Church In America

On Tuesday April 1, 2008 Ruth Elizabeth Service and interment private. Contributions may be made in her memory to St. Andrew Russian Orthodox Church in America, 2028 East Lombard Street, Maryland 21231

WASHINGTON -- The challenges confronting the Catholic Church in America are many: an aging membership, a declining priesthood, a sex abuse scandal that has rattled faith in the hierarchy. Roughly one-third of Americans who were raised Catholic have left the church, and those who remain are as divided over its teachings on abortion, homosexuality and other issues as the population at large. Still, as Pope Benedict XVI makes his first papal visit to the United States, he will find a church in the midst of renewal.

An interfaith group of religious leaders, in cooperation with the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council, has designated Friday through Sunday as days of prayer for poor and sick Marylanders who may suffer from the state budget cuts announced last week by Gov. William Donald Schaefer.The group includes local leaders of the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the United Methodist Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of America, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Quaker and Mennonite congregations, the Disciples of Christ, Jewish and Muslim groups, and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, an organization of pastors primarily from black city churches.

The future rolled into Our Lady of Pompei Church a few weeks ago. Her name was Yoselin Garcia, and she sat quietly in her stroller, a bit player in the vast demographic shift reshaping the Roman Catholic Church in America. The Garcias - mom, dad and three little girls - had stopped in at the Highlandtown church to drop off a baptism form for the youngest, 1-year-old Yoselin. The Rev. Luigi Cremis, wearing a smile so wide he squinted, cooed at the dark-haired girl and chatted with her sisters, Yasmin, 2, and Estefania, 6. As the Garcias ventured back into the bright East Baltimore sunshine, Father Luis, as everyone calls him, turned to the young patriarch, Maximo, who like his wife was born in Mexico.

On February 22, 2004, REV. WILLIAM J. YINGLING, beloved husband of Ruth E. Yingling, devoted father of John E. Yingling, William Hotz, Jr., Sue Mackay, John G. Hotz and the late Marilyn R. Wheeler, caring brother of Ruth Wilkins, cherished grandfather of 9 and great grandfather of 2. Friends may call at the family owned Evans Chapel of Memories - Parkville Tuesday 6-8 PM and Wednesday 2-4 & 6-8 PM. A funeral service will be held 11AM Thursday at St....

The Rev. H. Gerard Knoche's mother would be proud. The Howard County minister has been elected bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - one of the largest Protestant denominations in the country. "My mother was never happy that I went into the ministry, but she always said, `If you must do it, at least get to be a bishop,'" Knoche said. Knoche, pastor of New Hope Lutheran Church in Columbia, was elected on the fifth ballot by the Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly at Western Maryland College in Westminster on Saturday.

CHICAGO -- The nation's largest Lutheran denomination released yesterday the first draft of an unprecedented social statement on human sexuality that emphasizes the importance of trust at the center of people's relationships with friends, family, sexual partners and God. It does not discuss whether the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America should allow gay and lesbian clergy to serve. That issue, currently vexing many Protestant denominations, will be addressed in a second document, leaders said.

Wouldn't you know it? Just when we're getting used to the eroding membership figures for mainline churches, these oldline denominations start to make some gains.Modest gains, mind you. But after nearly three decades of declining membership, these denominations will take any increases they can get. Is it possible that the losses, which sounded like a death knell 10 years ago, are over and mainline Christianity is on the comeback trail?For instance, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America showed a gain of 1,941 members in 1990 and another increase of 4,438 in 1991.

The Carroll Lutheran Village Retirement Community in Westminster has honored the founders of Partners in Ministry, a volunteer program that provides in-home support and respite for more than a dozen families throughout Carroll County."

The Rev. J. Leon Haines, a prominent figure in the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died Saturday in an automobile accident in Reisterstown. The Lutherville resident was 80.Mr. Haines had devoted more than a half-century to the ministry, and been on the Maryland Synod staff since 1957. He retired in 1985 as assistant to the bishop, but remained a consultant on congregational constitutions to what became after a merger the Delaware-Maryland Synod."He was deeply loved by the people of the Maryland Synod," said the Rev. Andrea Hagen, who worked closely with Mr. Haines and is now an assistant to the bishop.

On Tuesday April 1, 2008 Ruth Elizabeth Service and interment private. Contributions may be made in her memory to St. Andrew Russian Orthodox Church in America, 2028 East Lombard Street, Maryland 21231

CHICAGO -- The nation's largest Lutheran denomination released yesterday the first draft of an unprecedented social statement on human sexuality that emphasizes the importance of trust at the center of people's relationships with friends, family, sexual partners and God. It does not discuss whether the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America should allow gay and lesbian clergy to serve. That issue, currently vexing many Protestant denominations, will be addressed in a second document, leaders said.

.. High above the city, the church loomed. So it was for the great cathedrals of Europe - of Chartres and Notre Dame and Salisbury and Orvieto. And so it was for the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. For much of the 19th century, the neo-classical cathedral, built on a hill north of what was then the city center, was the most prominent feature of Baltimore's skyline. Skyscrapers have since grown to overshadow the cathedral and its primacy in the birth of the Catholic church in America has been forgotten by many.

REHOBETH -- When Francis Makemie, the father of the Presbyterian Church in America, built a sturdy little chapel near the banks of the Pocomoke River, he intended it to be a magnet for his fledgling flock. Three hundred years later, the austere building with brick walls that are 3 feet thick still draws the faithful every Sunday to this rural corner of the Eastern Shore dominated by chicken farms and soybean fields. Yesterday, nearly 100 church members, friends, former members and visitors - including two from Scotland - gathered at Rehoboth Presbyterian Church for a "homecoming" service.

Richard Dirk Selland, a gay member of Christ Lutheran Church in Federal Hill, traveled to the national assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America this month, hoping that members would approve the blessing of same-sex couples and the ordination of practicing homosexuals as ministers. George Paul Mocko, a former bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the ELCA, went to the assembly in Orlando, Fla., hoping members would ban those practices. Both came away disappointed. For area Lutherans, as for the 5 million-member church nationwide, the decision to neither tighten nor loosen restrictions on homosexuals leaves unresolved questions that have divided other denominations.

Bishop Morris G. Zumbrun, a Lutheran minister who became the first bishop of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, died of coronary artery disease Jan. 20 at the Copper Ridge assisted-living facility in Sykesville. He was 82. Bishop Zumbrun was born in Hampstead and raised on his parents' farm in Greenmount, Carroll County. After graduating from Hampstead High School in 1938, he entered Gettysburg College and earned his bachelor's degree in Greek in 1942.

It was nearly 500 years ago that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, setting into motion the Protestant Reformation and a major division of Christianity.Modern-day Lutherans meeting this week in Philadelphia will vote on whether to adopt three ecumenical agreements that would undo some of that division.The Churchwide Assembly of the 5.2 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will consider agreements with the Episcopal Church, three Reformed churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

Pink flamingos awaited the new bishop.As Bishop George Paul Mocko went to his Towson office yesterday for the first time as the leader of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, pink flamingos lined the sidewalk in his honor.The display had been placed by a friend who had been the victim of a previous Mocko prank. The friend, an avid gardener, had awakened each day for a month to find plastic pink flamingos perched amid his beloved flora.Eventually he discovered the source of the flamingo infestation: Mocko.

Underscoring deep divisions in the United States' largest Lutheran denomination, a task force called yesterday for retaining the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's prohibition against ordaining noncelibate homosexuals, but it urged caution in disciplining congregations and clergy who ignore the ban. At the same time, the church's Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality called for no change in the denomination's practice of permitting local congregations...

Sir Alastair Morton, 66, who played a key role in the building of the English Channel tunnel between England and France, died Wednesday of a heart attack. He became co-chairman of Eurotunnel in 1987 and served as group chief executive from 1990 until 1994, when the undersea link opened. He brought a sharp mind and an explosive temper to a task that many thought would be impossible: to complete the 31-mile tunnel entirely with private funding, as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher insisted.