DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709190149

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: From Staff and wire reports

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

NEWS AND NOTES

Historic steeple to be restored

The 139-year-old steeple of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Norfolk will be removed Tuesday morning for restoration work.

The church with gothic architecture is easily visible from the off-ramp on the north side of the Berkley Bridge.

The 80-foot-tall, galvanized-metal steeple, consecrated in 1858, suffered storm damage in 1996. It will be restored by Baldridge & Associates of Norfolk and Baker Roofing.

Architect John S. Baldridge said the steeple is ``perhaps the best example of this construction technique in Virginia.''

The restoration is expected to take from six months to one year. Norfolk synagogue to dedicate building

Congregation Beth El in Ghent will dedicate its new religious school building, the Isaac P. and Mollie Gordon Education Center, at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

The $600,000 facility is a complete renovation of the original building, which was constructed in 1948. It holds 10 classrooms, a resource center and office space, and it also is designed to facilitate the addition of computers.

The new building contains 12 etched glass windows, each depicting an object of significance to the Jewish faith.

Congregation Beth El, on Shirley Avenue, is a Conservative synagogue. Its rabbi is Arthur Ruberg. The director of the new educational center will be Susan Lepow. Orthodox patriarch will visit U.S.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, will arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., on Oct. 19 to begin a month-long tour of the United States.

Bartholomew, who is visiting the United States for the first time as ecumenical patriarch, will visit Baltimore; New York; South Bound Brook, N.J.; Boston; Atlanta; Chicago; Des Moines, Iowa; Dallas; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Stockton, Calif.; Florence, Ariz.; Pittsburgh; and Johnstown, Pa., in addition to Washington.

His schedule, released by Greek Orthodox Church officials in New York, is a mix of pastoral and public events.

In Washington, Bartholomew will meet President Clinton at the White House, will be honored by Congress at a Capitol luncheon, and will be feted at a State Department dinner by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He will also address the future of Orthodox Christianity in North America in a speech at Georgetown University.

In New York, Bartholomew will address the United Nations and preside over ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Bartholomew also will meet with non-Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders while in the United States and will officiate at such pastoral events as a visit to the Ukrainian Orthodox Museum in South Bound Brook, N.J. In Santa Barbara, he will attend a symposium on the environment.

As ecumenical patriarch, a post he assumed in 1991, Bartholomew is regarded by Orthodox Christian leaders around the world as the ``first among equals.'' With headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, he serves as a link between the various national and ethnic Orthodox churches, as spokesman for the Orthodox world, and as the convener of international Orthodox councils. There are about 5 million Orthodox Christians in the United States.

Bartholomew will leave the United States on Nov. 17 from Pittsburgh, returning to Istanbul.

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