MONROE -- Joe Boranian goes to the Monroe Covenant Church three times a week.

He uses a powered wheelchair because of his cerebral palsy. To get in the church, he needed friends to carry him up the stairs.

That has changed.

"Now that we have an elevator, that's not an issue," said Boranian, 22, who lives in Lake Stevens.

The church, located at 202 S. Sams St., finished the remodeling project last month which added an elevator, expanded the front entryway, and built new bathrooms for the handicapped.

It was done to help members of the congregation who use wheelchairs or have trouble getting up the stairs. At the time of the renovation, Boranian was one of only two members who use wheelchairs.

The $120,000 for the cost of construction was raised by the parishioners.

The church started thinking about the changes two decades ago. It had about $20,000 in savings, and in early 2011, the church started a fund drive to get the necessary funds, pastor Mac Taylor said.

In only three months, parishioners raised $90,000, he said.

"It was a large number for a small congregation," Taylor said.

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Monroe church's elevator gives congregation a lift

PALM CITY One of the earliest institutions in Palm City was the Bible Union Congregational Church. Only the Palm City Woman's Club, built in 1915, was older.

The church, located on the riverfront on land donated by Charles C. Chillingworth in 1921, had two claims to historical record in its early days: It was the first in the state to have a school bus to pick up children for Sunday School, and it as the second church in the state to be headed by a woman, founder, the Rev. Lucy Ayres.

The church owed its existence to Ayres, a graduate of Bible Teachers' Training School and daughter of a minister, who came to Palm City for her health in 1920. Although she was recovering from a serious illness, she saw a need for spiritual support in the community of about 150 residents and organized a prayer circle, Bible study class and Sunday School.

The first prayer circle was conducted in the home of Amelia Hall. By January 1921, Ayres was having church services in the Woman's Club although she was not yet an ordained minister. She persuaded residents to raise money for construction of a church. Her first collection for that purpose was $1 but in time she had $725, enough to start the building.

Palm City residents referred to her affectionately as the "Little Minister," and it did not seem to disturb them that a woman was leading their church.

Chillingworth, the developer of Palm City, donated the land for the church on the west bank of the South Fork of the St. Lucie River and construction of the church soon began.

When it was ready to be dedicated in April 1921, Ayres was not yet ordained and an ordained clergymen would have to open the church. Community leaders settled on the Rev. Mabel Guam Stevens of St. Augustine, the first woman to be ordained as a minister in Florida, to formally open the church. Ayres was ordained and given full control of the spiritual aspects of the church a year later.

Mabel Witham, whose father, John Blasko, made the first pews and communion table for the church, remembers it as a place of joy and peace.

"The two places I feel at home in Palm City," she told an interviewer in 1970, "are the woods and that old chapel."

The church is still on the riverfront but is now part of the United Church of Christ. It can be seen from the top of the Palm City Bridge to the south and west on the riverfront.

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Bible Union Congregational Church gave Palm City its spiritual roots

By Joe Schoenmann (contact)

Thursday, March 8, 2012 | 3:06 p.m.

Plans to build factory producing helium-filled boats didn't pan out for the business arm of the Unification Church, instead the organization led by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon plans a convention center and dormitory at its location near McCarran International Airport.

With some revisions to plans, the Clark County Commission approved a use permit this week allowing the church to begin construction, which is expected to be completed by the January 2013. In January 2014, church organizers must return for a review to see how the development worked with industrial businesses nearby.

Neighboring businesses argued that the project would cause traffic problems, as large semi-trailer trucks go in and out of a relatively small entry to a parking lot between the businesses and the proposed convention center. Their concerns stemmed from statements made in August, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the Won Mo Boats manufacturing facility. The church's website said the facility would contain a marble-inlaid "Peace Palace," a "state-of-the-art training facility for education and worship."

To businesses nearby, that sounded like it was going to be a church. The traffic associated with church events, they said, would impede their ability to get trucks in and out and do business.

"I want conditions (that this) is not a house of worship," said Commissioner Steve Sisolak, whose district includes the building.

But consultant Jennifer Lazovich, of Kaempfer Crowell law firm and representing the church, promised the location would not be used as a church. Instead, the church anticipated it would be used for a variety of conventions, including those advocating world peace and women's rights.

She estimated training seminars would be held twice a month at the facility for 350 to 500 people, quarterly meetings of 250 people, twice-a-year conferences with 250 people and a few other conventions.

She said 50 temporary construction jobs will be created to demolish the building. Then 200 workers will be hired to build the $12-$14 million structure. When completed, fewer than a dozen people would work there full-time.

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Unification Church will hold seminars, not build boats near airport

Credit: DEAN HOFFMEYER/TIMES-DISPATCH

A new steeple was placed Wednesday on Bethlehem Presbyterian Church's new sanctuary on Old Church Road in Hanover.

Bethlehem Presbyterian Church is like thousands of other white clapboard churches in the turn of the road in Virginia, only this one on Old Church Road in Hanover County is about to get a new sanctuary.

The 175-year-old church received a $110,000 gift from a church elder 30 years ago with the stipulation that it be used for new construction. It has taken this long for parishioners to match the fund and add enough to it to build a sanctuary.

"We decided this was the time to do it. It was now or never," the Rev. Rebekah J. Johns said.

The new steeple went up Wednesday.

"This has been a long time in the coming," said parishioner June Cappello, a sheep and hay farmer. She and her husband, Roger Cappello, a physician, were married at Bethlehem Presbyterian 31 years ago.

"It's a big day for us," said Craig Davis, construction superintendent, as the new steeple was bolted into a cupola.

Construction on the new church started last summer. It is scheduled for completion in April.

Johns said the building committee talked with five construction companies and chose Norman Co. Inc. in Mechanicsville because of its ties to the church and the community.

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Steeple goes up on new sanctuary for 175-year-old church

JOPLIN, Mo Jack Wisener and Dave Tresemer lost their homes on May 22, so as they watched the destruction wrought by tornadoes that killed 39 people across five Midwestern and Southern states last week, they shared a similar reaction.

Saturday, I was feeling moved and hurt because I know what these people are going through, Wisener said.

Tresemer said he felt the kind of empathy that can only come from experience.

THREE ON MISSION

By dawn Wednesday, the two and a third member of St. Pauls United Methodist Church in Joplin were on their way to Indiana.

Were familiar with what they are going through, Tresemer said Monday. Its still fresh in all of our minds.

I was getting ready for church [Sunday], and I told my wife [Sharon], Im about this close to going to Indiana. I said, All I need is a little push. Then I saw Jack at church and asked, What are you doing for the next few days? and he said, Nothing. Then I asked him if he wanted to go to Indiana.

Wisener said he didnt think twice: I said yes.

Pastor Aaron Brown of St. Pauls said the congregation immediately began gathering supplies for the mission.

Having been through what weve been through here and all the amazing help weve received, we were just ready to send some people somewhere, so when these guys stepped up, we were ready to get them equipped, he said.

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Joplin church trio on way to help local tornado victims

06-03-2012 21:12 Westminster, singing a Jay Giallombardo, composition of "Sure On This Shining Night" in the Petrikirche, a Protestant church (start of construction 1322) in Dortmund, Germany. The church is famous for the huge carved altar (known as "Golden Miracle of Dortmund"), from 1521. It consists of 633 gilt carved oak figures depicting 30 scenes about Easter. JOIN WESTMINSTER!!! If you live in Southern California, are in college, a college graduate, or even high school, and are interested in singing Barbershop, Choral, and A Cappella music at the highest level possible, we'd love to meet you! Contact us at: join@Westminsterchorus.org

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Westminster Chorus - Sure On This Shining Night - Video

March 7, 2012|1:01 pm

The Rev. Makarious Bolous of the Mar Gerges Church in Aswan was sentenced on Sunday (March 4), but neither the imams who called for the attack nor the Muslim villagers who destroyed the church building last September have been charged with any crime.

Bolous said the ruling, coupled with the absence of prosecution against those who burned down the church building, is clear evidence of persecution and a legal double standard between Christians and Muslims.

"I feel it is unjust," Bolous said. "It's not fair."

The lower court that made the ruling also fined Bolous 300 Egyptian pounds (US$50). Bolous remained free Tuesday (March 6) awaiting appeal.

Local government officials said the building was 2.5 meters taller than what they had approved on a series of architectural drawings. Bolous said the citation was issued days after the fire.

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The priest said the charges surprised him. A significant percentage of construction projects in Egypt are done without permits, he said, and even when permits are issued, adherence to their stipulations is casual and enforcement is lax. The village where the church building once stood is surrounded by homes that have two or three extra floors built outside of permitted specifications and by others that were built with no permit at all, according to Bolous.

"The whole village is full of people who are building against their licenses," Bolous said. "So the whole thing is, 'Why did they only cite the church and pick on the extra bit of building?'"

Bolous' attorney, Osama Refaat, said the citation was unusual because by law contractors, not property owners, are responsible for permit violations.

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Court Sentences Priest From Attacked Church Building

By Beth Healy, Globe Staff

A Dorchester construction firm has filed an amended lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court against the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church and its lender, OneUnited Bank, over $629,000 in work it says it did on the churchs community center but has gone unpaid.

Thomas Construction Co. alleges that it completed 91 percent of the work at the churchs Roxbury Renaissance Center, but that it has not been fully paid due to a dispute between the church and the bank. Thomas said it has been paid $2.6 million, but that the rest has gone unpaid since October 2009. The loan had come due, and although the church received extensions, it could not get the bank to extend or refinance the loan.

That loan dispute has continued, and now the bank is trying to foreclose on a separate loan and auction off the main church building, which is near the community center. There has been a massive community and political outcry to save the historic church.

The halt to the project has put a huge drain on our firm, said Paul Hogan, vice president of operations at Thomas Construction. He said the group was hopeful that a resolution might come about now that there was broader pressure on the bank to negotiate.

Ross Martin, a lawyer for the church, said, Were in regular contact with the contractor. We understand that they had to bring a lawsuit and were working with them to resolve the situation.

OneUnited, the nations largest black-owned bank, has filed a motion to dismiss the case. The Boston institution has loaned over $500 million to families and nonprofits, including churches, in low- to moderate-income communities in Boston, Los Angeles and Miami.

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Thomas Construction amends lawsuit against Charles Street AME church

By Jason A. Baguia Cebu Daily News

Toledo City The Catholic faithfuls here are rushing to finish the church of the Blessed Pedro Calungsod before his canonization in the Vatican on Oct. 21 this year.

From a chapel made of wood and tin roof in 2006, the churchgoers are now rushing to finish the Pedro Calungsod church that sits atop a hill with a 360-degree view of the lush mountains of the city.

In 2006, the Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal approved the establishment of the parish church in the name of Calungsod whose origins was traced to the Visayas.

Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma was all praises to the Blessed Pedro Calungsod parishioners during Sundays seventh annual fiesta, which also marks the sixth anniversary of the parish in barangay Cantabaco.

I am glad to see that there have been many improvements in your church since my last visit, Archbishop Palma told a congregation of about 1,000.

He was impressed with the churchs newly tiled floors, stained glass windows depicting the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and scenes from Calungsods life.

The rectory, flooring, sanctuary finishing, churchyard landscaping and other parts of the church have yet to see completed though.

Palma was the main celebrant of the fiestas concelebrated mass that was participated by Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Antonio Raola, Msgr. Ildebrando Leyson, Msgr. Gerardo Jumao-as.

Monsignor Leyson is one of the lead promoters of the cause for Calungsods canonization. The 94-year-old Monsignor Jumao-as along with Fr. Michael Hisoler persuaded Architect Servillano Mapeso and his wife Josephine to donate the one-hectare land where the hilltop church now sits.

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Community builds Calungsod church

Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, who belongs to Roxburys Charles Street AME Church, is joining a growing chorus of politicians calling on the congregations lender not to foreclose on the historic property.

Arroyo, a city councilor at large, has written Boston-based OneUnited Bank to ask the lender to halt plans to seize the church on March 22.

I clearly have a relationship with the church, but its also just the concept (of foreclosing on an historic house of worship) that I oppose, Arroyo told the Herald. This is a church that is very active not just in a moral sense, but also in the life of the city.

Charles Street AME, which dates back to 1818 and has been in Roxbury since 1939, faces foreclosure after failing to make a $1.1 million balloon mortgage payment due last fall.

The church claims it never missed a payment before, but couldnt refinance when the balloon payment came due because of a separate lawsuit OneUnited has filed.

The bank sued Charles Street AME in 2010 over a $3.6 million construction loan taken out to build an adjacent community center.

The bank cut off funding for the project in 2009, leaving construction unfinished.

The church claims thats made it impossible to hold fund-raisers, rent out the center for weddings and do other things the congregation planned to do to generate money.

Local politicians have been rallying to the churchs aid since the Herald last week first reported that OneUnited planned to foreclose.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and three other city councilors have backed Charles Street AME in recent days.

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Felix Arroyo joins chorus to aid historic church