Parishioners

He was known as the friendly priest, the one whom parishioners could talk to without fear of judgment. He ministered to the small parish of German immigrants in Washington as no one else had recently, parish officials said, doubling its size in five years. Then, suddenly, the Rev. Michael Schapfel returned home to Germany shortly after Easter. Allegations of sexual abuse from that country flooded in to the parish Tuesday, shocking those in Washington's tight-knit German Catholic community.

The father of a Perry Hall High School student shot on the first day of school in Baltimore County told parishioners at his church on Sunday that his son is "pretty darn close to the road to recovery," and implored parents and children to watch for warning signs among teens to help prevent future incidents. "We as parents, it is our responsibility to know what our kids are doing. You don't have to be intrusive or anything like that, but we should know what our kids are doing," said Daniel Borowy's father Milton Borowy, who spoke to the fellow parishioners at the Perry Hall Family Worship Center.

For many parishioners at St. John Roman Catholic Church in Westminster, the U.S. Supreme Court got it wrong last week. Five years ago this week, St. John held a funeral mass for Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder that was picketed by anti-gay protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. Snyder's father sued Westboro for intentional infliction of emotional distress. That case worked its way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled 8-1 last week that the protest — despite the pain it caused — was protected free speech under the First Amendment.

With its rolling lawns and stately trees, the grounds of Babcock Presbyterian Church, just off busy Loch Raven Boulevard, is like an urban oasis. On a sweltering early August morning, a cool breeze sweeps across a grassy knoll behind the church building. The open space along Loch Ness Road is contoured with a dozen small, rectangular garden plots where squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and cantaloupes ripen on the vine and an occasional rabbit darts across the lawn and into the trees. The little plots, most about the size of a large dining room table, are part of the community garden project that Babcock Church started last year.

A five-alarm fire yesterday destroyed their East Baltimore church and the pastor's 120-year-old Bible. But parishioners of Emmanuel Apostolic Faith Church are hoping the blaze is "an unfortunate blessing."About a dozen parishioners, some chanting "Keep praising the Lord" as they hauled soot-covered furniture from the brick building in the 1300 block of N. Gay St., tried to take the tragedy in stride.NTC "We call it an unfortunate blessing because we lost our last church about 10 years ago when a wall caved in, but the Lord blessed us with this building," said Guy Barnes, 32, the pastor's son. "We have to work through this.

Hurt and angry, parishioners streamed out of 11 a.m. Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church yesterday, gazed at the school next door to their century-old sanctuary and pondered the unspeakable: a teacher sexually abusing children of their parish.Generations of South Baltimore families had sent their children to the Catholic Community Middle School and did so with not a little bit of pride.As they left church yesterday, they talked of the man who police say betrayed their faith, molested their community's children and left them to wonder what painful revelations could come next.

NEW YORK -- A melee between about 100 police officers and hundreds of parishioners broke out Sunday night at a Pentecostal church in Queens, N.Y., injuring 34 people and prompting the mayor and police commissioner to order an investigation into how police handled the clash.By the time the standoff ended about 4:30 a.m. yesterday, 28 churchgoers and six police officers had been hurt, and seven people were arrested on charges that included rioting and obstructing justice.Police officials and parishioners gave strikingly different accounts.

In 20 years as pastor of St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Thomas W. Smith again and again found the words to console the depressed, the dying and the bereaved among his loyal parishioners in the rural Baltimore County com- munity of Bradshaw.But even as he reached out to others, Father Smith himself was tormented by a private despair that he hid from his closest friends. Early Saturday, in his living room in the brick rectory beside the old stone church, he put a 12-gauge shotgun to his head and fired.

Voicing anger, frustration and disappointment over the forced resignation of their pastor, more than 400 parishioners filled the pews of Holy Cross Church in Federal Hill last night to urge church officials to give the Rev. Thomas R. Malia a second chance. The heated, nearly three-hour meeting was filled with impassioned pleas from dozens of parishioners who recounted Malia's many pastoral deeds: He restored their faith in Catholicism, he saved their marriages, he attracted young people, he renovated the historic buildings and renewed the spiritual lives of the people inside them.

Maryland's Court of Special Appeals has ended a lengthy effort by former parishioners of a Fells Point church to spare their old sanctuary from redevelopment and turn it into a Slavic heritage museum. Early last year, a grass-roots group - members of the closed St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church - sued the Franciscan friars who own the South Ann Street building. The group claimed that the friars reneged on a deal to sell the building to them, giving it instead to developers with plans to expand a nearby parochial school and build townhouses.

The Rev. Edward Meeks and his flock attended to a "million and one details" last week in the run-up to a momentous day for their church. People to talk to. Flowers to arrange. Food to cook. And, of course, the new sign. On Sunday, Christ the King Church - Anglican - became Christ the King Catholic Church. The Towson congregation of about 140 is one of the first groups in the United States to join a new "ordinariate" established for those who want to be Catholic but hold on to Anglican traditions.

As Trayvon Martin's mother stood at the altar of Baltimore's Empowerment Temple on Sunday, the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant asked for anyone whose child had also been the victim of "senseless violence" to come forward. At least a dozen women and men assembled at Sybrina Fulton's feet before she stepped down to grab one of them. She squeezed the woman, patted her back and whispered in her ear. Then Fulton moved down the line, tightly embracing each mother, grandmother and father, each of them too familiar with loss, until she'd touched them all. Congregants erupted into deafening applause and brushed away tears.

Inside Baltimore's St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church early Saturday, the Rev. Michael Pastrikos stood on the dais and chanted prayers before an ornate altar adorned with icons of holy figures. The smell of spiced incense filled the dimly lit sanctuary as the faithful slipped into pews and counted down the hours until their Easter celebration would begin. They were among the many Orthodox Christians and others around the world and throughout the region celebrating the holiest of weekends using a Julian calendar different from that observed by other denominations.

People packed the pews and filled the balconies of Baltimore's historic Bethel A.M.E. church Sunday morning to honor a man they credit with reviving the house of worship — one of the city's most influential — and bringing unabashed passion back to the black church. The daylong ceremony recognized the Rev. John Richard Bryant's 50 years of service, which began in the steepled church at the corner of Druid Hill Avenue and Lanvale Street and took him to Africa and Massachusetts, then back to his hometown and, most recently, to the Midwest, where today he presides over the 4th Episcopal District as a senior bishop.

Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brien, speaking Sunday at a Mass of Thanksgiving in Baltimore after his recent elevation ceremony in Rome, alluded to political battles in Maryland as he said the church must always stand up for its values. Noting that Pope Benedict XVI exhorted religious leaders to defend the idea that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, he told about 1,000 parishioners: "We are doing our best, Holy Father, and we will not give up. " O'Brien was active in the push to keep the Maryland General Assembly from voting to legalize same-sex marriage.

In the old Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Bolton Hill, the congregation on Sunday gave a prayer of thanks for what the Rev. Andrew Foster Connors described as "the new light of hope arising from the Maryland State House. " Barely two miles down the road in the Greater Harvest Baptist Church, where members demonstrate their devotion by swaying in place and calling out their approval to their pastor's words, the Rev. Rev. Errol Gilliard Sr. issued a call to arms.

The killings of three children last week in a Park Heights apartment were at the front of many parishioners' minds yesterday as they walked into what is considered the mother of Baltimore's Hispanic churches. It didn't matter that the families of Alexis Espejo Quezada, 10, Lucero Solis Quezada, 9, and Ricardo A. Quezada Jr., 9, did not attend St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church, at Wolfe and Lombard streets, or its nearby sister church, St. Patrick. It didn't matter that most parishioners - a combination of immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and elsewhere, along with some longtime residents - didn't know the children personally.

Longtime parishioners from St. John Catholic Church in Westminster reacted with dismay yesterday to news that their former priest has been charged with molesting a young boy two decades ago. The Rev. Brian M. Cox, 63, was released early yesterday on $50,000 bail after being taken into custody Wednesday night at a house near Resurrection Farm, a ministry to homeless people and families that he operates in Silver Run near the Pennsylvania line. "I can only tell you I love the man. He was very well liked," said Tony D'Eugenio, owner of Giulianova Italian Deli on Westminster's East Main Street and a church member since 1977.

Happy belated anniversary wishes to Tony and Beverly Brulinski of Perring Park, who celebrated their 41st year of wedded bliss on the Fourth of July. The 9:00 Mass at St. Isaac Jogues Church on Independence Day is always a special liturgy, with parishioners gathering in the vestibule afterwards for coffee and munchkins. Pastor Marty Hammond co-celebrated this holiday Mass with Father Steve Watson , a Carmelite priest who grew up in Carney and graduated from Parkville High.

Roan S. Faulkner, a Pentecostal bishop who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a parishioner after she had come to him for advice on a family matter, was given a suspended 18-month prison sentence Wednesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. During the investigation into his conduct with the 43-year-old parishioner, three other women associated with Faulkner's New Life Pentecostal Ministries in Catonsville told authorities that the bishop had made physical advances toward them, although none of those acts rose to the level of the attack on the parishioner, whom he forced to perform a sexual act and tried to rape, according to prosecutors.