Clayton Police detectives are following up on leads as to who damaged the construction site of the new community center, but they are hoping their offer of a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction will produce more.
The vandalism apparently happened in daylight Aug. 23, when the crews were not working, Clayton Police Chief Glen Allen said. He said a patrol officer discovered the damage about 6:45 p.m.
The vandal or vandals smashed in a wall, knocked over scaffolding and drove the equipment over piles of building materials.
It is not clear how the hoodlum got the bulldozer started, Allen said.
The part of the construction site, at 715 Amelia Church Road, that was damaged is not visible from the road.
Town officials said the damage will delay the spring opening of the 30,000-square-foot center, but it’s not clear how long fixing it will take or how much it will cost.
“We strongly believe that there are people with knowledge of details that may help solve this case,” Allen said in a news release Monday.
He asks that anyone with information, even if it seems to be unimportant, call Detective Andy Jernigan at the Clayton Police Department at 553-4611 or call 911 to report the information.
Source:News & Observer
Religious organizations are using the Internet to spread their message.
(NewsUSA) - For an increasing number of Americans, the sky is the limit when it comes to receiving religious information online.
With the Internet’s ubiquitous existence in many people’s lives, Americans are no longer going online for only entertainment, news or communication. The Internet has changed the way that many consumers receive and distribute religious material and conduct faith-based activities as well.
In the early 2000s, Pew Internet Research polled more than 1,000 religious organizations and reported that 83 percent of respondents said their church’s use of the Internet helped congregational life, and 63 percent said that e-mail helped the church connect more with its surrounding community.
By 2004, the same research firm reported that nearly two-thirds of “wired” Americans had used the Internet for various spiritual or religious purposes. This number could grow even more with the continuing development of online technologies such as interactive streaming video players.
Greg Demetriades, chairman and chief executive officer of WhiteBlox, a developer of commercial online media players, says that large religious organizations represent one group that his company’s technology can benefit.
“Broadcasting faith-based services online is a fantastic way to provide 24/7 spiritual support and develop an even stronger sense of community,” said Demetriades. “In addition to live broadcasts of weekly services, an entire video library of services and workshops can be made available on-demand.”
Considering that religious services can be very social gatherings, the relative isolation of the Internet may at first seem like an inappropriate match.
But some online video solutions, like WhiteBlox’s, include chat rooms and viewer surveys within the player itself, so viewers can now experience a level of video interactivity and online community-building that was previously unavailable.
In addition, the Internet provides fertile ground for one of the most important functions of any religious organization: donations. With the ability to broadcast live or on-demand videos of services coupled with an easy online donation system, online broadcasting may prove to be the most divine gift of all for some religious groups.
For more information about Internet broadcasting, visit www.whiteblox.com or call 281-210-5214.
“Lord, Save Us from Your Followers” takes a look into the contentious world of the Christian faith.
(NewsUSA) - Although nine out of ten Americans claim a belief in God, public expression of faith is more conflicting than ever.
Even as discussion of religion floods the media like never before, the rhetoric is divisive and hyper as the 2008 elections loom on the horizon. Fed up with the angry, strident language filling the airwaves that has come to represent the Christian faith; author, director, and follower Dan Merchant set out to explore the collision of faith and culture in America.
“To me, the division of America, this separateness, isn’t getting any of us anywhere,” writes Merchant. “And both sides are making the same mistake - they think the so-called ‘culture war’ is a winnable war. Some think, eventually, one side will win out over the other. I don’t see it that way. I’m concerned that calling it a Culture War presumes a few things, like if it’s a war, there is an enemy. This kind of adversarial posture serves to further entrench us in our own positions. The sad fact is our country is polarized because we like it. It’s much simpler to pretend the world is black and white. An ‘us vs. them’ attitude is simpler than critical self-reflection and allows us to blame the other.”
Merchant’s journey, which actually begins in famine-ravaged Ethiopia, opens a panoramic view of how God’s people are viewed by everyday Americans and the world-at-large. From the man-on-the-street blitz of “Bumpersticker Man” to the controversial and moving “Confession Booth” at Gay Pride Day, Lord, Save Us from Your Followers delves into all the hot-button issues with candor, humor and balance. With exclusive interviews with comedian/senatorial candidate Al Franken, former Sen. Rick Santorum, noted evangelical Tony Campolo, conservative radio host Michael Reagan and others, no stone is left unturned in this engaging, unpredictable and challenging look at the conflict over religion in America.
Dan Merchant is an award-winning television writer/producer, novelist and frequent church attendee. Merchant has been happily married for 20 years and is the father of two teenage boys.
For more information, visit www.lordsaveusthemovie.com.
New church movements are causing the flight of many established clergy and long-standing members.
(NewsUSA) - Over the years, the atmosphere of the church has migrated from a quiet place of worship to that of music and praise.
However, millions of people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies feel their churches have been hijacked by these church-growth movements characterized by loud praise bands, constant PowerPoint presentations and cavernous mega-churches devoid of any personal touches. They are bewildered by the changes and are dropping out after thirty, forty or fifty years in a congregation. Some consider it a crisis.
According to the Barna Group, a company who seeks to use their strengths in partnership with Christian ministries and individuals to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States, the church as we know it will be gone in 20 years.
A new book called Who Stole My Church? gives pastors and church members hope that they can overcome the obstacles and accept change in the growing church.
In this fictional story, pastor and author Gordon MacDonald uses topical examples and all-too-familiar characters to reassure readers that it is possible to embrace change and to demonstrate how change can actually be a positive influence in their church.
“There are many books on church change. Usually written from the standpoint and the instruction of the change agent, the leader who has the responsibility to bring about something new,” writes MacDonald. “In this book, however, I decided to deal with the subject from the perspective of some of the people who are powerfully affected by change -; the dear people in the pew who have to live with and even support the new ways.”
While he understands the frustrations that come with change, MacDonald believes that finding a way to move gracefully into the twenty-first century is necessary for the church to survive. “Any church that has not turned its face toward the younger generation will simply cease to exist,” he says. “We’re not talking decades - we’re talking just a few years.”
Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor and author for more than forty years. He serves as editor-at-large for Leadership Journal and as a former chairman of World Relief. His most recent books include: The Life God Blesses, Renewing Your Spiritual Passion, Rebuilding Your Broken World, the best-seller Ordering Your Private World and When Men Think Private Thoughts.
For more information, visit www.thomasnelson.com.
The Rev. Sally Bingham is the godmother of the environmental movement in the religious community.Back in the 1990s, when religiously based environmentalists were still viewed as nature worshippers, she founded Episcopal Power & Light. Now called Interfaith Power & Light, the nonprofit organization has 27 chapters across the United States, including North Carolina. The mission of the organization is to mobilize a religious response to global warming through the promotion of renewable energy and conservation.
Bingham, the president of Interfaith Power & Light and the environmental minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, met with 20 religious leaders at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh last week. She said religious communities have made remarkable strides in addressing the intersection of faith and global climate change, and she encouraged them not to give up.
“You clergy need to talk about it,” she said. “I think it should be in every single sermon.”
We caught up with her on the occasion of Earth Day on Tuesday to ask her about the progress religious people have made on the issue.
Q: How are churches becoming more active in environmental issues?
A: Environmental issues were once political issues. They didn’t belong in the church. Now it’s integral to mainstream religions in ways unimaginable five years ago. … We’re seeing changes in the liturgy to reflect care for creation. That’s huge because in the Episcopal Church there’s a deep tradition that resists change.
I am seeing clergy take this responsibility seriously enough to actually say that care for creation belongs with love, justice and peace. You hear the term “JPIC,” or justice, peace and integrity of creation. It’s putting care for creation on parallel with love, justice and peace … We have a green mosque in Washington, D.C. We have hundreds of Protestant churches with solar panels on the roof. We have two large cathedrals with geothermal systems — in Boston and in Cleveland, Ohio. The Catholic Cathedral in Los Angeles in solar.
Q: How has Interfaith Power & Light changed?
A: We now have an office in San Francisco and a staff of seven. We coordinate this national campaign. That means we help the state programs get started … One of the important things we do is make sure the Interfaith Power & Light campaign doesn’t get sidetracked. We don’t want to be viewed as the Sierra Club at prayer. We’re not political. We’re not Republicans or Democrats. Our message is rooted in theology. It’s different from an environmental organization. We want to be seen as conservative people coming from a theological perspective. We don’t love trees more than people.
Q: What is the spiritual message you offer?
A: I see it as part of the commandment to love God and love your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, you don’t pollute your neighbor’s air. We are called to serve one another. If you see that your behavior is harming your neighbor and your neighborhood, other species, flora and fauna, or the next generation, it’s a direct disobedience to the commandment. Jesus said what you do to the least of these you do to me. If vulnerable and poor communities are harmed by our behavior, we’re insulting God.
Read More:News & Observer
For the 22nd year, more than a hundred people gathered in downtown Raleigh on Good Friday to re-enact Jesus’ last steps, marching with crosses and calling attention to social justice issues. This year’s Pilgrimage for Justice and Peace focused on immigration, but as in past years, marchers also called for an end to torture, the death penalty and the war in Iraq. Several Franciscan friars and retired Roman Catholic Bishop F. Joseph Gossman were among the marchers.It was Good Friday, the day Christians believe Jesus died on the cross. In keeping with tradition, the marchers re-enacted the 14 Stations of The Cross, the 14 stops Jesus made as he carried his cross to the site where he was crucified by the Romans. At each stop between the Capitol and the U.S. post office on Fayetteville Street, marchers recited a litany of prayers in English and Spanish. As they walked, those in the crowd sang, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” and “We are marching in the light of God.”
Read More:News & Observer
Unforgettable. That is how members of St. Paul’s Christian Church in Raleigh describe the late Patricia Olejar, a talented and tireless volunteer for the church.The church’s new cookbook, “The Art of Cooking,” is dedicated to her. With friend Judy Caves, Olejar prepared and auctioned gourmet dinners to raise money for the church. The cookbook contains some of the menus and recipes from those special occasions.
As the cookbook tribute describes her, “In her home she created a signature style of warm hospitality and delicious food, served with just the right mix of elegance, originality and always a dash of humor. In her church and volunteer organizations, Pat was a leader who set high standards to challenge and inspire the group.”
“The Art of Cooking,” the church’s third cookbook has a spiral binding and 188 pages. It is filled with popular and appealing dishes, including recipes for Eastern Carolina Barbecue by Katherine Olejar Reitz, State Fair (Apple) Cobbler by Mae Peche, Martha Washington Candy from Katherine Kelly, Eggless Milkless Butterless Cake by Ada Sanders, Vegetarian Chili by Alex Evans and She Crab Soup from the Francis Marion Hotel in Charleston.
“The Art of Cooking” is available from St. Paul’s Christian Church, 3331 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh, NC 27612 or call 787-1278. The cost is $15 per book plus $3 per copy for shipping. Proceeds will be used to establish a daylily garden at the church, a dream of Pat Olejar’s
Read More:News & Observer
A woman draws on an ancient civilization’s rituals to learn healing
Victoria Johnson doesn’t tell strangers she practices shamanism.
She prefers to call it “healing work.” If someone probes further, she’ll offer more details, but telling people she’s a shaman invariably conjures up an image of a witch doctor, a wizard or a sorcerer.
Johnson, who will be speaking on the Shaman’s Way of Healing at the Unity Center of Peace Church in Chapel Hill on Saturday, said she is none of the above.
A former FBI agent and later a federal prosecutor, Johnson embraced shamanism slowly, and for the most common of reasons.
Juggling both her job and her responsibilities as a mother, she increasingly felt stressed out physically and emotionally. For a while, the one thing that relaxed her was acupuncture. So she abandoned her law career and went to study the traditional Chinese healing method.
But all along, she believed there was a way to heal the body without using needles. After moving from Florida back to North Carolina in 2001 — she had grown up here and vacationed in the mountains for years with her husband — she came across a book that changed her life. That book, by Alberto Villoldo, was “Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas.”
“I read that book and I knew [Villoldo] was my next teacher,” said Johnson, who lives in Brevard, south of Asheville. For the past few years, Johnson, 52, has been studying the medicine wheel and the healing practices of the Q’ero people of Peru. She now works as a shaman practitioner and as a teacher for Villoldo’s training organization called The Four Winds (www.thefourwinds.com) based in Park City, Utah.
Johnson said shamanism has helped her answer the big questions of life: Why she’s here and what she wants to be. For her, the answer is helping support others on their healing journey. She does so through a series of techniques, including visualization and work with stones, that help reorient a person’s energy toward balance and wholeness.
The cycle of life
A shaman is a person who journeys into an altered state of consciousness to acquire power for healing illness, whether physical or psychological. Getting there may involve the ritual use of hallucinogenic plants, a drum, a rattle or a dance. Other shamans use stones or bones or animal skin. The goal is to interact with the spirit world on behalf of a community or a client.
The word “shaman” comes from the Tungus language of Siberia and refers to a person who makes a journey into an altered state. Shamans are indigenous to many cultures, on every continent. But Johnson learned her brand of shamanism from the South American Incas, the ancient civilization in the Andes Mountains of what is now Peru.
At the heart of her method is the concept of a medicine wheel, a circle representing the cycle of life. Divided in four, it represents the four directions, each with its own spirit or energy field. By traveling south and west, for example, a person releases wounds and traumas from the past and begins to walk in a different path. The north and west directions stoke visions that can help people achieve their destinies.
Today’s shamanic practices are mostly used for therapeutic and personal development. In that sense they differ from the ancient rites of indigenous shamans, said Michael Winkelman, a professor at Arizona State University who has studied shamanism.
In hunter-gatherer societies, he said, shamans were as concerned with harm as they were with healing, directing their spiritual powers in positive as well as negative ways. Shamanic rites were communal events that might last all night long. Shamans themselves were charismatic leaders who directed the movement of hunting and warfare.
Read More:News & Observer
PHILADELPHIA - The globe-trotting priest from Connecticut drove a Jaguar, shopped at Bergdorf Goodman and bought jewelry from Cartier, all with money stolen from his church’s coffers. By the time the parish finance council caught on, he had embezzled $1.3 million.THE PROBLEM: Many U.S. churches have been victims of embezzlement over the years, reflecting not just moral weakness on the part of the wrongdoers but also lax financial controls. Often, church budgets are overseen by volunteers or employees with little guidance or training.
SOME EXAMPLES: Last year, The Associated Press found reports of more than 20 churches in 17 states dealing with embezzlement cases.
The cases included those of a Roman Catholic priest in Virginia who admitted stealing at least $400,000 from his parishioners and a Lutheran youth minister in Pennsylvania charged with embezzling more than $68,000
Read More:News & Observer
3,200 worshippers flock to the facility
CLAYTON - A blue flashing police light and traffic control greeted hundreds of drivers Sunday morning as they headed to the grand opening of the new 2,000-seat worship center at Cleveland Community Church, one of the Triangle’s fastest growing churches.
Drawn by radio and television advertising and the pastor’s upbeat message, worshippers filed into an auditorium-size hall with a soaring ceiling. On the stage that doubled as pulpit, a 12-member band with the pastor’s wife as a lead singer played Christian rock loud enough to require ear protection in the front row. Facing the congregation, six video screens reflected larger-than-life images of the musicians.
“I’m so pumped you’re here today,” Matt Fry, the pastor who founded and built Cleveland Community Church, told the last of the two grand-opening services which were attended by an estimated 3,200 worshippers.
In his sermon, he admitted the church, better known as C3, is unlike other Johnston County churches.
C3’s new facility first took shape in an airport on a paper napkin. It measures 85,000 square feet, which is larger than a large grocery store, but like some Triangle Harris Teeters it will feature a Starbucks coffee shop and bookstore once construction is completed. He told Sunday’s congregation that their building compared to Noah building the ark. He told different versions of the story, which included scenes from the Hollywood movie “Evan Almighty” on the video screens.
“This is a day we’ve been dreaming about for years,” Fry said in an interview after the service.
C3 began 10 years ago in an old lunch room at Cleveland Elementary School. Located in one of the fastest growing communities in the Triangle, attendance at the church services doubled every two years.
Now, C3 draws worshippers from as far away as North Raleigh and Goldsboro.
Christopher Lee of Willow Spring checked out C3 for the first time Sunday. He had watched the new facility go up.
“It doesn’t look like a church,” Lee said.
Curiosity also drew Pam and Maurice Rozier of Clayton. Unlike Lee, the couple have been looking to join a new church.
Read More:News & Observer
