ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 18, 1996 TAG: 9607180029
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
PEOPLE
The Rev. Dr. A. Taylor Todd, associate pastor of Second Presbyterian Church for the past eight years, is leaving the staff later this month. Todd, 41, will become minister of First Presbyterian Church of Staunton. An interim associate is expected to be named to work with the Rev. Dr. Richard Hutcheson, the interim senior pastor.
The Rev. Michael Grooms has been named pastor of Rainbow Forest Baptist Church in Botetourt County. He came from an eight-year pastorate at Calvary Baptist Church in Holland, Mich. A former Virginian, Grooms served the Shenandoah Valley Baptist Church from 1973 to 1986 and is a graduate of Liberty University in Lynchburg. He succeeds the Rev. Rick Via, who entered full-time evangelism in 1995. The new pastor and his wife, Edith, have four sons and a daughter.
The Rev. Dr. William Rethford, formerly of Sarasota, Fla., has become the new pastor of Blue Ridge Metropolitan Community Church, which holds services each Sunday night at 7 at 2015 Grandin Road S.W. Reared in Missouri, Rethford holds degrees from William Jewell College and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. Following a career as a Southern Baptist pastor, Rethford accepted ordination in the Metropolitan Community Church. Rethford said he hopes to offer a Sunday morning service in the fall; those interested may call 344-4444.
The Rev. Robert M. Hamner, retired pastor of Grandin Court Baptist Church, is serving as interim minister at Neriah Baptist Church, and the Rev. Gene Burris, formerly at Airlee Court Baptist, has a similar job at Covington Baptist Church. Both churches are in the Natural Bridge Association of Southern Baptists.
The Rev. Richard Harris, chaplain to three Roanoke Valley public institutions from 1981 to 1995, has become the part-time pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church following the retirement of the Rev. Dr. V.T. Jordahl.
The Rev. Cedric E. Malone will begin his pastorate at Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church in August. The St. Louis native has come from the pastorate of First Baptist Church in that city. Malone, 34, was educated at Benedict College and the divinity school of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He has served congregations in St. Louis and Columbia, S.C., and has been a hospital chaplain in Atlanta. He and his wife, Letitia Denita Malone, have a son and daughter.
Mary Gunderson, director of music and organist at St. John Lutheran Church for more than five years, will leave the position Aug. 31. She said she can no longer adequately serve both the parish's growing music program and her three-generation family.
Jeff Breneman, a senior engineering student at Cedarville College, is supervising a construction ministry at the Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf at Montego Bay, Jamaica. His parents are John and Lois Breneman of the Cave Spring area.
|OUTREACH| Eighteen youths and adults from St. John's Episcopal Church have returned from a week's work mission in Irvine, Ky. The team repaired a home that had been damaged by tornadoes and fire.
Seeds for Africa, especially for the countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, are being collected at many United Methodist parishes of the Roanoke Valley. They will be mailed in August for the fall planting season.
Twenty-six Colonial Avenue Baptists have returned from a week's mission trip to the Smithfield area to conduct a day camp for 170 rural children. They worked with a group from a congregation in Gloucester County.
The Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta are attracting a team of six people from Parkway Wesleyan Church who are part of an international evangelical Christian effort, Youth with a Mission. The team has left for three weeks of ministry to workers and participants at the games.
Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church will honor its late pastor emeritus, the Rev. James A. Allison Jr., by sending Dewey Houck, one of its members, on a mission trip to Russia beginning Aug. 3. He will be one of a team of 19 from Presbytery of the Peaks who will do construction at an orphanage in Sergiev Posad where 350 children live. Houck is receiving the trip scholarship as thanks for his care of the retired minister, who died earlier this year.
|MUSICAL EVENTS| The Voices of Women Plus Three, directed by Steve Henderson, will perform Sunday at 4 p.m. at Jerusalem Baptist Church.
The Encore Continentals, a young adult Christian witnessing group of musicians who travel nationally, will perform Sunday at the 9 and 11 a.m. services at Vinton Baptist Church in downtown Vinton.
The Moestas, a Pensacola, Fla., couple who have presented Christian music programs throughout the nation for more than a decade, will be at Westminster Presbyterian Church in America, 2216 Peters Creek Road N.W., Sunday at 7 p.m. An offering will be taken for the international children's agency World Vision, which Doug and Lydia Moesta promote.
|SPECIAL PROGRAMS| Melrose Christian Church, 4807 Cove Road N.W., will celebrate its 72nd anniversary Sunday with events beginning at 11 a.m. Guest speaker will be the Rev. Narka Ryan of Lynchburg, who with her husband, William, is interim executive for the Virginia Region. The celebration will include lunch and a historical program in the afternoon. Melrose Church dates from 1924 in Northwest Roanoke.
Youth Revival Services will be held Monday through Wednesday at Pilgrim Baptist Church, 1415 Eighth St. N.W. Preaching on the three nights at 7:30 will be the Revs. Lee Lewis, Chuck Whitfield and Ray Arrington.
Grace and Truth Baptist Church, 3541 Orange Ave. N.E., has revival services in progress through Friday with the Rev. Billy Martin, an evangelist, preaching nightly at 7:30.
Vacation Bible School is in progress through tonight at North Roanoke Baptist Church, 6402 Peters Creek Road, Hollins, 6:30-9.
Calvary Baptist Church, 608 Campbell Ave. S.W., has scheduled its Vacation Bible School Sunday through Wednesday evenings, 6:30-8:30. It is open to children 2 years old through sixth grade. To register for the free programs, call 344-9237.
A Bible conference led by the Rev. P. Douglas Small will be in progress Sunday through Wednesday at Cathedral of Praise, a Church of God congregation off Interstate 81 in the Hollins area. The Alive Ministries studies will begin at 6 p.m. Sunday and 7 p.m. during the week.
Send information to Frances Stebbins, Neighbors, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491 by noon Thursday. Please include a daytime telephone number.
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