Church

They gathered in the shadow of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia's main Catholic church, in an amen chorus of support for nuns. "For Sister Marie Timothy, who assured me I didn't have an attitude problem and that I was a strong woman in the making," said a school nurse. "For Sister Evelyn, who put my feet on the path of demonstrating in Washington in 1972," said a baby boomer. "To Sister Mary Paul, for teaching us the mysteries of sex in middle school!"

Sacred Heart is a tightly knit Catholic parish in Swedesburg, a working-class town across the Schuylkill from Norristown. Ethnic roots run deep at the century-old church. It's the kind of place that still offers a monthly Mass in Polish, where parishioners linger on Sunday mornings to chat after the final hymn. That's when Bernard Gutkowski, president of the parish men's group, typically gets the question: What do you hear about Father Andy ? His reply rarely changes.

Members of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Moorestown peeked into the past - through the church building's cornerstone box. They got a blurry view - water had damaged some items. The box was opened at a service July 14, when the church kicked off the building's 100th-anniversary celebration. It will last 15 months - the time it took to raise the building, now 99.

St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church held a walk Wednesday as part of its 200th- anniversary celebration. John Gerding-Oresic (left), dressed as John Hannum, and Joe Carroll, dressed as Daniel Fitzpatrick, led the marchers from the Friends School to the church on West Gay Street. Hannum donated the land for the church, and Fitzpatrick was one of the original trustees.

The Philadelphia Tabernacle at 206 E. Wister St. reopened yesterday after being closed for renovations. The Haitian Interdenominational Choir of Brooklyn, N.Y., (left) celebrated the dedication ceremony in song. Below, Dickson Guillanme, the choir director, is silhouetted in the window of the church as he leads the singers.

Christ Temple A.M.E. Zion Church in Willingboro, which has had a troubled past, will hold rededication services Sunday to help it heal. Bishop Marshall Strickland, who oversees African Methodist Episcopal churches in New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania and New York, will officiate at the 11 a.m. service at the church, 2999 John F. Kennedy Way. Also officiating will be the church's pastor, the Rev. Louis Richardson. At 4 p.m., there will be a worship service and civic day to introduce the reconstructed church to the community.

TO LETTER-writer Anthony Frascino: Your comments, and those of others that feel as you do, really get under my skin. Are you Catholic? If so, why do you feel it is "necessary" for the church to change? If you are not Catholic, maybe you should take some time to learn about Catholicism. Catholicism is based on the teachings of Jesus, yet you are suggesting that we simply cast aside these beliefs in an effort to "adjust to the new global concerns. " And what, by the way, do you mean by "global concerns"?

Mine eyes have seen the horrors of the present income tax. With it freedom has eroded so I've given tax the ax. I would like to help all people so they, too, won't break their backs. Let justice be restored. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!. . . - Song from Liberty Ministries publications As an Eagles defensive end, Lem Burnham was plowing down bodies on the football field in late 1979 when he took a vow of poverty and became the chief minister in a church named the Life Enrichment Institute of America.

WHILE I FEEL that it is important for the Enon church to be involved in the community, their involvement should not pose a direct inconvenience to the residents where their establishment is located. As a resident of Mount Airy, I was appalled by the lack of consideration given to the community in terms of parking. I am not a member of Enon and chose to go to my own church on the Sunday that Bishop T.D. Jakes was there, only to return that evening to find that there was no parking within blocks of my home due to the all-day service.

St. Augustine's Church at Fourth and Pine is whole again. The city's fourth-oldest Catholic church lost its steeple in a 1992 storm. A newly constructed one assumed its place atop the church yesterday.

DEAR Black Preachers: I've been frustrated with you for years. No, not all of you. But enough to make this worth writing. For the past few decades, you've moved in the wrong direction. Too many of you have become puppets of power. Too many of you have allowed yourselves to become agents of grotesque capitalism. Instead of honoring the spirit of love, truth and justice, you've become increasingly obsessed with health and wealth. Far too many of you have churches that promote gospels of prosperity — the idea that our faith and spiritual well-being can be measured through the accumulation of material wealth — instead of ministries that respond to the spiritual, emotional and social needs of your members.

The sanctuary of the historic St. Peter's Church in Society Hill has been closed after several roof trusses were deemed at risk of collapse, the Rev. Ledlie Laughlin told congregants in an e-mail Wednesday. An architectural engineering firm concluded that the trusses "are sufficiently at risk of collapse that the sanctuary must be closed at once," Laughlin wrote. The firm said the sanctuary could be reopened in several months if the roof is stabilized. Replacing the roof could take two or three years.

The top lawyer for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Monday that key aides to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua lied when they told him they did not know what happened to a secret list of 35 priests suspected of sexually abusing children. "Everyone I spoke to said they didn't know where it was, and they didn't have a copy of it," Timothy Coyne testified Monday at the landmark conspiracy and clergy sex-abuse trial. He later added, "Somebody lied to me — or a lot of people lied to me. " The list included diagnosed pedophiles and priests who remained in active ministry despite admitting or being accused of abusing minors.

President Obama may have roiled the political and clerical waters with his personal endorsement of gay marriage last week, but for many parishioners Sunday, the president's message was greeted with a mixture of acceptance and relief. "If this is America and we are free, then who am I to say anything about that?" said Florida Saulsby, who stopped outside for a moment to chat before the morning service at Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia. "I've always said: To each his own," said Frances Graham, also heading into the church at 12th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue on a sun-splashed Mother's Day. "I don't feel I can get into somebody else's life.

MARRIAGE IS A sacrament. A function of the church, not the state. Given all that we are up against today, the state should not perform "marriages" for anyone. Only religious institutions should do that. The state should offer civil unions for anyone. I'll explain the italics later. With President Obama's "evolution" returning gay marriage to Page One, I remain conflicted: emotionally in favor of it, but intellectually opposed. I strongly endorse civil unions, with the stipulation that persons in such a union have precisely the same rights as a married couple.

I have been a Catholic priest for years, and, like most people I know, I have been changed by my experiences over the years. Growing up Catholic in a small town in Louisiana, I and others did not ask why the black members of our church had to sit in the last five pews during Mass, or why our schools were segregated. Nor did we, needless to say, ask why women could not be priests. The military was my ticket out of Louisiana. I volunteered for duty in Vietnam, which became a turning point in my life.

About 200 people attended a quickly convened town-hall-style meeting at a church Sunday night to decry a Philadelphia School District plan that would close dozens of schools and shift thousands of students into charter schools. Under the plan, introduced last week, 40 of the district's 249 schools would close by next year, and 24 more would close by 2017. The central office would be dismantled in favor of "achievement networks" that would compete to run groups of 25 schools and would sign performance-based contracts.

MOSCOW - Tens of thousands prayed outside Moscow's main cathedral on Sunday to show their support for the Russian Orthodox Church in a controversy over a punk rock protest that has added to political tensions in Russia. Christ the Savior Cathedral was the scene of a brief surprise performance in February by a female punk rock group protesting Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency. Three members of the band Pussy Riot remain in police custody and face up to seven years in prison on charges of hooliganism.

A West Virginia judge has ordered a Catholic church official formerly from Philadelphia to testify at the clergy sex-abuse trial now under way in the city. The ruling late Thursday by Ohio County Circuit Judge Ronald E. Wilson ends a weeklong stalemate over testimony by Msgr. Kevin Michael Quirk. Philadelphia prosecutors want Quirk to testify about his questioning of the Rev. James J. Brennan during a 2008 canonical trial at which Quirk served one of three church judges.