Services Will Celebrate Completion Of Church

After three years of planning and saving, members of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Colville, Wash., have at last completed their new church. Dedication of the new facility will be celebrated with special Masses in the next week.

Sunday morning Masses will be canceled to help ensure a coming together of the entire parish for the 4 p.m. dedication led by Bishop William Skylstad of the Spokane Diocese. Deacon Tom Doyle will assist and three former pastors will be in attendance.

The community is invited to attend an ecumenical prayer service at 4 p.m. March 15 to celebrate the new building.

The Rev. Myrna Tuttle of the Colville United Church of Christ and the Rev. Stan Rutkowski of the Colville Assembly of God Church will preach at the service. Musicians from the Colville Free Methodist Church will perform along with Immaculate Conception’s choir.

The 8,900-square-foot building, which seats 350 people, includes a large bell tower, an administration wing and a gathering area.

Construction on the $1.7 million church began last June. The Catholic Diocese of Spokane loaned the church $300,000, with the rest raised from the 307 parish families.

“I was very humbled at the sacrifice they did to make this happen,” said the Rev. Darrin Connall of Immaculate Conception.

Sunday Masses normally will be offered at 8 and 10:15 a.m.

The church is located at 320 N. Maple in Colville.

Soup suppers

St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Colbert will host a series of free soup suppers at 6:30 p.m. each Friday during Lent, followed by Mass or the Stations of the Cross.

For more information, call the church office at 466-4991.

A time of retreat

Members of Women’s Aglow Fellowship will hold their annual spring retreat Friday through March 15 at Templin’s Resort in Post Falls.

Alice Darroch of Foundation Ministries will be the featured guest. The theme is “Generation to Generation.”

For more information, call 924-6871 or 684-8122.

From Spokane roots

Bruce Ware, a Spokane native, has accepted the position of professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

Ware earned an undergraduate degree from Whitworth College, a master’s degree from the University of Washington and a doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

Tex Sample to talk

Central United Methodist Church, 518 W. Third, will host Tex Sample on Friday.

Sample is a professor of church and society at the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. He will speak on “Understanding Hard-Living People” at 2 p.m. and on “Ministering to Hard-Living People” at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call 325-4788.

Panel will discuss ecumenism

The public is invited to a panel discussion of “The Ecumenical Climate: Struggles and Possibilities” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 127 E. 12th.

World and national issues related to the subject will be discussed by area bishops and executives, who each will make a presentation and participate in a panel discussion.

The panel will include Bishop William Skylstad of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Bishop Robert Keller of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Bishop Jeff Terry of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, Conference Minister Randy Hyvonen of the United Church of Christ, Associate Regional Minister Jim Burford of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Interim Presbytery Executive R. Stephen Jenks of the Presbyterian Church.

The event is free.

, DataTimes