SAN ANGELO, Texas The Standard-Times publishes news of special events and programs. We do not accept items detailing regular weekly sermons or schedules. Church news can be submitted on a form available on our website, gosanangelo.com, by email at standard@gosanangelo.com or by fax to 325-659-8173. Forms also are available in the newsrooms Community News Department from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. Wednesday before the date of publication. Dates, times, address and a publication number are required.

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ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY GREEK ORTHODOX

Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church, 801 Montecito, will sell gyro sandwiches for pickup on Feb. 2. Call 325-653-6074 and order ahead for quick pickup or stop by. We will be serving from noon until kickoff approximately 5:30 p.m.

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BELMORE BAPTIST

Belmore Baptist Church, 1214 S. Bell St., The Baptist Men will meet at 8 a.m. Sunday for breakfast and a program. Julie Green, Tom Green County jail chaplain, will speak.

Childrens Church for age 4 through 5th grad will meet at 10:50 a.m. Sunday in the fellowship hall.

The pastors Bible class and sanctuary choir rehearsal both will meet at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Prayer for Belaire School will meet at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the church office.

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Church briefs, 1/18

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ALAMO -- Rejecting an appeal by neighbors, the county planning commission has let stand plans for a controversial recreation center to be built at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church in Alamo.

The appeal asked the commission to overturn approval of the project by the Contra Costa zoning administrator.

Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to uphold the zoning administrator's decision.

"We agreed with the zoning administrator's findings that the project was compatible with the neighborhood and consistent with the zoning and that's why we made our decision," said Aruna Bhat, a deputy director at the county Department of Conservation & Development, who presided over the appeal hearing.

Church officials say the gym is intended as "a gift" to the community, and that the idea for it came from an anonymous donor in the Alamo area. They plan to charge small fees to non-church members who want to use the gym, but say it will be open to the public.

But many neighbors of the Danville Boulevard church oppose the project. There are 29 houses surrounding the church, and the residents of 28 of them publicly oppose the gym's construction, according to a county staff report. Among neighbors' concerns are fears that the new gym will increase noise and light pollution in the area, and lead to more traffic congestion along Danville Boulevard.

In response, the church has agreed to measures designed to reduce gym and nighttime light pollution.

Bhat said anyone who wants to file an appeal to the county board of supervisors has until 4 pm Jan. 24, to do so.

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Neighbors appeal rejected, new church gym to go forward in Alamo

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola | credits: File copy

Leaders and members of the Christ Apostolic Church, Araromi District Headquarters, Osogbo, on Wednesday staged a protest against the alleged forceful occupation of the church revival grounds for the construction of public schools.

The placard-carrying members of the church gathered at the church premises to protest what they called anti-Christ policy of Governor Rauf Aregbesolas administration.

Apart from the church auditorium and other church buildings located on the large expanse of land, the ground also contained a public school, CAC Primary School; and a private secondary school, Christ Ambassadors Comprehensive College.

The church secretary, Mr. Akin Olusegun, who addressed journalists after the protest, said that the church had no problem with the school merger of the government but would no longer allow governments encroachment on their land.

He said the state government had built its Middle School on the revival ground of the church without the consent of the church and that the church members had to drive away some contractors sent to the church to come and commence the building of an elementary school on the remaining part of the ground.

Olusegun said that the state government had access to the land on which the public primary school was built to build its new elementary school but had decided to further encroach on the church property because the church did not resist the first encroachment.

He said that the President of CAC Worldwide, Pastor A.O. Akinosun, had met with Aregbesola on the encroachment and the governor promised not to encroach further into the territory of the churchs private school.

He said, While a response from the government was still awaited, the leaders of the O School, in flagrant display of power, laid siege to a portion of our churchs land. On the instruction of the leader of O School, the new middle school building has been located on the churchs land instead of positioning the building on the land of the existing CAC Primary School.

In the process, a multipurpose conference hall for the Good Women Association, which is under construction and on which over N10m had been spent, was demolished.

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CAC members protest Aregbesola’s take over of land

AME ZION

Chestnut Grove AME Zion Church, Chester: Fish and hot dog sale Sunday in front of Mobleys Carpet on Gadsden Street, before, during and after the Martin Luther King Parade.

Clinton Chapel AME Zion Church, California Street, York: Spiritual evening of entertainment with Kenny Curry and Nu Spirit, 5 p.m. Sunday. Donations, $10.

Greater Unity AME Zion Church, S.C. 97, Sharon: Season of 21 Days of Consecration continues, 2:30 p.m. Sunday with the Rev. Thelma Gordon.

Jerusalem Baptist Church, Steele Street, Fort Mill: Willing Workers Auxiliary anniversary, 2 p.m. Sunday. United Churches of Fort Mill annual MLK celebration, 7 p.m. Monday.

Mount Zion AME Zion Church, Old Nations Road, Fort Mill: Fish fry, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Sporty Js barbershop at the corner of Nations Ford and Arrowood roads in Charlotte. Four Gospel program, 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the church.

ARP

First ARP Church, East White Street, Rock Hill: Basketball, 4 p.m. Saturday in the gym. Foundations for the Family, 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Junior Joys, 6 p.m. Thursday. Just Joy, 6:30 p.m. Thursday. A Tropical Escape, third annual dance for special friends with special needs, 2-4 p.m. Jan. 25.

BAPTIST

Boyd Hill Baptist Church, Glenn Street, Rock Hill: Pastors Aid Society sixth anniversary, 2 p.m. Sunday.

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York, Chester, Lancaster church notes: Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014

First Evangelical Lutheran Church in La Crescent may soon be expanding.

Church officials hope to build a new childcare facility next to the church within the next couple years. Pastor Chris Christenson said original plans were for a new facility to be built in 2017, but the timeline has moved up.

Were really excited to maybe push this up a little sooner than we had envisioned, Christenson said, adding that construction on a new facility could begin within a year.

The churchs childcare facility was previously housed at the corner of N. Elm and North Second streets, and cared for toddlers and preschool-age children.

Temporarily, childcare for only the preschoolers because of limited space is being provided at the church, which is preparing to put the current childcare facility up for sale.

Christenson said the building didnt have space to care for infant-age children, one reason a new building was needed.

Director of the childcare program, Jacob Leibl, said another reason for the move is to have the facility closer to the church, located at 414 Main St.

Our ministry is looking to have something connected to the church, close to the church, Leibl said.

He said the church is currently trying to make plans with an architect to design the new facility.

Were really excited for whats to come, Leibl said.

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First Lutheran to expand childcare facility

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Construction on the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the largest church on earth, started 28 years ago in the small Ivory Coast city of Yamoussoukro. Planned by then-president Flix Houphout-Boigny, who led the country through two decades of economic boomtime known as the "Ivorian miracle," the church would be a monumentto God, but also to himself.

The economic miracle spanned from 1960, when independence from France arrived, to the late 1970s. Like similar booms in the United States or Germany, it had already begun to show troubling signs of decay by the early 1980s. But, by then, the 75-year-old Houphout-Boigny was in the process of putting the finishing touch on his presidency: Moving the Ivory Coast's capital to Yamoussoukro, his tiny hometown more than 150 miles inland of the country's biggest city.

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To build his capital, Houphout-Boigny recruited a French-Lebanese architect named Pierre Fakhoury. Together, they planned a grand, super-modern city of the future, featuring palaces, roads, one of the largest airports in Africa, and a churchthe Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukrothat would be modeled directly after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

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The church would be the crown on the new capital's head: A 320,000 square foot masterpiece, filled with details to shame the real vatican. There would be a 100-pound gold cross, an ornate papal villa, and a massive stained glass window showing Jesus Christ, flanked by the president himself. The Vatican requested that Fakhoury make the church's dome just slightly lower than St. Peter's own.

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How a Giant Replica of the Vatican Ended Up In a Small African City

SPRING HILL A delay in road construction prompted a local church to ask permission to use two subdivision streets as access points for Sunday traffic.

City Planner Paul Keltner said Spring Hills Planning Commission approved a plan allowing the Church at Station Hill to access two streets in a local subdivision as roadwork had not caught up to the churchs original plans. He said the plan was approved Monday despite opposition from both the citys planning and engineering staff.

Church traffic would enter the property from and exit onto Aaron Drive and Austin Drive which then funnels down to Common Wealth Drive and Port Royal Road, Keltner said.

The churchs first phase was originally designed to have access along collector roads Ray Williams and the future expansion of Reserve Boulevard, Keltner said. Since neither collector road has been completed along their property, they proposed to push all the traffic from the church along two minor subdivision streets.

Keltner said the churchs plot of land contains a 50,262-square-foot building with the potential to seat 700 people. He said Phase 1 of the project indicates as many as 607 vehicles could move throughout the two residential streets before and after Sunday services.

Planning Commission Chairman Jonathan Schwartz said the church will be allowed to direct traffic onto Aaron Drive and Austin Drive until the needed extension of Reserve Boulevard is finished.

At the end of the day, they will connect to Reserve Boulevard, he said. That wasnt showing on their final site plan, so we amended the approval of their plan as long as the submit a new plan showing the new place where it will connect. As it stands now, the plan is to use those two roads until Reserve Boulevard is fully constructed.

Schwartz said there are no definite plans for the completion of Reserve Boulevard to his knowledge.

The money for the construction is in escrow, he said. A lot of the decisions on when that expansion will happen are up to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

The commission also made changes to how height restrictions will be approved in the future.

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Church access changed amid road work delay

FEMI MAKINDE writes that the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led administration has ignited another round of controversy, for proposing to build an interdenominational Christian worship centre in Osun State

The Governor of Osun State, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has again stirred the hornets nest with a proposal to build an interdenominational church auditorium in the state. Arebegsola, a devout Muslim, has been in the eye of the storm over allegations that he is trying to Islamise the state as evident in his educational policies.

Perhaps to put a lie to these assertions, his administration decided to acquire a large expanse of land at Odo Iju and Ibodi in Atakumosa West Local Government Area of the state, to build what it considers a befitting place of worship for Christians.

The opposition, armed with the argument that there should be separation of the church and the state, has come down hard on the governor. It has accused the governor of wasting scarce public resources in a vain attempt to score cheap political points.

Aregbesola, had hardly paid the N51m compensation to the land owners to enable the administration to build the interdenominational worship centre (to be known as Open Heaven Worship Centre), when Senator Iyiola Omisore, raised the alarm. Omisore, who is a contender for Arebegsolas job, was among the first set of people to criticise the compensation.

Omisore, a former deputy governor of the state under the defunct Alliance for Democracy, accused the governor of profligacy. According to him, the payment is also an attempt to divert the states resources preparatory to the forthcoming 2014 governorship poll. It is ironic that the strongest criticism of the planned Christian worship centre is coming from Omisore, who is a Christian.

Undeterred, the administration is forging ahead with the project. The state Commissioner for Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Muyiwa Ige, presented cheques to the farmers, who had crops on the land. He explained that the state government paid a total of N11m as compensation to 243 farmers, who lost their farmland to the ongoing construction of the MKO Abiola International Airport, Ido Osun in Egbedore Local Government Area of the state.

He also explained that the state government would not hesitate to compensate those with genuine documents on any property taken over in the cause of developing the state.

Omisore and his supporters are not convinced. They insist that the compensation being paid out is one of several ways the administration is devising to mop up funds to be used to rig the forthcoming governorship election. Omisore, in a statement by his Director of Media and Strategy, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, accused the governor of attempting to rig the coming poll using the states resources.

He described the proposed building of the Interdenominational Worship Centre, which he estimated would cost several billions of naira, as a misplacement of priority and sheer hypocrisy. According to him, the proposed worship centre is an attempt to siphon taxpayers money with no genuine concern for the welfare of the people of the state.

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Aregbesola’s church project and its controversy

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church has come a long way in 150 years.

In the beginning, the church consisted of 10 African-American families worshipping together under a grapevine at the corner of Franklin Street and Merritt Mill Road.

This year, the church will break ground on 48,000 square foot housing development and a surrounding village.

The Rev. Thomas O. Nixon of St. Paul said the town of Chapel Hill pitched the idea to the church and has been reviewing the development through its extensive approval process ever since.

This project is not about St. Paul, he said. It is meant to bring the masses together for a common cause.

St. Paul has been providing money for the consultants, architects and any tests and studies that have been a part of getting the village approved.

There are a couple more hurdles to cross before the project is fully approved, he said. Then we will be looking for help through grants and partnerships.

Three phases of development

The construction of St. Paul Village will take about 10 years once it is fully approved.

The village will be built in three phases. The first phase will provide a 600-seat Fellowship Hall, an administration building, a day care center, a gymnasium, a sales office, memorial gardens and 36 independent living apartments.

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St. Paul AME Church celebrates 150 years with new project