Integral to the Christian observance of Lent, as well as being a student at Immaculata Catholic School, is serving others. For the past five years, students at the pre-K-8 school have raised money for students in Haiti to go to school. This year, they completed their Lenten fundraising within the first week of the liturgical season leading up to Easter.
Pauli Murray’s story is the quintessential American story, the Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, told a crowded room Tuesday night at the Durham County Library downtown.
Mount Level Missionary Baptist Church will hold its annual Women’s Day services March 16 and March 17. The theme is “Women of God: Ministering through Sacrifice, Evangelism and Praise - Proverbs 31:10, 20, 30.”
HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects the African American community, and local churches are addressing the issue in Durham. Predominantly African American churches will observe the National Week of Prayer for the Healing of HIV/AIDS next week with several events.
Hillsborough Presbyterian Church will observe the World Day of Prayer noon-1 p.m. Friday at the church, 102 W. Tryon St. A complimentary lunch will follow the service.
About 500 people attended the Faith Summit on Child Poverty last month in Durham, and some churches are already tackling the topic during Lent. Pilgrim United Church of Christ launched its Lenten series, “Poverty in Durham: A Faith Perspective” Tuesday night, and it will continue the next three Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. at the church, 3011 Academy Dr.
A Northern Durham church is spreading the love on Valentine’s Day through cookies. For the second year, Edgewood Baptist Church on Infinity Road will give away a dozen cookies to each passer-by between noon and 2 p.m. today, until they run out.
Rabbi Steve Sager, who spent 32 years leading Beth El Synagogue in Durham, is also part of the Beth El Burial Society. Jewish burial societies are those tasked with caring for bodies of the deceased from death to burial. That means preparing the body by cleaning it and dressing it in burial garments, keeping watch over the body and escorting it to the final resting place. More than tending to the body, it is also about helping the family who is living with loss, Sager said, like preparing food and the home prayer service during the first week of official mourning.
There’s a new church in Durham. Not in a new building, but in the momentum built by its pastor and coming to fruition on Sunday with its first service as Grace Park Church at C.C. Spaulding Elementary School. It’s been in the works for two years, but the Rev. Dante Randolph’s journey to preacher has been a longer and rougher road traveled.
After more than 33 years at the pulpit of First Presbyterian Church – a position that ministered to those in the pews and throughout the city – the Rev. Joe Harvard is retiring. Harvard, 72, announced his retirement to his congregation on Sunday, and sent out a letter to them as well. His last Sunday will be May 5.
In the wake of the death of her 4-year-old son Daniel in 1997, Alice Wisler formed a grief organization to help other parents. Also an author of several fiction books, Wisler’s latest is a devotional. “Getting Out of Bed in the Morning: Reflections of Comfort in Heartache” (Leafwood Publishers, softcover, $13.99) is a collection of 40 devotionals for those dealing with various kinds of losses in their lives.
