Congregation

Members of St. Mark's Episcopal Church plan to walk in silence to church on Palm Sunday to celebrate Christ's walk and entrance into Jerusalem. The congregation plans to begin its walk at the Food Lion parking Lot on Sharpsburg Pike.  The walk begins at 9:30 a.m. Sunday with a short prayer, and the group will walk approximately one mile to the church on Lappans Road. The walk will take approximately 55 minutes and will be concluded at the steps of St. Mark's. Parish Hall. The following guidelines are provided: Prepare your body prior to the walk with food and liquids sufficient to sustain you for a one-hour walk.  Wear comfortable layered clothes, a hat and walking shoes appropriate for the weather conditions.

SMITHSBURG - The congregation of Trinity Lutheran Church will hold a Chocolate Festival Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the church at 16 N. Main St. There will be a chocolate fountain, Valentine crafts for children, a cookie contest, a silent auction and chocolate "mail. " A luncheon menu will be available.

marlob@herald-mail.com Three years ago, a group of Spanish-speaking Seventh-day Adventists began meeting at the Hagerstown Seventh-day Adventist Church on Robinwood Drive, conducting their services in the language of their birth. "We started looking for a church to rent two years ago and we found the Wesleyan Church at 17805 Sherman Ave.," said Pastor Juan Carlos Sicalo through an interpreter, Linda DeLeon, a member of the congregation. In early December, the congregation - which now numbers about 70 - took the final step and bought the building.

By LISA GRAYBEAL Staff Writer, Chambersburg CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Nearly 200 members of St. Paul United Methodist Church made their final journey Sunday morning to a place they can finally call their own. "This is a day of overwhelming joy for me and this congregation," said the Rev. Harold E. Posey, senior pastor. Almost three years after its near century-old brick church at the corner of Second and Queen streets was destroyed by arson, the congregation made its way along the streets of Chambersburg in a mile-and-a-half winding route that led them to their new church at Fifth Street and Norland Avenue extended at the edge of the borough.

Minister ready to 'grow' new congregation After 10 years of ministering to Kent Island's only United Methodist congregation, Ken Valentine is getting used to his new assignment at John Wesley United Methodist Church at 129 N. Potomac St. in Hagerstown. No longer the only game in town, Valentine said he is looking forward to working with other Methodist congregations as well as other denominations in the community. "On the island, there was one Methodist church, one Episcopal church, one Lutheran church, etc.," Valentine said.

Back in 1899, the Hagerstown Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed with just 19 charter members. Members met in a variety of halls until a house of worship was erected at the corner of McComas and Cross streets. Then in 1955, another building was constructed on the Dual Highway to house the growing membership. An arsonist's torch burned that building to the ground in the fall of 1991. After sharing space with another Dual Highway church that met on Sundays, the congregation began making plans for a new building on a new site.

Congregation makes it a memorable Christmas Editor's note : This is the first in a series of stories running on the 12 days before Christmas to recognize individuals and groups who make the holidays better for others. By ANDREW SCHOTZ / Staff Writer photo: JOE CROCETTA / staff photographer About 50 people at Bethel Assembly of God on Wilson Boulevard in Hagerstown used a mix of music and monologues to put on "A Christmas to Remember" last weekend.

Church congregation begins work on memorial garden By MARLO BARNHART marlob@herald-mail.com WOFLSVILLE - The congregation of St. Mark's Lutheran Church is turning an empty lot into a garden destined to honor the past while celebrating the future. The memorial garden along Wolfsville Road behind the church parking lot is being built in stages, said Kenneth Frushour, secretary of the church cemetery committee. "We've been planning the garden for about eight years but we were slow getting the funds," Frushour said.

marlob@herald-mail.com Could it have been a sign? When 2 feet of snow fell in Washington County on the Sunday that Pastor John Miller and the congregation of Faith Christian Fellowship were to meet for the first time in their new church building, they were a little worried. "It was Feb. 16 and we had to cancel our very first Sunday," Miller said. But it didn't take long for Miller to realize that it was a sign that the right decision was made to buy the former Agape Harvester Church building at 16726 Lappans Road.

By JULIE E. GREENE / Staff Writer photo: RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer [ enlarge ] Parishioners of Hagerstown's Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church have put their faith in God and the community to help them build a new place of worship. Their 159-year-old church at 26 W. Bethel St. was condemned in March 1997, forcing the church's parishioners to hold services in temporary quarters, said the Rev. Leroy Jackson. --cont from news -- Construction began last week on a $200,000 addition to the historic rectory on the corner of Henry Avenue and Bethel Street.

Organizers of a Sunday event in Widmeyer Park to raise money for a mission trip to a Navajo Indian reserve in New Mexico were hoping to raise about $2,000. Members of the Hancock United Methodist Church have made trips to the reservation near Gamerco, N.M., before, and this year, they plan to start construction on a transition facility that will help Navajo women coming out of prison, John Pennesi said. The building will include classroom space, a dining area, a kitchen and housing, said Pennesi, a member of the church.

Congregation B'nai Abraham, 53 E. Baltimore St., Hagerstown, will honor the work of its past presidents during the Sabbath service at 8 p.m. Friday, May 10. The service will be followed by fellowship and refreshments. Call Congregation B'nai Abraham at 301-733-5039.

Rabbi Harold White started off his speech to about 60 people at Congregation B'nai Abraham's synagogue on Sunday by taking a poll. Among his questions were how many people were natives of Hagerstown (about two), how many lived outside Hagerstown and traveled to the city to attend synagogue (about a dozen), and how many people were part of an interfaith marriage (about 10). White said he wasn't surprised by most of the answers, nor should attendees have been surprised about being asked questions after congregation member Rachel Nichols said White was known for his curiosity.

Fred Raskind, rabbi for Congregation B'nai Abraham, is retiring this summer, he said Sunday. “I will have completed 10 years of service, and I'm actually retiring to a small, part-time congregation in Florida,” Raskind said. “I will miss Hagerstown and I will miss B'nai Abraham. It's been a lovely, lovely ministry and rabbinate for me,” he said. Leiba Cohen, the congregation's president, said Raskind “left us in a good place.” Raskind will retire in June and Rabbi Ari Plost will start July 1, Cohen said.

Worship Pastor Ginger Medley set the tone Sunday when, in her booming voice, she exclaimed, “What a mighty God we serve.” Medley stood on the side lawn of Asbury United Methodist Church surrounded by about 200 congregants and supporters ready to watch the groundbreaking for a $2.2 million addition. It will be a major expansion for the 25-year-old edifice at 4257 Kearneysville Pike. When finished in about a year, the nearly 24,000-square-foot multipurpose addition will include a gym, six classrooms, a nursery, restrooms, a commercial kitchen and a covered canopy to protect those entering the main church or the new addition, said Clark Dixon, building committee chairman.

On Nov. 17, the Waynesboro Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1 State Hill Road, held its 30th annual Festival of Praise, where the congregation brings a food offering to the front of the church.  In advance, the front of the church is decorated with large boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables and a Christmas tree decorated with paper angels, each angel containing the name of a child and what they would like for Christmas. “It's an amazing thing,” said longtime organizer Paulette Alexander of Shady Grove, Pa. “To see all the church members - adults and children alike - carrying their bags of groceries to the platform.”   As the church members bring their food gifts, and offerings, and thank-you notes, they also take a name or two from the tree to provide clothing and toy gifts for each child.  This year, the church provided for about 20 families and 44 children.

One hundred people representing about 10 churches gathered Sunday afternoon for a Thanksgiving service focused on gratitude. The Rev. Delton Lehman from LifeGate Ministries provided the message and focused on Luke 7:36-50. In those verses, a sinful woman washes Jesus' feet. Lehman talked about how the woman wept in affection when meeting the savior. Pat West of Wayne Heights, Pa., said Lehman made her rethink the story. “I have read that (section of Scripture) so many times, and I've never put myself in the place of that woman,” she said.

Bill Kleckner knows the value of family. He's learned the hard way. "I don't know what a real father is. My father was in the penitentiary when I was young. Mom was involved in an affair and married a younger man. So my grandma pretty much raised my siblings and I," he said. "And I wasn't a good father, because I didn't know how to be a good father. " But Kleckner has seen good examples of family, too - in churches, such as Bridge of Life, the congregation in which he's active now. And in the motorcycle gang he used to ride with.

Historic Christ Reformed Church in Shepherdstown will welcome Emma Kathleen “Katie” Morgan as the guest preacher on homecoming Sunday, Nov. 11, at its 11 a.m. service.  A recent Master's of Divinity graduate from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, Morgan is the daughter of D.L. and Tara Morgan of Shepherdstown, and the granddaughter of Mary Ann Morgan, organist and director of music at Christ Church. The church, founded in 1747, is a congregation of German Reformed heritage within the United Church of Christ.

When the church now known as Salem Reformed Church began 265 years ago this month, the church building served not only as a place of worship, but as a school and fort, Pastor Stephen Wagoner said. Built a few years before the start of the French and Indian War, the original log cabin church had catwalks and rifle slits to defend against Indian raids, Wagoner said this past week. “Salem's first pastor's wife slept in a tree some nights, for fear of Indian raids,” Wagoner told parishioners during his Sunday sermon.