Ministerial Alliance

THE MINISTERIAL Alliance in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay will sponsor a Christmas concert and Christian unity service at 4 p.m. Jan. 7 at St. John Lutheran Church, 226 Washburn Ave.The program will include Christmas music featuring the voices of the Arundel Singers. An offering will be taken for the alliance's emergency assistance fund for the needy. After the concert, there will be a reception at St. John's social hall. Everyone is invited to attend.For more information, call 255-7295.St. John Lutheran receptionSt.

Ministerial Alliance makes endorsements Former Baltimore health commissioner Peter Beilenson snagged a potentially important endorsement in his campaign for the 3rd District seat in the U.S. Congress yesterday as the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance issued its list of recommended candidates in the Sept. 12 primary. Beilenson is part of a crowded field of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin. The alliance, a Baltimore-based coalition of mostly African-American clergy, spurned Cardin's campaign for the U.S. Senate and gave its nod to former U.S. Rep. and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume in the Democratic primary.

There might be some logic to the latest Larry Thing -- the decision by the mayor of Baltimore to endorse the Harford County executive in her bid to unseat the sitting Democratic governor of Maryland in the September primary. It's Larry Gibson's doing, mainly, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's brilliant. In fact, in this case, personal feelings might have clouded the usually clear thinking of the state's premier political strategist. (Sounds like the stuff of operetta, eh? I'll have to get to work on one. Working title: "Il Cosa Lorenzo," or "The Larry Thing."

When Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan launched his gubernatorial campaign last week, one of his stops was an African-American church in Baltimore where he was cheered by Mayor Martin O'Malley's oldest and harshest critics. For Duncan, who is relatively unknown in the city, winning over black voters on O'Malley's home turf is crucial if the three-term executive is to prevail in their battle for the 2006 Democratic nomination for governor. His visit to Union Baptist Church reveals his main strategy of aligning with O'Malley's political nemesis: the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.

HAPPY Thanksgiving! Remember to take time this week to be thankful and count your many blessings.The Ministerial Alliance in Brooklyn-Curtis Bay will sponsor a Thanksgiving Eve service at 7:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Heights United Methodist Church, 110 Townsend Ave. Everyone is invited.The alliance also will sponsor a community worship service at 10 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day at St. John Lutheran Church, 226 Washburn Ave. at Third Street.The Rev. John Cooper, assistant pastor of the Brooklyn Church of the Nazarene, will preach; other clergy will participate.

The Rev. Gregory B. Perkins, vested in a bright red ministerial robe, ascended the pulpit at East Baltimore's St. Paul Community Baptist Church and peered intently at the mostly young mourners at the funeral of another victim of urban violence. "When I got word about what had happened to Tony, when I read the account of what happened, my heart was vexed because of this spirit of madness that is wreaking havoc in our community," said Perkins in a steadily rising cadence as he eulogized Robert Anthony Bland, 37, shot six times the first week of the year.

Former City Councilman Carl Stokes picked up a key endorsement yesterday from a group of prominent Baltimore ministers, which his supporters see as another sign his campaign is regaining momentum.The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, a group of more than 200 mostly African-American churches, said Stokes possesses the government experience, "dogged strength" and willingness to work with city groups. It was the third important endorsement Stokes has picked up in as many days."This has been a great week for me," Stokes said after gaining the ministers' backing.

The new head of Baltimore's Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance says one of his top priorities is recruiting young pastors to the faith-based lobbying group to reverse what he sees as a decline in clerical activism. The Rev. William C. Calhoun Sr., pastor of Trinity Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue, said that some younger pastors today are more focused on developing their churches and preaching prosperity than ministering to the broader urban community and addressing its many ills.

Mayoral candidate Martin J. O'Malley said yesterday that his campaign paid $1,000 to a supporter of rival Lawrence A. Bell III who has acknowledged copying racist literature.O'Malley said he paid the Rev. Daki Napata of Union Baptist Church to help establish contact with city ministers as the mayoral candidates sought the endorsement of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, a powerful group of 200 mostly African-American pastors."Once we gave him the check, we never heard from him again," O'Malley said.

Efforts to create a non-profit insurance company for Baltimore city drivers got a boost today when the city government provided $26,000 for a feasibility study."

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan questioned yesterday the public financing of Baltimore's proposed convention center hotel, directly challenging a project of his likely chief Democratic rival in next year's campaign for governor. The visit to Baltimore's Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance marked yet another effort by Duncan to come to Mayor Martin O'Malley's home turf and court his constituents - in this case, a federation of clergy representing more than 200 city churches.

The new head of Baltimore's Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance says one of his top priorities is recruiting young pastors to the faith-based lobbying group to reverse what he sees as a decline in clerical activism. The Rev. William C. Calhoun Sr., pastor of Trinity Baptist Church on Druid Hill Avenue, said that some younger pastors today are more focused on developing their churches and preaching prosperity than ministering to the broader urban community and addressing its many ills.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. opened the first legislative hearing on his proposed bill to allow slot machines at Maryland racetracks yesterday with an impassioned plea to save the horse racing industry and an unusual personal swipe at House Speaker Michael E. Busch. Making a rare gubernatorial appearance before a legislative committee, Ehrlich told lawmakers that some members of his administration see racing as a fading industry that should be allowed to die a natural death. "It is a legitimate view that I reject wholeheartedly," Ehrlich told the House Ways and Means Committee.

IN THE morning, Martin O'Malley picked up his favorite newspaper and had himself a really fine laugh. The story said these Baltimore ministers wanted him to stay at City Hall instead of going for governor. Then the mayor gave the newspaper to his wife, Katie O'Malley, who was getting the kids ready for school. She had herself a fine laugh, too, somewhere between the breakfast cereal and the brushing of the children's teeth. "That's so kind of them," the mayor of Baltimore said later in the day. He was speaking of the ministers, and his tone was intended to be sarcastic.

A prominent group of Baltimore-area ministers is calling on Mayor Martin O'Malley to remain in his job and not run for governor - as supporters of Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend are being pressured to endorse her unannounced candidacy for the office. The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, an organization of 200 predominantly black clergy that in 1999 opposed O'Malley's candidacy for mayor, has scheduled a news conference for today to voice its concerns about his possible gubernatorial run. "This is not time to be considering political options," the Rev. Gregory B. Perkins, president of the group, said yesterday.

Looking to launch an organization that assists prisoners who feel they've been wrongly convicted, Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway and the Rev. Gregory Perkins took their proposal yesterday before the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. But Conaway and Perkins, president of the ministers' group, have yet to line up financing for their Ministerial Alliance for Justice, modeled after Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey group that works to secure new trials for convicts who claim they are innocent.

Looking to launch an organization that assists prisoners who feel they've been wrongly convicted, Baltimore Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway and the Rev. Gregory Perkins took their proposal yesterday before the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. But Conaway and Perkins, president of the ministers' group, have yet to line up financing for their Ministerial Alliance for Justice, modeled after Centurion Ministries, a New Jersey group that works to secure new trials for convicts who claim they are innocent.

Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger III told a group of black ministers Friday that he is "aggressively seeking an African-American" to head a county department.Mr. Ruppersberger also told the Baltimore County West Ministerial Alliance that he plans to announce today the hiring of a black to work under former planning director P. David Fields, who is developing a conservation plan for older county communities.The new worker will cover the county's Westside, where the bulk of the fast-growing black population lives.

The Rev. Gregory B. Perkins, vested in a bright red ministerial robe, ascended the pulpit at East Baltimore's St. Paul Community Baptist Church and peered intently at the mostly young mourners at the funeral of another victim of urban violence. "When I got word about what had happened to Tony, when I read the account of what happened, my heart was vexed because of this spirit of madness that is wreaking havoc in our community," said Perkins in a steadily rising cadence as he eulogized Robert Anthony Bland, 37, shot six times the first week of the year.

A group of influential clergy members representing almost every part of Baltimore met with the city's acting police commissioner yesterday and promised to work in partnership to reduce crime. The two-hour meeting at St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East Baltimore was sponsored by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, whose leader has expressed concern over the new police leader's aggressive crime-fighting strategies, modeled on New York's. After the private meeting, the alliance's president, the Rev. Douglas I. Miles, called on clergy to "ensure that quality-of-life policing is an effective reality.