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From her humble beginnings in the Far East in 1914, the Iglesia ni Cristo also known as INC, has grown to be the largest entirely indigenous Christian church in the Philippines, and the largest religious organization that originated from the Philippine Islands and the largest independent Christian Church in Asia.

From the Far East to the Far West: It was in this island state of Hawaii, located in the Far West, where the Church would establish its pioneering mission for its worldwide expansion was not a matter of coincidence, but of divine providence. Biblical prophecy decrees:

"From the far east will I bring your offspring, and from the far west I will gather you" (Isa. 43:5, James Moffatt Translation)

And so, it came to pass that in this Aloha State in the Pacific, particularly in its capital and economic center, Honolulu, theChurch of Christ that emerged in the Far East made its propitious entry into the a Western hemisphere. As prophesied, thegathering of God's children started in 1968 when the Iglesia ni Cristo launched its mission overseas which resulted in the establishment of two pioneering congregations in the Far Westfirst in Honolulu, Hawaii on July 27 and then in San Francisco, California, on August 18, 1968. This laid the groundwork for the rapid establishment of many more congregations on foreign shores.

Countries and territories with official INC presence

Countries and territories with no official INC presence Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:INC_presence_2012.jpg

MANILA, Philippines -- Two Guinness World Records have been broken by the Worldwide Walk of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) over the weekend in Manila. On Sunday, an official of the Guinness World Record has announced that the INC event also set a new record for the largest charity walk in 24 hours (multiple venue). "Thirteen time zones, 54 countries, 24 hours....Iglesia Ni Cristo reached a number and that number is 519, 521 participants," said Kirsty Bennett, Guinness World Records adjudicator, Sunday afternoon at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, where the announcement was made. "On behalf of Guinness I'd like to award Iglesia Ni Cristo for the largest charity walk in 24 hours multiple venue. Congratulations you are officially amazing again ," she added. The previous record was set by Canada involving 231,635 participants who walked for a minimum of 1 kilometer (.62 miles) at 1,011 different locations around Canada on October 2, 2007.

Saturday's event also surpassed the record for the largest charity walk in a single venue with 175,000 participants beating the record set in Singapore in May 2000 with more than 77,000 individuals. The walk for a cause of INC was staged in 135 sites across the globe in the USA, in Europe, in Australia/New Zealand and in Asia including the Philippines. The event in Metro Manila started at the grounds of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) along Roxas Boulevard up to Rizal Park. Source: InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5 http://www.interaksyon.com/article/80854/iglesia-ni-cristos-worldwide-walk-breaks-2-guinness-world-records .

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IGLESIA NI CRISTO - Church of Christ - Iglesia de Cristo

LUTZ Tampa Bay area parents who want to give their children a Catholic education have another option to consider for next school year: a new K-8 school being built on the grounds of St. Timothy Catholic Church in Lutz.

Next fall, students at Tampas Mother Teresa of Calcutta Catholic School formerly Most Holy Redeemer will relocate to a larger building under construction 12 miles away at St. Timothy. It will draw from three area parishes and be big enough to serve twice as many children.

Its a relocation of an existing school that is also an attempt to address needs for Catholic education in that part of the diocese, said Michael Tkacik, secretary of ministries for the Diocese of St. Petersburg. The demand for a Catholic education remains strong and consistent.

The new school, which will draw from Most Holy Redeemer, St. Timothy and Our Lady of the Rosary parishes, is being funded by the dioceses Forward in Faith campaign, which aims to raise $50 million for schools, seminarians and individual church projects. More than $25 million has been raised.

Also underway is an expansion at St. Anthony Catholic School in San Antonio that will allow the K-8 school to take on about 50 more students, bringing total enrollment to 300. Cost of the school projects will total $11 million.

Additionally, $18 million will be set aside for tuition assistance: $10 million for individual parish projects, $3 million toward seminarian education and retired priest care, and $5 million for renovations to the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.

The Mother Teresa school, which opened in 1954 as Most Holy Redeemer, serves 236 students. The new building at St. Timothy will be able to accommodate nearly 600. Roughly 325 students are already registered for next fall.

Theyre going to bring a great spirit here, said the Rev. Ken Malley, pastor at St. Timothy. The dynamics are going to change. Its really going to be a breath of life. There seems to be a lot of excitement in the whole neighborhood.

Construction on the school began in February. The building was originally slated to open this fall, but issues with securing permits delayed the process, said diocese schools Superintendent Alberto Vzquez-Matos. Construction now is on schedule to wrap up next summer.

The one-story school, designed by Holmes Architects and being built by Herman Construction, will include classroom pods for each grade equipped with computers and other devices for students.

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Catholic diocese to open new K-8 school in Lutz

Published November 28, 2014

The McMass Project aims to attract worshipers through the lure of McDonald's burgers.(The McMass Project)

As church attendance falls, one group believes that the lure of a burger and fries might make church more appealing.

McMass Project, which is the brainchild of Paul Di Lucca -- a creative director at the church branding agencyLux Dei Design -- is raising funds to put a McDonald's franchise inside a place of worship.

"Christianity is unable to capture modern audiences," Di Lucca told NBC News. "There's a lack of innovation and lack of design thinking in Church communities."

The multi-denominational group has launched a campaign on the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo and hopes to raise $1 million to build the first McDonald's church. As of Friday, only $104 has been raised.

The groups says that the money will go toward purchasing a franchise and construction. The group is currently looking for a church to partner with.

"It's time for churches to engage with entrepreneurship," writes the group on its IndieGoGo site. "By combining a church and a McDonald's we can create a self-sustaining, community-engaged, popular church, and an unparalleled McDonald's restaurant."

The site states that three million people leave the faith every year and that 10,000 churches closed down in 2013, while 70 million people eat McDonalds every day. To attract potential donors, the group is offering T-shirts, hats and vinyl stickers to adorn your laptop, hymn book and more!

Di Lucca believes that fast food is one way to build faith in the modern era, but concedes that not everyone will be wild about the idea.

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FAITH WITH FRIES Group hopes fast food will boost church attendance

CONSIDERING the grandness and intricacies involved in building a neo-gothic construction using the limited funds and technologies of the early 1900s, a turnaround of about 19 months from ashes to commanding structure must seem quite incredible to The Block-watching public of today.

The determination demonstrated by St Mary's Grafton Parish to get its "house" back up and running so soon after it was destroyed by fire on April 29, 1913, is testament to the importance the community placed on having a fitting venue to congregate and worship the Lord.

Opened by Bishop O'Connor, of Armidale on Sunday, November 29, 1914, in the presence of church hierarchy from as far afield as Melbourne, the "new" St Mary's Church will celebrate its 100th birthday this weekend with a special mass to be conducted by Bishop of Lismore Geoffrey Jarrett on Sunday at 9.30am.

And as the church continues to cut a towering figure over Victoria Street a century later, the state in which its 1867 predecessor was found back in 1913 on the same site seems foreign to those that pass by the St Mary's we know today.

As reported in the Examiner at the time, the blaze that destroyed the original church occurred in the early hours of the morning offering no opportunity for intervention between the first couple of witnesses sounding the alarm and its total destruction.

"The church bell was rung at once. A number of citizens were speedily on the scene, but their assistance was of no avail to save the edifice from destruction as the fire had complete mastery. A table and two chairs were all that could be got out, and the organ, vestments, altar appointments and pew were totally consumed," the report said.

After describing how the fire took hold, the article went on to say "The generally accepted theory as to the origin of the fire is that the altar lamp, which continually kept burning, must have fallen from its suspended position by the small chain becoming worn from long usage. The oil and wafers becoming scattered over the floor, would cause ignition, and account for what occurred."

Whatever its fate, this was a "serious loss to the Roman Catholic community" and apart from the destruction of the building there were also costly uninsured contents to replace.

Insurance would pay 500 pounds which only covered a small portion of the loss and in the meantime services were held in the school room while initial work began on planning a replacement. (All while Grafton was without a Catholic Church it still managed to conduct 41 baptisms, 21 weddings and some 12 burials).

Given the amount of correspondence that flowed between the clergy and the appeals that needed to be orchestrated in the Clarence and around the region to have the church resurrected, again the timeframe seems spectacularly short in these days of red tape and budget blowouts. But the people of the area were generous and felt the Grafton community's loss and within weeks the mighty cogs of the church community began to turn and turn.

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Revived church hits a century

A Cape Cod church plans a groundbreaking ceremony this weekend exactly two years to the day after an arsonist burned it to the ground.

The ceremony at the site of the Cape Cod Bible Alliance Church in Brewster is scheduled for noon on Sunday.

Pastor Myron Heckman tells the Cape Cod Times the new building will be bigger and more fire-resistant. The first phase of the project will include construction an 18,000-square-foot sanctuary, office space, classrooms, kitchen and a lobby area.

Construction should take about 18 months.

Much of the work will be done by volunteers from the congregation, many of whom have construction experience.

A 30-year-old local man was sentenced for setting fire to the church in 2012. His family said he suffered from mental illness.

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Cape Cod church burned to ground rising from ashes

Published Thursday, 27 November 2014

The Gateway project is planned for 97-acres in Ballymena, Co Antrim. (Gateway Project)

Green Pastures Church is one of five partners involved in the Gateway project, alongside the Wright Group, Gateway Social Investments, Compassion Ministries, and Connect Ministries.

The development, adjacent to the Seven Towers roundabout, will feature a new church for Green Pastures, social housing and retail outlets.

At a launch event on Thursday, the plans were described as "ground-breaking" and with the potential to have a major impact on the local economy.

Project board member Trevor Dunlop said the site would support the NI Executive in delivering key government commitments and contribute to economic development in the Ballymena borough.

He added that it would "permit the development of a new headquarters for the Wright Group".

According to those behind the project, the Gateway has been built on a sustainable public-private partnership model and will be 100% sustainable in commercial, social and economic terms.

It is understood that 250 full-time jobs will be created during the construction phase and 2.8m will be injected into the Ballymena economy.

The group says the project will have the potential to support over 1,000 jobs and annually contribute 40m to the local economy while also providing 485 care places.

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'1000 jobs' in Ballymena church scheme

11172014 on Church construction

By: Rev. Fr. Jessie G. Somosierra, Jr

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11172014 on Church construction - Video

Though the merger closed his former parish, Rob Ciavaglia said he knows the future is bright for St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in Dearborn.

St. Kateri was formed when St. Martha and St. Joseph Catholic churches merged July 1, 2013.

Ciavaglia had been a member of St. Martha for more than 40 years and he was on the parish council prior to the merger. He said after the merger that a new parish council was formed and he was appointed as a member of the finance council.

Through Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, Ciavaglia said it was decided that the two churches would merge about two years before it went through.

Before the merger, the two parishes already shared a pastor, the Rev. Terry Kerner, and programs, Ciavaglia said.

We were already acting, essentially, as one, but by canon law, we had separate financial books, he said.

In addition to making the two churches one financial entity, Ciavaglia said, they had to address the fact that we had extra capacity in terms of worship space.

The two facilities were 1.5 miles apart, and, before construction of the Detroit Lions training facility in Allen Park, Ciavaglia said, you could stand at one church and see the other one.

That led to the closure of St. Martha and the eventual sale of the property to Oakwood Healthcare.

It made logical sense for the two parishes that were already sharing programs, parishioners and a pastor to merge, Ciavaglia said. In many ways, it was a formality, but the biggest portion was which facility to close. Continued...

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Church merger causes mixed feelings, but future looks bright for St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in Dearborn

Hatfield Twp >> A much-discussed proposal to build a church on a 43-acre parcel off of Orvilla Road in Hatfield Township could be discussed for up to two more months.

Keystone Fellowship has asked for a time extension to revise its plans and incorporate changes based on feedback from the surrounding community.

There are certain adjustments and general considerations that are different from the original application, that not only the church is considering, but the township is considering as well, said board President Tom Zipfel.

For much of 2014, residents near and around Orvilla have expressed their concerns about traffic and flooding theyre worried could be caused by the construction of a roughly 1,200 seat church surrounded by office space, a ballfield and several hundred parking spaces.

Residents have also urged the preservation of a farm house located on the property that dates back to the 1760s, and about two dozen residents from the surrounding area attended Wednesdays commissioners meeting, and stayed for a private meeting with Zipfel afterward to discuss that project.

When asked for specifics on the changes made by Keystone to their plans, Zipfel declined to comment, and said to publicly share details could impact ongoing discussions. A Keystone official present at the meeting also declined to comment.

Residents Ryan Gober and Cindy Bourgeois, among the leaders of a group of neighbors who oppose the development plans, said Wednesday they would prefer as much notice as possible ahead of any decision being made, and would like any new plans or renderings to be made public.

A lot of people came out expecting some action, and if youre saying 60 days, why not make the notice half of that? If youre saying 30 days, why not make the notice half of that? Lets try to be as transparent as we can, Gober said.

We will do everything we can to be as transparent as we can, and to give as much time as possible ahead of any action, Zipfel replied, and commissioner Scott Brown added the window could be extended again.

I dont think [the 60 days] is arbitrary at all. It gives us flexibility. It could be extended again, that could happen, depending on where were going, but if folks want to speak out about it, they should feel free, now or at a future meeting, Brown said.

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Hatfield board's vote on Orvilla Road church plans deferred for up to 60 days

Though the merger closed his former parish, Rob Ciavaglia said he knows the future is bright for St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church in Dearborn.

St. Kateri was formed when St. Martha and St. Joseph Catholic churches merged July 1, 2013.

Ciavaglia had been a member of St. Martha for more than 40 years and he was on the parish council prior to the merger. He said after the merger that a new parish council was formed and he was appointed as a member of the finance council.

Through Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, Ciavaglia said it was decided that the two churches would merge about two years before it went through.

Before the merger, the two parishes already shared a pastor, the Rev. Terry Kerner, and programs, Ciavaglia said.

We were already acting, essentially, as one, but by canon law, we had separate financial books, he said.

In addition to making the two churches one financial entity, Ciavaglia said, they had to address the fact that we had extra capacity in terms of worship space.

The two facilities were 1.5 miles apart, and, before construction of the Detroit Lions training facility in Allen Park, Ciavaglia said, you could stand at one church and see the other one.

That led to the closure of St. Martha and the eventual sale of the property to Oakwood Healthcare.

It made logical sense for the two parishes that were already sharing programs, parishioners and a pastor to merge, Ciavaglia said. In many ways, it was a formality, but the biggest portion was which facility to close. Continued...

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Church merger causes mixed feelings, but future looks bright for new parish