Orthodox Churches Observe Easter On Sunday

Orthodox churches will celebrate Easter on Sunday, a week after the event was observed by churches following the Western calendar.

In the Western tradition, Easter is celebrated the Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox. Orthodox churches stipulate Easter must follow Passover to maintain the biblical sequence of events.

St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church, 4750 E. 20th, in Post Falls, will begin the Easter celebration with a liturgy at noon today and a Resurrection service at 11:30 p.m.

At midnight, parishioners will circle the darkened church outside with lighted candles.

Church members will return inside to a newly decorated sanctuary and celebrate the Magnificent Paschal Divine Liturgy.

When the liturgy concludes at 3 a.m., members will break their Lenten fast with the Pascha meal.

At noon on Easter Day, the Gospel of the Resurrection will be read in English, German, French, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Russian and Greek.

A time of healing

Temple Beth Shalom, 1322 E. 30th, will present “Healing After the Holocaust” at 7 p.m. Sunday to mark the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Week.

Edith Eva Eger, a psychologist and survivor of Auschwitz, will be the featured speaker.

Eger was a promising young ballerina and gymnast in Kassa, Hungary, before she was sent to Auschwitz with her family in the spring of 1944. When she was freed the next year, she was near death and weighed only 40 pounds.

Sunday’s program will include music, dramatic readings, talks by local Holocaust survivors and a candle-lighting ceremony in memory of the Holocaust’s 6 million victims.

Crop Walk

The 1998 Crop Walk, an annual fund-raising and hunger awareness event sponsored by Church World Service and the Spokane Council of Ecumenical Ministries, will be on April 26.

Registration begins at 12:30 p.m. at Gonzaga University’s Martin Centre for the 1:30 p.m. 10K or 2-mile walk along Centennial Trail.

Twenty-five percent of all money raised will be divided among the Spokane Food Bank, Meals on Wheels and the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Remaining funds will benefit Church World Services’ overseas relief and development.

Last year’s event raised $22,715.

Canned and packaged food for the Spokane Food Bank will also be collected at the registration site.

For sponsor sheets or more information, call 624-5156.

Colville grad to be ordained

Thomas P. Doyle, a 1985 graduate of Colville (Wash.) High School, will be ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross today. The ordination liturgy will take place in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

The Congregation of Holy Cross is a religious community of priests of brothers founded in LeMans, France in 1837. The organization founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842.

Doyle is now serving as rector of a men’s residence hall at Notre Dame and is director of the university’s confirmation program. He will continue to work at Notre Dame after his ordination.

A Buddhist talk

“The Influence of India on Japanese Buddhism” will be discussed at 7 p.m. today at the Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry.

The free, public talk by Bhante Seelawimala, a Buddhist monk, begins the temple’s annual Japan Week lecture series. A Japanese noodle dinner from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. will precede the lecture.

Seelawimala, a native of Sri Lanka, was ordained as a novice monk when he was 10 years old, and as a full monk in the Thereveda Buddhist tradition when he was 20.

He now teaches at the Institute for Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, Calif.

The public is also invited to attend the traditional Buddhist Hanarnatsuri Service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday in the temple sanctuary.

Activate your church

Pullman’s Living Faith Fellowship Ministry Training Center will host a conference, “Activating Your Church,” Thursday through next Saturday.

The conference will teach pastors and lay people how to activate congregations into effective service.

More than 40 workshops will be offered on such topics as ushering, church finances, using computers in churches, time management, hospitality, Sunday school, worship, prayer, nurseries and musical productions.

Cost is $70 per person, or $60 per person for a group of five or more. For more information or to register, call the church at (509) 334-1035.

The church is at 1035 S. Grand in Pullman.

Regional convention here

First Church of the Open Bible, 8303 N. Division, will host the Pacific Regional Convention for Open Bible Standard churches Tuesday through Thursday.

Terry Walling, vice-president of U.S. Ministries for Church Resource Ministries, will be the featured speaker. All clergy and lay leaders of Open Bible Standard churches are invited to attend. Cost is $59.

Free public sessions will be at 6:45 p.m. each day, featuring a brief drama production and music.

For more information, call the church office at 467-5122.

Distinguished scientist lecture

“Religious Naturalism: The Religious Response to the Epic of Evolution” will be discussed Wednesday by Ursula Goodenough, Washington University biology professor, for the Rev. Timothy O’Leary Distinguished Scientist Lecture.

Gonzaga University’s annual event will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Jepson Center Auditorium on campus.

Goodenough will also discuss “Sex and Speciation” at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the auditorium.

Both lectures are free and open to the public.

‘Performathon’

Faculty and students of Holy Names Music Center will present their fifth “Performathon” from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at Crescent Court, 707 W. Main.

The musicians will perform continuously to raise money for student scholarships to attend the center.

Festival of Ridvan

Members of the Baha’i Faith will observe the 12-day Festival of Ridvan, Tuesday through May 2.

The festival is in commemoration of the time Baha’u’llah, founder of the faith, spent in Ridvan, a garden in Baghdad, in 1863.

Other social gatherings and devotional services will help mark the event.

For more information, call 326-0152.