Ministry

On June 2, 2007, DENNIS B. 63, beloved former husband of Sherry Hire and Marsha Sweeney, devoted father of, Cody , Lori and Casandra, loving brother of Pamela, Raymond and Michael and the late Sharon Leeland, cherished grandfather of five. Preceded in death by his parents, and a son, Shane Surviving are loving nieces and nephews. Services were held on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at Donaldson Funeral Home, Laurel, MD, 20707. Interment was in Parklawn Cemetery, Rockville. If desired, contributions may be made to Go Tell John Prison Ministry, Box 281, Midland, MD 21542 or to the National Cancer Institute, Bldg 31, Room #11A16, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Harry Brunett is not your typical Episcopal priest.Ordained in the early 1960s, he served as a priest in Baltimore County for only four years before deciding the church was too removed from the issues of the day: civil rights, women's rights, the Vietnam War. He quit to become a community activist, then a Rouse Co. employee, then a consultant, then a retirement home director, before once again -- seven years ago, in his mid-50s -- hearing a call to become...

After three public hearings and hours of intense debate, the Sykesville Town Council voted 6-1 last night against a rezoning proposal that would bring a $3.5 million corporate headquarters into a neighborhood.The mayor's promise that a vote would take place drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 100.Nearly all those attending opposed rezoning residential land to business use and allowing Episcopal Ministries to the Aging to build its headquarters.The ministry -- the parent company of Fairhaven Retirement Community, South Carroll's largest employer -- planned a series of six cottage-like buildings on a 3-acre plot at the northern end of town.

A Westminster ministry that feeds the needy has launched a gourmet food line designed to appeal to the trendy.Filled with sumptuous breakfast foods, "Sunday Morning" comes in punched tins or colorful baskets. Containers overflow with ingredients for a leisurely breakfast: old-fashioned buttermilk pancake mix, tree-tapped maple syrup, honey sticks from a Carroll County beekeeper, herbal teas prepared by Native Americans, and flavored coffees, and a whimsical gift that will vary with the season or holiday.

After three public hearings and hours of intense debate, the Sykesville Town Council voted 6-1 last night against a rezoning proposal that would bring a $3.5 million corporate headquarters into a neighborhood.The mayor's promise that a vote would take place drew a standing-room-only crowd of nearly 100.Nearly all those attending opposed rezoning residential land to business use and allowing Episcopal Ministries to the Aging to build its headquarters.The ministry -- the parent company of Fairhaven Retirement Community, South Carroll's largest employer -- planned a series of six cottage-like buildings on a 3-acre plot at the northern end of town.

Neil Compton, 86, who led the effort to secure federal protection for the United States' first national river, died Wednesday. In 1962, he and others formed the Ozark Society after the Army Corps of Engineers began efforts to build two dams on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas.Gideon Rafael, 86, a diplomat who helped found the Israeli Foreign Ministry half a century ago, died Wednesday. He served as the ministry's director general and filled many other positions, including ambassador to the United Nations.

After 27 years of lay ministry at Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Westminster resident David Miller Davis is contemplating a call to the ordained ministry.It is a road he traveled first in high school, then in college 34 years ago as a pre-ministerial student at Bridgewater College in Virginia.But Davis, who retired last week as manager of emergency response and service ministries at the Brethren center, has begun to wonder if the intervening years have been a long detour.The stirrings began anew last fall when Davis, 56, was invited to a homecoming at the Virginia Church of the Brethren congregation where he grew up as a child.

TEHRAN, Iran -- The head of Iran's intelligence ministry resigned yesterday in the continuing political fallout from revelations that agents killed at least two dissident writers and two nationalist politicians last year.The resignation of Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, reportedly along with two of his deputies, is an seen as an important victory for reformist forces, allowing President Mohammed Khatami to exert at least partial control over the Information Ministry, the somewhat misleading name of the body that gathers internal and external intelligence.

JUNE IS a month for honors.Leanne Kearns and Jay Newman will receive Youth Ministry Awards at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church's services at noon Sunday. Services will be held at Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.Tony Tamberino, St. John's Youth and Young Adult Ministry Associate, notes that the annual award to high school graduates recognizes their faith, gentle spirit and loyal service to the St. John's community.Leanne also received the Eagle of the Cross medal from the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry for outstanding leadership and moral example to her peers and the youth ministry community.

FRIDAYS are special at Arundel Senior High School.Members of the faculty and staff and many students are sporting green and white outfits. During Friday morning announcements, Principal Will Myers is recognizing good things going on at the school. This week, several people were honored for their achievements. Delante Byrd, Brandon Harris and Kelly Jordan have been named National Achievement Scholars, recognizing their performance on the 1997 PSAT.Franklin "Buddy" Hepfer was named 4A-3A Wrestling Coach of the Year by the Maryland State Wrestling Association.

On April 6, 2009, ODDIS COLVIN. Loving husband of Mrs. Inell S. Colvin. On Tuesday, friends may call Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Services (EAST), 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 4 to 8 PM. On Wednesday, services will be held at New Unity Church Ministry, 101 W. Franklin Street, where the family will receive friends from 11:30 AM to 12 Noon with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-433-7500.

With hefty pickaxes, hoes and shovels, three teenage boys turned over long-neglected ground. They struck heavy rocks, deeply embedded roots and unfamiliar underground growth, and yanked it all from the soil to make way for an urban vegetable garden. Farming builds character, said 18-year-old James Morrison, adding, "I don't mind getting dirty, and I am getting to appreciate manual labor." Morrison and several classmates from Our House, a residential job-training center for at-risk youth in Olney, volunteer weekly at the Samaritan Women, a fledgling ministry working to convert an estate off Frederick Road into a home for women in recovery, a culinary school, an events center and a community garden.

AMMAN, Jordan - Najim Abid Hajwal has been having a difficult time renewing his passport. He submitted his paperwork at the Iraqi Embassy here but was told days later that he was a wanted man back home in Iraq. It turned out that the Interior Ministry was after someone with a similar name. He submitted a new set of papers to prove his identity but was issued a passport with a wrong name. It's enough to make an Iraqi nostalgic for the good old days. "Under Saddam, a ministry was a ministry," Hajwal says.

Officials ask speedy aid in the wake of Ike WASHINGTON: Gulf Coast officials asked lawmakers yesterday for fast federal money for hurricane recovery and a minimum of bureaucratic red tape. Texas is looking at $11.4 billion in damage from Ike, including $16 million in damage to Houston, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said. Devastation in Galveston is $2 billion, that city's mayor said. Louisiana is facing $1 billion in damage from Ike and Gustav, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said in prepared testimony that the $40 million cost of evacuating his city for Hurricane Gustav has led to hiring freezes and a halt of any new expenditures until disaster costs are reimbursed.

Bishop Monroe Randolph Saunders Sr., who was founder and senior pastor of the First United Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic, now Transformation Church of Jesus Christ, died Friday of cancer at his Ashburton home. He was 89. Mr. Saunders, the son of farmers, was born and raised in Florence, S.C. He was high school valedictorian and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College for Negroes, now Virginia State University, in Petersburg. After the death of his eldest brother, he left college and moved to Baltimore to help his sister-in-law raise their four children.

On December 11, 2007, WILLIAM M. JOHNSON, SR. On Wednesday, friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 5151 Baltimore Nat'l Pike, from 3 to 8 P.M. On Thursday, Mr. Johnson will lie instate at Nebo Christian Ministry, 240 N. Franklintown Road, where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 233-2400.

TOPEKA, Kan. -- In the quiet shadow of the state Capitol, Bill Duckworth stands just inside the Tool Shed Tap bar and lets out a long sigh. He's a veteran and openly gay member of a community long unhappy about pickets by a virulently anti-homosexual religious group based here. But on this Saturday night, Duckworth says he's still wary about the biggest news in town: the $10.9 million judgment against the group, Westboro Baptist Church, in a Baltimore courtroom. "I felt like it might have been offensive, but that's their right," the 55-year-old printing press worker says of the military funeral protest in Maryland that prompted a deceased Marine's father to sue Westboro.

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi and U.S. special forces have arrested at least 59 army officers and enlisted men in connection with killings, bombings and kidnapping in the latest case linking elements of the Iraqi army to sectarian militias and criminal gangs, authorities announced yesterday. Meanwhile, at least 60 people were killed in a spate of car bombings and shootings across Iraq. The raid Tuesday on the defense ministry's military academy in the eastern Baghdad district of Rustamiyah provided the latest evidence of the Iraqi army's continuing struggle to eradicate lawless elements in its midst.

GEORGE K. OTIS, 90 Led Christian radio network George K. Otis, a millionaire-turned-evangelist who built Christian radio stations around the globe, died July 22 in his sleep at his Murrieta, Calif., home. Mr. Otis founded several companies and was an executive at several others, including serving a stint as general manager of the LearJet Corp. aerospace firm. He was a millionaire by the time he was 35 but was dissatisfied. His Simi Valley-based ministry created the Voice of Hope, a radio network offering religious programming in more than a dozen languages.

On June 2, 2007, DENNIS B. 63, beloved former husband of Sherry Hire and Marsha Sweeney, devoted father of, Cody , Lori and Casandra, loving brother of Pamela, Raymond and Michael and the late Sharon Leeland, cherished grandfather of five. Preceded in death by his parents, and a son, Shane Surviving are loving nieces and nephews. Services were held on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at Donaldson Funeral Home, Laurel, MD, 20707. Interment was in Parklawn Cemetery, Rockville. If desired, contributions may be made to Go Tell John Prison Ministry, Box 281, Midland, MD 21542 or to the National Cancer Institute, Bldg 31, Room #11A16, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892.