THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604190182
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
A four-day celebration of the dedication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' new Chesapeake Virginia Stake Center will begin Thursday.
Open houses, receptions and a concert of classical, secular and sacred music, as well as the dedication service, are all open to the community.
The Stake Center, on Bennett's Pasture Road in the Bennett's Creek section of Suffolk, is a new, $2.5 million, 25,000-square-foot regional center of the denomination popularly known as Mormons. It is the home church for the Bennett's Creek congregation as well as headquarters for the Chesapeake Virginia Stake, or diocese.
The Chesapeake Stake serves the area south of the James River to Ahoskie, N.C., including Isle of Wight County, Franklin, Suffolk, Portsmouth and most of Chesapeake. The six-year-old stake has more than 3,000 members. There are two more stakes in Hampton Roads for a total of about 10,000 LDS church members.
Over the past several months since the building was completed, Dr. J. Craig Merrell, Chesapeake Stake president, has encountered folks who admire the building's exterior and are interested in seeing the inside but hesitate to just stop in. The dedication celebration offers an opportunity for everyone to visit comfortably.
``We feel that the building can become a resource to the community, and we also want to make people aware of the many programs we sponsor that are open to the community,'' Merrell said.
One of the most eagerly awaited features of the stake center is its family genealogy center, which offers a direct link to the extensive records of the Mormon genealogical library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The center, staffed by trained volunteers, is open to the public several days a week, with day and evening hours.
Tours of the stake center and refreshments, including homemade bread baked from freshly ground wheat, will be included in open houses on Thursday evening and during the afternoon Saturday.
A Friday night concert featuring vocal solists and ensembles, organist Brian Miller at the new Allen organ, and a bagpiper is also open to the community and will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday's dedication service will begin at 3 p.m.
Merrell, who will lead the dedication, said he hopes the community will see the building as not only a valuable resource but also as a source of spiritual refuge.
``This is a sacred building and on Sunday we will turn it over to the Lord,'' he said. ``This is God's building, and it belongs to all of His children.'' by CNB