Church Members

ATLANTA - The outspoken Rev. Arthur Allen Jr. was noncommittal last week after a jury convicted him and four followers of cruelty to children for whippings at his church. Asked whether he would follow a judge's order to stop advising parents to whip disobedient children, Allen said, "I'm going to follow the Ten Commandments," and would say no more. The 70-year-old House of Prayer pastor - who has often quoted the Bible to justify the whippings - faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison.

The Howard County Planning Board delayed action last night on recommended changes to a law limiting adult bookstores after hearing impassioned pleas by members of Columbia Presbyterian Church to keep the measure as restrictive as possible. More than 30 church members attended the hearing on proposed changes to the law, which was ruled unconstitutional recently by the Maryland Court of Appeals. Planning Board approval for changes is required before it can be redrawn as a County Council bill.

The lawyer for a church-affiliated school in Rockville that fired employees who were not church members asked the state's highest court yesterday to exempt religious groups from a Montgomery County anti-discrimination law, saying the law attacks their freedom of religion. But lawyers for the former workers of the Montrose Christian School said it is their religious freedom that is under attack. The anti-discrimination measure is peculiar to Montgomery County, and most similar laws around the country exempt religious groups, experts said.

Baltimore is hitting a convention home run this week - a gathering of 30,000 African-American church members who are expected to spread nearly $25 million in the city's hotels, restaurants, shops and other attractions. Believed to be the city's largest convention ever, this gathering of the Church of God in Christ Auxiliaries in Ministry has sold out Baltimore hotels and filled rooms as far out as Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The Memphis, Tenn.-based Church of God in Christ - the largest African-American Pentecostal church in the world - is an example of a lucrative market that Baltimore tourism officials are eagerly pursuing in a city and state rich with African-American history.

The United Methodist bishop for the Baltimore-Washington area took the mound yesterday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.It wasn't that the Orioles were in need of divine intervention. Bishop Felton Edwin May was there for a first-pitch ceremony as part of the United Methodists' God's Family event.More than 3,000 church members wearing T-shirts bearing their familiar cross-and-flame logo attended the game last night. And before the game, the Methodists celebrated the diversity that makes up their nearly 220,000-member conference in a festival at the Inner Harbor's Rash Field featuring Caribbean steel drums, a Korean drum-and-dance troupe and gospel choirs.

A framed collage hangs on a wall of Kittamaqundi Church in Columbia. It's made up of delicately cut pictures of smiling children from Southwest Baltimore's Agape House. They are smiling because the Kittamaqundi members who are leading them on horseback, reading to them and playing games have crossed social, economic, class and color lines to bring the two communities together. Judy Colligan, a longtime Kittamaqundi worshipper and since 1995 a board member of Agape House - a Christian children's ministry - is responsible for their connection.

The Episcopal Church of St. Michael and All Angels stands like a citadel in a Romanesque cloak at 20th and St. Paul streets, a symbol of its congregation's glorious past, humbled present and hopeful future. The parish, once known as the "School for Bishops" because of the number of its rectors who rose to the episcopacy, has dwindled and aged. Parishioners acknowledge that as the neighborhood changed from affluent to poor, their focus turned inward and their church became a protective fortress.

Members of Magothy Chelsea Community Lutheran Church spent almost 50 years concentrating on their spiritual well-being before turning their attention to their spiritual home.Today, the 100-member church at 265 Beach Ave. in Pasadena will crown a two-year beautification process when it dedicates 10 new stained-glass windows during a 10:30 a.m. service."It's a fulfillment of a dream," said the Rev. John Lynch, pastor for seven years. "We've done a lot of work to make this church look better, and this helps."

The Rev. Steve Smith knows what it's like to have church members play matchmaker.It's subtle. A church member takes him to dinner and spends the evening talking about an eligible granddaughter.But the 28-year-old single pastor, also knows how to get out of a sticky situation."Oh gee, have you heard I'm engaged?" asks Mr. Smith, who serves a Lutheran church in Virginia, Minn.The truth works every time. The matchmaker's fantasy sizzles. Talk quickly shifts to mashed potatoes.It used to be that single pastors were expected to find a mate in congregations they served.

The minister of a Northwest Baltimore church is the target of a lawsuit filed yesterday charging him with impregnating a secretary at a church-run school, then firing the woman and her husband, a teacher at the school.In a suit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court, Marvin and Ernestine Council are each seeking $2.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Named as defendants are David Harold Brown, pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in the 4200 block of Primrose Ave., and Help International Inc., the corporation that runs the church and employs Mr. Brown.