Prayer, healing subject of speech by Rabbi Levy

11/5/2005

Rabbi Naomi Levy will speak on "Spirituality - The Power of Prayer and Healing," at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Northwest Ohio Jewish Book Fair.

The book fair starts tomorrow and continues through Wednesday at the Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim, 6453 Sylvania Ave.

Rabbi Levy, who has been featured on the Today Show and Oprah, was in the first class of women to enter the Jewish Theological Seminary's rabbinical school. She relinquished her post as a congregational rabbi to focus on her first book, the best-seller To Begin Again: The Journey toward Comfort, Strength, and Faith in Difficult Times. Her new book is titled Talking to God: Personal Prayers for Times of Joy, Sadness, Struggle, and Celebration.

David A. Harris, a University of Toledo professor and author of Good Cops: The Case for Preventive Policing, also will speak at the book fair, at 7 p.m. tomorrow.

The lectures are free and open to the public; reservations are requested by calling 419-724-0386.

New Hope Christian Community Foundation will hold the fifth Annual Gala Auction Dinner on Nov. 12 at Gladieux Meadows banquet hall in Toledo.

More than 400 guests are scheduled to attend the auction, which is expected to raise nearly $200,000 for 40 area ministries, according to Jim Oedy, New Hope's president.

Banquet tickets are $40 from the foundation, 419-873-4673.

Eli, the contemporary Christian singer-songwriter, will be in concert at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Epworth United Methodist Church, 3077 Valleyview Drive.

The artist also plans performances and visits to the Cherry Street Mission, the Toledo Restoration Homeless Shelter, YES-FM (89.3) Christian radio, and Marion Correctional Facility while in Ohio.

Tickets for the Epworth concert are $10. Information: 419-531-4236.

The 40-member choir of Toledo's Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, directed by Richard Sparks, is scheduled to perform Joseph Haydn's "Mass in Time of War" tomorrow at New York's famed Carnegie Hall.

The invitation was based on a recommendation by Paul Stanbery, former choir director at Blessed Sacrament who is now the music director of the Hamilton Fairfield Symphony Orchestra in Hamilton, Ohio.

ARCHBOLD - Marco Fontanini, a fourth-generation member of the House of Fontanini of Bagni di Lucca, Italy, will make a personal appearance at the Candy Cane Christmas Shoppe, 22897 U.S. Route 20-A, Archbold, from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday.

Mr. Fontanini oversees production and quality control of the House of Fontanini's 20 to 50-inch Nativity figures.

The tradition of Nativity scenes is believed to have been started in Italy by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223.

Attending religious services may enrich the soul, but it also fattens the wallet, according to new research.

"Doubling the frequency of attendance leads to a 9.1 percent increase in household income, or a rise of 5.5 percent as a fraction of the poverty scale," Jonathan Gruber of the economics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote in his study.

"Those with more faith may be less 'stressed out' about daily problems that impede success in the labor market and the marriage market, and therefore are more successful," Mr. Gruber wrote in the study, which was released Tuesday by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Living in a community with complementary ethnic groups that share the same religion increases the frequency of going to a house of worship, he said in the paper titled "Religious Market Structure, Religious Participation, and Outcomes: Is Religion Good for You?"

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Muslim leaders will gather in the holy city of Mecca in December for a summit called by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to address rifts between Islamic nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference said.

The 56-nation group said in a statement on its Web site, dated Sunday, that the meeting would take place on Dec. 7-8.