Riverfront Easter service at sunrise
The 30th annual Community Easter Sunrise Service will be held at 7 a.m. Sunday at First Security Amphitheater, 400 President Clinton Drive in Little Rock.
Participants in this year's service include Miss Arkansas 2018, Maggie Benton; KATV Morning News anchor Alyson Courtney; Skip Rutherford, dean at the Clinton School of Public Service; former NFL player Keith Jackson; former Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines; radio personality Billy St. James; and New Creation Dance Ensemble.
Mandy Davis, executive director of the nonprofit Jericho Way, will also participate in the service, and Jericho Way will receive offerings collected during Sunday's service.
For more information, visit communitysunriseservice.com.
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Anti-apartheid activist to preach
New Millennium Church, 21 Lakeshore Drive in Little Rock, will host anti-apartheid activist the Rev. Allan Aubrey Boesak, who will give a free lecture at 3 p.m. today on his latest book, Pharaohs on Both Sides of the Blood Red Waters.
Boesak will also preach at the church's 9 a.m. Easter service on Sunday.
The Rev. Wendell Griffen, pastor of New Millennium Church, said in a news release that Boesak is "one of the most prophetic theologians of our time ... I greatly hope Arkansans will attend his Holy Saturday lecture to hear his insights about distributive justice and the requirement that we recognize and confront what he calls 'our new pharaohs.'"
Contact the Rev. Wendell Griffen at (501) 416-1917 or wendell.griffen@gmail.com for more information.
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Spiritual adviser sets church talk
Unitarian Universalist Church, 1818 Reservoir Road in Little Rock, will host a talk by Anam Thubten on meditation Friday.
Thubten, the founder and spiritual adviser for the Dharmata Foundation, will share Buddhist wisdom on working with one's thoughts and emotions, and teach about the practice of meditation.
The suggested donation for the talk is $10-$15; for more information, contact Cheryl Woodard at cheryl@publishingbiz.com or (501) 376-7056.
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
New church plan
unveiled in Texas
SAN ANTONIO -- Nearly five months after a gunman killed 26 parishioners at First Baptist Church, the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas, will soon build a new place of worship.
The Rev. Frank Pomeroy unveiled renderings of the new church at a news conference Tuesday in nearby San Antonio. The site will include a worship center and a memorial tower featuring a bell from the original First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
Pomeroy, who was out of town Nov. 5, the day of the shooting, lost his 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, that Sunday.
"We are in the midst of a celebration week. This is the week leading up to Easter," Pomeroy said. "And what better way to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord than the resurrection of a new church?
"I think God choreographed that," he said.
-- The Associated Press
Mormons tweak sex abuse guides
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is changing its guidelines for how area leaders handle sexual abuse reports and one-on-one meetings with youth. This comes a week after 85-year-old Joseph Bishop, a former prominent missionary leader, was accused of sexually assaulting two women in the 1980s.
The revised guidelines announced Monday by the church direct lay leaders never to disregard a report of abuse, a more direct instruction than in previous guidelines.
A key new rule allows children to take a parent or adult with them during one-one-one interviews with local church leaders known as bishops.
It also tells leaders to never encourage a person to stay in a situation where abuse is suspected, guidance not provided before.
Critics say more changes are needed.
--The Associated Press
Religion on 03/31/2018