Women Ministering to Women," will continue each Thursday night through July 20. An offering will be taken. Child care will be available. Call 261-6946 or 261-7464 for registration information.
\ "Out of Africa"
"Out of Africa," a Christian service enhanced by African-American worship customs, is scheduled Sunday at 6 p.m. at Washington Street Baptist Church in Bedford. Music will be provided in both English and African dialect.
Couple of the Year
S.H. and Ethel Landreth of Salem have been honored by the Church of God as the National Ministerial Couple of the Year. The honor was awarded at the national convention of the church in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Reared in Pulaski, the Landreths have been active in the church with headquarters in Cleveland, Tenn. for more than 50 years. Now retired, Landreth was pastor of congregations in Danville, Hopewell, Salem and Charlottesville. At the latter church he served for 22 years. He also has been state evangelism director and a long-time member of the Virginia state council of the church and of Lee College's board. His career also has included being a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol and a radio minister.
Whitehurst named director
The Rev. Walter Whitehurst, a former pastor of Main Street United Methodist in Bedford, has been named director of the Southeastern Jurisdiction United Methodist Volunteers in Mission based in Atlanta. Both he and his wife, Betty, who will also work for the mission agency, are fluent in Spanish and have been engaged in considerable leadership for mission projects in which church volunteers participate.
by CNB