Pine Valley Church to host Harvest Festival

Pine Valley Church will hold its free Harvest Festival from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 5 at the church, 1328 County Road 501 in Bayfield.

The festival will include rides, games, prizes, free hot dogs, a dunk tank, bounce house, pony rides and petting zoo.

For more information, visit www.pinevalleychurch.org.

Pagosa churches announce programs

Immaculate Heart of Mary, 445 Lewis St., and Pope John Paul II, 353 S. Pagosa Blvd., in Pagosa Springs, will host these programs:

Women’s Fellowship will meet from 9 to 11 a.m. Mondays. This is an 11-week session about 1st Corinthians by Tim Gray and will address: the conflicts of the early church and how they are similar to our struggles today.

Men’s Fellowship will meet at 5:30 p.m. Mondays for a light meal and then fellowship at 6 p.m. in the John Paul Narthex.

Tuesday Mass will be celebrated at 5:15 p.m. at John Paul. Afterward, there will be a potluck and “Question Box,” parishioner-posed questions.

The Edge Youth Program for middle school students will begin Oct. 9 at the Parish Hall and be held after school.

Sign-up is available for a Holy Hour before Our Lord from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays. Benediction will take place at 8:50 p.m.

Bible Study will be held from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. Fridays in the John Paul Narthex. Teachings will be from the Letter of Paul to the Romans.

Charismatic Prayer will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Fridays in the John Paul Narthex. The meetings will include praise, worship, occasional teaching and fellowship.

The Life Teen Youth Program for high school students will begin after 4 p.m. mass Oct. 6 at John Paul.

For more information, call 731-5744.

10 Commandments stone toppled in Washington

WASHINGTON – A stone monument of the Ten Commandments that sits on a street behind the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington has been toppled by vandals in what its patron is calling a hate crime.

The 3-by-3-foot granite monument weighs 850 pounds and sits in front of the headquarters of Faith and Action, a Christian outreach ministry. The group installed the tablets in a garden outside its offices in 2006, and the group’s president says the tablets were angled so that justices arriving at the high court would see them.

The Rev. Rob Schenck, who heads the organization, says the vandals pushed the monument forward so the commandments can’t be seen, suggesting antipathy toward a message revered by Christians, Jews and people of other faiths.

Herald Staff, Associated Press