It might not be the first locale you’d associate with the word “showbiz:“ a classroom-like space equipped with computer terminals and a green chalkboard, in the office building of Richmond’s Rising Mount Zion Baptist Church. But theatrical activity is certainly percolating here on this Monday evening.

A Williamsburg priest who says homosexuality should not exclude people from full involvement in the Episcopal Church will be consecrated this week as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia.

PETERSBURG After 132 years ministering to the city of Petersburg, the Daughters of Charity will leave June 30. The withdrawal of the Catholic religious order ends a long-standing association with St. Joseph School, which the sisters opened on Oct. 2, 1876, shortly after arriving in Petersburg.

With a mother from El Salvador and an Irish-American father from Minnesota, Erik Giblin learned early how to walk between cultures. That knowledge has served him well in his first few months as director of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond’s Office for the Hispanic Apostolate.

The recession has been a mixed blessing for churches. There are more opportunities to reach out to people in need, but donations are flat or declining, church leaders say.

Aflickering candle has universal appeal. Its flame inspires and soothes, especially now around the winter solstice, the darkest days of the year. “Light is hope, promise and even relief,“ said Kristin M. Swenson, assistant professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. “Long before Kwanzaa, Christmas, or even Hanukkah, people fired up those darkest days to make the hope of new life real.

Watch Richmond-area Muslims celebrate Eid ul-Adha at the Arthur Ashe Center.

Nelson County residents Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, were in Mumbai as part of a meditation retreat at the Oberoi Hotel, one of the sites hit in the attacks. The retreat was organized by The Synchronicity Foundation, which is headquartered in Nelson.

Calls for unity and religious moderation from Muslim and Christian leaders marked the opening of Lebanon’s biggest mosque in the heart of the capital. The Oct. 18 inauguration of the Muhammad al-Amin Mosque also served to boost the Sunni community’s place as a major player in the country’s politics. It came as Sunni-Shiite tensions continued to simmer after sectarian clashes this year.