Congregation

Starting a new church is not always easy, and when its congregation has to meet in a room above a liquor store, the job is even tougher. "A lot of people say, 'Let us know when you build a church, then we'll join.' An actual church building makes a difference," said Georgine (Jean) Abbott, a member of the Thorndale Baptist Church, which is above Joe Burns Beverages on Route 322 in Guthriesville. Church members moved a little closer toward making that difference this month when they began to pour the concrete for a church at Kings Highway and Reeceville Road.

Yesterday's service at Calvary United Methodist Church opened with a simple declaration: "It's a beautiful day in West Philadelphia. " It was outside, to be sure. And for the 50 people inside the church at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, it was quite a day there, as well. They prayed and sang, as other congregations do, but some members and many more guests also spoke openly about the private pain, the awful secrets, that come with being gay - and Christian - in America. At Calvary and several dozen other Methodist churches around the nation, yesterday was "Reconciling Congregations Sunday.

On Palm Sunday in 1980, the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale planted the idea for a new church. Speaking at the George School in Bucks County, Mr. Peale encouraged followers of the Reformed Church in America, a Protestant sect with headquarters in New York, to start their own congregation and build a church in Newtown. Today that church is reality. This week, the young pastor, the Rev. Robert J. Jones, described the nine years of planning and fund-raising involved in building the church.

Evangelism Today Christian Center in Camden will hold a prison-ministry conference from July 25 to 29. The congregation will sponsor the event with Antioch Baptist Church and Mount Calvary Baptist Church, also in Camden. For more than a decade, volunteers from the three churches have ministered inside and outside prisons to inmates, former inmates and their families. People interested in becoming volunteers are invited to three free training sessions, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 25 to 27, at Evangelism Today.

Nearly three years after a deliberately set fire gutted the historic Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church on Route 73 in Voorhees Township, its small but dedicated congregation has begun to make repairs to the white-frame building, and hopes to resume Sunday services next spring. "We've all been anxious to get back into the church," said Robert Leatherberry, a member of the congregation, which originated in the early 1800s. "We've run into a few stumbling blocks, mainly with financing.

Fifth grader Drew Harris lit the first candle of the menorah and said to the congregation, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. " Ten-year-old Ari Wald lit the second candle. He spoke of the right to bear arms. One by one, four fifth graders followed, each lighting a candle and reciting a sentence about freedom. When they finished Friday night, six candles burned, one for each day of Hanukah that had passed, and for each of six liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

It is the largest African American church in Chester County. Its membership has more than doubled in the last three years and, come Christmas, it will have a large, handsome new home. "The reason we have grown and the reason we continue to grow is that, in our church, we believe that every member can be a minister," said the Rev. Robert Scott Jones, senior pastor of St. Paul's Baptist Church. "Too often, our churches become spectator arenas," he said. "I have called upon every member to be a minister, to reach out to family and friends and neighbors.

The fire that scorched a century-old church on River Road last weekend - now home to La Familia congregation - did nothing to dim the faith of members. The Spanish-speaking congregation, which bought the church two years ago, was in the process of selling the building and purchasing a larger space. The fire apparently was caused by a short circuit in the basement. "We believe that everything happens for a reason," said Ivan Castro, La Familia's treasurer. "It looks like a tragedy for everybody, but God is working through this.

The Rev. John Green Jr. likened his congregation's journey from its old church to a new, bigger sanctuary to the biblical account of the Jews wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before they were allowed into the Promised Land. "In each case, the Lord wanted us to learn about what faith is all about," Green said of his 172-member Christ Baptist Church on Church Lane near Old York Road in West Oak Lane. But it took his once-divided members five years to learn a lesson of faith that allowed them to move their worship services out of the cramped quarters of a two-story Victorian structure next door to a newly renovated sanctuary that was once an auto-repair shop.

Ceremonial fanfare and the thundering voices of a choir echoed in a hallway of the Trinity Episcopal Church of Ambler before Bishop Allen Bartlett Jr. declared, "Let the doors be opened!" Just 3 1/2 years ago, members of this same congregation walked through ashes and debris, searching for a few holy vessels that could be salvaged from the fire that had demolished their 88-year-old house of worship. Now it is a time for celebrating, as the construction of their new church nears completion.