THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607190200
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 86 lines
The Rev. Randy Orwig began searching for his flock in 1992.
That's when he came to Virginia Beach from Ohio to begin a new congregation of the United Church of Christ.
Earlier this summer, Orwig and the members of Tidewater United Church of Christ celebrated a milestone. The gregarious, 36-year-old minister was officially installed as pastor and the church itself officially received into the United Churches of Christ. It is the first new church added to the Eastern Virginia Association of the 1.5 million member denomination in the last 30 years.
It was a day Orwig had worked toward since he arrived. For his congregation of some 70 worshipers the odyssey had begun with the group's first service in December 1992 when eight people gathered together at a public school near the Courthouse.
Orwig describes his denomination as one of the most liberal in the United States. It is a descendant of the church that founded Harvard and Yale, and locally, the school that has become Hampton University. It is most well-known recently as the denomination that ordains avowed homosexuals, although none has been ordained in the Southern Conference. It is a denomination that values tolerance and diversity. Fifty percent of its congregations in this conference are predominantly black.
The Tidewater church's founding is a result of a national strategy for growth the denomination charted in 1985. The 23456 ZIP code that encompasses the Municipal Center was identified as one of the fastest growing ZIP codes.
Where most churches form from a group of individuals who petition a denomination for a pastor, Tidewater has been formed as the result of a denomination that sends out a pastor who must then find and form his own flock. It has been a campaign not without cost to Orwig, a father of two who has had to take five pay cuts since coming here.
With the cooperation of the other four United Churches of Christ in the area, Orwig started his quest for a church here by calling 12,000 phone numbers. A bank of 10 phones was installed in Pembroke Congregational Christian Church and for three hours each night for two weeks Orwig and volunteers called number after number. Not able to afford expensive phone lists they simply called every combination of numbers in the most popular exchanges in the vicinity of the new church. Tidewater church members still repeat the procedure each spring and fall.
Orwig and his wife Beverly first visited Virginia Beach in 1988, while on their way to vacation with relatives in South Carolina. The area left such a positive impression they felt drawn to it when they learned it was an intended site for church-planting. ``It was our chance to be by the ocean, and I really felt called here,'' said the ruddy-faced minister. Orwig has been a full-time pastor since 1986. Tidewater is his fourth church. He was ordained as a United Methodist and served within three United Methodist churches in the Midwest before leaving the denomination.
Orwig explained that the United Methodist form of church government had him moving every two or three years at the direction of the bishop. He describes the congregational form of government in his current denomination as freer. ``Each church is autonomous, guided by its own view of faith, understanding of the Bible and their values,'' he said. ``In the United Churches of Christ we've had pastors stay with their churches 30 and 40 years. We'd like to stay at least 10 to 15 years. The stability of the church is dependent on what the first pastor does. I see big things for this church,'' he said.
The ``big things'' Orwig sees include a permanent home for the church that has been meeting at North Landing Elementary School for lack of its own facility. Members took a step in that direction last week when they closed on a piece of property in the 2500 block of North Landing Road. They'll be discussing building plans today at a congregational meeting.
Orwig sees the church's positioning as a statement of its liberal ecumenical policies. ``At the west side of Virginia Beach you've got Pat Robertson and on the east side you've got Edgar Cayce, and there's everything in between.'' Orwig sees this ''in-between'' as his mission field.
Tidewater wants to appeal to a broad range of people, its pastor said. ``Catholics, Baptists, Episcopalians - we're creating something new and we're having fun with it. We even had some Hindus on our mailing list for awhile.'' The church has participated in a number of public service opportunities including helping feed the homeless through the Winter Outreach program and hosting a fund-raiser called Hoedown for the Homeless. As chairman of the Interfaith Council, Orwig works on numerous projects and planning efforts to aid the homeless. ``We're a `homeless church,' so it's natural for us to help the homeless,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: The Rev. Randy Orwig says his new Tidewater United
Church of Christ wants to appeal to a broad range of people.
``Catholics, Baptists, Episcopalians - we're creating something new
and we're having fun with it,'' he said. by CNB