Churches

About 500 of the faithful filed into a quaint neighborhood church here recently to spread the Word. The word of the World Wide Web, that is. "Why is it that cyberspace needs to be owned by those who only know dragons and Dracula and blood and horror and daggers?" Lars Dunberg, an imposing man with a fire-and-brimstone delivery, thundered from the altar. "I pray for the day that churches will evangelize using the new technology."

Emerson Unitarian Church will break ground Sunday for its new church. The ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. at 7304 Jordan Ave. in Canoga Park. Church officials say that construction is expected to be completed in the fall. The one-story, 3,700-square-foot stucco building will also house a social hall, church officials said. The plans call for another structure of about the same size that officials said will house a day-care program and administrative offices.

At first glance, the empty 1906 church building seemed like a prescription for disaster. The roof leaked, gables were sagging and plaster arches were badly cracked. How could this old Gothic-style pile of sandstone be converted into a modern office with Internet links and efficient lighting? How could a modern business function in a supposedly haunted church that had an organ loft, Sunday school classrooms and a belfry? "We looked at it and shook our heads and thought, 'Are we really crazy?

Parishioners, clergy and students of Mary Immaculate Church and Education Center are readying prayers, mission statements and proclamations to be buried in a time capsule that will be opened in 100 years. "People want their grandchildren and great-grandchildren to experience what they are experiencing now," said the Catholic school's principal, Kathleen Damisch.

For centuries, repentant sinners gave to churches hoping their generosity would get them to heaven. Today's Christian givers are more earthly, a study has found. In return for a dollar in the collection plate, churchgoers want new chapel drapes, day care for their children, a better choir and a renovated plumbing system. Demands for a tangible return on giving is hurting churches, the study's authors say.

On a typical midweek day, a woman dressed in exercise clothes sits cross-legged on the tile floor of Houston's Rothko Chapel, her palms up, her eyes closed. She wipes away tears. Around her, 14 large dark murals take up most of the wall space in the octagonal chapel. The paintings are monotonic, and lack the symbolism of any particular religion. That absence is the key.

It's going to be a zoo this weekend at Encino Community Church. For the third consecutive year, the pastor and congregation of the nondenominational church have collected teddy bears to be distributed to needy children, patients at Childrens Hospital, and nursing home residents. Hundreds of teddy bears, of all sizes, expressions and attire, are biding their time on the church's pews, waiting to be delivered as holiday gifts on Monday.

More than 200 children from the Minnie Street neighborhood in Santa Ana were treated to a Christmas party this week at Mariner's South Coast Church's Irvine campus. Each child received gifts from a wish list they had provided to church volunteers. Presents included radio-controlled cars, Barbie dolls and Walkmans, said Susan Akins, director of a church outreach program. "They played games, they ate, they made crafts," Akins said of Wednesday's event. "It was an all-around good time."

A small, predominantly black church in rural Pierce County south of Seattle was damaged in what authorities called a "suspicious" fire. The fire caused at least $80,000 worth of damage to the Pleasant Hills Missionary Baptist Church, which has a congregation of about 20 members, Curt Benson of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said. Nationwide, there have been more than 36 suspicious fires, many at black churches in the South, in the past 18 months.

Three white teenagers were arrested in a fire that destroyed a black church building April 16, but investigators ruled out race or religious bias as a motive Monday. "They wanted to burn something. The fact that it was a church was not a factor," said Bill Dunham, agent in charge of the Richmond office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Suspicious fires have hit more than 40 black churches in the South in the last 18 months.