NEW YORK (WABC) --

The afternoon sun broke through the clouds as the majestic procession for Cardinal Egan got underway at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Priests and clergy, bishops and cardinals entered the great cathedral as New York's current archbishop - Timothy Cardinal Dolan - greeted them.

Inside the church, a who's who of dignitaries listened as Cardinal Dolan spoke about his predecessor.

Egan, he said, was a gift from God who worked heroically for parishes, charities, health care and education.

Dolan told the 2,500 people packing the cathedral that Egan "was uncomfortable with eulogies" but Dolan went on to praise him nonetheless. He said Catholics from fellow cardinals to "God's good people" could tell of "consolation given on and after 9/11, prayers offered, sick visited, prisoners encouraged, children taught, immigrants welcomed, and parishes strengthened."

"Now this Church thanks God for him and commends his noble, priestly soul to the everlasting mercy of Jesus," Dolan said.

Egan died Thursday after a heart attack. A Vatican theological force, he led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York for almost a decade, including on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center and more than 2,700 died. In the days and weeks that followed, Egan performed many funerals.

"I remember one particular firefighter's funeral that he presided over that was so moving and so beautiful," former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. "And then what people didn't know is even when he didn't preside over a funeral, he would often drive out to a parish and just sit there and give a blessing."

Among those taking part in the funeral Mass were Cardinal Egan's family members, who served as lectors, readers and gift bearers.

View post:
Thousands turn out to bid a final farewell to Cardinal Edward Egan

Demolition began last week of a century-old church building in Shenandoah that housed a convent and an archival center for a possible future saint.

Workers began taking down the three-story building that was constructed as a convent and rectory during the leadership of the Rev. John Dobrowski, who became pastor of St. Casimir Church on Nov. 29, 1912.

From the time of its construction, the convent was the Shenandoah home of the Bernardine Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis (OSF) and was being used as such until last year when structural problems caused the sisters to leave.

The half of the building closest to the church that had served as the parish rectory was the Ciszek Center, the headquarters of the Father Walter Ciszek Prayer League, which was formed in 1985 to promote the cause for canonization of Father Ciszek, a Shenandoah native who was a prisoner in the Soviet Union for 23 years.

The cause officially began in 1989 five years after Father Ciszeks death in the Ruthenian Byzantine Eparchy of Passaic. After the retirement of the Most Rev. Michael J. Dudick as bishop, the cause moved to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown in 1998 through the support of the Most Rev. Thomas J. Welsh, bishop. It was after the diocesan change that the headquarters was moved from Sugarloaf Township to Shenandoah.

The cause for canonization is currently being reviewed in the Vatican.

In addition to memorabilia of the life of Father Ciszek, the building also held a Perpetual Adoration chapel. The prayer leagues board president is Monsignor Ronald C. Bocian, pastor of Divine Mercy Church in Shenandoah, with St. Casimir Church as a worship center. Attempts to contact Monsignor Bocian for information on the demolition were not successful.

Prayer league board member Elaine Cusat said the league is in transition with its location due to the need to move.

Were projecting well be getting ready with a new center in the spring, said Cusat.

The new center will be located in the former Annunciation BVM Church rectory on the 200 block of West Cherry Street near Divine Mercy Church and Trinity Academy.

Link:
Shenandoah church building razed

Members of the North Spartanburg Rotary Club participated in a wall-raising celebration at a Habitat for Humanity house on West Centennial Street in Spartanburg Saturday morning.

Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of Spartanburg, the North Spartanburg Rotary Club and Inman Baptist Church came together on Saturday to start construction on the 111th Habitat home in Spartanburg County.

The build was the product of a new partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the Rotary Club. Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Lee Close said the partnership with the Rotary Club started when Rotary Club President Ueli Schmid approached him in the hallway of their church, Inman Baptist Church.

Schmid said he wanted the organization to get involved with a project to give back to the community. The Rotary Club voted to sponsor the entire Habitat for Humanity house on its own.

I was completely blown away, Close said. It's a rare thing for a single organization to sponsor an entire Habitat House. We are enormously blessed to have this opportunity to work together.

Close said an overwhelming majority, 92 percent, of the Rotary Club's members voted in support of the project.

It's a big thing to have that support. It all comes down to folks wanting to help others, he said.

During a small ceremony before construction began, Schmid thanked volunteers from all three organizations that came out on a cold Saturday morning.

Milestones like this will be remembered, he said.

The house is one of many Habitat for Humanity has built on Centennial Street to help revitalize north Spartanburg. The development borders Spartanburg Medical Center's campus and is adjacent to Cleveland Park.

Read this article:
Civic group, church work together on Habitat house

Enterprise, Miss. Nearly a year ago members of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Clarke County were building a brand new church when the unthinkable happened. Vandals and thieves struck their construction site, busting part of the foundation and stealing numerous items from construction wire to lumber. Reverend Jimmie Bunch told Newscenter 11 last year it set them back a couple of days, and they looked at it as though it was just a stumbling block. Fast forward to the year 2015 and there is no sign of a construction site; instead, in it's place, sits a newly built church.

"We're thankful to God that he's brought us all this way from the old building into the new building, even with all of the mishaps," Bunch said. "Everything by the grace of God is culminated together and we are coming into this new sanctuary today."

Reverend Bunch says nearly $5,000 worth of materials were stolen, but through the help of The Indian Grave Baptist Church Construction Mission Team, Mississippi Campers on Mission, and prayer they were able to recieve some dynamic help.

"We worked ourselves to a frazzle, but that's all in trying to accomplish what you need," said Bunch.

The church was founed in the late 1800s and has long been a staple in the community. Reverend Bunch says they continue to make strides in the community.

"We've had some obstacles that we ran into, but we kept the faith, we

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist church is located in Enterprise in the Northwestern part of Clarke County and is situated right off of Highway 514.

Originally posted here:
One Church Overcomes Obstacles after Vandalism

Published: Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 11:00 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, March 7, 2015 at 11:00 p.m.

In this alternate history, the congregation would have gathered to commemorate 30 years since the opening service was held at the North Lakeland sanctuary Feb. 10, 1985.

Instead, the hulking, octagonal structure, a building whose construction anticipated the national rise of megachurches, will soon crumble without ceremony.

"It really feels like a dear old friend is going to die," said Faith Turnage Hallock, a Lakeland resident who attended Carpenter's Home Church and its affiliated Evangel Christian School. "I was literally in tears when I found out. I know it's a building, but what people don't understand is to those of us who grew up there and love it, it was more than just a building; it was part of our life."

It has been a decade since Polk County's largest church sanctuary was known as Carpenter's Home Church. The structure had been home to Without Walls Central Church from 2005 until its services fizzled out in 2011.

But for many in Polk County, the sanctuary still represents Carpenter's Home, the church that inhabited the building for two decades.

Hallock met her husband of 18 years when both were youths attending the church. Other former members talked of getting married or being baptized or seeing children or grandchildren baptized in the church.

Hallock, 41, created a Facebook page, "I Used To Be A CHC Kid!" in 2009. She has posted links to news articles about Without Walls, culminating in a report that the property had been sold to Cook Development in Daytona Beach, which plans to raze the church building and convert a 1920s-era structure formerly home to Evangel Christian School into an assisted-living facility.

"Heartbreaking," one woman wrote in a typical comment reacting to that news. Amid the sorrow, though, Hallock and others say the imminent destruction has spurred them to share happy memories of Carpenter's Home Church.

"It stamped our life forever," said Lou Frye, who attended the church with his family from 1985 to 2003, commuting from Brandon in the early years before moving closer. "Although we were already born again, when we got there it was almost like we got born again, again."

Read more from the original source:
A Vanishing Mega Church in North Lakeland

St Marys Dousman. New church construction
This is a collage of photos that were taken around the time of the building of a new Church at St. Mary #39;s Dousman. I thought it would be nice with no narration.

By: Liz Riedel

See more here:
St Marys Dousman. New church construction - Video

Planned Parethood supporters are gathering outside a local church Saturday to protest efforts against construction of a new facility in New Orleans.

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast organized the "Stand with Women" rally, which begins at 1:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church on South Claiborne Avenue.

According to the organization, the rally was put together in support of a new Planned Parenthood facility in the Crescent City and to celebrate International Women's Day.

"For more than a year, extreme opponents of women's access to reproductive health care and sexual health education have launched protest and intimidation campaigns to try to stop the construction of a a much-needed larger, health center," Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast said.

READ: Health Department blocks abortions at new Planned Parenthood facility

In January, the organization learned that the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals had rejected its application seeking to perform abortion services at a facility that is under construction in New Orleans on Claiborne Avenue.

According to reports, the letter states the organization did not demonstrate a need for another abortion facility in Louisiana. The process is required under regulations enacted in 2012.

Abortion rights supporters say the decision is one of a series of actions Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has taken to create roadblocks for women seeking the procedure in Louisiana.

WATCH: Planned Parenthood Files Appeal to Offer Abortions at New Facility

Currently, Louisiana has five abortion clinics. The new facility in New Orleans would become the third clinic to offer abortions in the Crescent City. A spokesperson told WDSU this recent decision by the DHH will not impact or stop plans to construct the New Orleans Planned Parenthood facility.

See the original post:
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast organizes rally outside New Orleans church

First published in News by Matt Oliver, Reporter covering North Oxford, Jericho and Summertown. Call me on 01865 425498

FINISHING touches are being made to a twostorey church extension that will create a busy community hub for parishioners.

Congregation members at St Andrews Church, in Linton Road, Oxford, raised more than 2m for the scheme, called the Jubilee Project.

It has been designed by Grove Street architecture firm MEB Design and will add a new hall, meeting spaces, youth rooms, creche, kitchen, caf area and offices.

The church gained planning permission in May 2012 and construction began in January 2014.

Our top stories

Committee members hope it will be ready for use by the end of this month.

Committee treasurer Andrew Downs said: The new building will enable us to do lots of things better than we previously could.

In particular, we want to open up to the wider community and encourage outside groups to use the facilities more. We are also excited about being able to do more for young people.

There is often an image of churches as stuffy places with ageing populations, but here we are trying to involve young people and include them in the leadership.

Follow this link:
New church wing built to serve a wider community

Wooden arrows with names of cities and their respective distances point north outside the Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity Church (Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

Russian priests here rotate in for yearlong stints, primarily to celebrate Mass for the workers on the Russian base, who number between 15 and 30 at a time. The priests also welcome any of the islands other inhabitants, about 100 in winter when temperatures can plunge to -13 Fahrenheit (-25 Celsius), and 500 in the still-chilly summer months.

The greyish clapboard church was first built in Russia from Siberian cedar planks treated to withstand the frosts and harsh wind. It was then disassembled and shipped log-by-log, like Lego blocks, to Antarctica, said Alejo Contreras, a Chilean Antarctic explorer who witnessed the construction and consecration in 2004. To protect it from strong winds, it is bound to the nearby rocky mountain with chains.

In the summer, tourists and the staff of the international stations brave strong winds to hike up here, leaving snowy, muddy boots at the entrance. Some pray in silence, standing or kneeling because there are no pews in the boxy interior, while others marvel at the gold-leaf iconostasis screen of icons painted with bearded saints and winged angels in vivid colors.

During Sunday service, Kirilov reads from the scriptures in Russian and sings in an angelic voice.

The inside of the holy Trinity church (Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

A Russian polar worker, as any other believer, wants spiritual support nearby, a church devoted to God, said Kirilov, who has a flowing salt-and-pepper beard and blue eyes tinted with gray.

Reaching the churchs pointed belfry requires climbing up a staircase and squeezing in through an attic-like, square hole. At most, three people, rubbing shoulders, can fit next to the heavy bells that pierce the snowy silence with a cacophonous and hypnotic sound similar to the clang of a railroad crossing.

At night the church is lit from below and becomes a beacon for ships crossing the South Sea.

Thank God for this gift to us, Kirilov said, adding that he wishes more than a handful of people would attend Sunday service.

Read the rest here:
The church at the South Pole

Published: Friday, March 6, 2015 at 1:32 p.m. Last Modified: Friday, March 6, 2015 at 1:32 p.m.

Beginning on Feb. 28, Grace Lutheran Church of Houma offers Lutheran worship services at 5 p.m. on Saturdays in the sanctuary of St. John's Episcopal Church in Thibodaux.

"Grace Lutheran Church has long desired to do some type of outreach in Thibodaux," said the Rev. Richard D. Rudnik, who has been with the church for more than seven years. "Our hope is that this will ultimately grow into a separate Lutheran church."

With an exception to Grace Lutheran in Houma, the nearest Lutheran churches to the Houma-Thibodaux area are located in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

Because of the small number of Lutheran churches in the area, many of Grace Lutheran's 250 members commute long distances to attend worship services.

While benefitting Lutherans in north Lafourche, the Thibodaux services also will offer a more convenient location for the churches members who travel from as far as Morgan City and Patterson.

Jeannie Thalheim, of Thibodaux, and her family have been members of Grace Lutheran Church for nearly three decades.

"We want to support the outreach effort here (in Thibodaux) as long as it takes to make that happen," she said. "Right now, we're in the early stages of development. This is something we've prayed about for a long time."

Prior to Rudnik's arrival at Grace Lutheran, the church had attempted a similar outreach effort in Thibodaux in 2005, but their work was interrupted by Hurricane Katrina.

"When Katrina hit, everything went topsy-turvy," Rudnik said. "They shifted gears and focused on hurricane relief, and later, the effort just fell apart. It barely got off the ground before Katrina, and it was a game changer."

Read the original post:
Lutheran Church begins outreach in Thibodaux