Church In Baltimore

Lillie P. Bowles, 62, corporate secretaryLillie P. Bowles, who for 21 years had been corporate secretary of Dunbar Cos., died Tuesday of cancer at Mercy Medical Center. She was 62.Mrs. Bowles began her career in 1970 as a receptionist at Federal Armored Express, which changed its name in 1997 to Dunbar Cos.When she started her career, the company had three trucks, six driver guards and a handful of other employees. In addition to being a receptionist, Mrs. Bowles was dispatcher, contract administrator and secretary.

John Sidney Brown, 80, chemistry lab instructorJohn Sidney Brown, a retired Morgan State University chemistry lab instructor, died Dec. 17 of pneumonia at Sinai Hospital. He was 80 and lived in Morgan Park in Northeast Baltimore.Until his retirement about 15 years ago, he was a chemistry lab instructor at Frederick Douglass High School and Morgan State.Born in Baltimore, he was raised on Laurens Street and graduated from Douglass High School in 1938. He attended Morgan State.During World War II, he served in the Army as a supply sergeant in the Indochina theater.

Marjorie Lehmann Dallam, a noted concert singer and teacher who taught voice in Baltimore for more than 40 years, died Thursday from complications of a stroke at her Mount Vernon home in the Washington Apartments. She was 79.Mrs. Dallam, whose voice was described by a friend as a "full-bodied soprano," had appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Reginald Stewart, and the summer pops series of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert P. Iula.

As a retired social worker, Clara Gordon just can't resist helping people. At Leadenhall Baptist Church in Baltimore, she teaches Sunday school, is active in church affairs, sings in the choir and reaches out to people in need. She enjoys traveling, too, and is planning a Florida trip to sing with the church choir in Daytona Beach.But maybe she helps people best by serving as an example of the importance of a lifelong devotion to fitness -- because at 82, Gordon still is faithful to her fitness routine.

In a large room in the basement of Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, about 140 church musicians met together the Saturday before last to sing and study.Led by choral conductor Stanley J. Thurston, minister of music at First Baptist Church of Northwest Washington, musicians from churches all over the Baltimore area read through a stack of new sacred choral music.There were gentle two-part songs and spirituals arranged into four-part anthems calculated to fill a church with angelic sound."Oh, this is pretty," sighed Wanda Valentine, who lives in Glen Burnie and sings alto with the choir of St. James Episcopal Church in Baltimore.

Brooklyn church to hold informal gospel concertTownsend Avenue Baptist Church will hold a gospel concert at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the church, Fifth Street and Townsend Avenue, Brooklyn.The concert is an informal gathering featuring Christian music. The concert will feature Larissa Berry Railsback and a sermon by the Rev. Scott Neiswender.Information: 410-355-0347 or 410-789-3647.Mission-study group to visit Honduras next monthA 17-member mission-study group from Towson Presbyterian Church and Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore will go to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, to visit the Christian Commission for Development from Feb. 15 to 22.As one of its mission projects, Towson Presbyterian will help the commission build a shelter for abused women and their children.

In churches across Maryland tonight, as lights dim and candles glow, the soft harmonies of choir voices will fill sanctuaries with the strains of a carol welcoming the birth of Christ.Holiday anxieties will melt away as worshipers sing what is for so many the high point of the Christmas Eve service:Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright."Stille Nacht," a poem penned by a Austrian priest and set to music by a schoolteacher, was first performed at a Christmas Eve service 180 years ago tonight.

Lucille W. Gibson, 77, Social Security employeeLucille W. Gibson, who worked for the Social Security Administration for 30 years, died Saturday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center of cardiac arrest. The lifelong Baltimorean was 77.The former Lucille Watts graduated from Douglass High School in the late 1930s and the old Cortez Peters Business School in 1940. The next year, she married Emile M. Gibson, who survives her.Mrs. Gibson worked as a receptionist in a Baltimore dental office before joining SSA in 1950, working in the downtown and Woodlawn complexes.

Since Friday afternoon, the parishioners of St. Alphonsus Church in Baltimore -- following a Lithuanian tradition generations old -- have been keeping a day-and-night vigil before the tomb of Christ.As Easter dawn breaks and the waiting ends, they will celebrate a sunrise Mass, joining with Christians everywhere in commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the holiest day in Christianity.In an age in which Easter is increasingly becoming associated with a gift-giving bunny and colored eggs, and more businesses stay open on a day when they had traditionally closed their doors, many churches and families cling to observances that emphasize the holiday's sacred nature.

It's not something you can readily see. It's not something you can feel or touch. But under the surface of everyday life in the city lies an age-old rift between East Baltimore and West Baltimore, a gulf of perceptions about the haves and the have-nots.Now, for the first time in decades, pastors from both sides of the city are coming together in an effort to heal the breach and create a new, more unified power base."You'd have to have been from Baltimore to understand," said Pastor Anthony Johnson, who grew up on the west side and now represents the other side of town as first vice president of Clergy United for the Renewal of East Baltimore (CURE)

The stained glass windows of St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church in Fells Point are hard to see. The floral designs are shrouded by discolored plexiglass, but they are the clear focus of a dispute between developers who want to replace them with plain glass and the Polish congregants who don't want them touched. Developers who want to convert the church into a commercial or residential property say that without natural light, the building is useless. Members of the Polish community, though, say that the windows of their former church are an important legacy of their faith and history.

The Rev. Montague J. Brackett, who pastored West Baltimore's Central Baptist Church for nearly 50 years, died from pneumonia Tuesday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 94. Dr. Brackett was born in Manakan, Va., the son of farmers. When he was in his teens, he moved to Baltimore, and graduated in 1933 from Frederick Douglass High School. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in theology from what became Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, and is now Virginia University of Lynchburg.

The Rev. Wilburn S. Watson, whose career as pastor of Olivet Baptist Church spanned nearly 50 years, died Feb. 24 of complications from diabetes at Northwest Hospital Center. He was 80. Mr. Watson was born and raised in Baltimore and graduated in 1943 from Douglass High School. He earned his divinity degree from Morris College in Sumter, S.C. Mr. Watson was 17 when he began preaching. A self-taught pianist, he began incorporating piano and singing into his sermons at Canaan Baptist Church in Baltimore.

On December 15, 2008, JOSEPH C. THOMPSON, SR., born October 4, 1962 in Washington, DC, son of the late Parris and Geraldine Thompson. Services were held on December 22, 2008 at Christ Deliverance Church in Baltimore, MD.

On December 15, 2008, JOSEPH C. THOMPSON, JR., born October 4, 1962 in Washington, DC, son of the late Parris and Geraldine Thompson. Services were held on December 22, 2008 at Christ Deliverance Church in Baltimore, MD.

The Rev. Paul James Lewis, a retired stationary engineer and founder of two churches, died of colon cancer Dec. 10 at a daughter-in-law's Northeast Baltimore home. He was 80. Born and raised in Orlando, Fla., Mr. Lewis, the son of sharecroppers, was educated in Orlando and Kissimmee, Fla., public schools. In the late 1940s, he moved to Philadelphia with his family. Mr. Lewis enlisted in the Army and served as an infantryman with the 45th Division in Korea. His decorations, family members said, included three Bronze Stars and the Korean Service Ribbon.

Architect Michael Murphy has restored some of Baltimore's most significant churches, including St. Vincent de Paul, St. Ignatius and Corpus Christi. He was part of the design team that showed how the historic Hippodrome Theatre could be brought back to life as the centerpiece of downtown's France-Merrick Performing Arts Center. He oversaw the transformation of the Maryland Masonic Temple to a conference and banquet facility known as the Tremont Grand. For those and other achievements, Murphy this month will receive one of the highest tributes his profession offers: induction into the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.

MARGARET L. "Peggy" MEISTER, 76, of Hampstead, died Sunday, February 24, 2008. Born May 30, 1931, in Baltimore , she was the daughter of the late William and Thelma Keithley Jacobs. She was the wife of Frederick E. Meister Jr., her husband of 53 years, who died February 5, 2008. She was a graduate of Southern High School in Baltimore and a member of the Phoenix Junior Choir of Baltimore. She was married October 2, 1954, at Martini Lutheran Church in Baltimore, and settled in Linthicum to raise her family.

Lisabeth S. Miller, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Mark J. Miller of Clifton, New Jersey, and Peter E. Auchincloss, son of Barbara J. Auchincloss of Baltimore, Maryland were married on July 16, 2007 at 5:00 o'clock p.m. at Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland. The wedding ceremony was followed by a reception at The Johns Hopkins Club. After a honeymoon in Key West the couple will reside in Baltimore.

Ruth Easton Renaut, an artist, travel agent and homemaker, died of lymphoma last Monday at her son's home in Annapolis. A Baltimore resident since 1952, she was 80. As a teenager, she studied art at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Mass., which is now a part of the University of Massachusetts. She later studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she won a Peabody Award for painting in 1962. During the 1960s, she was an exhibitor and board member of the 26th Street Art Gallery in Baltimore.