Church Building

Santa Claus was suited up -- presents and all -- waiting to make his Christmas Eve entrance at the Glen Burnie Korean Presbyterian Church. But within minutes, reality -- in the form of Anne Arundel fire and police officials -- intruded: The church building, which had been declared unsafe earlier in the day, was ordered closed. Santa took off his costume. The 65 to 70 worshipers went home. And the church found itself with nowhere to hold its Christmas Day service. "The 2003 Christmas spirit was stolen, taken away from us last night.

The steeple rises 50 feet above a brick building that is majestic in its classic simplicity and newness. An intricate carving of St. John the Evangelist is a backlighted beacon to motorists passing on the highway below. A century-old statue of Christ dominates a vestibule that opens to a gleaming, sun-drenched sanctuary, where a pair of sculpted angels, cleaned of years of grime, guard the altar. Westminster's newest landmark is St. John Church's new home. The $6.5 million project was 10 years in the making - and it is the largest Roman Catholic church to be built in the Baltimore Archdiocese in more than four decades.

Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 1515 Emmorton Road in Bel Air, broke ground for a $1.2 million, 13,800-square-foot, two-story education and fellowship building after last week's 11 a.m. service. The building is expected to be completed in late October. This is the third expansion for Good Shepherd. Since its beginning in 1963, membership at Good Shepherd has increased from 90 to about 1,800. Led by the Rev. Kenneth H. Homer Jr., the senior pastor, and the Rev. Eric W. Evers, the associate pastor, members of the congregation prayed that the new building will "be a place where [God's]

A joyful noise arose when members of Antioch Apostolic Church met to worship yesterday morning. Members of the congregation sang, clapped, danced and shouted "Hallelujah!" Mothers balanced babies on swaying hips as nearby parishioners raised their hands skyward. A few miles down Ritchie Highway in Arnold their 20-year-old church building -- which some members helped to build -- lay in ruins. Its sanctuary collapsed Tuesday under the weight of last week's record snowstorm, leaving a pile of gnarled siding and insulation where hundreds had come to find solace.

Just a few steps up a hill on Church Street, overlooking Ellicott City's historic district, is Emory United Methodist Church. The 165-year-old stone church without a steeple boasts an interior of brilliant color and light in a style that is rarely found in modern churches. Stained-glass windows of deep blue, red and green fill most of the sanctuary's four walls. A large, round, brightly colored window - reminiscent of a sunflower - dominates the wall behind the altar and accounts for Emory's nickname as the "Sunflower Church."

The rainy weather outside could not diminish the spirits of the people who turned out for the dedication of the new Ethiopian Orthodox church building in Woodlawn early yesterday afternoon. At the end of the ceremony, which began with the clergy's prayers at 4 a.m., the congregation sung and clapped to the beat of two drums as dancers led the priests in a slow parade around the sanctuary. When they reached the front, the priests watched while laymen chanted and danced. The pungent scent of incense mingled with the smell of Ethiopian food cooking in the kitchen downstairs.

A BITTERSWEET farewell marked the end of a decade of service by the beloved Rev. Philip Tocknell and his family Sunday at Greenmount United Methodist Church. Tocknell has been appointed to Baldwin United Methodist Church in Millersville, Anne Arundel County. The Tocknell family includes wife Debbie, and the couple's children, Emily, 13, and Jonathan, 19. "This is very hard on us. We were very fortunate and blessed to have them for 10 years. But since they're itinerant pastors, when the bishop asks you to move, you must go," said Connie Cole, church lay leader.

A tiny, one-room church stands unobtrusively by the side of Old Annapolis Road in Columbia, across the street from Howard High School. Its interior is about the size of a living room in some of the modern homes nearby. The four pews and a few folding chairs accommodate a congregation of fewer than 20. A little steeple and four small rose-and-blue-colored windows grace its exterior. "It's a little, small, neat church. It's just comfortable. When you go in there, you just feel comfortable," said the Rev. Roland Howard, 75, founder and pastor emeritus of Banneker Christian Community Church, the congregation that meets there.

A tiny, one-room church stands unobtrusively by the side of Old Annapolis Road in Columbia, across the street from Howard High School. Its interior is about the size of a living room in some of the modern homes nearby. The four pews and a few folding chairs accommodate a congregation of fewer than 20. A little steeple and four small rose-and-blue-colored windows grace its exterior. "It's a little, small, neat church. It's just comfortable. When you go in there, you just feel comfortable," said the Rev. Roland Howard, 75, founder and pastor emeritus of Banneker Christian Community Church, the congregation that meets there.

The joy in the air was palpable, as Christ Episcopal Church launched the pastorate of Richard Ginnever as its new rector - culminating a two-year self-examination and nationwide search. "In the Episcopal Church, each congregation chooses its own rector, in a deliberate process, with certain approvals from the bishop," search committee member Ann Barnes said. "First, a parish committee demographically representing the church meets to describe ourselves and to find out, 'What kind of rector are we looking for?