Worship

Church announces summer worship schedule Haven Lutheran Church will begin its summer worship schedule Saturday and Sunday. Each Saturday at 5 p.m., there will be a spoken service. Each Sunday at 8:15 a.m., there will be a traditional worship. Then at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, there will worship on the lawn. Attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes and bring lawn chairs or blankets.  The church is at 1035 Haven Road. For more information, call 301-733-5056.

Sixteen churches in Hagerstown will open their doors to the public for a special holiday self-guided tour on the day after Christmas. Also, the Miller House, home of the Washington County Historical Society, will also open its doors with holiday decorations created by county garden clubs, and special exhibits. The Holiday Tour of Houses of Worship runs from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Dec. 26,  (snow date: Dec. 27). The event is sponsored by the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Washington County is home to about 200 houses of worship with diversification fueled by language or doctrine or both. A group of churches and other houses of worship banded together years ago to form the Washington County Council of Churches in an effort to share ideas and work together. In recent years, there was concern over why more churches weren't coming on board and the Rev. Stephen Robison said the answer finally came. "As we looked at it, we saw that churches in outlying communities had their own local groups which dealt with issues similar to ours but not all the same," Robison said.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com FORTLOUDON, Pa. - Leading an open-air worship service beside a mountain-ringed lake is a novel experience for someone who has spent much of his life in Kansas. Bruce Carriker has been preaching and playing the guitar every Sunday this summer as the chaplain at Cowans Gap State Park, a 1,085-acre park in the mountains of Fulton County, Pa. "When people who aren't from here think of Pennsylvania, they think of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. I didn't know this existed," Carriker said.

The sound of vibrant music, the smell of good food and a feeling of fellowship pulled people out of their homes Saturday and into Hagerstown's Wheaton Park for a special afternoon. Freedom in the Park was the brainchild of a number of area churches who call themselves the Christian community, said Doug Stone, one of the organizers. "We wanted to show people that there is a better way" than the fear and suspicion that often characterizes inner-city neighborhoods, Stone said.

CLEAR SPRING -- Dona Shoemaker said it can be intimidating to let her classmates at Clear Spring High School know how she feels about God. The 17-year-old senior said some students think they will be ridiculed for their beliefs. "They could make fun of you (for believing in God)," Dona said. "They could put you down about it. " Dona was one of four students from Clear Spring middle and high schools who gathered near the high school's flagpole Wednesday morning to sing worship songs and pray.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A multimillion-dollar church worship and education center on Monday won the unanimous blessings of the Berkeley County Planning Commission for its sketch plan, a first step in getting permits to build the complex off Rock Cliff Drive and Interstate 81. The Rev. Kevin Green, 44, and his wife, Beth, are pastors of The Living Room, a Wave Network affiliate church in the former Heilig-Meyers furniture store in the Berkeley Plaza...

If members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod have heard it once, they've heard their national leaders repeat this mantra a thousand times: "This is not your grandfather's church. " That's certainly what musician Phillip Magness experienced when he took a sabbatical from Bethany Lutheran Church in Naperville, Ill., and began a research tour after the 2006 release of the Lutheran Service Book. Since he led the committee charged with promoting the new hymnal, Magness wanted to see what was happening in the conservative denomination's sanctuaries.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A sketch plan application for a 24.6-acre worship and education center along Interstate 81 near Martinsburg will be considered Monday during a public hearing in the Berkeley County Commission chambers. The Living Room project, which proposes a 49,087-square-foot civic arena, a 25,447-square-foot student life center and eight campus housing dormitories, is to be reviewed by the Berkeley County Planning Commission during its 7 p.m. meeting in the commission chambers at 400 W. Stephen St. County planning and engineering staff members have recommended the project off Rock Cliff Drive north of Martinsburg be forwarded to the preliminary plan stage of review because it complies with county rules for development.

The community is invited to St. John's Lutheran Church this week for vacation Bible school.  At “Athens: Paul's Dangerous Journey to Share the Truth,” families will step back into time to ancient Greece and the story of Paul's second missionary journey. Children and adults will participate in a Bible-times marketplace, sing songs, play games and visit with Paul daily.  The school begins Monday night at the church, at 141 S. Potomac St. in downtown Hagerstown, and will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. each night.

The community is invited to St. John's Lutheran Church this week for vacation Bible school.  At “Athens: Paul's Dangerous Journey to Share the Truth,” families will step back into time to ancient Greece and the story of Paul's second missionary journey. Children and adults will participate in a Bible-times marketplace, sing songs, play games and visit with Paul daily.  The school begins Monday night at the church, at 141 S. Potomac St. in downtown Hagerstown, and will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. each night.

An outdoor fitness series has begun on Tuesdays with hot yoga or Zumba at University Plaza next to University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, off West Washington Street in downtown Hagerstown. The classes are free. The schedule: • Tuesday - Zumba with Heather O'Neill of South Pointe Fitness • June 18 - Yoga with Sandra Meyer of Peace by Yoga • June 25 - Yoga with Michelle Grimes Vacation Bible school planned at Emmanuel United Methodist Church Emmanuel United Methodist Church, 802 Summit Ave. in Hagerstown, will host vacation Bible school June 17 to 22, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Classes are for ages 4 to adult.

The reredos at St. John's Episcopal Church, featuring ornate carvings in oak that came from the Black Forest in Germany. The majestic interior of Trinity Lutheran Church, which features a Schantz Organ Company organ with four hand keyboards. The stained glass windows at John Wesley United Methodist Church, which includes the massive Rose Window that church officials are planning to renovate soon at a cost of about $50,000. Those features were among the treasures local residents were able to see inside Hagerstown area churches Thursday afternoon and evening during the second annual Holiday Tour of the Houses of Worship in Hagerstown.

Naomi Heath Shafer, 100, of Charles Town, W.Va., died Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson, W.Va. The family will receive friends Thursday, Oct. 11, from 9 to 10 a.m. at Sylvannah Praise, Worship and Healing Center, Rippon, W.Va. Services will be Thursday, Oct. 11, at 10 a.m. at the church, with Pastor Lawrence Wilson Jr. officiating. Burial will be Friday, Oct. 12, at 1 p.m. at Atlantic City Cemetery, Pleasantville, N.J.

Covenant Presbyterian Church will hold an international worship service Sunday.  The worship service will include scripture, the Lord's Prayer and hymns in different languages. Flags from Cameroon, Togo, Philippines, Guatemala and Cuba will be in the windows. The flags represent those in the congregation who were born in those countries and are now living in the Hagerstown area, as well as countries where the church has formed mission partnerships.  Communion will be served with breads from around the world.  The church will collect a special peacemaking offering to support anti-bullying and anti-violence global and local initiatives.

By now we are all painfully aware that statues of our heroes go up a lot easier than they come down. Perhaps we should not erect statues at all. Or when we do, maybe it should be with the understanding that statues represent success, but successes are never present without accompanying failures. This is what makes us human. And often, the bigger the success the bigger the failing. The Greek writers of tragedy would have loved to get their mitts on the Joe Paterno story - a man blinded to the reality that sometimes the costs of winning are too great.

Two years ago, three women - a Lutheran minister and two lay persons - founded Immanuel's House, an ecumenical “church community in action” dedicated to a social ministry through a strong outreach program. The founders - Mary Gunderson King, 31, of Hedgesville, W.Va.; Carmen Winiarski, a member of Hub City Vineyard in Hagerstown; and Karen Erskine Valentine, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg - met at Trinity United Methodist Church in Martinsburg, Gunderson King said.

Church announces summer worship schedule Haven Lutheran Church will begin its summer worship schedule Saturday and Sunday. Each Saturday at 5 p.m., there will be a spoken service. Each Sunday at 8:15 a.m., there will be a traditional worship. Then at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, there will worship on the lawn. Attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes and bring lawn chairs or blankets.  The church is at 1035 Haven Road. For more information, call 301-733-5056.

Paramount Brethren in Christ Church, at 19106 Longmeadow Road in Hagerstown, will hold Family Fun Night on Friday at 6:30 p.m.  The event will include a variety of games for all ages, food and an opportunity to meet new people.  The event is free and the public is welcome. For more information, call 301-790-2492. TOPS 0077 Losses for the week totaled 11 1/4 pounds for TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Chapter 0077. The best TOPS losers were Patsy Martin and Shirley Knode.