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SATURDAY • FEBRUARY 22 • 2014
Another grocer coming to west side of town
In merger’s wake, church looks to youth for survival
By Chad Lawhorn
clawhorn@ljworld.com
A deal has been struck to bring a new grocer to Lawrence. And it’s not going downtown. Not North Lawrence, either. Instead, it’s slated for what has become the city’s new grocery magnet: Sixth and Wakarusa. Plans have been filed at City Hall for a 27,000-square-foot building that would house a specialty or “farmers market-style” grocer in the Bauer Farm development at the northPlease see GROCERY, page 7A
John Young/Journal-World Photos
SISTER GLORIA EVANS GIVES PRAISE during a worship service Sunday at St. Luke AME Church, 900 New York St. AT TOP RIGHT: The Rev. Verdell Taylor Jr. prays with all church members individually as they kneel around the altar during a worship service Sunday at the church.
AME congregation optimistic about future By Sara Shepherd
L
Twitter: @saramarieshep
eonard Monroe, 83, is belting out the solo sections of “Steal Away to Jesus” from the choir box of St. Luke AME, the church he joined when he was 14. My Lord, he calls me, He calls me by the lightning; The trumpet sounds within my soul... Voices joining in for the spiritual’s refrain range from that of 71-year-old Charleen Coleman to 31-year-old Chauncey Jackson. One-year-old Jayvion Lewis may not be singing but he’s up front, too, sidling up to grandfather George Rennels.
I ain’t got long to stay here. Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus! The choir is a snapshot of the new face of the African Methodist Episcopal church in Lawrence. In the late 1800s tiny Lawrence was home to two thriving AME churches whose congregations, at times throughout the years, numbered in the hundreds. After membership dwindled, St. James in North Lawrence closed and merged with St. Luke in East Lawrence, where a small but lively congregation now looks to ensure the future. Membership tips toward the mature end but is not without
Low: 26
es from the surrounding area to perform during the annual event. This year’s lineup includes several other traditional black churches plus Plymouth Congregational Church and the Lawrence Indian United Methodist Church. The Mighty Pleasant Tones also are expected to perform. Refreshments will be served afterward in St. Luke’s Langston Hughes Fellowship Hall.
srothschild@ljworld.com
Over the past five years, Kansas legislators have taken more than $1 billion from the State Highway Fund to pay for other functions of state government. And in the current and next fiscal Brownback years, Gov. Sam Brownback is calling for a transfer of another $527 million. That money could fund a number of functions, including busing kids to Please see FUNDS, page 2A
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Today’s forecast, page 10A
Expect a lot of music and a lot of people at St. Luke AME church for this weekend’s Black History Month Musical. “It’s going to be packed,” organizer Joyce McCray Pearson told the congregation on a recent Sunday. The musical, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” is set for 3:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Luke, 900 New York St. Admission is free. St. Luke invites church-
By Scott Rothschild
Please see AME, page 2A
Partly sunny
High: 47
Black History Month Musical
Highway fund foots the bill for millions in expenses
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Driver’s license renewal
Vol.156/No.53 24 pages
A Kansas House committee is considering a bill that would allow residents to renew their licenses every eight years instead of six. Page 3A
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