Church Leaders

Harold E. Burkholder, a retired master electrician and active church member, died Jan. 15 at his Southwest Baltimore home of complications from a stroke. He was 77. Mr. Burkholder was born and raised in Lancaster, Pa. He was a 1948 graduate of East Lampeter High School and moved from Witmer Heights, Pa., to Baltimore in 1953 to help establish the Wilkens Avenue Mennonite Church. Mr. Burkholder was employed as a master electrician for 49 years and 10 months by the Electric Motor Repair Co. in Baltimore.

Leaders of a Timonium church have scrapped a controversial plan to build a 2,500-seat complex on the 30-acre site of the Padonia Park Club, where generations of Cockeysville-area residents went swimming and attended camps. The Rev. Daniel K. O'Brien, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church, announced the decision to his congregation during a morning service yesterday. He said later that the church had not raised enough money to develop the property. Neighbors had strongly opposed the plan, saying it would increase traffic, alter the complexion of the area and overwhelm water and sewer systems.

It may seem an unlikely story, but Joe Sheppard's career as portraitist to popes and cardinals had its genesis in a boxing ring. "Years ago, I used to box every Saturday at Mack Lewis' gym on Broadway," recalls the 77-year-old Maryland artist, who now lives part of each year in Pietrasanta, Italy. "One day, this guy who had been playing basketball comes over and says, `Can I box with you?' So I said OK. I never knew his name or anything." Years later, Sheppard ran into the fellow at a party.

If a group of Baltimore pastors and ministers has anything to do with it, the lessons of racial harmony and nonviolent resistance propagated by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. won't soon be forgotten. In honor of the 40th anniversary of King's assassination in 1968, the clergy members announced yesterday their plan to hold a 40-day "campaign for peace," starting Feb. 25, that is to include prayer vigils, consecrations of sites where violent crimes occurred and a commemorative march in Baltimore on April 4, the date of King's death.

An increase in reported incidents of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in recent decades mirrors a jump in such incidents in society as a whole, according to preliminary findings by researchers hired by the Catholic Church to find answers to the abuse crisis. The findings, released yesterday at the Fall Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, worried advocates for abuse victims, who said they hoped that sexual abuse by priests would not be played down just because other members of society did the same.

Much has changed in the once-blue-collar neighborhood of Locust Point in South Baltimore. Factories have made way for pricey developments, watering holes have been displaced by upscale eateries. But the edifice on Fort Avenue, Our Lady of Good Counsel, has stood unaltered, long a pillar for the area's Catholics. Down the street is the Episcopal Church of the Redemption. A few blocks away is the Christ United Church of Christ, better known as the German Lutheran church. For more than 100 years, congregants from these three churches have gone to one another's dinners and carnivals, attended funerals and weddings together, and collaborated on bake sales and bingo nights.

A group of Baltimore-area church leaders plan to press state and local officials Thursday night to ensure that the influx of jobs and people from military base realignment does not harm Maryland's environment or the region's working families. Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and several legislators are expected to attend the meeting of BRIDGE, a coalition of area congregations committed to improving social equity, said Gary Gillespie, a spokesman for the group. BRIDGE stands for Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality.

A deacon at an Edgewood church has been charged on child sex abuse counts in the alleged molestation of two teenage half-sisters who are church members, the Harford County state's attorney said yesterday. Kevin Rondell Glenn, a deacon at Fountain of Life Fellowship Church, was arrested Thursday and charged with 11 counts, including sexual abuse of a minor and sexual solicitation of a minor. Charging documents allege that the 50-year-old Edgewood resident sexually abused the half-sisters, who are ages 13 and 17, over a two-year period that ended in May this year.

When the smoke finally cleared, the beloved 140-year-old house of worship emerged roofless but standing -- and West Baltimore church leaders expressed hope yesterday that it could be reborn. "The structure is solid, and the walls we believe to be solid, according to the [city] inspector," said Bishop Oscar E. Brown of First Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church. "Based upon the projections given up until this point, we won't have to demolish." The Formstone-clad church in the 800 block of W. Saratoga St. caught fire Tuesday after a bolt of lightning struck the steeple, which soon toppled onto the adjoining roof.

As smoke billowed from the burning remains of their 140-year-old West Baltimore church, dozens of parishioners huddled around their bishop, crying, singing - and vowing that lightning would not strike down their congregation as it had their place of worship. "We have just been preaching on faith for the last six or seven months," said Bishop Oscar E. Brown of the First Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church. "I can only say, that was preparation for this moment. "It's his [God's] church, we're his people and we trust he's going to take care of us."