With knee-high levels of snow around, some local houses of worship have already canceled services and other activities this evening and Sunday.

Others are urging congregants to check their Web sites for updates later.

The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg lifted the obligation of Catholics in the York and Adams deaneries to attend Mass for the weekend because of the snow emergency, according to the Rev. Robert M. Gillelan Jr. and Joseph Gotwalt, deans of York and Adams, respectively.

Saturday confessions and 5 p.m. Mass at Gillelan's parish, St. Mary's Church in York, were canceled.

At Freedom Valley Worship Center near Gettysburg, the Rev. Gerry Stoltzfoos put a call out on Twitter for help digging out the church:

As of 3pm, our driveways at church are still hopelessly closed in. Big equipment is on its way, however. If you got a plow truck, bring it!

A pastor from Hummelstown remains on the roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America a year after he was charged with soliciting sex for money, reports the Web site Pretty Good Lutherans.

Police charged the Rev. Alan Curtis Wenrich with "patronizing prostitutes" after soliciting sex from a client he was treating in his private counseling practice, according to public documents. Instead of prosecuting the pastor, the district attorney agreed to let Wenrich enter ARD, a county rehabilitation program for first-time, nonviolent offenders (Accelerated Rehabilitative Program).

Bishop B. Penrose Hoover, who leads the ELCA's Lower Susquehanna Synod, told PGL that Wenrich is still a pastor "because his misconduct did not rise to the level of sexual misconduct as we define it. It was solicitation, not the act of sex."

Hoover said once Wenrich has "undergone all the proper steps, he could perform some pastoral duties under the supervision of another pastor."

Wenrich's license to practice professional counseling was suspended last February by the state licensing board.

Read more at Pretty Good Lutherans.

Is your pastor on Twitter? How about YouTube?

Pope Benedict this week urged Catholic priests to join the digital world and spread the Gospel by blog, tweet and video.

"The spread of multimedia communications and its rich 'menu of options' might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web," but priests are "challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources," Pope Benedict XVI said in a message prepared for prepared for the World Day of Communications.

A presence on the web, Benedict said, "precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, nonbelievers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute."

The two most recent Sightings columns discuss Pat Robertson, who last week credited the earthquake in Haiti to "true story" of the Haitians having "made a pact with the devil" (a phrase that he did not get from the Bible, religion scholar Martin Marty points out in the first essay). The second, by Spencer Dew of Loyola University in Chicago, says the comment is a typical demonization of the Voodoo religion. I've posted both at the jump.

The Rt. Rev. Robert D. Rowley Jr., retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania, died Monday at York Hospital. He was 68.

Prior to his ordination, Rowley was a lawyer for more than 26 years as a judge advocate in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve.

He became a priest in 1978 and served as diocesan bishop from 1991 until 2006. In 1997, he was a nominee for presiding bishop of the church.

Rowley retired to York County to be close to his daughter in York and son near Philadelphia, said the Rev. David Robson, rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Spring Garden Township.

Rowley will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery after funeral services 1 p.m. Friday at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in York. A half dozen bishops are expected to attend.

For the last week, my inbox has been overrun with e-mails from faith-based charities and relief groups who are sending aid and helpers to earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Many congregations and missionary groups await word that their local representatives had survived. Sadly, some did not.

Worshippers across the country on Sunday took up special collections for Haiti relief. If you're looking for ways to help, here's a few ideas:

-- The United Methodists are collecting health kits;
-- Donate food or hygiene items to Missouri Synod Lutheran groups;
-- Or attend a benefit concert at 4 p.m. Sunday at Susquehanna Township Middle School, 801 Wood St., Harrisburg.

Also, the YDR would like to see your photos from Haiti, whether you were with a church group, for missionary work or relief work, etc. Upload them here.

The Rt. Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades, bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg in central Pennsylvania since 2004, will be installed today as the ninth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend during a 2 p.m. Mass in Fort Wayne's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Rhoades, who served York parishes as a young priest in the 1980s, was welcomed in Indiana this week by a newly redecorated residence in Fort Wayne, according to the Journal Gazette.

He succeeds John M. D'Arcy, 77, who has served as bishop since 1985 and is retiring.

Video of the installation will be streamed on the diocesan Web site, and at Redeemer Radio.

In the Diocese of Harrisburg, on Friday a group of priests is expected to elect an administrator to run the 15-county diocese until the next bishop is appointed. The process of selecting a new bishop will take at least six months or more.