Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 4

A-4 THE STATE JOLR.VAL Jan. 4, 1975 Religion Visiiing Speakers, Music Featured A concert will be given by the Evangel College Concert Choir, Springfield, Mo, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at First Assembly oj God Church, 1125 Weber. Bonnie Bishop, a graduate of Eastern High school and daughter of the Rev. Richard Bishop, pastor of the local church, and Mrs.

Bishop, is a member of the 34-voice choir. The group, directed by Dr. Calvin Johansson, is on a tour of several states and Canada. Top Stories of 7974 Far-Ranging Impact Seen In Ordaining of Women PERRY Miss Kristeen Harp, a graduate of Lansing Everett High School, and a junior in the Olivet Nazarene College Nursing Program, Kankakee, HU will speak at 7:45 p.m. Sunday at Perry Church of the Nazarene, 3100 Els worth.

Miss Harp spent this past summer as a Student Mission Corps volunteer in the Philippines. Students from other Nazarene colleges and a group of Filipino youths toured the Philippines presenting the Gospel in song and through teaching. Church Notes wmmmmm in 1 1, i 1 1 i smss-sm i i i WJU uwwwwwwww J. SSt y7 li I iftfTlfMmiiiiiiimniiffiMiiiinriiiiiiBiiiiriininnn Paul Herbert, nationally-known conser-vationalist, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church, 855 Grove, East Lansing, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Sunday on the topic, "Can Humanity Survive on This Earth?" Child care and Life Education classes for children are available during this time.

Basic principles of the Baha'i Faith and "how they provide the answers to the problems facing mankind the world over will be discussed at the fireside of the Baha'is of Lansing at 8 p.m. tonight at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Thomas, 4061 EATON RAPIDS The Rev. and Mrs.

Jerald Russell, Knoxville, new appointees as missionaries of the United Methodist Church to Bolivia, will speak at Sunday services at Eaton Rapids United Methodist Church, 600 S. Main. Mr. Russell will preach at both the 8:30 and 11 a.m. services, and the couple will speak in the children's, youth and adult classes of the 9:45 a.m.

Church School. At 12:30 p.m. members and friends will meet in the Pine Room for a potluck dinner with the Russells. Mr. Russell is associate pastor of a church in Knoxville, and for two years has directed the youth program at the Eaton Rapids Annual Camp Meeting.

which broke early in the year as the result of a popular movie on the subject, producing a flurry of alleged cases of demon-possession and theological debate about it. OTHER STORIES rated high, but without enough votes to be among the first five, included: Changes taking place among Protestant evangelicals, including the efforts of many of them to combine their traditional emphasis on personal piety with greater concern for applying the gospel to social issues. The role of religion in the textbook controversies at Charleston, W. and elsewhere. THE PERSISTENCE of the pentecostal-style charismatic renewal movement both among Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Actitivites of church leaders in sanctioning or fighting repressive regimes in such places as South Korea, the Philippines, Brazil, Chile and the Union of South Africa. The historic agreement reached by Lutheran and Roman Catholic theologians, declaring that papal primacy no longer need be a barrier to healing the rift occasioned by the 16th century Protestant Reformation. i THE ANXIETY spreading in the Jewish community as threats to Israel increase. The poll was taken by Roy Larson of the Chicago Sun-Times; James H. Bowman of the Chicago Daily News and James Robinson of the Chicago Tribune.

NEW YORK (AP) The precedent-breaking ordination of 1 1 women as Episcopal priests in defiance of church regulations is considered by the country's religion news reporters as the top religion story of 1974. The event, which still is having repercussions in the denomination as well as in other Protestant and Catholic churches, headed the list of newsmakers in an annual year-end poll of the Religion Newswriters Association. ITS MEMBERS, including specialists covering religion for newspapers, news magazines and wire services, ranked other religion stories of the year in this order: Second: The widening split among the 2.9 million members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synold between- so-called conservatives and moderates in a dispute over Biblical interpretation. The firing of the Rev. Dr.

John Ti tjen as president of the church's Concordia Seminary in St. Louis sent most of the faculty and students into a seminary-in-exile on nearby sister campuses, backed by a newly organized wing of the church. THIRD: THE impact on religious leaders and institutions of the Watergate scandals, causing many to rethink their relationships to government and to political parties. Fourth: The tooling up by religious institutions to fight world hunger, as facts about the crisis in food became more widely disseminated. Fifth: The "exorcist phenomenon.

Singers in Concert Here Robert Hale, left, leading bass-baritone with the New York City Opera Company, and Dean Wilder, head of the voice department of Westminister Choir College, Princeton, N.J., will appear in sacred concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at South Baptist Church, S. Washington at Moores River Drive. They will be accompained by pianist, organist and arranger Ovid Young. Wilder, a tenor, recently made his debut with the New York City Opera Company.

In addition to their individual performances in opera, oratorio, with symphony orchestras and recital, the three have toured together internationally since 1 966. A free will offering will be accepted at the concert. Rev. and Mrs. Andrew Basell The Rev.

Andrew Basell will speak at 7 p.m. Sunday at First Assembly of God Church, 1125 Weber. His wife, Eleanor, will provide vocal and instrumental music. Special prayer will be offered for the sick at the close of the service. Formerly of Lansing, Mrs.

Basell has pastored churches in Michigan and Ohio and has been evangelizing for 24 years. Mrs. Basell has been instrumental in organizing "Out-reach for Youth" in Columbus, where she also founded and pastored a church. "The Gospel Road," a religious film produced by Johnny Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, will be shown at 7 p.m. Sunday at Bretton Woods Covenant Church, 925 Bretton Woods.

Telling the story of Jesus Christ, the film is a blend of scripture-based narrative, songs and character portrayals. Papyrus Writings About Gnostics Compiled California Superchurch 'Merchandises' Religion 1 is clearly visible and an observant worker can line up a scrap with a larger section just by matching the grain patterns. "ANOTHER CLUE lies in the way the books were bound possibly the earliest example of modern leaf-binding. Groups of pages tended to rot or break away together, and Robinson's scholars pile up adjacent pages and look for similarly-shaped scraps missing from one page, but visible in another. The collection, which is being published in facsimile by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Egypt, contains 12 volumes of codices.

Each codex is made up of separate tractates with titles like "The Gospel of Thomas" and "The Gospel of the Egyptians." There are 47 tractates all together. The texts are written in Coptic, an offshoot of ancient Egyptian using Greek and some hieroglyph-type letters. the 4th century A.D., and only a small sect, called the Man-deans, in Iraq and occasional groups of intellectual Gnostics survive. But in the first through fourth centuries. Gnosticism was Christendom's major competitor, according to Robinson.

It drew long criticism from the epistle-writer Paul, and may have formed the intellectual climate that added unorthodox, spiritualistic elements to the Gospel of John and other New Testament books elements that have long puzzled religious scholars. THE GNOSTIC texts were found by villagers in the upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi 30 years ago, disappeared into the hands of antique dealers and finally, emerged under the control of the Egyptian overnment, ready for study, just four years ago. The journey from Nag Hammadi to the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo, where the the true believer. The Gnostics were spiritualists who had no use and no hope for the world they confronted. "They were the hippies of their day," according to James Robinson, a California theologian and leading Gnostic expert.

Robinson is putting together more than 1,100 pages of Gnostic writing, an entire library which the monks, possibly afraid the texts would be burned as heretical, buried in a cemetery centuries ago. THE TEXTS, probably written first in Greek and then copied in Coptic here, are a rich lode for modern theologians, possibly even more important than the discovery and study of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Robinson. "The study of the New Testament will never be the same," enthused one of Robinson's assistants, Bentley Layton of Harvard. The Gnostics were rooted out of orthodox Christianity by the end of texts are kept, may have nattered the ancient papyrus texts almost as badly as their centuries in the earthen jar underground. Many of the papyri are in surprisingly good shape, and have been translated.

But about ten per cent of the pages are missing and many others exist only in fragmentary form, so torn that the text is unreadable. WITH THE help of his wife, two of his graduate students from Claremont Graduate School in California, and other scholars, Robinson is piecing back together much of the Gnostic library's shattered papyri. With magnifying glasses strapped to their brows, tweezers and patience, they look for missing fragments of papyri from a large collection of unattached pieces, the smallest of them containing only a part of a single letter. Luckily, papyrus carries its own fingerprinting system. The grain of the reed strips By DAVID MJCHELMORE CAIRO (AP) Christian monks who looked out from their desert caves 18 centuries ago saw a black and bitter world: centuries of foreign occupation had bled Egypt dry, tax levies were huge, Roman soldiers were garrisoned nearby, and the monks' patriarch in far off Alexandria treated them with contempt.

Inside the caves, the monks imbibed a new escapist religion, called Gnosticism, that was partly Greek, partly Christian and partly Judaic, and that promised them a better world. THE THEOLOGY repudiated the Old Testament God as a fraud and a charlatan and blamed him for the world's awful state. It spun out a new system of deities with a kind of super-God at the head, made the serpent in the Garden of Eden a good guy, described Noah as a lackey of the evil God and promised otherworldy redemption for manized in a noncaring society. It's a time for healing for encouragement and reassurance." CONCENTRATING ON that vein in his services, and leaving specific Bible teaching to supplementary adult classes, he has built up a congregation of more than 6,000, a staff of nine clergymen, 1,200 trained lay workers and a television audience of millions. Most of the swelling congregation has come from among "those who had been turned off to religion and previously had no religious association at all," he said, adding that just as in business, it takes a large, diversified operation to meet the varied needs in resources, program and counselling.

"Churches also need to believe in the positive to win the nonreligous to a meaningful faith," he said. NEW YORK (AP) It's a big. diversified operation, with output geared to demand. It's in a pleasant setting with easy accessibility, ample parking, obliging staff and a huge patronage. What is it? A shopping center? A supermarket? No, it's a church.

"We're in the business of retailing religion, and effective business principles should be applied in doing it," says the Rev. Dr. Robert H. Schuller, founder and senior pastor of the Garden Grove, Community church. IT'S A combination sit-in, drive-in superchurch, whose success has sparked more than 50 drive-in churches across the country, and whose ballooning growth has been keyed by Dr.

Schuller to satisfying the clientele. "In a voluntary society like ours, people will ignore you if you don't give them what they want and need," he said 1 Rev. Dr. Schuller in an interview. Offering his own version of supplying to suit the market, he added: "Find a hurt and heal it." "People today are looking for greater confidence and self-esteem in a time of emotional and spiritual hurt," he said.

"They feel disenfranchised, alienated and dehu- 9C CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP CENTER Full Gospel fVv Rodney L. Wrg. Pastor The Lansing Area AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES extend a Cordial Welcome! IVTEH-CITY UIISLK III ItC II 521 1 W. St Joseph 1 Mile West of Waverly Road 9:45 A.M. Suirdoy libit School 1 1 A.M.

Morning Worship 7:00 P.M. Ivening Worship Wednesday 7:30 P.M. Prayer Bible Study Ministers. Richard S. Burgess and PhilTowler ST.

MATTHEW A.M.E. CHURCH 522 W. Maple St. Rev. RosaLee Porter 9 45 A.M.

Sunday School 11 A.M. Morning Worship 7 P.M. Evening Evr-ngelic Service Church Conference Mon. 7:00 P.M. Youth Service Thurs 6 30 ufNiv Hindi 1 1 Hear the 34-voice EVANGEL COLLEGE CONCERT CHOIR of Springfield, Missouri 7:30 P.M.

Thursday, January 9 1st Assembly of God 1125 Weber 1 block N. of E. Grand River at 0 owner EVANGELISTS Andrew Eleanor Basell 7:00 P.tVI. Sunday, January 5 Richard W. Bishop.

Pastor "4608 S. Haeadorn. E. Lans. John D.

Walden Ph. 351-4144 Church of FROPHECY REVELATION YWCA Sundays 7:30 P.M. Rev. Maude Fitzgerald. Pastor Rev.

Bill Harvie. Assoc. Pastor Healing Service James Van Hon "SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD'' Matthew 6:33 Sunday Worship 11 A.M. 7 P.M. Sunday School.

10:00 A M. Women's Bible Study 9:30 A.M. Tuesday Men's Bible Study 7:30 P.M. Tuesday Midweek Wednesday 7:00 P.M. Worship 10:00 A.M.

Sunday School 11:15 A. M. -fc TOWARHART Faith Wesleyan Church N. Magnolia at E. Michigan Lansing Rev.

Yorton Clark. Pastor David Henry. Assistant Pastor 9 45 AM CHURCH SCHOOL 11AM "GOD IS FOR US" 7 PM. "THE CROWNING GRACE" Nursery At All Services Mid-Week Wednesday 7:30 P.M Tnwpr Ave E. Lansine FIRST Capitol at Ionia William H.

Underwood Sunday School 9:30 A.M. Worship 10:50 A.M. Evening Service 6:00 P.M. Bethel 810 Edgemont Blvd. (Near Waverly Saginaw.

Pastor. Donald E. Glasgow Worship 10:30 A.M. Church School 11:30 A.M. JUDSON 530 Vernon at Cedar Charles A.

Jones Sundav School 9:45 A.M. Worship 11:00 A.M. Mid-Week (Wed.) 7 P.M. Veder Bass Sunday School 9:45 A.M. Worship Service 10:50 A.M.

Sun. Eve. Young People 6 P.M. Eve. Service 7 P.M.

Wed. Altar Prayer 10 A.M. Prayer Meeting 7:30 P.M. Lansing Area UNITED METHODIST CHURCHES Sponsored bv United Methodist Union Builders of Aquarius Rev. C.

M. Jewell. Minister 10:30 AJN. WAVERLY CHAPEL Rev. Jewell speaking 130 P.M.

RETREAT CHAPEl (Sunfield, Mich.) Mrs. Francis Harris speaking A Christian Healing Ministry 950 N. Michigan Rd. Eaton Rapids 663-3535 M-99 at Columbia Rd. KIMBERLY CHURCH of CHRIST 1 DOWNS 1007 Kimberly Lansing fn.

o3uu. Ji-o a Lindsey Patterson. Minister 4 EVANGELISTIC MISSIONARY OLIVET 2215 E. Michigan, Lans. William R.

Hartman Sundav School 9:45 A.M. Church Hour 11:00 A.M. Dial-A-Meditation You Are Cordially Invited To Attend The Bible Study 10 a.m. Worship Services 11 a.m. 6:00 p.m.

WrilwiilJi 7 30 BiBLC CI ASS (. Enroll for Free Itiblo Com-spnnrlrnrf ('tmrsf 484-7508 baptist church 13527 OAK BATH SUNDAY SCHOOL MORNING SUNDAY EVENING WEDNESDAY 10 A.M. 11 A.M. 7:30 P.M. 7:30 P.M.

of tie NAZARENE Welcomes You! CENTRAL FREE METHODIST CHURCH 828 N. Washington Ave. LEON T. BOVEE, Pastor 9:45 a.m. SUNDAY SCHOOL 11:00 a.m.

MORNING WORSHIP 6:00 p.m. FAMILY GOSPEL HOUR Wednesday 7:00 p.m. Family Night listen to tha "Light Life Hour" 8:30 a.m. Sundays WILS Lall Jii-i--ii-I ftlORTH WEST DELTA MILLS Delta River Drive Pastor: David Morton i.TX. FIRST Waverly Delta River Dr.

Pastor: John Sorenson tO. 00 REDEEMER Bridge St. DeWitt Pastor: Richard L. Clark 9. 30 4.W.

SOUTH WEST GRACE 1900 Boston Blvd. Pastor: C.W. Hutchens W6 9.30 st.lK. TRINITY Corner St. Joe Canal Pastor: Gerald Bates Sundav Worshio 1 1 :00 A.M.

Church School 9:45 A.M Youth Fellowship 6:00 P.M. FAITH 4301 S. Waverly Rd. Pastor: Richard Johns fO.OO HEAR! "BIBLE HEADLINES" WJIM 1240 on dial SUNDAYS 9:05 A.M. INDEPENDENT ZION Richard G.

Cole Pastor FUNDAMENTAL Miller Road Bible Church' FIRST CHURCH 310 tm wood Drive Carrel I. Luther, Peeler 9:00 a.m. Class Sessions 9 SO m. Hour of Gladness 11:15 a m. Class Sessions 6 p.m.

Good News Hour Wednesday 7:00 p.m. femily Affair (Weekday Child Care Facilities) W. Miller Rd. off S. Cedar DR.

JAMES C. DOTSON. Pastor NORTH EAST ASBURY 2200 Lake Lansing Rd. Pastor: John Myette "WvuUi: fO.OO AW. CHAPEL HILL Haslett Area, just off M-78 at Marsh Coleman Rds.

Pastor: Paul Scheibner WoxdUfi: rr.oo a w. GUNNISONVILLE Wood Clark Rds. Pastor: Paul Scheibner 9.30 SOUTH EAST CALVARY 1919 S. Pennsylvania Pastor: H. James BirrJsall tr-oo j4.VC.

CHRIST 517 W- Jolly Rd. Pastor: D. L. Crawford Scoc. TVoJUa 9:30 tt ClieA StUl 9.S0 It.OO A.

IK- MT. HOPE 501 E. Mt. Hope Pastor: D. H.

Merrill KvttAl: tO .00 t.Ut. Sdv Seturr. t5 POTTER PARK Dakin Gray Sts. Pastor: Peter Kunnen TVo-xiAcfi: ft. 00 t.TK.

UNIVERSITY 1 120 S. Harrison. E.L. Pastor: Donn Doten HOLMES RD. CHURCH of CHRIST 3021 Turner Willis E.

Weaver. Pastor Sunday School 10 00 A M. Worship Service 11 00 A M. Youth Meetings 6:15 P.M. Evangelistic Hour 7.00 P.M.

Wed. Mid-Week 7:30 P.M. PLEASANT GROVE 4701 Pleasent Grove Rd. William R. McEkoy.

Patlor Sundav School 10:00 m. Church Servicea 11 a.m. a 7 m. Wed. Mid-Week Service 7:30 m.

Adult and N.Y.P.S. Mr. Douglas Keasal. Music Dir. 95 am.

Bl School for Al Ages Radio Broadcast WILS. 1320 1975 7:00 fi.Afc. (atmuHcaK Setutee Dr. James C. Dotson.

Pastor 321 E. Holmes ha. S. Cedar St.) Allen Killom. Minister 1 1 A.M.

"CARRY CM, BRETHREN" 6 PJN. "ARE YOU READY?" Sun. 10 A.M. Bible School d. 7:30 P.M.

Bible Studv NORTH STREET 927 E. North Street et High C. Kenneth Sparks. Pest or Sunday School a.m. Morning Worshio 1 1 00 a.m.

Evening Service 6:00 p.m. Wed. Mid-Week Service 7 p.m. SOUTH GRAND LECCE HOLT HeM Schoolcraft Streets Rev. Owen Underwood.

Pastor Sundey School 10:00 e.m. Worship Services 11 a.m. 1 Vouth Groups 6:00 p.m. OC Wed Mid-Week Prayer 7:00 P.M. 401 W.

Holmes Rd. (Neat to Everett Stadium) Rev. John M. Gardner. Pastor Sunday School 9:00 11:19 m.

Worehip Service 10:00 a.m. Vouth Fellowships 6:00 p.m. va nge kst ic our 7:00 p.m. Wed. Mid-Week Service 7 CHURCH of CHRIST 124 E.

Scott Grand Ledge Phone 627-6410 10 A.M. Bible School 11 A.M. and 6 P.M. Worship Wednesday 7:30 P.M. Bible Study CHURCH of CHRIST Capitol City Baptist Church and Schools S430 S.

Washington (3 blocks south ot Jolly) Erwin Robertson, Pastor 10 A.M. Sunday School 11 A.M. 7 P.M. Worship 8 Buses Call 882-1 310 for ride DIM0NDALE Creyts Rd. at 1-96 Pastor: Thomas Weber Worship: 10 0 A.M.

DOWNTOWN CENTRAL 215 N. Capitol Ave. Pastor: Howard Lvman 7vtAifi 95 rr. oo UNIVERSITY MSU KENDON DRIVE 711 Ktndon Dnv Lynford Smith, Pastor Sunday School 10:00 a.m. Morning Worship 1 1 00 a.m.

Good Ntws Tonight 6 00 p.m. Sponsoring Ksndon Child Car (Adjacent to Abbott Hall) 131 Bogue St. 11 A J. Worship 6 P.M. Devotional Classes Sunday 10 A.M.

Thurs. 7:30 P.M. For More Information Call 351-4950 f0.30 st.W. CENTRAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH GRAND LEDGE1 West Jefferson st 43 Geratd O. Lamg.

Pastor Sunday School 10:00 a.m. Morning Worship 1 1 :00 e.m. Vouth Groups 6: 1 5 p.m. Evsngekatic Service 7:00 p.m. Wed.

Mid-Week Service 7:00 p.m'. MASON FIRST Steele and Maple Sts. Rev. Orville Maish. Pastor Sunday School.

10 OO a.m. Morning Worship 11 OO a m. Youth Meetings 6 00 p.m. Evangelistic Service 7 AO p.m. Wed.

Prayer Service 7 p.m. Capitol Ave. at Ottawa St. (Across from State Capitol) Dr. Howard A.

tyman. Pastor Rev. Paul L. Hartman. Associate Pastor Sirmon at 9:45 11:00 A.M.

PERRY MICH. TRINITY UNITED METHODIST Sermon: A METHOD IN OUR MADNESS" CENTRAL 1390 Eureka (Block S. of Sparrow) Keith St. John, Pastor Sunday School 10 a.m. Church Services II 7 Vouth 6:15 p.m.

Wed. 7:30 Hour of Power CHURCH of CHRIST (3 Blocks E. of Water Tower) 337 E. First Street 10 A.M. Kble School 11 A.M.

and 6 P.M. Worship Wednesday 7:30 P.M. Bible Studv For More Information Call 625-3757 Sermon by Dr. Howard A. Lyman Qiurcfc School tor All Ago Groups (Nursery.

CnHdron. Youth Adult) CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN" I.