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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 10, 1995                   TAG: 9506120030
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RAM DIRECTOR MOVES ON TO PASTORAL COUNSELING

Roanoke Area Ministries, an ecumenical organization that provides emergency financial assistance to the needy and a day shelter for the homeless, is looking for a new director.

The Rev. Julie Hollingsworth, executive director since 1990, is resigning June 15 to become interim director of the Pastoral Counseling Center of the Roanoke Valley.

"This is the right time, now that I've accomplished the things I set out to do," she said Friday.

The organization needs "someone new, with a new vision," and it is time for her to move into a more pastoral position, she said.

"I'm going to miss her a great deal," said Clyde Ware, a longtime RAM volunteer and treasurer of the organization's board of directors.

"I've been highly impressed with the progress RAM has made in her tenure," he said. "She has an exceptional capacity to express sensitivity to the downtrodden and unloved."

At the same time, Hollingsworth can be "strong-willed, too," providing strong leadership and a "determination to do what is right," Ware said.

Hollingsworth became interim director of RAM in September 1990, when she was the organization's coordinator of volunteers - now a separate 25-hour-a-week position - and was pastoring a small Botetourt County congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In the past five years, the organization's budget has grown 50 percent to $364,000 this year.

"From my vantage point, RAM is in wonderful shape," Hollingsworth said.

A board retreat in 1991 established several goals for the organization, among them to improve the atmosphere of the day shelter, to create more visibility in the community and to create a broader base of support. "All of those have happened," Hollingsworth said. "They are not all 100 percent accomplished, but the seeds have been planted and significant changes" have been implemented.

Hollingsworth gave up the Buchanan pastorate in December 1993 to devote full time to the RAM ministry. Now, she said, she has a "wonderful opportunity" to work in both a pastoral role and a clinical counseling role at the Pastoral Counseling Center. The center provides counseling for pastors and members of religious congregations on a variety of issues.

The search for a replacement for Hollingsworth has already yielded several applicants, Ware said.

by CNB