In a celebration of India with its roots in the old Festival of Arts at Boutwell Auditorium that, like the Alabama School of Fine Arts, was originally orchestrated by Mrs. Edwin A. "Bill"� Rose, Supervisor of Speech Arts of the Birmingham Public Schools, the religion of India was highlighted at the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center in Pelham.

One of the speakers at last week´s Lenten Lunches sponsored by the Cathedral Church of the Advent had a surprising theme. The Reverend Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the diocese of South Carolina and editor of the Anglican Digest, was criticizing conservatives for their lack of civility in debating issues.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten season everywhere. In Birmingham it marks the beginning of the Lenten Lunch series at the Cathedral Church of the Advent downtown. And this truly is one of the best programs in the world, and I am not exaggerating.

The photographs, paintings, and video images show torturers especially evil for delighting in cruelty. It shows good people afraid to do the right thing. It shows crass betrayals. It also shows people who took the risk and reached out to help. They are stories of survival that in the end prove that life is more than that.

I remember watching in awe as my mother and the other grown-ups took communion while I stood with my finger pressed to my lips as Father Hayes blessed me. I so desperately wanted to be a part of what I was being taught was a miraculous version of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, my savior.

He claimed to be 5,000 years old and a member of an Angel Race� from Saturn. Sun Ra landed on Earth in Bessemer, in 1914, and was named Herman Poole Blount. He changed his legal name to Le Sonyr Ra, which is inscribed on his tombstone at Elmwood Cemetery.

Faith Fellowship Community of Trussville was helping out a family on Sun Valley Road in Centerpoint. While the house appeared intact, the insides were destroyed and second story will have to be removed. But the large wooded yard was destroyed with scores of trees down.

It's the third week of the New Year and you haven't made it to the gym yet to lose those pounds contracted in your New Year's Resolution, so you've decided that it's just too late to stick with it and you go for another handful of greasy bad decisions.