Faith

One in a continuing series spotlighting the real estate market in this region's communities. Matt Schultz leads a visitor to open space in front of the Lansdowne Theater's orchestra pit. "Say something," he urges. The utterance made in reply echoes off the ornate ceilings and walls of the theater - built in 1927, before talkies, and shuttered 60 years later. "Acoustics," says Schultz, executive director of the Historic Lansdowne Theater Corp., a nonprofit that bought the movie house in 2007 and is raising $8 million - $2.5 million to $3 million more is needed - for restoration.

Heeding God's Call, a faith-based movement against gun violence, has installed a strong visual memorial along Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill - a field of 331 crosses on the front lawn of a Presbyterian church, each holding a T-shirt with the name, age, and date when one of Philadelphia's murder victims was killed in 2012. "Philadelphia - highest major- city gun death rate," reads a sign facing drivers on the neighborhood's main thoroughfare. "Where are you, Mayor Nutter?" About 60 volunteers from three area churches built the memorial Saturday, fashioning small crosses from PVC piping, using markers to inscribe a name on each shirt, and lining up the crosses in front of the church.

A special election Tuesday should finally determine whether the Haddonfield school board will spend $12.5 million to buy the Bancroft property on the borough's boundary with Cherry Hill. Conversations I've had around town, as well as arguments percolating in local papers and online, suggest undecided voters are few. Because a yes vote will raise taxes - $189 on a house assessed at the borough average of $491,345 - I wouldn't be surprised if the bond referendum were rejected. Another reason: Haddonfield is asking residents to take a leap of faith on a vague, expensive plan at a time of little confidence in the motives or abilities of government.

WHILE THE hulking figure did some light running and shooting at one end of the court after the 76ers had finished their practice Thursday, coach Doug Collins couldn't help but make his way down to observe and offer some words. Though he has been reluctant to talk or speculate about a possible debut of Andrew Bynum in order to concentrate on healthy players, Collins did open up a little about the team's prized summer acquisition. With a sweat-drenched shirt on his back and a brace on his right knee, Bynum took some short, lefthanded jump-hooks from both sides of the basket, then took a series of 15-footers after backpedaling, stopping and jogging forward to receive passes from assistant coach Jeff Capel.

Her blouse open to reveal a skimpy bra, Megan Fox strikes a dangerously hot pose on the cover of Esquire. Yet inside the talk is of God. And glossolalia. "It feels like a lot of energy coming through the top of your head," Fox, 26, says of her experiences speaking in tongues. It began when she was 8. "Your whole body is filled with this electric current," she says. "Words are coming out of your mouth, and you can't control it. The idea is that it's a language that only God understands.

Claude Giroux was more than a little concerned when Scott Hartnell suggested they finish off their first day on ice together in months by taking in a Sixers game. Giroux knew how annoyed he was about the NHL lockout, how it denied what he sees as his destiny in life. "I was born to play hockey," he was saying at his locker the other day. "And I couldn't do that, at least in the NHL. It was a pretty tough couple of months. " He also knew that if it bothered him that much, it bothered fans, too. He was one of them the last time the NHL locked out its players in 2004-05, and while he doesn't remember much of the details, he remembered being a little ticked then, too. So as he took his courtside seat with Hartnell and Matt Read for Tuesday night's game between the Sixers and the Nets, he did so warily.

In August, Jody Johnson of Schwenksville traveled to Russia to meet Oksana, a 6-year-old orphan with Down syndrome whom Johnson believes she was meant to raise. The Air Force technical sergeant and single mother of three boys sat on the floor and played games with the little girl who was to become her first daughter. But on Friday, Johnson's plans to expand her family seemed in ruins after Russian President Vladimir V. Putin signed legislation banning the adoption of Russian children by American parents.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Religious leaders from different faiths gathered Friday on a windswept, snowy soccer field to mark two weeks since the Connecticut elementary school massacre and pray for healing. A few dozen residents joined representatives from Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, Congregational, Buddhist, Muslim, and other places of worship. "Your faith leaders want you to know that we continue to stand with you as we all continue to deal with this great tragedy that has befallen our beloved community of Newtown," said the Rev. Jack Tanner, of Newtown Christian Church.

Christmas is the only religious holiday officially recognized by the U.S. government. Federal employees get the day off, or are compensated extra for having to work. Does that make America a Christian nation? Not really. Sure, 78 percent of Americans describe themselves as Christians, but many don't attend church regularly or read a Bible. Then there's the nearly 5 percent of Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or another religion; the 4 percent who are atheist or agnostic; and the 12 percent described by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life as "nothing in particular.