Showing posts with label maryland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maryland. Show all posts

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Harford sheriff, legislators want measure to let people carry guns in church

From Baltimore-

The Rev. Tommy Allen of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Abingdon attended the news conference and said he would make sure that anyone who carries a weapon in his church has an “extra layer of training,” including coordination with the sheriff’s office.

“The best way to check a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, who is adequately trained to assess and address a potentially violent situation,” Allen said.

Mark Pennak, president of the gun-rights group Maryland Shall Issue, called the legislation “a great idea.”

Pennak said three people have approached him about whether the state would grant them a concealed-carry permit if their pastors asked the parishioners to protect the congregation. Pennak said he wasn’t sure state police would view a pastor’s request as a “good and substantial reason” to grant a concealed-carry permit, but that he encouraged them to apply under existing state law.


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ha-guns-churches-20171212-story.html

Monday, February 29, 2016

Local Reverend talks modern activism and social media’s role

From Maryland-

Black History Month is coming to a close, but the month wasn’t without controversy.

Whether it was the lack of diversity in Oscar nominations or the debate over Beyonce’s video and Super Bowl performance, people quickly and easily spoke out.

WTOP’s Stephanie Gaines-Bryant talked to Rev. Randy Callender, rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland, about activism today and the activism of the 1950s and ‘60s.

“Today, with what’s going on with our youth and young adults, young people are just as outspoken and moving the movement — just as in the civil rights movement, when young people were leading and moving that movement,” says Callender. “The difference between then and now is social media.”


More here-

http://wtop.com/local/2016/02/local-reverend-talks-modern-activism-and-social-medias-role/

Monday, July 28, 2014

Hebron church members vow to move forward, post fire

From Easton-

As fire ripped through St. Paul's Episcopal Church off Route 50 in Hebron, Ron Knapp sat against a nearby tree.

Knapp, the pastor of the church, tried to make sense of the 240-year-old church burning Tuesday, while sitting there. Then he saw his wife.

"My wife appeared with my pectoral cross, this wooden one, with this silver corpus that I had been given the day I was ordained 45 years ago," he said to his congregation Sunday, holding up the cross. "She told me that a firefighter had emerged from the remains with cross dangling from his hands. And I had been looking for this cross for weeks.


More here-

http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2014/07/27/stpauls-fire-recovery/13244717/

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Fire Ruins Historical Hebron Church

From Maryland-

Authorities are investigating a Tuesday fire that destroyed the historical St. Paul's Episcopal Church at the corner of Memory Gardens Lane and Route 50 in Hebron.

The Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office said the fire was reported by a passerby to 9-1-1 shortly after 11 a.m.  Father Ryan Glancey is an episcopal priest at another church in the diocese and is the one who made the 9-1-1 call.

"Just black smoke coming through the windows at the top.  And then the flames came out of the roof about 20 feet and then all the windows downstairs started to break and the sides fell in," Glancey said.


More here-

http://www.wboc.com/story/26081608/fire-ruins-historical-hebron-church

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Episcopal churches from Taunton, Mansfield, Easton unite; first combined service set for June 15

From Easton-

Three Bristol County Episcopal churches are merging into one, and will celebrate their first service together as the Bristol Trinity Episcopal Church on June 15.

The new congregation will be moving to space leased from the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 143 Lincoln St., in North Easton.


The three churches, St. John’s of Taunton, St. John the Evangelist of Mansfield and St. Mark’s of North Easton, have been in a “cluster” relationship since the early 1990s, sharing a priest and often gathering together f

or services during the summer months. With small congregations and aging buildings, the churches of the Bristol Cluster voted in September 2013 to begin the merger process. The churches have been worshipping together since October of this year, rotating between the three church buildings for weekly services and other activities. Average Sunday attendance for the combined congregation is around 70.

More here-

http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20140526/NEWS/140527129/11195/LIFESTYLE

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Del Mar’s ‘Mother Paige’ makes news with her hand-painted icons

From Delmar-

Despite the more casual, contemporary use of the word “icon,” icons are actually part of an ancient tradition of Christian art, inspirational paintings of sacred subjects that may date back to the time of the apostles, when St. Luke was said to have painted images of the Virgin Mary. Icons were particularly popular during the Byzantine Empire, when frescoes flourished, and the art of iconography spread across Europe to Russia.

These days, icons are being painted locally by the Rev. Paige Blair, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Del Mar. Her works recently gained wider attention when several were chosen as cover art for “Forward Day by Day,” a national quarterly published by the Episcopal Church.

How did Blair, who was born on March Air Force Base in Riverside and dreamed of being the country’s first woman fighter pilot, become “Mother Paige,” a parish priest with a talent for iconography?


More here-

http://www.delmartimes.net/2014/02/05/del-mar’s-‘mother-paige’-makes-news-with-her-hand-painted-icons/

Monday, January 20, 2014

Preaching memories of working for King's dream

From Maryland-

Waymon Wright broke down Sunday morning as he spoke before the congregation at All Saints' Episcopal Church about his own struggles during the Civil Rights movement and his relationship with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“You start thinking back on different images and different situations you've been through,” he said.
Wright grew up in South Carolina and attended college at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he met King.


“This celebration of a saint in our church is significantly different than the celebration of any of our other saints, because I lived during his time,” said Wright, a layperson, during the special Sunday sermon. “I was very close to this one, knew him, worked with him, admired him, loved him, was his fraternity brother, as well as his Christian brother.”


Wright recalled King as a man who had suffered through the struggles of being black in America at the time and as an outstanding preacher and orator.


More here-

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/your_life/life_news_collection/human_interest/preaching-memories-of-working-for-king-s-dream/article_350f62ab-4437-591a-b8ec-fd39d80bd895.html

Monday, December 31, 2012

Parishioners, friends say farewell to St. George's Spesutia at final service

From Maryland-

The parishioners at St. George's Spesutia Church were not celebrating Christmas on Sunday morning, the Rev. Bill Smith told them amid poinsettias and holiday decorations, but rather The Incarnation.

"We tell it over and over and over again for one reason: so we can become part of the story," he said about the tale of Christmas.

But for those gathered at the Perryman church, the oldest Episcopal parish in Maryland, Sunday's service was the end of one part of their story.

The Eucharist service is expected to be the last one to be held at St. George's, after The Right Rev. Eugene Sutton, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, ordered an end to the parish's services earlier this year.

"Although we would hope that this is not the final chapter in St. George's history, today brings the current chapter to an end," Rev. Scott Slater read in a message to the congregation as the service closed.

Slater, a Canon to the Bishop, had come to oversee the parish's last service and collect some items, including a silver set that dates to 1722 and a copy of a historic Bible known as the "Vinegar Bible," because of a typo in the Parable of the Vineyard.


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/harford/publications/the-aegis/ph-ag-st-georges-0102-20121230,0,6640493.story

Friday, November 9, 2012

St. George's Spesutia, Maryland's oldest Episcopal parish, to end worship services

From Maryland-

St. George's Spesutia Parish in Perryman, the oldest Episcopal parish in Maryland, will suspend holding worship services effective at the end of the year, the Bishop of Maryland has informed parishioners.

In a letter dated Nov. 1, the Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, explained the decision to members of the parish, which has been in continuous operation since 1671.

Sutton's letter, a copy of which was provided to The Aegis by a parishioner, cited a lack of attendance at Sunday worship services, a lack of income from the collection plate and pledges "to sustain a parish financially with your buildings and grounds, let alone to sustain a thriving ministry" and the likelihood that the parish's investments would be depleted within four years if the financial situation continued.

"You have also been inflicted with a history and pattern of conflicts within the parish, and between the parish and the diocese," the Bishop wrote.


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/explore/harford/publications/the-aegis/ph-ag-st-georges-closing-1109-20121108,0,854607.story

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Harry Potter Bible School Casts a Spell on Kids

From Maryland-

Kids dressed as popular characters from the Harry Potter book series are in the middle of a fun-filled, week-long vacation Bible school at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church.

Patch visited the church on Wednesday to see what all the commotion was about. Kids were found petting a snake and gazing wide-eyed at an owl, which was being handled by aviary expert Bob Baltz of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The Bible school is titled Wizards and Wonders: A Hero's Journey with Harry Potter.

All of the magic-themed activities serve as a backdrop to the lessons the kids learn each day at the Bible school, which are centered on self-discovery and finding true purpose in life, said Sarah Lamming, the associate rector for youth formation at the church.

The concept of a Bible school themed around a book series involving witches and wizards may seem strange to some, but as Lamming explained, the books by author J.K. Rowling tell a lesson of self-discovery that's relevant to Christianity.

"Harry was really struggling with his identity and the gifts that he'd been given. And we're trying to get the children to discover who they're called to be and to discover the unique gifts that God has given them," Lamming said.


More here-

http://broadneck.patch.com/articles/harry-potter-bible-school-casts-a-spell-on-kids#photo-10465293

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Church tunnels were a waypoint on Underground Railroad

From Maryland-

Narrow, low-ceiling tunnels beneath a downtown church are all that remain of a fort built by the Maryland militia before the French and Indian War.

But it was the tunnels' use nearly a century later - as a hiding place for runaway slaves - that is renewing interest in them in this mountain city.

The Rev. David Hillhouse Buel, an abolitionist, came to Emmanuel Parish of the Episcopal Church as rector in 1847, according to the parish website. It's believed he hired a slave escaped from Mississippi, Samuel Denson, as church sexton, and together they helped other fleeing slaves take cover in the tunnels beneath the church.

The border separating North and South, between Pennsylvania and Maryland, was just a few miles away.

"It was a place to hide away and be stored away until it was time to move across the Mason-Dixon line," said Bernard Wynder, president of the Allegany County NAACP.

About 1,000 adults and 500 children visited the tunnels last weekend, which marked Heritage Days here. The church and tunnels gave visitors relief from 90-degree heat and humidity outside, as well as a glimpse into the past that Wynder said should be a point of community pride.

The underground tunnels connect the church, its rectory and the nearby Allegany Academy, now the city's library. The buildings are not far from an area of town once filled with bars and brothels, which was populated by workers on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.


More here-

http://bdtonline.com/cnhi/x136110807/Church-tunnels-were-a-waypoint-on-Underground-Railroad

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Three Maryland Episcopal Clergymen Join Catholic Church

From Maryland-

Three Maryland clergymen who were originally ordained in The Episcopal Church have accepted ordination into the Roman Catholic Church.

Fr. Jason Catania, Fr. Anthony Vidal, and Fr. David Reamsnyder, all from Mount Cavalry Church in Baltimore, were ordained as priests in a ceremony performed on Saturday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.

The three former Episcopal clergymen ordained as priests will become part of the Catholic Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The Ordinariate is a recently created church territory similar to a diocese yet national in scope. It was created specifically for Anglican clergy and congregations who sought to become part of the Roman Catholic Church while retaining their Anglican heritage.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori oversaw the ceremony, which included a total of seven men, the three former Episcopal clergy plus four others.


More here-

http://www.christianpost.com/news/three-maryland-episcopal-clergymen-join-catholic-church-76474/

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Ellicott City church shooter forgiven by Episcopal leaders

From Baltimore-

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is offering forgiveness and a funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting a priest and church secretary last week.

Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton and an academic expert on forgiveness likened the diocese's attitude to that of an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa., that forgave the man who fatally shot five school girls there in 2006.



"That is a painful, hard process," Sutton said after last Thursday's shooting. "But we learned something a few years ago, made manifest by the Amish community, when a gunman came into that school: Eventually, that community went to the family of that murderer and extended forgiveness."
Church officials said Wednesday that the family of Douglas Franklin Jones hasn't decided whether to accept offers from several parishes to hold a Christian burial service for the man police have deemed responsible for the bloodshed at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.

Howard County police say a small-caliber handgun registered to Jones and found near his body was probably the same weapon used to kill the Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn and administrative assistant Brenda Brewington.


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/howard/bs-md-ho-church-shooting-forgiveness-20120509,0,803544.story

Friday, May 11, 2012

Episcopal leaders forgive Maryland church shooter

From Maryland-

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is offering forgiveness and a funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting a priest and church secretary last week.

Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton and an academic expert on forgiveness likened the diocese's attitude to that of an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa., that forgave the man who fatally shot five school girls there in 2006.

"That is a painful, hard process," Sutton told The Associated Press after last Thursday's shooting. "But we learned something a few years ago, made manifest by the Amish community, when a gunman came into that school: Eventually, that community went to the family of that murderer and extended forgiveness."

Church officials said Wednesday that the family of Douglas Franklin Jones hasn't decided whether to accept offers from several parishes to hold a Christian burial service for the man police have deemed responsible for the bloodshed at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.

Howard County police say a small-caliber handgun registered to Jones and found near his body was probably the same weapon used to kill the Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn and administrative assistant Brenda Brewington.


More here-

http://www.wtop.com/64/2859164/Episcopal-leaders-forgive-Maryland-church-shooter

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Episcopal leaders offer forgiveness, burial for Maryland shooter of priest and church worker

From The Washington Post-


The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is offering forgiveness and a funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting a priest and church secretary last week.

Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton and an academic expert on forgiveness likened the diocese’s attitude to that of an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa., that forgave the man who fatally shot five school girls there in 2006.



“That is a painful, hard process,” Sutton told The Associated Press after last Thursday’s shooting. “But we learned something a few years ago, made manifest by the Amish community, when a gunman came into that school: Eventually, that community went to the family of that murderer and extended forgiveness.”

Church officials said Wednesday that the family of Douglas Franklin Jones hasn’t decided whether to accept offers from several parishes to hold a Christian burial service for the man police have deemed responsible for the bloodshed at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.


More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/episcopal-leaders-offer-forgiveness-burial-for-maryland-shooter-of-priest-and-church-worker/2012/05/09/gIQA18GrDU_story.html

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Brenda Brewington, church administrator

From The Baltimore Sun-


Brenda Brewington, an ecclesiastical administrator at St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Ellicott City who had taught earlier in its preschool, died Thursday in her office in a double shooting that also claimed a pastor's life. She was 59.

"Brenda had a big, infectious laugh and was the loudest cheerleader at any track meet in Howard County and a few other counties as well," said her sister-in-law, Lisa Brewington of Centerville, Va. "She was a world-class mom, to her own boys and to so many other young people."

She was born Brenda Davis in Norfolk, Va. Her father was a member of the Cherokee nation and a handyman. Her mother, Lily May Thomas, was a homemaker.

She was a 1970 graduate of Robert E. Peary High School in Montgomery County and studied nutrition at the University of Maryland, College Park.

She met her future husband, Will Brewington, at a social event at the Bottom Line in Washington after a rugby match. They married in 1987.

Mrs. Brewington had been an administrative assistant at the B.F. Saul Mortgage Co. for several years before moving to Ellicott City. She initially ran an informal child day center at her home.

"She helped children who needed before- and after-school care," her husband said.


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-brenda-brewington-20120508,0,2414609.story

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

The Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn, Episcopal co-rector

From Baltimore-

Mary-Marguerite Kohn, the popular co-rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church who was an outspoken advocate for social justice, died Saturday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center of gunshot wounds she suffered Thursday in a double shooting at her Ellicott City church.

The Relay resident was 62.

"She had gotten her degree in pastoral counseling, and she was the one I wanted to use in the diocese to counsel and help congregations get through their grief," the Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, said Monday.

"She was in my office a week before she was killed talking about this. And the irony is, she would have been the one I would have called upon to go to St. Peter's" after the shootings], he said.

"She was a loving presence, very warm, sensitive and spiritually centered person. She also was colorful and playful," he said. "We will miss her deeply."


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-mary-marguerite-kohn-20120507,0,484163.story

Monday, May 7, 2012

Second woman dies after Ellicott City church shooting

From Baltimore-

The Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn, 62, died Saturday night at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center of injuries sustained Thursday in a double shooting at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, police said Sunday.

Kohn was co-rector of the Howard County church.

The second woman, church employee Brenda Brewington, 59, died Thursday.



Kohn had been on life support at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center since Thursday.

Police said they had taken Kohn's body to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy. The church said in a statement that her family planned to donate her organs.

Howard County police said the suspected shooter, Douglas Franklin Jones, 56, was found in the woods nearby, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


More here-

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ho-kohn-dead-20120506,0,2499563.story

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Church says priest shot at Maryland Episcopal parish on life support to donate her organs

From Maryland- (Washington Post)

A Maryland Episcopal church where a gunman opened fire said Saturday that a priest who was critically wounded remains in critical condition but is not expected to survive.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church released a statement saying the Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn, co-rector of the parish, is on life support to assist her family’s intentions to donate her organs.



Parish Warden Craig Stuart-Paul says the 62-year-old Kohn never turned away a person in need. He says even in death, she is giving life through her organs.

Brenda Brewington, a church secretary, also was fatally shot Friday. Police say a disgruntled homeless man shot the women after he was turned away from the church’s food bank and became angry. Douglas F. Jones then killed himself in the woods where he lived nearby.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/church-says-priest-shot-at-maryland-episcopal-parish-on-life-support-to-donate-her-organs/2012/05/05/gIQAjv1a4T_story.html

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Homeless man suspected in Ellicott City church shootings

From Baltimore-

A homeless man who regularly visited the food bank at an Ellicott City church is thought to have shot a co-rector and killed an administrative assistant there Thursday night, police said Friday.

Douglas Franklin Jones, 56, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the woods near St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Thursday night. Howard County police believe he shot the two women in the church office before going to the woods, where he had been living.



“Investigators have learned that Jones had recently been involved in a dispute with church members,” police said in a statement. “He visited the church regularly to access their food bank but recently had become belligerent and argumentative.”

Brenda Brewington, 59, of Ellicott City was found dead at the church. She was an administrative assistant at St. Peter’s, according to the church’s Web site.

The Rev. Marguerite Mary Kohn, 62, of Halethorpe, Md., is in critical condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, police said. Kohn is the co-rector of St. Peter’s, according to the church’s Web site. According to a statement by the church, she “remains on life support in critical condition to support the family intentions to provide the gift of life through organ donation.”

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/homeless-man-suspected-in-ellicott-city-church-shootings/2012/05/04/gIQArG9M2T_story.html