Associated Press

Pope Francis salutes as he leaves after meeting Evangelical Christian pastor Giovanni Traettino, left, during a private visit in the Evangelical church of Reconciliation in Caserta, Southern Italy, Monday, July 28, 2014. AP PHOTO/FRANCESCO PECORARO

VATICAN CITYPope Francis has become the first Pope to visit a Pentecostal church, pressing his outreach to evangelicals who represent Catholicisms greatest competition for Christian souls around the globe.

Francis flew by helicopter on Monday to visit the under-construction Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in the southern city of Caserta. He met privately with Pentecostal preacher Giovanni Traettino, an old friend.

Speaking to some 350 Pentecostal faithful in the church, Francis apologized for Catholic persecution of Pentecostals during Italys fascist regime, when the practice of their faith was forbidden, and stressed that there was unity in diversity within Christianity.

Among those who persecuted and denounced Pentecostals, almost as if they were crazy people trying to ruin the race, there were also Catholics, he said. I am the pastor of Catholics, and I ask your forgiveness for those Catholic brothers and sisters who didnt know and were tempted by the devil.

He acknowledged the remarkable nature of his visit, saying: Someone will be surprised: The Pope went to visit the evangelicals? But he went to see his brothers.

Catholics have often compared Pentecostal groups to cults and accused them of overly aggressive, unethical proselytizing. The popular, charismatic movements have drained parishioners from the Catholic Church, particularly in Francis own Latin America.

But Francis has met unofficially with several Pentecostal and evangelical preachers recently, including the Texas televangelists James Robinson and Kenneth Copeland.

He recorded an iPhone video for a Pentecostal conference hosted by Copeland, whose prosperity gospel ministrystressing that God will reward the faithful with health and wealthclashes with Francis own embrace of the value of a poor Church.

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First Pope to visit Pentecostal church

GENEVA Fox Valley Presbyterian Church, 227 East Side Drive, Geneva, will host one of the largest rummage sales in the region to benefit several local missions of the church, officials said.

The rummage sale will be at the church from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, with a half-price sale that day from 8 to 9:45 a.m. and a fill-the-bag-for-$5 sale from 10 a.m. to noon.

A bake sale will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.Friday.

Items for sale will include furniture, housewares, sports equipment, clothing, toys, games, jewelry, antiques, collectibles, linens, books, office items, music and holiday supplies.

The church took a year off from its annual sale last year, because of construction to its education wing, said Kathy Jacobsma of Geneva, who is co-chairwoman of the event with Alice Leite of St. Charles.

Now, the new space has wider aisles and more space for all of the rummage sale items, so the event space is set up like a department store and each area has coordinators who organize and display the items, Jacobsma said.

This is quite a big operation, Jacobsma said. Its 7,000 square feet, all indoors and air conditioned. Members have been storing items in basements and brought them all to church over two weeks.

Jacobsma said because the sale offers coffee pots and popcorn poppers, as well as dishes, cups and mugs, students going away to college might like to pick up some inexpensive items.

She said organizers hope to raise $15,000 to $16,000 to benefit local missions of the church, including helping the Northern Illinois Food Bank, Hesed House, Lazarus House, CASA Kane County, Fox Valley Hospice, Mutual Ground, TriCity Family Services, the South Shore Drill Team, Salvation Army, Stephen Ministries, Third Friday Community Dinners and Living Waters.

Living Waters is the only non-local charity on the list. Its mission is to bring water filtration systems to the poor people of Guatemala.

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Fox Valley Presbyterian Church to host rummage sale

CABELL COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) --The sounds of hammering, sawing, laughter and appreciation filled one construction project on Tuesday

Nearly 160 volunteers are working in and around Huntington and Cabell County replacing roofs, doing yard work, building handicap ramps and doing general home repairs -- all for free.

It is part of a mission trip involving high school and college students from across the country, trying to make a difference in the lives of others.

Rheta Keefer has lived in her house along Carson Lane nearly all her life. She has needed a new roof, but has never been able to replace it until this group arrived with hammers and shingles in hand.

I wanted to cry and I said to my neighbor last night, I just want to cry' and I'm not a crier. Its tears of joy, Keefer said.

The students have teamed up with five local churches on this mission project.

Nick Hughes is from Pittsburgh and says isn't not just about meeting the spiritual needs of others but basic everyday needs, as well.

"That's one thing that Christ definitely stressed in his ministries, taking care of real needs that people have, not just preaching the word and saying that we love you but actually showing it and we are showing it today by putting on a roof," Hughes said.

The students will be hammering and sawing the entire week on various projects.

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Church Volunteers Making Home Improvements in Cabell County

Before the drug trade moved in, the abandoned building at Sheridan and Clearfield Streets in the heart of a troubled North Philadelphia neighborhood housed a grocery store and apartments.

Juan Marrero and Ron Muse watched its evolution as they experienced their own: from little boys, to teens involved with drugs, to pastors.

In a move to reclaim the building, Marrero and Muse have teamed up to open a church, and have called on an aptly named volunteer group to help.

Kingdom Builders Construction, a program of the Mennonite Central Committee - one of the denomination's mission divisions - has enlisted a corps of volunteer youth to help transform what was once a drug house into a sanctuary.

Based in Philadelphia, Kingdom Builders Construction is a business with a charitable calling that offers free work for churches and low-income residents who cannot afford renovations and repair.

The entity shares its name with a similar group affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA in Valley Forge. That Kingdom Builders is a program of the American Baptist Men of Pennsylvania and Delaware that focuses on disaster relief and free repairs to churches in need.

Both groups believe they are fulfilling a mission.

"Churches get the runaround or get screwed over by contractors, or they can't afford the work," said Daniel Umstead, 28, the Philadelphia group's director. "We are able to utilize the Mennonite community to do it."

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Youth volunteers transform North Philly drug house into a church

MIRI: Holy Trinity Anglican Church new building project commenced construction after an earth-breaking ceremony at the site yesterday.

The churchs Building committee chairman Pemanca Wilson Siang said the project is scheduled for completion in nine months.

The projects estimated cost is RM1.58 million and so far we have collected some RM700,000 in fund from charity and the government, he said at the ceremony attended by more than 100 peopel in Lambir.

Also present at the earth-breaking ceremony was Lambir assemblyman Ripin Lamat and Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Southeast Asia the Most Rev Datuk Bolly Lapok.

Moreover, Wilson said the new church building project needs to secure another RM700,000 in balance.

He added that initial cost of church construction was RM600,000 but due to more expensive materials, cost has increased including up-to-date facilities to be installed.

The new church capacity is around 500 congregates at one session, compared to currently 200.

Since the past two years, the church committee has been running around raising fund for the construction.

We received several grant allocations from the government through ministers and peoples representatives as well as keen individuals, he said.

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Building of Holy Trinity Church underway

SIDMAN The members of Mount Olive United Methodist Church mark their faith by using a tape measure.

The mission team of the Sidman area church uses tools such as tape measures to complete construction and repair projects to improve life for people in need and to help nonprofit organizations.

Just a month ago, the team finished its latest project, a ramp for a Sidman area womanwho uses a walker and wheelchair to get around.

Mission team leader Deborah Sedlmeyer said the group also provides support for people in need in other ways.

In addition to funding and completing construction and repair jobs around the home, the team delivers soup to people in need and provides financial support during crises.

In some cases, the team requests that some of the money be repaid to help the person become responsible and so the money can be used to help others, she said.

Our mission team is fortunate to have such a supportive church body to financially allow us to do so much good for so many others and to have so many talents in the church to complete the work, Sedlmeyer said. Its a group effort.

She said everyone is called by the Lord to serve others.

And when you do, it is a gift to yourself, she said.

Ken Turgeon, construction project leader, said the mission team has been doing construction work for about four years. The first project was turning a gymnasium into housing for missionaries in a depressed area of Kentucky.

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Mount Olive church members reach out to those in need

Worshippers gather for final service KAT DUGGAN

SCOTT HAMMOND/FAIRFAX NZ

FINAL SERVICE: The Rev Dawn Daunauda, of St Andrews Presbyterian Church, leads a farewell of the Seddon church building, which is to be demolished because of earthquake damage.

The St Andrew's Presbyterian Church congregation in Seddon has said its last goodbye to a church it has worshipped in for the past six decades.

The church building in Richmond St is to be demolished because of earthquake damage.

Yesterday, about 140 people gathered for the final service at the 59-year-old church.

The Rev David Coster, who was ordained at the church in 1977, led the service with its current minister, the Rev Dawn Daunauda, who announced its decommission.

A decision was made in April to bring the church down, after earthquakes in July and August last year made it unsafe for use.

Coster and Daunauda said it was a sad day but they were happy to see the building go and the safety of their congregation preserved.

"I look at it and there's a deep ache in my heart . . . I love being here but I wish I was here for another reason," Coster said. "As a church we have to keep our buildings at the same safety standard as anything else, and this is a risk site . . . it needs to come down."

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Seddon church decommissioned

Patrick Powers held up three or four carrots he'd just pulled out of the soil. Before he started gardening, numerous people or things might have touched those carrots before they reached his mouth: farmers, farmworkers, pesticides, food handlers, grocers all part of a system of efficient food-processing that he had some familiarity with working in the restaurant industry for 35 years.

Now, it's straight from the ground to his plate, a feeling he says he can't describe.

"It's fun being a farmer," he said.

Patrick rents a plot for $40 a year at Redeemer's Field, a year-old community garden on land owned by the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Sacramento, Calif.

The project, which broke ground in March of last year, transformed an empty church lot into a source of healthful and affordable food for community members.

The value of a community garden is clear, said Bill Maynard, who has helped build community gardens around Sacramento for 20 years and works as the community garden coordinator for Sacramento's Department of Parks and Recreation.

"It's about bringing the community in and showing they have worth," he said. Maynard advised the church throughout the construction process, from planning to financing and connecting the church with volunteers.

At Redeemer's Field, there are 20 occupied beds growing anything and everything, from bulbous watermelon and heirloom tomatoes to cinnamon basil and zucchini squash. Red grapevines hug one side of a bordering chain link fence, and a line of burgeoning fruit trees welcomes visitors near the entrance gate, open at all hours of the day. At the center lies a bed of proud sunflowers raised by a member who lives in an apartment across the street.

The garden's construction required many hands, including non-church members, neighbors and community service organizations such as AmeriCorps to till the soil, pave walkways and build wooden box plots. With much of the work done, the project is still expanding: A picnic bench area is planned to give visitors a proper place to sit.

The farm-to-fork movement isn't central to the mission of the church, which has held services at the site for 60 years, said Lisa Mulz, a member of the congregation who helped build the garden.

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Church garden cultivates beds, beauty and community

MIRI: Holy Trinity Anglican Church new building project commenced construction after an earth-breaking ceremony at the site yesterday.

The churchs Building committee chairman Pemanca Wilson Siang said the project is scheduled for completion in nine months.

The projects estimated cost is RM1.58 million and so far we have collected some RM700,000 in fund from charity and the government, he said at the ceremony attended by more than 100 peopel in Lambir.

Also present at the earth-breaking ceremony was Lambir assemblyman Ripin Lamat and Archbishop of the Anglican Province of Southeast Asia the Most Rev Datuk Bolly Lapok.

Moreover, Wilson said the new church building project needs to secure another RM700,000 in balance.

He added that initial cost of church construction was RM600,000 but due to more expensive materials, cost has increased including up-to-date facilities to be installed.

The new church capacity is around 500 congregates at one session, compared to currently 200.

Since the past two years, the church committee has been running around raising fund for the construction.

We received several grant allocations from the government through ministers and peoples representatives as well as keen individuals, he said.

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Demolition to widen Interstate 95 on Jacksonvilles Southside is feeding a court battle between the state and a hard-pressed church congregation over whats not being torn down.

Glorious Bethlehem Temple, a Pentecostal church near Philips Highway, was slated to be bought and bulldozed by the Florida Department of Transportation along with nearly two dozen houses in an area where a drainage pond was planned for the states Overland Bridge replacement project to rebuild miles of I-95.

After the church balked at the states offer for its 1954-vintage building, saying it couldnt build a replacement church for the $391,070 that was on the table, the state said it would rework the pond and leave the church where it was, ringed by empty, overgrown lots where homes were bulldozed.

So the church is suing, figuring members already spent years planning, buying land and making arrangements to move somewhere with neighbors again.

Its been a long haul, said Donald Richardson, pastor of the 85-member church on Wister Street two lots from the interstate. Its been four long, sometimes grueling years. We didnt come this far to not see this thing all the way through.

The highway project leaves the church isolated, and the state should pay to make up for that, a church lawyer said.

By intention, FDOT means to take the neighborhood, but leave the church, attorney Andrew Prince Brigham wrote when he filed the lawsuit. He argued the state was using a consummate bully tactic to push the church to sell at such a low price it violated the churchs property rights.

A Jacksonville jury should decide that, a judge ruled this month, denying state requests first to dismiss the lawsuit completely, then to move the case to a court in Tallahassee.

While it does not appear often, state courts in and outside of Florida have accepted this cause of action, Circuit Judge Virginia Norton wrote in her ruling, and said the issues at stake should be decided close to home.

A DOT spokesman said his agency isnt trying to bully anyone, and tried to find a solution that would serve the state and the church.

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I-95 construction leaving Jacksonville church in court fight with state DOT