Religion Briefs
Isle Jehovah's Witnesses begin annual convention
Hawaii's Jehovah's Witnesses began their annual district convention last night at the Mililani Assembly Hall of the denomination in Mililani Industrial Park.The conference was to continue with all-day sessions today and a concluding meeting at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
This weekend's gathering was the first of five English-language increments to be held on Oahu, staged throughout the summer to fit the crowds. About 10,000 of the statewide membership of 14,000 are expected to attend sessions throughout the summer. Separate meetings are scheduled in Japanese, Samoan, Spanish, Korean and other languages.
The sessions at 239 Palii St. are public. Future English sessions will be held June 28-30 and July 5-7, 12-14 and 19-21.
Shingon Mission offers free Nishimura concert
A free concert by Japanese entertainer Naoki Nishimura will be presented tomorrow by the Shingon Mission of Hawaii.Nishimura will perform modern music on a synthesizer in the concert, which follows a 9:30 a.m. service at the Neal Blaisdell Center exhibition hall.
The Aoba Matsuri service will celebrate the birth of Kobo Daishi, who founded the Shingon school of Buddhism in Japan more than 1,100 years ago.
The event is open to the public.
West Virginia suit cancels graduation invocation
CHARLESTON, W.Va. >> The American Civil Liberties Union will ask the Kanawha County school board to officially abolish a policy allowing student-led prayers, after a federal judge declared it invalid.The judge's ban forced cancellation of an invocation at the St. Albans High School graduation, though more than 100 students stood during the ceremony to recite the Lord's Prayer.
U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver Jr. had issued his temporary restraining order on behalf of graduating senior Tyler Deveny, an atheist, shortly before the ceremony.
Ex-church's new function is as 'punny' comedy club
MERIDEN, Conn. >> To some parishioners, the sale of the local Unitarian Universalist Church to become a comedy club is no laughing matter.Two local mortgage brokers, now nightclub developers, bought the church building to convert it into an upstairs comedy club called "God, That's Funny" and a downstairs rock club, "Rock Sanctuary," both opening in August.
The Rev. Lucy Ijams and parishioners say they are -- at the least -- ambivalent about leaving their 108-year-old brownstone, but relieved at finding a buyer willing to pay $525,000.
The church will worship in temporary quarters until a new building is erected.
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