Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has banned Scientology’s more vocal friends and foes from editing articles about the religion. Wikipedia has blocked contributions from computers at the Church of Scientology’s Los Angeles headquarters, as well as some critics of the religion. The move is aimed at diminishing a long-running war of words between the two groups, said Dan Rosenthal, a spokesman for English Wikipedia.

The Rev. Kenneth Roy Strawhand, a respected religious scholar with wide-ranging experiences in church liturgy and ministries, will be instituted as the third rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Catholic Church in Richmond on Wednesday at noon. The Rt. Rev. William McClean, bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic States in the Anglican Catholic Church, will officiate at the institution service and choral Holy Eucharist.

During Religion Month in April, Colonial Williamsburg’s guests will be able to learn about the role of religion in the 18th century. Among the weekly programs are scholarly lectures each Wednesday, a program exploring the place of music in the American religious experience, videos on the Great Awakening in Virginia and on Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin’s dream to restore Williamsburg. Programs take place at Colonial Williamsburg’s DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

The Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, has accepted a call to serve as interim dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Lee announced his retirement as Virginia bishop, effective Oct. 1, in January. “While I will depart Virginia with sadness at leaving so many whom I love, I am excited and challenged by the call to serve at one of the nation’s primary urban cathedral churches,“ Lee said.

Registration is under way for “Women Under Construction: Building Relationships and Better Living,“ at Swift Creek Baptist Church, 7511 N. Spring Run Road in Midlothian. The workshops, designed to improve daily living and broaden relationships, will be Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. and March 7 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $15 through Feb. 25, $20 afterward. Fee includes dinner Friday and breakfast and lunch Saturday.

Richmond’s Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church is featuring gospel stars The Hawkins Family (Walter, Tramaine, Lynette and Edwin) in “Refresh Your Soul . . . The Hawkins Family Reunion” at 7 p.m. on March 14 at the Landmark Theater, 6 N. Laurel St. “The Hawkins Family has not performed together in one venue on the East Coast in years. The closest I can recall is a performance by Walter and Edwin at the White House last year for Black Music Month,“ said Shalimar Hickman-Jones of the church’s music ministry.

River Road Church, Baptist, will start a Celtic worship service the third Sunday of each month at 5 p.m. beginning Feb. 15. The Celtic Evensong and Communion service will offer worship that brings together Christians of different denominational backgrounds. While most worship services are proclamation-centered, with a sermon being the central feature of worship, a Celtic service is contemplative. There is no sermon, and the service is designed to allow worshippers to encounter God through prayers, poetry, litanies, Scripture readings, music and silence.

World-music troupe The Dreamtime Project will provide a musical service at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 236 S. Laurel St. in Richmond’s Oregon Hill, on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The contemplative service in the Christian tradition celebrates the revelation of God in the natural world and calls for care of the Earth and its resources. The candlelit service will feature Scripture, sacred text, poetry, ancient wisdom, meditative music and chants.

Catholics from across the state plan to gather in Richmond on Monday for Catholic Advocacy Day at the General Assembly. According to information on the Virginia Catholic Conference’s Web site, http://www.vacatholic.org, issues important to Catholics include assistance for the needy, marriage, abortion and the death penalty. Participants will meet at St. Peter’s Church at 8th and East Grace streets at 8:30 a.m.

Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and co-author of the best-selling book “The Last Lecture,“ will speak Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Weinstein JCC, 5403 Monument Ave. Zaslow attended the final lecture of Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Randy Pausch, who died of pancreatic cancer in July at age 47. Pausch, who also taught at the University of Virginia from 1988 to 1997, wrote the book with Zaslow.

Congregation Or Atid will present its first Tu B’Shevat Open House celebrating the Jewish “New Year for the Trees,“ on Feb. 8 from noon to 2 p.m. The theme is “From Saplings to Trees.“ The highlight of the celebration will be a live performance by the Richmond Indigenous Gourd Orchestra. Their original music is played on handmade instruments made from locally grown gourds.

During a ceremony at Chabad of Virginia’s annual Chanukah on Ice event tomorrow, members of the Richmond area’s Jewish community will light the first Hanukkah candle in memory of two victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

A concert next Friday by the Richmond Boys Choir at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church will help replenish the Central Virginia Foodbank. The cost of admission to the 7 p.m. holiday concert: a canned good or other nonperishable food item. “Across the state, food banks are running bare at a time when more people than ever are going to need help,“ said the Rev. Abbott Bailey, rector at St. Andrew’s, 236 S. Laurel St. in Oregon Hill. “We can’t do enough to keep the shelves full.“

Several congregations of the West End Interfaith Association in Richmond joined on Thanksgiving to pray and sing. This year’s service was hosted by Temple Beth-El on Nov. 26. Members from First Presbyterian Church, Grace Baptist Church, Reveille United Methodist Church, Seventh Street Christian Church, St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Tuckahoe Presbyterian Church and Temple Beth-El came together in the main sanctuary of Temple Beth-El.

The Ekoji Buddhist Sangha community plans to hold an ecumenical service on Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. at the temple at 3411 Grove Ave. to commemorate Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment.