SALEM — Students formerly attending the Roland E. Cook Alternative Education Center in Roanoke County have found a new home, academically speaking. On Oct. 8, Roanoke County Schools and HopeTree Family Services agreed to a five-year contract in which HopeTree…
20 cents for 20-somethings: Making sense of stewardship for young adults
You’ve finally graduated college! Now your most pressing reminder of those university days is the looming debt of student loans. But fast forward into the years just ahead. You need a car! But what can you afford? You’re getting married!…
Charles Ryland, former BGAV, president, dies
WARSAW, Va. — Charles Hill Ryland, a former president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia with deep roots in Virginia Baptist life, died Oct. 22 at age 95. Ryland, a longtime member of Warsaw Baptist Church, was BGAV president…
Did Huckabee rely too much on faith in commuting prisoners’ sentences?
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) — The Dec. 1 police shooting of suspected cop killer Maurice Clemmons has renewed allegations that, as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee paid more attention to preachers and professed jailhouse conversions than prosecutors and parole boards…
Historical resources to be available at Virginia Baptist annual meeting
RICHMOND — Two new resources of the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies will be available at the annual meeting of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. “The Swirling Center: Prospects for Diversity in the Church” is a three-disc DVD…
FAITH DIGEST
Appeals court upholds ban on religious songs. A federal appeals court in New Jersey has upheld a policy that allows secular holiday songs but prohibits religious Christmas carols in Maplewood-South Orange public schools. A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S….
4 inducted into Bluefield’s Sports Hall of Fame
BLUEFIELD — Four Bluefield College alumni received the school’s highest honor available for former athletes when they were inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 24. Bill Berry, Larry Slagle and Mark Vinson were included in the…
D.C. set to become 6th jurisdiction in U.S. with legal same-sex marriage
WASHINGTON (ABP) — The District of Columbia Council voted overwhelmingly — and despite vocal protests from a coalition of conservative evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington — to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital Dec. 15. Anthony…
National race track chaplaincy group to relocate to Kentucky
GEORGETOWN, Ky. (ABP) — A national chaplaincy group that ministers to the horse-racing community is moving from California to Kentucky at the beginning of 2010. Race Track Chaplaincy of America Executive Director Enrique Torres (center right) shakes hands with Georgetown…
CBF leader says ministry-exellence training can boost clergy’s image
ATLANTA (ABP) — A moderate Baptist leader says a recent poll showing public confidence in clergy at a three-decade low should be a wakeup call for the importance of maintaining excellence in ministry. "In a culture that qualifies success as…
HERITAGE: In the swamps of Southampton
Lights — flickering candles inside Mason jars — shone in the darkness in the backcountry of Southampton County. The luminaries let visitors know they had arrived at Hebron Baptist Church and helped guide footsteps to the front doors of the…
Baptist state convention budgets feeling effects of shaky economy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — Feeling the effects of a bad economy, several Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated state and regional conventions reduced budgets in annual meetings, held in recent weeks across the nation. The Baptist General Convention of Texas, which includes 4,500…