Church Members

Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas-based anti-gay group, and three of its members have a tiny fraction of the nearly $11 million they were ordered by a Baltimore jury last month to pay for their protest at a Marine's funeral in Westminster, according to detailed financial papers unveiled by a federal judge yesterday. Eight pages of documents submitted in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by the church and three of its members - and made public at The Sun's request - reveal they have a net worth of almost $1 million but do not fully explain how the church is able to fund its picketing near military burials across the country.

Head of city NAACP branch says he'll resign Saying he needed to give "a real serious wake-up call" to the leadership and the membership, the president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP said he will step down after more than two years in the post. Marvin "Doc" Cheatham said yesterday that he would leave the civil rights organization on July 24. He said that the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been fortunate in that it has received a number of awards for its work, but that exposure has led to more requests for help.

They had never flown on an airplane, tossed a snowball or tasted macaroni and cheese. Upon their arrival in Maryland, 10 teenage girls from an orphanage in Namibia discovered a world in stark contrast to their homeland, where hunger and illiteracy prevail and losing parents to disease or war is a daily reality. "When we lived outside the children's home, we didn't receive care," said Annia Moyo, 15. "It was hard, with never enough to eat." Ranging in age from 13 to 16, the girls live in Children of Zion Village, a 17-acre farm near Katima Mulilo, a small town near the Namibian border with Angola, Zambia and Botswana.

After changing his vote twice on an embattled expansion plan for a Guilford church, George L. Layman now agrees with his critics: He should have steered clear of the entire debate."

RIVER VALLEY Ranch is not the Wild West of Hollywood but a place just east of Manchester where the buffalo roam, bull riding is common and people from all walks of life enjoy chuck wagon stew.The ranch could be a movie set, but it's a year-round Christian retreat center also known for giving free professional rodeos throughout its summer-camp season.The rodeos of authentic Western games and skills that match the abilities of cowboys against livestock have been such crowd-pleasers that for the second year, the Grace Bible Church has decided to stage a minirodeo on the church grounds at 3250 Charmil Drive, Manchester, off Route 30.The free rodeo will be from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sept.

Despite a scaled-back proposal to expand the First Baptist Church of Guilford, a group of nearby residents remains opposed to the project, saying last night that the church is still too large for a residential community.At a hearing before the Howard County Board of Appeals, residents objected to the latest plans calling for a 1,502-seat church in the 7400 block of Oakland Mills Road -- compared with the current seating capacity of 400."We could support a 1,000-seat church and a reduction to the structure," said Kari Ebeling, president of the Oak Ridge Homeowners Association.

There's drive-through banking, eating and dry cleaning just about anywhere. At Riva Trace Baptist Church outside Annapolis, there's a drive-through Crucifixion.In a twist on the ancient Easter story, the fast-growing parish south of the city opens its fourth annual "Scenes of Easter" tonight.The production boasts a cast of more than 100 parishioners, a donkey, sound effects and fog machines to re-create the last days of Jesus Christ in seven vignettes.Church officials expect up to 2,000 visitors to drive past the six Biblical scenes on church grounds during the show's three-night run. In previous years, idling minivans have waited a half-hour to see the performance.

Black mourning cloth hung over the doorway of Bibleway Free Will Baptist Church and draped the empty chair of its pastor, Bishop Junior Lee Gamble.But the mood that hung over yesterday's 2 1/2-hour service was not so much sorrow or outrage for Gamble's killing Thursday, but joy and thanksgiving that a beloved leader was with God."We know where our shepherd is. He's in heaven with God. Praise God," said Lorraine Perrin, who led the morning prayer.Gamble, 73, was shot twice in the head and killed outside his home in Park Heights.

In the latest development in a long battle between Covenant Baptist Church and its neighbors-to-be, the Howard County Planning Board unanimously voted yesterday that the church's land off Centennial Lane in Ellicott City should remain in the county's public water and sewer district.The board's recommendation will be given to the Howard County Council, which will vote on the matter next month. The council will hold a public hearing Monday night.Several weeks ago, two Howard County councilmen, Democrat Guy J. Guzzone of southern Howard and Republican Allan H. Kittleman of western Howard, filed a bill to remove the church's property from public water and sewer service because they wanted to prevent Covenant Baptist from building a controversial senior housing complex on it.The housing project was already in jeopardy because the Planning Board recommended against it in early April.

It's not an easy church. It needs a huge restoration. It struggles with a dwindling congregation. And Lovely Lane United Methodist is a cherished historical and architectural landmark, the mother church of American Methodism.The Rev. Errol G. Smith took on the task with energy, compassion and wit. He raised $3 million, paid off debt and opened the church to the community.Yesterday, he delivered his last sermon, blending sadness and jokes as he closed 44 years as a minister, eight at Lovely Lane in Baltimore.

In 1972, Lewis Foust and a group of men built a new sanctuary at one of Baltimore County's oldest churches, more than doubling its size. The task took months and had its share of setbacks, but when it was complete, Foust had a sense of accomplishment that never waned - until Friday, when he saw his work destroyed by fire. "That's really the hurtful part - to see what you have done just gone," Foust said in the parking lot of the Sharp Street United Methodist Church in Chase. A two-alarm fire early Friday caused the roof of the sanctuary to collapse.

On a typical summer Sunday, the doors of Temple Oheb Shalom are locked tight. With observances of the Jewish Sabbath taking place on Friday night and Saturday and religious school out until fall, the Park Heights Avenue building sits empty. Not yesterday. Hundreds of congregants of a different faith poured into the sanctuary, bringing along their love of God, their upbeat music and their fervent prayer to the otherwise quiet house of worship. A fire July 1 damaged the historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Upton and left its flock with no place to come together.

Obama's tax plan would cause job cuts The typical liberal "class-ism" argument suggests that "working-class" families deserve a tax break while the "rich" should pay more taxes to fund whatever social programs liberals consider appropriate. It is amazing that some individuals feel so entitled to spend other people's money. Currently, the top 5 percent of U.S. wage-earners pay approximately 35 percent of the total federal income taxes collected, and the top 25 percent of wage-earners pay more than 65 percent of the taxes.

The Rev. Arthur L. "Billy" Corbin Sr., founder and pastor of the Full Gospel Church of Phoenix and a retired postal worker, died Wednesday at his Phoenix, Baltimore County, home of kidney failure. He was 79. Mr. Corbin, who was born and raised on Warren Road in Cockeysville, attended Baltimore County public schools. "He was 11 when he started preaching and was 18 when he began pastoring his own church," said his wife of 36 years, the former Darce J. Ward, who is a church organist, pianist and soloist.

They may have been lured to the community event in West Baltimore yesterday by the promise of free groceries, but the hundreds of people who turned out stayed hours for a message of hope. At the event, called A Better Life, the crush of people received bags filled with frozen meats, canned goods, bread and paper products - in all, about 80,000 pounds of food and other necessities delivered in two tractor-trailer loads to the Westside Skills Center on Edmondson Avenue. The $30,000 worth of groceries were purchased and distributed by members of Kingdom Life Church.

City officials are pushing once again to remove a homeless encampment outside a downtown Baltimore church, but the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church says he'll go to jail if necessary to stop them. The latest salvos in the long-running dispute come just weeks after the city and church announced they had come to an agreement that would allow social workers to enter the leafy park at the end of the Jones Falls Expressway to help connect the settlement's residents with government services and housing.

Thousands of churchgoers walked through a gate adorned with royal purple and gold balloons and ribbons. A large sign trumpeted: "Holy City of Zion." To many, they had arrived at a promised land - despite the mounds of dirt, the construction equipment and chain-link fences. "In the providence of God, we have come of age," said Bishop Walter S. Thomas, senior pastor of New Psalmist Baptist Church. He stood in front of about 2,000 from the congregation who brought lawn chairs and parasols to a field where the church's new sanctuary will stand.

The Supreme Court has declined to intervene on behalf of a Kansas-based anti-gay church that was successfully sued for protesting at a Marine's funeral in Westminster, a lawyer in the case announced yesterday. The news from Sean E. Summers, the plaintiff's attorney, came as a federal judge in Baltimore ordered Westboro Baptist Church to provide additional financial documents to determine how much of a bond church members need to post while they appeal the multimillion-dollar verdict against them.

Minutes before services started, the Rev. Bill Brown still didn't know what on earth he would say. There has been a tragedy, he finally told the 100 or so people in the pews of Epworth United Methodist Church. And the victims were church members - John and Tammy Browning and their two youngest boys, all found dead in their Cockeysville home. At this news, the congregation collectively gasped. Brown made no mention of 15-year-old Nicholas, the Brownings' oldest son and a Sunday school regular, who had confessed to the killings.

A federal judge in Baltimore substantially reduced yesterday the amount of damages a Kansas-based anti-gay group and three of its leading members must pay for their protest at a Marine's funeral in Westminster. In a 52-page decision, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett affirmed the jury's verdict in favor of the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder. Albert Snyder successfully sued the church for emotional distress and invasion of his family's privacy after Westboro Baptist Church members waved signs decrying homosexuality at his son's funeral in March 2006.