Haryana police has booked 14 people on charges of vandalising an under-construction church in Kaimri village of Hisar district.

The case was registered on a complaint lodged by Father Subash Chand of Williwarsh Church in the village. He alleged that the accused broke the cross and installed an idol.

Earlier on Sunday, an under-construction church was demolished in a village in Hisar.

Miscreants responsible for the attack even hoisted a flag with "Shri Ram" written on it at the demolition site in Kaimri village.

Reports said villagers were angry over alleged efforts by a priest to convert some locals to Christianity.

The reports further said that police have registered a case against 14 people named by the priest and started investigation into the matter. So far, no arrests have been made.

A panchayat has been held in the village and it has been decided to take the issue to Hisar's deputy commissioner.

Villagers claimed that the priest, Subhash, had bought the piece of land to build a house, but started constructing a "Believers Church" instead.

"Believers Church" is a Christian denomination with congregations and parishes across the world.

The president of All India United Christian Front, Sukhdev, was quoted, as saying, "This is a matter of shame that the villagers demolished a church. We will hold a press conference in Hisar soon and request the Superintendent of Police to take action against the culprits."

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Haryana police register case against 14 persons for allegedly vandalising church

Hisar: An under-construction church in Kaimri village near here was vandalised by a group and the cross replaced with an idol of Hanuman, triggering tension in the area in Haryana.

Father Subhash Chand of Williwarsh church lodged a complaint against 14 people, following which a case was registered by police under sections 147 (Punishment for rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between groups), 295 (destroying, damaging a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class of persons), 380 (theft in a building), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.

The complainant stated that the accused fragmented the cross and installed the statue of Hanuman and a flag depicting Lord Ram and threatened to kill him.

He alleged that they stole a cooler and some items from the worship place that was under construction.

Hisar range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Saurabh Singh said that the situation was under control.

Meanwhile, Christian Front Haryana has condemned the incident and has demanded immediate arrest of the accused, all residents of Kaimri.

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Church vandalised in Haryana, cross replaced with Hanuman idol

LDS Church announces 5th, 6th temple dedications for 2015

By Tad Walch

March 14th, 2015 @ 9:32am

SALT LAKE CITY The LDS Church now has six scheduled temple openings in 2015, after a new announcement Friday. In October, church President Thomas S. Monson said he anticipated the faith would dedicate or rededicate at least five temples in 2015.

On Friday, the church announced the dates for the rededication of the Mexico City Mexico Temple in September and dedication of the Tijuana Mexico Temple in December.

Five of the openings now scheduled this year are new temples, but all six represent progress on a backlog of construction work and planning. That backlog led President Monson to say last April that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would concentrate efforts on completing previously announced temples for a time before announcing any more new ones.

At the time, the church had 142 completed temples and 28 previously announced temples that hadn't been started or finished. Two were completed and opened during the remainder of 2014 Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Phoenix.

With the five new temples scheduled to open this year, the number on the backlog will drop to 21.

"The church seems to be on track," said Brandon Plewe, who follows temple building as part of his statistical work as editor in chief of "Mapping Mormonism: An Atlas of Latter-day Saint History." "With the temples where work is actually under way, things are happening."

The temples scheduled to open this year, with relevant dates (open houses held every day of the week except Sundays), are:

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LDS Church announces 5th, 6th temple dedications for 2015

OMIB: Church Construction Update
Andrew Comings, "Our Man in Brazil" gives a quick update "on location" at the church construction site.

By: Andrew Comings

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OMIB: Church Construction Update - Video

ROANOKE, Va. -

The famous steeples in Roanoke that came toppling down are now being used to help preserve the church and Roanoke Catholic School's future.

It's been less than a year since the construction at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke. Drive down Interstate 581 and the brand new steeples greet you as you enter downtown Roanoke from the North.

The new steeples are steel and should last as long as the church itself, according to a man who was able to scoop up some of the used wood from the previous steeples.

It's truly amazing what you can do with things most people would throw away. In the case of that man and the old St. Andrew's steeples, the past is being used to help preserve the future.

Waste is a word that doesn't exist in the workshop at Black Dog Salvage. With a few screws and some precision cuts, Mike Whiteside and his team can find a use for almost anything.

"We're always looking for salvage opportunities in our area because we like working here," Black Dog Salvage Co-Owner Mike Whiteside said.

Black Dog was there when the old wood steeples came down and the new steel ones went up at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke. They weren't a contractor on the project, but the undertaking was featured on an episode of the show Salvage Dawgs airing on the DIY Network. The wood was offered to Black Dog Salvage rather than sending it to a dump.

"The steeple wood was basically a throw away, we went in and cleaned up that pile of wood," Whitside said. "I didn't want to throw it away, I wanted to keep it."

In true Black Dog fashion Whiteside went to work with the reclaimed wood doing what he and his team do best, creating one of a kind treasures.

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Old St. Andrew's Catholic Church steeples funding its future

John R. North, a retired civil engineer and church organist, died March 6 at York Hospital in York, Pa., of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 77.

The son of Clyde M. North, a Green Spring Dairy stationary engineer, and Edna Erhardt North, a homemaker, John Richard North was born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville.

He was a 1958 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and after earning a civil engineering degree in 1966 from Johns Hopkins University, he served in the Maryland Air National Guard.

During his engineering career, Mr. North worked for the Williams Construction Co., Rouse Co., H.A. Harris and BEKA Industries as an estimator on heavy highway, building construction and bridge construction projects.

In later years, he had his own company, where he worked until retiring in 2009.

A longtime Parkton resident, Mr. North was an accomplished musician who played a variety of instruments including the organ, piano and harpsichord.

Mr. North began playing the organ when he was 14 years old, and in 1996 earned a degree in organ performance from what is now the Community College Baltimore County Essex.

He had been church organist at several churches in Baltimore County and most recently was organist at St. James' Episcopal Church in Parkton.

During the 1990s, he was the accompanist on the harpsichord for the Goucher College dance troupe and for Choreographie Antique.

He had been a supporting member since 1983 of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

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John R. North, civil engineer

Church Construction Day Two Raising Roof Joists Philippines
I made a video of these men when they raised the first roof joist with only a pulley and a home made center beam. I returned next day out of curiosity to see...

By: Jack Northrup

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Church Construction Day Two Raising Roof Joists Philippines - Video

RACHEL MOLENDA | Gazette photos

A drone flies around the steeple of Kanawha United Presbyterian Church on Thursday. The churchs building and grounds committee hired an Ohio company, CIS Steeplejacks, to take inventory of needed repairs.

A small drone, less then a square yard in size, rose slowly off the ground on Virginia Street and began circling the steeple of Kanawha United Presbyterian Church shortly before noon on Thursday.

The drone, flying quietly, took photographs all around the aging steeple in an effort to analyze what repairs and updates the structure needs.

Michael Hardin traveled to Charleston from CIS Steeplejacks, the company he has operated out of Medina, Ohio, since 1992. Hardin brought the drone in his car and operated it with equipment on a small, movable table.

Drones, Hardin said, make it possible for building owners to avoid bringing in large cranes and riggings to inspect the upper floors and roofs of their buildings.

Hardin has worked to maintain and repair church steeples for more than 30 years, since he was 16.

I never venture out of that realm. That is my forte, Hardin said. We do the actual construction work as well for churches. It is all about maintenance.

A heavy 10-foot piece of metal recently fell off one side of the Kanawha United Presbyterian steeple, along with several pieces of wood, drawing attention to the need to maintain the structure in the church completed in 1885.

Patterson Lyles, the minister at Kanawha United Presbyterian, is leading efforts to get the money needed to repair the steeple in Charlestons oldest house of worship.

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Local church uses drone to assess preservation needs

HYDERABAD: The forcible taking over of St Thomas SPG Church's land at Secunderabad for metro rail construction has taken a new turn with church representatives demanding the land back.

The church representatives along with former MLA of Sanatnagar M Shashidhar Reddy met chief secretary Rajiv Sharma, who is also the chairman of HMRL, and told him about the takeover of 2,007 sq yards of the church land and wanted restoration of the property to the church. They said that they were willing to dismantle, at their cost, the metro pillar that had been built hastily on the land. They explained to the chief secretary how the church had in the past expressed its willingness to cooperate with the metro rail authorities and a 'third option' had also been agreed upon wherein a pillar would be allowed to be built just within seven and a half metres inside the church land.

However, on the night of January 28, the metro rail authorities along with the police had barged into the church premises and occupied 2,007 square yards of land after assaulting the priests and taking them into custody, the church authorities alleged. Addressing a press conference at the church on Wednesday, Shashidhar Reddy said the HMRL's actions showed that they were acting without transparency. He said though the high court had given a stay order, the HMRL authorities without responding to the court order had gone ahead and constructed the metro rail pillar on the church property.

"The church was willing to allow the metro rail to take over a small portion of its land where the Alpha hotel and a petrol bunk stand. It's strange that, instead of accepting the offer, the metro rail authorities chose only to take over the church land," Shashidhar Reddy said.

He also pointed out that the metro rail authorities had chosen to negotiate with the SPG church authorities when it came to constructing a pillar in the cemetery of the church but when it needed the front portion of the church for the same purpose, they negotiated with the Church of South India (CSI) which is also a claimant of the property. "The metro rail authorities are acting in a way that is convenient to them without taking into consideration religious sentiments," Shashidhar Reddy said. At the meeting with the chief secretary on Tuesday, the church authorities even offered to meet the expenditure to remove the metro rail pillar constructed on its premises as they needed the land for its meetings.

Meanwhile, a representative of the church Das Roberts said the HMRL authorities had completed construction of the metro rail pillar even though the matter was in the high court. He said the high court had once again directed the authorities to file their counter on the petition filed by the church against forcible takeover of the church land.

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SPG church seeks demolition of Hyderabad Metro pillars

March 12, 2015, 4 a.m.

St Brigid's Catholic Church will celebrate 150 years this year, with a number of activities planned throughout the year.

St Brigid's School, Parish Priest, Father Greg. Photo: TAYLOR JURD

St Brigid's Catholic Church will celebrate 150 years this year, with a number of activities planned throughout the year.

The actual date of the church's construction is a little fluid, but a barbecue was held earlier this year to commence the many celebrations.

St Brigid's Parish Priest, Father Greg, arrived six weeks ago, but had previously been parish priest between 1991 and 1994.

He said 150 years is a big landmark to achieve.

"It's a big milestone," he said.

Father Greg hopes the celebrations give St Brigid's students and the community a sense of history.

The next celebrations for the sesquicentenary will begin on Friday, May 1 from 6pm at St Brigid's with a Violins, Vespers and Vino event.

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Big celebrations for St Brigids 150th birthday