The Carolina Farmin building located off Market Street in Wilmington, N.C. Friday May 9, 2014.

A new church should open on Market Street in Wilmington this fall.

Less than two weeks after property owners talked about wanting to fill the vacant building near Carolina Heights that most recently housed Carolina Farmin', church members signed a lease for part of the property.

John Sutton, owner of the building on the 2100 block of Market Street, said the site will soon be home to The Bridge Church.

"We're a church that embraces culture and loves the city," said Ethan Welch, pastor of the new church.

Welch said he and his family found the church's future home when his daughter needed to use the bathroom one day while the family was out running errands.

Stopping at Port City Java on Market Street, Welch took notice of the vacant building behind the coffee shop.

"I had seen the building once before, but I didn't know anything about it." he said.

As his wife and daughter went inside, Welch saw construction crews standing outside the building and he started a conversation.

The church will occupy 8,551 square feet of the 14,000-square-foot space. Welch said the church will feature an open lobby entry and take up the back half of the structure.

Read more:
The Bridge Church will move into Carolina Farmin' space

Posted: Monday, May 26, 2014 7:35 am

Church Street traffic restricted

MISHAWAKA -- Southbound traffic on Church Street between Fourth and Thirteenth streets will be restricted between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday for storm sewer construction, according to a city press release. All southbound traffic will be detoured west on Fourth, south on Main and east on Thirteenth. One lane of northbound traffic will be maintained during the work.

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Church Street traffic restricted

Religion of Monday, 26 May 2014

Source: GNA

The leadership of the Atomic Hills United Church, an interdenominational church at Ashongman Estates, on Sunday, held a ceremony to dedicate its newlycompleted building christened Church Manse.

Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, General Secretary of the Christian Council, stated that obeying Gods word is not a restriction, but for ones own good.

Quoting Deuteronomy 6: 24 of the King James Version of the Bible, he said And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as (it is) at this day.

The General Secretary who was the Guest Speaker atthe occasion, further explained that there is the need for man to understand and apply the word of God, adding, we have a covenant relationship with God through His word.

He said there was too much ignorance in the church, after citing a situation where people want to enjoy the blessings of God, but are ignorant of his word.

Rev. Dr. Opuni- Frimpong noted that the completion of the building should facilitate Deuteronomy 6:24, and not only for personal comfort.

He, therefore, encouraged the congregation to be united and pray without ceasing, to help build their spiritual relationship with God, and also to acquire a deeper understanding of His word.

He commended the congregation, especially the building committee, for making the project a reality, adding If you build a house for God: God will build a house for you

Read more:
Atomic Hills United Church commissions new building

By Tim Eberly The Virginian-Pilot May 25, 2014

PORTSMOUTH

There's a church on every corner here.

Or so people say.

Is it true?

Well, not exactly. But it's not that far off. Portsmouth has more places of worship per capita than any other city in South Hampton Roads, according to a Virginian-Pilot analysis of tax assessor data.

That doesn't include sanctuaries that rent space in places that aren't tax-exempt. You'll find houses of prayer in majestic temples or in storefronts that were once 7-Elevens. The greatest concentration is in the heart of the city, including one that counts the father of a president as a former pastor.

"That tells you, if you want to go to heaven, move to Portsmouth," local historian Dean Burgess joked.

Or, Elizabeth Psimas mused, could it mean the city has more sinners?

Well, what do you think, councilwoman?

Read the rest here:
Church land: Portsmouth basks in places of worship

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Marco Island church facing $9 million foreclosure lawsuit after defaulting on former member's loan

PENINSULA TOWNSHIP -- Construction onSt. Joseph's new church on Old Mission Peninsula is almost complete.

Fridaymorning the steeple was hoisted into place.

The steeple and bell, standing at almost 60 feet and weighing nearly 4,500 pounds, was blessed and then lifted by crane onto the rooftop in about 10 minutes. Monisgnor Thome, ofSt. Joseph Church,explained the steeple reaches up toward heaven while the cross is a world-wide symbol of Christianity, therefore it's important to bless them before attachment to the church.

The bell has been with the church since 1915, and in its new home will be operated mechanically instead of by the old rope pulley system. Church representatives said this is because the 100-year old pulley required ropes to hang down and the bell to be manually rung (and could sometimes flip over if the ropes were pulled too hard) - so the switch to electronic is safer.

"Idon't know if there's any excitement left we are already so enthusiastic!" said Monsignor Thome."We've been watching it day by day, and we know all of us can relate to the winter of discontent, where we all had to wait and wait and wait for everything - but especially those of us in this area watch day by day to see what was happening with our new church."

St.Joseph hopes to have their first service in the new church July 5.

View post:
St. Joseph Church installs steeple and bell

BEDFORD Manchester Christian Church received site plan approval to build one of the largest meeting spots in Bedford.

The plan calls for construction of an 18,500-square-foot addition including an auditorium area and a connection between the new worship space and the existing building at 56 Old Bedford Road.

The church received site plan approval for a 40,000-square-foot project in 2003 when it was still called Bedford Community Church, but only built about 13,000-square-feet according to project consultant Chris Riley. The new addition will keep the project slightly under the previous approval.

The site plans have been reengineered to address issues raised last month at a conceptual site plan review. The height and number of retaining walls were reduced. The architecture of the building itself had not changed. While it looks different than the architecture typically seen around town, it is consistent with the neighboring Memorial School in that both have multiple components and flat roofs, Riley said.

The architects brought to the site what the church needed for its programming, he said.

We werent really trying to have a traditional church look for this facility, Riley said. The programming that Manchester Christian Church provides is not typical. I would say that is one of the strong characteristics for its expanded and rapid growth over the past few years.

The church provided an updated traffic study determining that Sunday would be the peak traffic day. Programming adjustments, such as allowing an hour between services to avoid overlap and congestion during peak hours will be implemented. The study concluded that one exit was sufficient and that adding a second lane would be difficult due to site constraints such as slopes and wetlands.

jhanson@newstote.com

Continue reading here:
Bedford church gets OK to build large addition

Placement of dome on the new Greek Orthodox Church on Tates Creek Road in Lexington. Time-lapse video by Pablo Alcala | Herald-Leader KENTUCKY.COM

The unofficial "church row" on Tates Creek Road which includes Centenary United Methodist, Immanuel Baptist and Tates Creek Christian is about to get a little bigger and more architecturally diverse.

The Panagia Pantovasilissa Greek Orthodox Church, being built at 3005 Tates Creek Road, should be ready for occupancy in July, said Dr. Dennis Karounos, who chairs the construction committee for the church.

For its first 65 years in Lexington, the church operated at a building a little more than a mile closer to downtown. The site was too small and had no off-street parking or handicap accessibility, Karounos said.

"We used on-street parking for 65 years," he said.

The new church, which serves about 100 families, has 53 parking spaces, Karounos said.

The new church is designed in the Byzantine style, Karounos said, with domes and a bell tower. The 11,300-square-foot structure will be ready for worship in July, but it won't be completely finished. Finishing the interior will require $400,000 on the $2 million-plus building, Karounos said.

Meanwhile, the exterior will be completed, and the interior of the social hall, kitchen and classrooms. The social hall will be divided in half, with part of its used to worship, until money is raised to complete the interior.

The social hall alone is bigger than the church's entire square footage at 920 Tates Creek Road, Karounos said.

The Byzantine architecture draws driver and pedestrian attention along Tates Creek. On Wednesday, the church's huge dome was set into place. The job required a special crane from outside of Lexington.

See the original post here:
Greek Orthodox congregation adds dome, diversity to Lexington's 'church row'

CAPAS, Tarlac -- Folks in Barangay Patling in this town Tarlac denounced recently the action taken by the Catholic Church against the more than 300 years old "balon" or well located inside the premises of the St. Joseph Parish Church -- believed to be one of the oldest Catholic churches in the Philippines -- which was used as a dumping area of trash.

A small chapel was built in front of the well, which hides it. The priest assigned there also ordered it closed to the viewing public.

"They put more importance to the construction of the building than the importance of the historical value of the well," churchgoers said. They added that the present parish priest, whom they did not name, challenged them: "Kahit saan kayo magsumbong na media o television ay hindi ako natatakot." The priest allegedly said, "He is not afraid because the church belongs to catholic priests."

The faithful gathered signatures from the residents of the village to save their heritage church from what said are "abusive priests." So far, they have collected more than 500 signatures to save the well.

"Pumunta pa kami kay Bishop Cinense (Florentino) para sana ipatigil ang pagwasak sa balon subalit ang sagot niya sa amin ay 'Wala akong time. Busy ako. Pupunta lang ako doon sa Marso para basbasan ang chapel, ang sabi po niya, the residents said.

They said their mouths were shut when many things happened in their barangay. However, they said that this time, they feel that they have to make their stand and tell the world what is really going on.

They said that when Fr. Jose Daquigan (deceased) and Fr. Tirso Daquigan (now a Monsignor) were assigned here as parish priests, they desecrated the St. Joseph Parish Church altar. They said they dug the altar where some Spanish friars are buried with treasures.

A certain teenager named "Pugot" who served as a choir guitarist that time saw the digging and remembers that one of the Spanish friars buried below the altar is one "Fr. Atienza", together with two more friars. He said he saw black diaries and notebooks taken out from a tomb below the catacomb with the name "Atienza" in it, which dates back in 1773.

He said there was also a gold chalice recovered from the tomb and other important personal effects of the friars. He said the digging was personally supervised by Fr. Daquigan, allegedly a known friend of Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. He said the digging of the church altar was done in the early '80s. Then sometime in the late 1980s, uniformed soldiers were seen coming in out of the old barrio cemetery of Patling. A chopper was also seen coming down near the area and after a few hours, was seen flying away from the place.

The Patling residents said they were afraid to go near the cemetery when they saw the uniformed soldiers with armalite rifles and heavy armaments. The following day, they said, they investigated the cemetery and saw that the old tomb of the Spanish Friars dating back 1759 was ransacked. The bones of the dead were nowhere to be found. A big hole was dug beneath the compartment type tomb. The folks surmised that a Spanish treasure must have been found inside the tombs.

View post:
Folks denounce priests for desecrating church

Congestion around Eastwood High School, caused by ongoing construction on Montwood Drive, might be allevaited through a possible agreement with Mount Hope Lutheran Church, school officials said.

Susanna Russell, area II associate superintendent for the Ysleta Independent School District, said the district is working with the church. If an agreement is reached, parents could use the church's parking lot, which is across the street from the high school, as a student drop off zone until the construction of Montwood Drive is complete.

"The district is currently working on a plan that may allow parents to utilize the Mount Hope Lutheran Church as an official drop-off area," Russell said.

Rev. Bill Bruggeman, of Mount Hope Lutheran Church, said parents can drop off their students at the church parking lot for now.

"We are happy to help out and we are just trying to be good neighbors," Bruggeman said. "They have a problem with their parking because of the ongoing construction and we are trying to work something out that is mutually beneficial."

Russell added that in an effort to decrease traffic in the area, summer school for fifth- and eighth-grade will not be held at Eastwood High School, and instead will be relocated to Eastwood Middle School. Athletic events have also been rescheduled to assure the safety of students, while also ensuring enough parking is available, Russell said.

Construction along Montwood Drive is part of a $11 million drainage-improvement project that reduced the road to one lane in each direction. Since the project began in Jan. 2013, the campus has had to relocate crosswalks and drop-off zones and add security.

The project is scheduled for completion in February 2015, said Martin Bartlett spokesman for the City's Engineering and Construction Management Department. Once the project is completed, Montwood Drive will have new sidewalks, curbs, gutters, street lights and landscaping.

While traffic has been manageable, Russell said the recent construction of deep trenches on Montwood has blocked off access to neighborhood streets.

This has increased traffic at the front entrance of the school, which faces McRae Boulevard, said Sara Iturriaga, a parent.

Continued here:
Ysleta ISD seeks solution for congestion in East El Paso