Methodists to explore aspects of forgiveness

The First United Methodist Church, 2917 Aspen Drive, will offer a new sermon series called “Forgiveness” that will be given on Saturdays and Sundays from this weekend to May 30-31.

In this series, Pastor Jeff Huber will take a realistic look at how to seek, extend and accept forgiveness.

Services will take place at 5:30 p.m. Saturdays, 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sundays.

For more information, visit www.fumcdurango.org.

Church bells: Joyful noise or unholy din?

BURLINGTON, Vt. – The sound system next door is making it hard for Olga Lopatina to love thy neighbor: Christ the King church.

Since last summer, the church has been broadcasting the sounds of bells and hymns to its Burlington neighborhood, a joyful noise unto the Lord that some here think is just an unholy racket.

It’s not just the volume, but the timing and type of tune that irks Lopatina, who said she loves the natural sound of bells after growing up in Ukraine.

“It’s not really music,” she complained of the hymns as she stood in her backyard one recent evening after yet another unwelcome serenade. “This one, it sounds like a teenage iPhone recording, like the first generation ring tones that you pay 99 cents.”

The dispute has fueled online jokes – some that posters felt were disrespectful of their faith –and complaints that the bells violate Burlington’s noise ordinance. A meeting with a mediator was scheduled for March but was postponed until May 18.

It is perhaps not surprising the tolling of the electronic bells has struck a chord with some neighbors in the largest city in Vermont, a state deemed the least religious in the nation by a Gallup Poll last year.

Larry Miller said not only is the noise intrusive, but he also finds it offensive from a religious perspective.

“It’s not my religion,” he said.

Herald Staff & Associated Press