Wichita Eagle: Faith andamp; Values

Couple implants embryos, gets second twins

Manya A. Brachear — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:10 CST

A month after Anabella and Matteus Potter were born in 2009, their parents, Adriana and Robert, agreed to disagree on what to do with two other embryos created in the same petri dish as their twins.

Grateful for the in vitro fertilization that enabled the Elmhurst, Ill., couple to become parents, Adriana Potter, 38, believed donating the embryos to advance reproductive technology or treat debilitating diseases would be the most life-affirming choice. Robert Potter, 44, imagined having more children or donating th embryos for another couple to do the same.

Anabella and Matteus made up their parents’ minds. Watching the brother and sister blossom into beautiful toddlers compelled them to have both embryos implanted last November.

Alaska Airlines retiring meal tray prayer cards

DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:25 CST

Alaska Airlines is ending decades of giving passengers prayer cards with their meals, saying Wednesday the decision was made out of respect for all passengers.

Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the airline heard from customers who preferred not to mix religion with transportation. The decision reflects respect for the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of Alaska Airlines’ customers and employees, the company said in announcing the change.

"Some customers were comforted by the cards and some didn’t feel religion was appropriate on the plane and preferred not to receive one," she said.

Priest gives up his vocation — not his religion — for love

Manya A. Brachear — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:32 CST

CHICAGO — Like many Roman Catholic men who feel called to the priesthood, the Rev. Jim Hearne wrestled with whether ordination was right for him.

The youngest of seven in an Irish Catholic family, he saw the joy of family life firsthand and never could quite extinguish the desire to one day have children of his own. But spurred to help stem the priest shortage and strengthen the integrity of the cloth, Hearne donned a priest’s collar in 2005 at age 25.

Now he wonders if his six years in the pulpit as “Father Jim” might have been preparation to become Jim, the father. After a six-month leave of absence from St. Giles Roman Catholic Church in Oak Park, Ill., Hearne has decided he will not return to the pulpit, but he will stay in the pews and pray to one day start a family of his own.

5-year-old believed to be lama-reincarnate

Allie Shah — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:47 CST

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s morning time and a little boy with a shaved head and a face shaped like the moon chants a Tibetan prayer.

His high-pitched voice echoes inside the Columbia Heights, Minn., bedroom that his father has transformed into a lavish prayer room. In here, the 4-year-old forsakes his cartoons and toys to study scripture and learn to pray the Buddhist way.

Big for his age, he looks bigger still perched on an ornate chair draped in crimson and saffron robes. “Only for lamas,” explains his father, Dorje Tsegyal, sitting cross-legged on the floor at his son’s feet.

Black children in Mennonite families bridge two worlds

Carolyn Davis — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:16 CST

PHILADELPHIA — Janelle and Jasmine Newswanger lead simple, contented lives in one of Pennsylvania’s Mennonite communities.

The 17-year-old twins drive a horse-drawn buggy, wear long dresses and white head coverings, and see their friends at church on Sundays.

Done with education at 14, after finishing eighth grade, Jasmine works as a teacher’s aide, and Janelle helps her mother around the house, speaking Pennsylvania Dutch and English.

Church puts the spirit in weight loss

Colette M. Jenkins — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:41 CST

Lolly Marzulli is making healthier choices these days, thanks to her church family at Trinity United Church of Christ.

The Akron, Ohio, congregation is encouraging its members to participate in a health initiative in partnership with Western Reserve Hospital of Summa Health System. The 15-week program, called Trinity Trimmers, is in its second round.

While most of the participants are trying to lose weight to maintain a healthy lifestyle, a few, like Marzulli, need to put on some pounds. Those needing to gain weight are dubbed Trinity Tubbies.

Wedding chapel and amenities for sale

Mary Gail Hare — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:26 CST

The 19th-century stone mansion for sale on Elkton, Md.’s Main Street offers an impressive list of features: numerous bedrooms and baths, as well as six fireplaces. But there’s much more: a fully appointed wedding chapel filled with decades of memories — and even some reservations for next Valentine’s Day.

Owners Frank and Barbara Smith hope a buyer will retain the chapel, the last remnant of the bustling marriage business that once defined this town on Maryland’s northern border. But they also realize that the site, across the street from the Cecil County courthouse, would be a prime location for lawyers’ offices.

“I am so worried we will lose this tradition, but we have to sell,” said Barbara Smith, a lifelong Elkton resident, who at 80 is ready to forsake weddings. “We are the only one left, in a historic building with a historic sign out front, and our painting hangs in the Annapolis State House. We hope to find someone interested in keeping the building as a chapel.”

With eye on Mayan calendar, 2012 doomsayers are stepping into high gear, as are the debunkers

Helen Gray — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 08:16 CST

If some interpretations of the Mayan calendar are correct, we’ll all be gone next year.

While every other doomsday prediction has (obviously) come and gone, some people think that the Maya knew something others didn’t and that the world will indeed come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012.

Opportunists already are trying to cash in with 2012 survival kits, T-shirts reading “Doomsday 2012” and a “Complete Idiots Guide to 2012.”

Bakers using bread to share the gospel

Colette M. Jenkins — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 07:27 CST

Rick Sands has always had a heart for feeding the hungry.

It’s something that has been with him since his childhood days, when he visited his grandmother in Ironton, Ohio, which sits on the Ohio River.

“There would be a knock at the back door at all times of the day. My grandmother would go to the door, say ‘I’ll be right back’ and return with a plate of food,” Rick Sands said. “It wasn’t unusual to have strangers sitting at the dinner table. I was always told to clear my plate because somebody in another country didn’t have food. That really impacted me.”

Teaching about HIV/AIDS in the church

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 07:26 CST

When the Rev. Keron Sadler of the NAACP tried to persuade churches around the country to play a more active role in HIV/AIDS education, she drew some hostile reactions. One pastor said his congregants might think he was gay. Another said AIDS is a curse. Yet another walked out of the room rather than discuss the topic.

Those reactions highlight the challenges facing Baltimore as it enlists church outreach for its ambitious goal of curbing new HIV/AIDS cases by 25 percent in the next four years.

The disease remains a sensitive topic among some ministers, as Sadler found when a similar NAACP initiative took her to churches in 11 cities, including Baltimore. Discussing HIV/AIDS means delving into topics — gay sex, promiscuity and drug use — that churches may not want to be seen as embracing or condoning. Some churches ignore the subject, while others tackle it in a way that passes judgment on lifestyles, leaving some people reluctant to seek help.

Inter-Faith’s new director stresses need for Operation Holiday donations

ANNIE CALOVICH — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:02 CST

Inter-Faith Ministries introduced Anne Corriston as its new executive director Thursday, and one of her first duties was to announce that Inter-Faith was way behind on donations for Operation Holiday.

Only 10 percent of the food, money and clothing that Operation Holiday collected for the needy last Christmas has been donated so far this year, Corriston said at a news conference announcing her appointment. At the same time, applications for help are up 300 over last year.

“I hope it’s a fluke,” Corriston said of the donation level, asking Wichitans to dig into their pantries for food to give. “I hope people are thinking of us but haven’t dropped off” their donations yet in bins available at Walmart, Dillons, Wells Fargo, In the Bag Cleaners and a distribution center at Broadway and 37th Street North. Donations of food, toys, coats, gloves, mittens, blankets and money are requested and will be accepted until Dec. 17. In the Bag is receiving the gifts of gently used coats and blankets.

Language of Mass set to change for Catholics

Patricia Alex — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 07:30 CST

HACKENSACK, N.J. — The language of the Roman Catholic Mass is about to change for the first time in nearly 40 years, as a new missal translation debuts throughout the English-speaking world on Sunday.

The church says the third edition of the Roman Missal, which contains the prayers and instructions for the Mass, is more faithful to the original Latin and more inclusive of scriptural reference.

But some worry that it’s more obtuse than inspired, and even those who embrace the changes are expecting a linguistically bumpy ride as legions of Catholics are forced from the rote script they have followed since childhood.

Eastminster church decides to break from denomination

ANNIE CALOVICH — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 08:31 CDT

Eastminster Presbyterian Church has broken with North America's largest Presbyterian denomination to affiliate with a smaller denomination that it says is more faithful to Scripture.

Eastminster's break with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been years in the making, and follows a vote by the majority of the denomination's congregations in May to remove language from their constitution requiring that ordained officers be either faithful in marriage between a man and a woman or be chaste as a single person, said the Rev. Kermit Oppriecht, associate pastor at Eastminster.

The change could be interpreted to allow homosexuals to be ordained, but, according to the Bible, homosexual behavior is sinful, Oppriecht said.

Church creates ‘Judgement House’ as alternative to Halloween haunts

Colette M. Jenkins — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 07:49 CDT

HUDSON, Ohio — Life is full of choices, and each choice has its consequences.

That is the message presented just before Halloween at Hope Community Church in Hudson, Ohio.

“Our goal is to portray a real-life story about real people who make real choices about what they’re going to do about Christ,” said the Rev. Jeff Schofield, co-lead pastor at Hope Community. “The Bible tells us that we will all stand before the Lord in judgment and what happens there will be based on the decisions we made in life. We want to encourage people to choose a relationship with Christ.”

Golf helping Kemmer see world

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:08 CDT

Dodge Kemmer is a Stanford graduate with a degree in human biology. He studied pre-med. He has an uncle who is a physician. So is his uncle's wife. His parents are petroleum geologists.

Something tells me that if golf doesn't work out for Kemmer, he'll find a way.

So far, though, golf is his meal ticket. Not that he's eating at the finest restaurants; Kemmer, a 2005 graduate of Wichita Independent, is working through the maze that ultimately could lead to a nice career.

King James Bible has endured for 400 years

DENEEN L. BROWN — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:20 CDT

WASHINGTON — Under dim lights in a grand hall of the great Folger Shakespeare Library lies the "Wicked Bible," called so because it omits one distinctly important word from the Seventh Commandment. It is a word with the power to prevent sin.

"Thou shalt commit adultery," the Wicked Bible commands.

For this unfortunate typo, the printer of this 1631 edition of the King James Bible met with retribution. By order of the king, copies of the "Wicked Bible" were quickly gathered and burned. Its printer, Robert Barker, was chastised for stupidity.

Jefferson's Bible will be back on display Nov. 11

DENEEN L. BROWN — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:09 CDT

Thomas Jefferson's Bible, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," which is undergoing conservation, is set to return to public display Nov. 11 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The text, which Jefferson finished in 1820 and intended to remain private, includes excerpts from the four Gospels of the New Testament in Greek, Latin, French and English. Jefferson's goal was to create a book that would tell a chronological story of the life of Jesus, highlighting moral teachings but deleting mentions of miracles and the Resurrection, which Jefferson said he found " contrary to reason," according to the Smithsonian.

The Bible resembles a scrapbook, containing clippings that Jefferson pasted onto blank pages. In March, the Smithsonian began treatment of the text to ensure its preservation. The private Bible will be displayed with two English editions of the New Testament from which Jefferson cut excerpts. Museum visitors will be able to view each page, as well as videos about the Bible's meticulous conservation.

Breaking bread, sharing slaw increases fellowship

ANDREA WEIGL — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:07 CDT

Chris Williams' cooking career at Trinity Presbyterian Church in North Raleigh, N.C., began while tailgating at a North Carolina State University football game.

Williams was new to the church and had just met Tom Carrigan on his family's second visit. A few hours later, the two men pulled into their separate tailgating spots outside Carter-Finley stadium for a rare Sunday night game and recognized each other. Once Carrigan spotted the grill that Williams had built, he announced: "You are helping me cook at church from now on."

For six years, the pair has been integral volunteers for the church's annual Sonshine Festival. Held every August, the festival, now in its eighth year, is a combination yard sale, silent auction, bake sale and barbecue chicken and hot dog plate fundraiser. This year, the church raised about $6,000, a portion of which was donated to Meals on Wheels of Wake County and Hospice of Wake County, N.C.

A fresh approach to the machzor

Elinor J. Brecher and Tania Valdemoro Longest — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:07 CDT

MIAMI — Even for Jews who only attend synagogue during the High Holy Days, there's a certain timeless familiarity to the special seasonal prayer book: the machzor.

There are Biblical references, ancient Hebrew prayers, Kabalistic meditations, and the wisdom of revered Jewish philosophers and theologians.

This year, worshippers at 60 Reform congregations around the country found different, perhaps startling, voices joining their Rosh Hashana services last week, courtesy of a new machzor that a Coral Gables, Fla., rabbi is helping develop.

Celebrants make funerals more personal

Jim Carney — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:08 CDT

FAIRLAWN, Ohio — Kevin O'Brien stood in front of a room of family members and friends of Leland S. Gaug this summer at the Billow Funeral Home and told the life story of the World War II and Korean War veteran.

While O'Brien had never met the 87-year-old Fairlawn, Ohio, man, he knew him in many ways.

O'Brien, 53, of North Canton, Ohio, is a life celebrant and as such he officiated at Gaug's funeral, held on a summer morning in early August.