DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997                TAG: 9704240147

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

INTERFAITH TV PRESENTS AWARD TO OBERNDORF

Interfaith Television is a local group with a mission to promote interfaith communication, understanding and tolerance by providing religious programming through television.

In its third year of honoring like-minded citizens, the group presented Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf an award last week to highlight her adherence to those same tenets.

Speaking at the banquet, Oberndorf told the audience of more than 100 at Virginia Wesleyan College that she wants Virginia Beach to be a city with heart and conscience. ``If we lose that and if we don't reach out to one another, we become like the other cities all over the globe.

``ITV has helped build unity between races, religions and nationalities,'' Oberndorf said.

ITV came about 15 years ago. At a United Methodist conference in 1982 in Richmond, leaders voted to create a ``religious presence on television,'' said Martha Franklin, ITV treasurer. ``We began with two, five-minute programs a week.''

Currently, ITV has been able to secure a full-time religious and ``family values'' channel called Odyssey on channel 39. Additionally, channel 11 provides 30 hours a week of such programming, said Irvine B. Hill, director of communications and community programming for Cox Communications.

Different religious groups are invited to buy airtime on channel 39. Twenty-five percent of that channel's programming is set aside for local programming and money raised by selling the time goes to ITV for expenses.

Among those instrumental in founding ITV were James R. Bergdoll, vice president of college relations at Virginia Wesleyan College; Robert Edwards, director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Virginia; Rabbi Lawrence Forman, of Ohef Shalom Temple in Norfolk; and Cox's Hill.

Two others, the Rev. David Garth then of First Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth and the Rev. Richard Faris, then of Foundry United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach, have left the area.

The 20 board members, who represent 10 faith groups, meet frequently to discuss the future of religious programming in the area.

Hill called ITV, ``One of the longest running and certainly the most successful in the United States.''

Wherever Cox Communications serves cable viewers, ITV works to provide quality religious television, its supporters say.

Goals for ITV include increasing viewership and getting more local programming on channels 39 and 11. ``We want to follow Cox as it goes into new communities,'' said Kenneth F. Palmer, ITV chairman.

With Cox now operating in Chesapeake and Newport News, in addition to Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth, ITV is working toward involvement from religious leaders in those cities. Cox will soon also be serving York County.

Speaking of Oberndorf's nomination for the ITV award, the Rev. Fritz Stegemann of Open Door Chapel said, ``No matter what your faith was, she honored it - not only honored it, but encouraged it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CAROLE O'KEEFFE

Kenneth F. Palmer, chairman of Interfaith Television, chats with

Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, who was honored at ITV's recent banquet.

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