Church

The First Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church bought a luxurious custom Bentley in 2005, the same year the inner-city church failed to pay a $12,000 water bill that has led to the filing of a foreclosure suit, motor vehicle records show. The congregation that owns the 140-year-old West Baltimore church, destroyed last week by lightning, is fending off multiple foreclosure threats because of the delinquent water bill and an alleged mortgage default on the 9-acre property the church owns in Southwest Baltimore, according to court records.

Edward H. "Ham" Welbourn Jr., a retired insurance executive and World War II veteran, died April 29 of complications from dementia at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 98. The son of Edward H. Welbourn, who owned Rennous Kleinle Brush Manufacturers in Catonsville, and Emma Dawson Welbourn, a homemaker, Edward Hambleton Welbourn was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. After graduating in 1934 from the Gilman School, Mr. Welbourn enrolled at Haverford College, where he was a government major and earned a bachelor's degree in 1938.

No Triple Crown winner this year, no first-female-jockey-to-win, no sunshine? No problem, said those who flocked to Pimlico Race Course on Saturday and waited out a midafternoon downpour to watch Oxbow leave behind Kentucky Derby winner Orb to capture the 138th Preakness Stakes. "This is always an exciting race," said Tom Meek, 59, of Phoenixville, Pa., smoking a postrace cigar. "As much as I love Orb and as much as I want a Triple Crown, this is great for Oxbow. That horse rocked.

Since 1901, Annapolis residents and downtown workers have been dropping off letters and buying stamps at the brick Georgian Revival-style post office on Church Circle. But not for much longer. A vote by the state's Board of Public Works on Wednesday seals the eventual fate of the post office. The state is buying the office for $3.2 million, with eventual plans to use the building for government offices. "The state saw an opportunity to retain the historic value of the building, particularly because it's in the footprint of other state-owned facilities.

Thank you, Susan Reimer , so much for saying what most of us Catholic folk think but won't say ("What would Jesus do? Not stuff like this," April 30). Your column was right on point. When is enough, enough? Jesus put all of us down on this great earth for a purpose. You are right. He has no bad ideas. And He blessed us with common sense to live this life He gave us to the best of our ability. The Catholic Church needs to stop making us feel that we are just never good enough or that we cannot make good decisions concerning our own lives.

A fire that took 75 firefighters nearly 45 minutes to bring under control destroyed the parish center of a Harford County church Wednesday, causing an estimated $3.5 million in damage. About 20 senior citizens were inside the Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church parish center on Joppa Farm Road in Joppatowne when the fire began about 11:05 a.m. They escaped uninjured. According to Deputy State Fire Marshal Joseph G. Zurolo, firefighters were on the scene of what became a multi-alarm blaze within five minutes, and firefighters from Harford and Baltimore counties were dispatched.

My wife grew up in a large Catholic family in Locust Point, and she and her siblings attended Our Lady of Good Counsel School. They have wonderful stories of friends, relatives, co-workers and neighborhood characters, second and third generation descendants of immigrants from Germany, Poland and Ireland, who are the embodiment of American working class families who sacrificed so much to give their children a better life. In this close community, the stories about John Merzbacher and the atrocities he committed on innocent children began surfacing early on ("Calls for reform in cases of abuse," Nov. 27)

It was last Easter when the note, a particularly high one, got stuck on the organ at Baltimore's St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church. Tim Murphy, the organist for the past 27 years, climbed inside the giant case and tinkered with it for several minutes to get it to stop. Hundreds of families could do little but stare at Murphy and each other. That's when it became clear that Murphy's applications of duct tape and skill could no longer cover up the fact that the 150-year-old organ needed a major overhaul.

A tiny church tucked inside Patapsco Valley State Park dedicates a pew Sunday to one of its most famous former congregants, the late William Donald Schaefer. Gary Memorial United Methodist Church has just 80 worshipers most Sundays, but for many years, one of them was the former mayor, governor and comptroller. Schaefer found his way to the stone church in the woods when the pastor was Luther Starnes, his former secretary of human resources. He left Gary Memorial $10,000 in his will.

Catholics have it backward: Every god is made in the likeness of man. My mom created me (there is evidence for this). I have to object to "God's beautiful design," as we are a beautiful product of non-random selection. Sure, the church is making progress. It used to burn women and now it only suppresses them. Our self-made design is to attempt intercourse wherever and whenever we can, and our kids should be doing this vaccinated and with readily-available contraception. In this secular society, no one wears a scarlet letter for reproducing before marriage or being attracted to the same sex. Same-sex couples have a right to their sexuality in a free society.

Fifty years later, the assassination of John F. Kennedy remains a galvanizing event, studied by serious scholars and conspiracy fringers with equal intensity. People who were old enough in 1963 still remember everything about the news flash that something horrible had happened in Dallas to the nation's youthful president. Those born much later may also find themselves haunted by this dark history. They may even create an opera about it. "Camelot Requiem," which receives its world premiere this weekend with Baltimore area singers and instrumentalists, is the latest and perhaps most ambitious undertaking to date of the Figaro Project, a DIY organization founded by soprano Caitlin Vincent in 2009.

A year has passed since a man apparently upset at the workers running the food pantry at an Ellicott City church gunned down a minister and an office worker, police say, before taking his own life. St. Peter's Episcopal Church marked the anniversary of the deaths of the Rev. Marguerite Mary Kohn and Brenda Brewington over the weekend with a gathering the Rev. Thomas Slawson described as "a celebration of life. " "Pretty good participation from representatives from the community," said Slawson, the church vicar.

On Sunday, April 14, Mt. Nebo United Methodist Church in Delta, Pa., sponsored a Blessing of the Bikes in the church's parking lot immediately following the service that day. Pastor Dennis McCleary blessed 18 motorcycles that afternoon. The blessing was given for the biker and their safety throughout the upcoming motorcycle season. This all took place around noon with about 21 bikers in attendance. Afterward, hot dogs, chips, cookies and drinks were served right there in the parking lot. There was plenty of good conversation and fellowship taking place that day. Bikers were thanks for attending, and invited back to any and every Sunday service, beginning at 10:45 a.m.

Carolyn Marie Hauck, a retired Enoch Pratt Free Library staff member who encouraged patrons to explore films and the arts, died of dementia complications at the Pickersgill Retirement Community. The longtime Mount Vernon resident was 89. Born in Anderson, Ohio, she was the daughter of Carroll E. and Marie Hauck. She earned a bachelor's degree in art from Miami University in Miami, Ohio, and had a master's degree in library science from Western Reserve University. She moved to Baltimore in 1954 and joined the central Pratt Library.

A moment as mysterious as the sacred idea it celebrates - the crucified Christ's decent into Hades before his resurrection - arrived Saturday morning at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in a cascade of rose petals and a cacophony of bells, hands drumming on wood pews and a church elder chanting in his ancestral tongue. It was a rich, even raucous moment affirming belief in Christ's conquest of evil and heralding the arrival of the church's most significant holiday. This year, the Eastern Orthodox Church - the faith of an estimated 300 million people from the United States through Eastern Europe and the Middle East - celebrates Easter a month after the Western Christian observance, capping 40 days of fasting and a week of services marking different stages of the paschal narrative.

The Awana Club at Prince of Peace Baptist Church in Fallston recently presented five of the highest awards given in the Awana organization. Citation awards are presented only to high school seniors and adults. For each recipient, this represents 10 years of work and includes the memorization of 800 to 1,000 verses as well as many hours of study and service activities.

Baltimore mega-church pastor Jamal Bryant had fashion on his mind Monday, first condemning "Slave Adidas" and then saying sunglasses have no place in church. Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple and also an increasing player on the national scene, often at the side of Trayvon Martin's parents, is an avid Tweeter with a following of nearly 100,000 people. He had nothing good to say about the controversial shoes known as "slave Adidas," suede athletic shoes with plastic shackles that clamp onto the shin like an accessory.

An East Baltimore church was destroyed in an early morning blaze Sunday after a burglar stole sound equipment from the building, according to police. No injuries were reported in the fire and burglary, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m. at the Paradise Christian Center, located in the 3000 block of E. Oliver Street, according to police spokesman Kevin Brown. Brown said the fire started when a burglar attempted to steal the sound equipment, and eventually consumed the entire building.

Editor: Thank you, Harford County, for joining Oak Grove Baptist Church in our third annual Women's Conference held on April 13. With nearly 150 in attendance, we enjoyed the lavish account by DeeDee Jonrowe of her life on the Iditarod Trail over the past 31 years as a musher in Alaska. DeeDee is the foremost female dog musher competing in the world today and a breast cancer survivor. Her accounts of the life lessons learned on the Iditarod Trail have bolstered her desire to honor God in her racing and daily life.

Eleanor E. Jaeger, a homemaker and former department store sales associate who was a longtime active church member, died Sunday of complications from a broken hip at the Knollwood Nursing Home in Millersville. The Annapolis resident was 99. The daughter of a roofer and a homemaker, Eleanor Esther Plumhoff was born in Baltimore and raised on Maple Avenue in Overlea. She was an Eastern High School graduate and married John Roedel Jaeger Jr., a research chemist, in 1936. He died in 1967.