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Show mm Travel E4 E, Sunday, September 27, 1992 The Daily Herald UuizHi Leader appeals to end suffering By JENNIFER LITTLEFIELD Herald Correspondent - NEW YORK (AP) A Jewish leader appealed for action to end the suffering in Somalia, the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere in a message marking the Jewish new year. "The cries of starving and maimed children, victims of human cruelty and insensitivity, the wailing of mothers over the graves of dead these voices sons and daughters of pain and suffering join together in a thundering cry for compassion, for an end to the madness which causes their pain," said Alfred H. Moses, president of the American Jewish Committee. Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, begins at sundown Sept. 27, marking the start of the year 5753. The High Holy Days end with the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, at sundown Oct. 7. In his message, Moses said there is still hope amid the suffering. "We are given the choices of good and evil, life and death. And we are commanded to 'choose life,' he said. Yom Kippur in particular helps people believe the world is not doomed to an endless cycle of cruelty and insensitivity, Moses said. "The prophets taught us that we can turn away from evil and do good," he said. "Over the darkness of human history hovers a vision of a better day, of a more compassionate and caring humanity. ' ' Evangelicals: Go to Sunday School : CAROL STREAM, 111. (AP) -- The National Association of Evangelicals is sponsoring a "Vote Sunday School" campaign Sept. 27 through Nov. 1 to encourage attend- ance at religious education pro- grams. Other goals of the program include uniting evangelical denominations in reaffirming the importance of Sunday school for this generation, the association said. The association said 28 percent of Americans attend Sunday school each week. Evangelist: It's OK to ask 'Why me?' HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) -E- vangelist Billy Graham told the victims of Hurricane Andrew that "it's OK to ask why" the disaster occurred. "I ask why," he said. "There's a reason for this, and you'll find out some day what it is. Maybe you'll find it brought your family closer together." Commission wants selection change - WASHINGTON (AP) The Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission and the National Association of Evangelicals have asked Attorney General William Barr to end the American Bar Association's role in the selection of judges for federal courts. The religious organizations joined with more than 20 other groups in sending a letter to Barr stating that the bar association's recent vote endorsing abortion rights showed it "has chosen to be a political interest group rather than a professional association," according to a release from Baptist Press. non-politic- al Police keep faith after struggles CHICAGO (AP) taefoes join hands in project Tw Orem -of A police no other he knows chaplain says more evil that with struggles group often and can still come away with faith in God. "The bread and butter of a police officer's day is crime, evil, sufferor to use a ing and degradation sin. After a theological term while the officer starts to say that there has to be something more than just me and the police department." the Rev. Thomas Nangle, a chaplain with the Chicago Police Depart-Dien- t, said in an interview in the the September U.S. Catholic magazine. ' "This constant exposure to human evil pushes the officer against the wall and almost forces him or her to cal I out God ' s name . ' ' Nangle said he couldn't take notes fast enough when officers began to talk about God on a retreat last year. "It was as if somebody opened the door to a gold mine and I didn't know where to begin," he said. - OREM The tale of two churches in Orem is a sweet one; the kind of story that makes people feel just plain old good. It's a story of a need being recognized and met regardless of religious differences or similarities. And to top it all off, this tale is even true. The Christian Science Church just recently completed a new building at 1014 E. Center in Orem. The small congregation has very few young people, which meant help for landscaping such as laying sod and doing other various work would have to be hired. That is until the church's lack of landscaping labor hit Brad Prescott as a good idea for a service project. Prescott, Teacher's Quorum adviser for the Orem 6th Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints, decided to find out if he and his group of 14 and 15 year old boys could lend a hand. "The bishop of our ward asks that we do a service project once a month. Most of the members here (the Christian Science congregation) are older and we could see there was a need here," Prescott said. "I contacted Sheila and she very graciously allowed us to come and help." Sheila Morand of Wallsburg attends the Christian Science congregation in Orem. There are four other formal congregations throughout the state, but the new building in Orem will house all the members in Utah Valley. Morand was impressed by the giving attitude of her neighbors, and she was eager for the rest of the community to hear about this gesture of good will. "It's a nice story of neighbors helping out their neighbor. We hear a lot about family values, but there are also community values, and the idea of helping one another is what those values are about," she said. "It is a very gracious way of welcoming us into the community." The work mainly consisted of moving rocks and laying sod, but the lessons learned were much greater. Prescott said he thinks it is implant for people to learn to move outside of their own world and to help those in need no matter who they might be. "We usually help older people in our own ward. I think this experience has helped the boys learn to give of themselves to others,'' he said. "I think they've learned to appreciate the differences in religion. It's good for people in Utah and everywhere to help each other out." Ryan Grayson, 14, of Orem, said he had never heard of The Christian Science Church before but it was pretty fun helping them out. He said one of the biggest things he learned was how hard it in ' r - vww ' , - I - Herald PhotoPatrick Gerald Perkes, right, and Jim Broadbent carry sod to Jan Broadbent and Brad Prescott to place Science Church, 1014 E. Center, Orem. Justin Broadbent looks on. "It's a nice story of neighbors helping out their neighbor. We hear a lot about family values, but there are also community values, and the idea of helping one another is what those values are about." Sheila Morand is to lay sod. Like Grayson, there are probably quite a few people in Utah Valley who aren't quite sure what the Christian Science Church is or what it is about, although the group has held services in Utah Valley for almost 00 years. Morand said spiritual healing and all things connected with it make up the basis of the Christian 1 Science beliefs. This spiritual healing they call a science because there are laws that govern it. Morand said Christian Scientists believe they can reap the benefits of Christianity if they practice the laws in the Bible, such as the Ten Commandments and The Sermon on the Mount, as a science. Morand said the service project performed by the members of the LDS Church had a healing effect. The supply was needed and met, and Christian Scientists believe all their needs can be met through Divine Love and the healing that can come through prayer. "We expect that God is good and He is going to supply all we need as we turn to Him and live the laws and rules," Morand in said. The Church first organized in Boston in 1879 when 15 students of discoverer and founder Mary Baker Eddy decided to meet to- gether and call themselves the Church of Christ, Scientists. According to a pamphlet published by The Christian Science Publishing Society titled "Questions and Answers on Christian Science," "It was on the motion of Mrs. Eddy that they decided to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of heal ing . " The Christian Science Church today is governed by a process the pamphlet relates to the federal government. A Board of Directors appoints chief officers of The Mother Church in Boston, and the branch churches choose their officers by election, a system Christian Scientists find balances their leadership. Although Christian Scientists believe healing is essential to true Christianity, they do not believe J. Krohn the yard of the Christian they put any more emphasis on healing than the New Testament does. According to the pamphlet, "Christian Scientists are not obsessed with a desire for physical well being; indeed, they think and talk less about their bodies than most people. In one sense healing is only a of drawing closer to God through coming to know the loving kindness of His divine laws and the perfection of His spiritual creation. " Morand said the official pastors of the church are the Bible and the book written by Eddy, Science and Health with Key to e the Scriptures. Two readers pie-par- a lesson taken from the Bible and "Science and Health" for Sunday services and each member of the congregation should read the lesson during the week it is to be taught. On Wednesdays the group meets for an hour for a testimony meeting in which members can share insight and talk about their spiritual healing experiences," Morand said. Congregation pulls together to build own church By MICHAEL HIRSLEY Chicago Tribune $2,-00- CHICAGO Every Sunday for the last year, members of Christ Temple Missionary Baptist Church have taken turns driving between their Evanston, 111., church and Chicago's South Side, worjust to bring one from and services. to shiper Of course, that worshiper is pretty important. He's the Rev. Jerome Brown, the pastor. And the unusual four-tri- p Sunday teamwork is consistent with this congregation's dedication to keep their church going in less than ideal conditions. Among those circumstances are Brown's not having a car since an accident last year (he says he still has a driver's license), and the congregation's not having an actual church buildtwo-hou- r, ing since 1985. That's when Brown and his ple have been donating for a spe0 cific piece of the church ... for a window, $500 for a pew or $50 for a square foot of floor. ' ' It has finally added up. The congregation was able to buy a half acre at the corner of Brown Avenue and Simpson Street in Evanston and to pay Chicago architect Ken Hazlett to design their church. They've raised some $250,000, less than a quart- - fol- lowers left another Evanston church that voted him out over emowhat he calls "my less-tha- n tional style of preaching." For the last seven years, Christ Temple has held Sunday services in two different grade schools while members contributed what they could toward building a church. "Practically since Day One, we have had a building fund," says Sam Martin, a deacon and one of those who ferries Brown between his Prairie Shores home and the Evanston services. "Peo "The reason we started this congregation was to be more d and community service oriented," said Sam Martin, a deacon at the church. "We are a missionary church. We take one collection for community service, and a separate collection for rent and the building fund. "Some people have a hangup about worshiping in a school. But a church is a church no matter youth-oriente- "People have been donating for a specific piece of the church ..." Sam Martin er of what the final product will cost, but enough to borrow the rest, break ground and build. Besides all that, there's one more important thing about Christ Temple's progress: They haven't let their material dream distract them from what they think their church should do for its members and the outside community. That includes helping to operate a food kitchen at a nearby church; helping needy people pay for rent, utilities and food, whether or not they are members of the congregation; and raising money to take their church's on summer trips to places as diverse as New York City and rural Alabama. teen-age- rs where it meets." Nonetheless, Martin, Brown and the rest of the congregation are getting excited about groundbreaking, possibly this fall. And just as they're attracted to Hazlett's church design, he has been drawn to this congregation. It goes far beyond what began as a business arrangement between a black congregation and a white Chicago architect. "You can't help being caught up in the aspirations and altruistic goals of these gentle, kind people," Hazlett said. He has pledged $2,000 toward construction, and he has agreed to help church members make contacts for donations or discounts on material and labor. "Con struction could take time. It could o project," he said. But time is not of the essence, Martin said. "We've worked at this over a long period of time, and we've dug as deep as we could. We're not rich. "Somehow, the Lord is going to show us the way to build our be a 9-t- th church." Hazlett was their point man in testimony before Evanston's Zoning Board and City Council, to get their necessary approval. "I've dealt with them before, and I know the eccentricities of the city's zoning code," he said. Part of the process was assuaging neighbors' concerns and finding nearby parking for rent on Sundays so he only needed to put 10 parking spaces on the relatively small church site. "This is not St. Peter's Basili- ca. The main thing they told me was, 'Don't make our church look like a box,"' Hazlett said. "They wanted something with residential character that would fit into the neighborhood, large enough to inspire, but not so large as to overwhelm." And, he soon learned by attending sei vices at the school, "this building will be a center of social life, community service . . . and, during services, choir singing. I put the baptismal pool and the choir right up front. In this church, everyone will see the choir right away." Brown, who has been a minister for 50 years in Kentucky and Illinois, agreed with that priority: "We've got a choir, most of them young people. In everything we do, from the choir to summer trips to my messages, where I might talk about drugs, sex or AIDS, we're very conscious of trying to keep our youth in church." As the congregation Kx)ks forward to building, Hazlett is not their only outside ally . "We certainly respect their priorities, looking to serve the community first and accommo- date themselves second," said Wendy Hcavner, associate director of Inspired Patnerships, a Chicago-based non-prof- it organiza- tion. Acutely aware of what it calls the "steeple versus people" struggle to budget for building upkeep while ministering to members and the outside comuni-ty- , Inspired Partnerships helps churches and synagogues improve their financial management skills. Religious properties are a critical community resource. Three out of every four in Chicago house two or more community programs that serve at least 400 people a month, the majority of whom are not members of their congregations, Heavner said. Having seen the problems that plague older religious buildings, she offered her group's assistance to the fledgling Evanston effort. |
