Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509060011
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Woodbury Inn, a private resort facility at Meadows of Dan on the Blue Ridge Parkway, now belongs to the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. The anonymous gift honors the Rev. Claud McCauley, a retired clergyman most recently at Grace Church in Radford. Bishop A. Heath Light and the executive board of the diocese have accepted the property, which is valued at $795,000. Terms of the gift require that the diocese operate it through Nov. 8, when the inn will close for the winter.
Light said no decision has been made on to keep the 16-room inn and restaurant and use its estimated $25,000 annual profit for church ministries or whether to sell it and apply the money to a proposed $3-million fund drive to be carried out in 1996. The board will consider the matter on Sept. 16 when it meets at the inn.
The bishop said the inn is not intended to compete with the Phoebe Needles Retreat Center, a nonprofit facility in Franklin County scheduled to be upgraded in the fund drive.
Ministry workshop set
A workshop to introduce the Stephen Series Ministry program to Western Virginia church people is scheduled Sept. 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church in Roanoke. The Stephen Series program, based in St. Louis, is used nationally by several denominations to train lay and ordained adults in giving pastoral care to church members in crisis and for special needs. Christ and St. John Lutheran parishes in the Roanoke valley are among congregations where the program is active. Church boards enter into contract with the Stephen Series organization. G. Hardy Tippett, a Richmond United Methodist church staff member, will lead the workshop. Call 992-4131 for more information.
Charlotte mission ends
A team of seven youth and adults from First United Methodist Church in Galax has returned from a week's mission in Charlotte, N.C. The five teens and two adults led vacation Bible school each afternoon at an inner-city center and at other times worked at a clothing bank and food pantry and helped renovate a home for abused children.
Chamberlain endorsed for bishop
The Rev. Ray W. Chamberlain Jr., superintendent of the Richmond District of Virginia Conference United Methodism, has been endorsed as a candidate to become a bishop when elections are held in 1996. The 60-member delegation to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, where six clergy will be elected bishops, voted by secret ballot. Chamberlain won over the Rev. Samuel E. NeSmith. It is customary for the Virginia delegation to endorse only one candidate.
Conference for nonprofits
Registration is open for a Church Management and Tax Conference on Oct. 18 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Sheraton Inn-Airport. Covered in the $99 registration fee will be lunch and instruction on tax issues for churches and other nonprofit organizations. The sponsoring group is a nonprofit organization in business for 15 years. Call 1-800-345-9117 for more information.
Adult education workshop
Michaelmas Ministries Faire, a workshop to introduce adults to several innovative adult education methods, will take place Sept. 29-30 at Second Presbyterian Church, 214 Mountain Ave. S.W. Sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, the workshop is open to those of other denominations. Eighteen small groups will be available on Saturday beginning at 8:30 a.m. and continuing to 3:30 p.m. Registration costs $10. Guest leader will be Tom Long, a playwright and storyteller for Friends of the Groom, a Christian drama group. The small groups, to be led by both ordained and lay people, will include church computer skills, creativity in the Sunday school, Celtic spirituality, journaling, the Gospel as stories, floral design for worship, and church in a multicultural society.
by CNB