Tabernacle

Warren Johnson of Chatsworth and his 1-year-old daughter, Kayla, take in the midway of the Pine Barrens Festival at Holy Eucharist Church in Tabernacle. The attractions - including carnival rides, food and fireworks - will be in place through 11 p.m. tomorrow. (ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Inquirer Suburban Staff)

This Easter season, with its ancient message of rebirth, will see the return after 16 years of a stolen and desecrated tabernacle to the altar of St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The tabernacle, resting place of the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist, was reconsecrated yesterday by the pastor, the Rev. Marie Swayze. The reconsecration, held during the morning Mass, involved special prayers and the sprinkling of holy water. The circular tabernacle, 18 inches in diameter, has raised designs and the image of a chalice with a host suspended above it. "Many of those attending the Mass said later that they remembered it and remembered when the church had been broken into and vandalized," Mother Swayze said.

Since Tabernacle was incorporated in 1901, it has operated with a township committee form of government. But after 91 years, many residents say, both Tabernacle and its problems have grown bigger, enough so that it's time for a change. At the Aug. 17 committee meeting, the leaders of a drive to change the form of government handed committee members a petition seeking to replace the three-member committee with a mayor and council. "We expect to see this on the Nov. 3 ballot," said Thomas Verdecchio, a former member of the township's zoning board and one of the leaders of the drive.

The ailing and aging Pitman Grove Methodist tabernacle may be down, but it definitely is not out. The structural prognosis for the 120-year-old church appeared grim last week when borough officials were preparing to close the building because of the deteriorating roof with gaping holes that let in the rain and cold. But Councilman Walter Madison met again with an engineer at the building Tuesday and determined that the former Methodist campsite can be used for at least one more summer.

The Tabernacle Township school board Monday night approved the addition of a morning session to its child-care program, beginning in the fall. The new program is open to district students in all eight grades except those in the morning kindergarten. It will be open from 7 to 8:45 a.m. each school day in the district's primary school, according to Superintendent Kenneth Olson. So far, 18 have registered for the morning program, and 50 more are expected, according to Ruth Morse, who runs the child-care program.

Two Burlington County men have been jailed on burglary charges after an all-terrain vehicle they had stolen ran out of gas while they were trying to flee authorities, state police said. Raymond Dischert 2d, 19, of Pemberton Borough, and John Brandt, 24, of Browns Mills, were arrested early Thursday by Troopers John Smith and James Carnival of the Red Lion Station. The two are being held in the Burlington County Jail on $10,000 bail. State police said the troopers were dispatched to a burglary call about 4:30 a.m. Thursday after someone reported the vehicle stolen from a home in the 200 block of Carranza Road in Tabernacle.

The century-old Pitman Grove tabernacle, which limped through the summer on a series of temporary roof repairs, can reopen next season even if the permanent restoration is not finished, Councilman Walter Madison said. Repairs to the crumbling roof are expected to cost the borough, which owns the building, at least $150,000, but Pitman does not have the money, officials said. Nevertheless, Madison said that the council could schedule work in a two- or three-year phase as money became available and that services at the tabernacle could continue during construction.

A familiar name will be missing from local government in Tabernacle Jan. 1 because Frank V. Grungo finally learned to say no. Two terms ago, Grungo wanted to give up his seat on the Township Committee, but fellow committee members Webster Lingle and Wayne Smith disagreed. "They said I should stay on one more term until they groomed a replacement," Grungo said, "and I did run one more time and then I told them it would be the last. I said it was time to spend more time with wife and family.

The Township Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow night to discuss a survey of residents on the Lenape Regional High School District's plan to build a fourth high school. The committee's action pleases some residents who have concerns about construction of a school in the Pinelands, but it is bringing uneasiness to school officials and parents concerned about overcrowding in the district's high schools. School officials want the matter resolved quickly; they fear a delay will stall construction plans for the high school, which is to be on Carranza Road.

On Nov. 4, residents of this rural Pine Barrens municipality will be asked to vote on whether to increase the Township Committee from three members to five. Ever since Tabernacle was incorporated, in 1901, three residents have served on the township's governing body. In the last decade, however, there have been several petition drives to expand the committee, Township Administrator Suzanne Veitengruber said. The ballot question would be binding, should voters approve it. It would require that in the November 1998 election, one person would be elected to a one-year seat, one to a two-year seat, and a third to a three-year seat.

Like some grand ocean liner from another era, the 300- voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir is sailing forth from Utah for its every-other-year tour with an unchanging course and sense of mission. The concert locales rotate from year to year - Thursday's 8 p.m. performance at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts is the first here since 2003 - but the repertoire of hymns and folk songs, sung with the choir's distinctive majesty, isn't just a concert but perhaps the most visible public relations tool of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Rev. Richard W. Jones, 86, of Willingboro, who led a significant expansion of Tabernacle Baptist Church as its longtime pastor, died of prostate cancer on Friday, June 18, at his home. Pastor Jones wanted "to make an impact on the community" when he stepped into the role of pastor in 1961, said his daughter Leslie R. Williams. Over the years, Tabernacle grew from 200 to more than 1,500 members and now includes a $2 million sanctuary with an adjacent education and family life center.

ITRULY EMPATHIZE with letter-writer Bridget Gammage on her plight on Palm Sunday night. I know what it's like to leave my house, return home and have to park around the corner because the Enon church was beginning to attract thousands of people to Christ when I lived around the corner from Enon West in germantown. But I decided if I couldn't beat it, I might as well join it, which I did almost eight years ago. I empathize, I really do, but there are several facts that Ms. Gammage and the negative editorial seem to have missed in your haste to bash a church that the Daily News praised just a month ago. 1. The Palm Sunday service was held at Enon, but it wasn't an Enon event.

Most pastors would thrill to the loud "amen" that surged from the crowd at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. But to the Rev. Alyn Waller - well, it just wasn't mighty enough for their great new sanctuary. "Your 'amen' can't be heard like it was at 230," he told them. He meant their old brick church five miles away in Germantown, at 230 W. Coulter St. "You've got to bring it up," he said with a grin. The crowd of about 700, gathered Tuesday night for their first Bible study in their new megachurch on Cheltenham Avenue, glanced around the handsome crimson-and-white sanctuary, with its stained-glass window and silvery organ pipes, and smiled.

Valley Forge woke up windy and cold yesterday morning. Tabernacle was windy and cold - and buried under nearly 8 inches of snow. And just think: Saturday afternoon had been a pleasant 60 degrees. Rapid changes in weather and differences in snow accumulation are not unusual in the Philadelphia area. "But I think the glaring aspect of this storm is that it's been so mild and it was a slap in the face," said Mike Gorse, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.

Carl Kennedy, 55, a commissioner with the Camden Parking Authority and a longtime Camden civic leader, died at his home Monday. Family members said he was feeling ill and later in the day was found dead in his bed. His death was under investigation but was believed to have been from natural causes. "Carl was like a big brother to me," Councilman Ali Sloan El said yesterday. "He mentored me. . . . He will be truly missed. " Dwaine Williams, a project coordinator with the city's Redevelopment Agency, agreed: "Carl has a bright 26-year-old daughter who is involved in the city's future redevelopment.

Voters in two South Jersey districts yesterday rejected bond issues for school renovations. In Tabernacle, the vote was 449-375 against an $11.6 million project to make a number of improvements to the Burlington County district's two schools, Tabernacle Elementary School and Kenneth R. Olson Middle School. In Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, the vote was 941-639 against a $15.1 million plan to expand and renovate the Nehaunsey Middle School. Tabernacle school officials had sought approval to upgrade fire-alarm and communication systems and replace the roof at Olson.

Bill Fisher, who guided Triton to an 11-9 record in two seasons, has been named new head football coach at Seneca. Located in Tabernacle, Seneca will open in the fall, but won't field a varsity football team until 2004. The school will have a junior varsity team first. Triton was 6-4 last season, just its third winning season since 1982. The Mustangs rebounded after starting the season 0-4. Fisher, 36, a former quarterback at Deptford and Glassboro State, has been a physical education teacher at Triton for the last 10 years.

Colorful blue, white and gold boxes now invite customers at 35 area businesses to drop off prayer requests in places typically reserved for commerce. In addition to a simple exchange of goods and services, customers can write out a note, request a prayer, and place it in a box. In a matter of days, teams from Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church will pick up the requests and begin praying. "We don't have to know who they are and they don't have to be a part of our church," said the Rev. Alyn E. Waller, pastor of the Germantown megachurch.

Larry Rudley was putting together an expensive, fragile puzzle. He had labored many hours over hundreds of precision-cut pieces of stained glass at a Stratford studio. Now came the payoff. Images began to emerge. Faces, arms, hands - and wings. Rudley had depicted angels descending from heaven for two 4-by-10-foot glass panels destined to become an early Christmas present for parishioners of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Mount Ephraim. "When you finish a project like this, you feel good.