Christ Episcopal Church will celebrate its 150th anniversary at 10 a.m. June 7. S.C. Bishop Mark Lawrence of Charleston will lead the service at the quaint church, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Cooks for Christ are having a chicken bog benefit for Margaret Alexander on Thursday at West Florence Fire Department 1 along Pineneedles Road. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and supper from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Rev. Dr. Mack T. Hines was elected to the Morris College board of trustees during the annual convention of the South Carolina Baptist Education and Missionary Baptist Convention earlier this month in Spartanburg.

Trinity Baptist Church’s Men’s Club is sponsoring “2009 Spring Cleaning for Your Health” on Saturday, beginning with a walk at 9 a.m. in Florence.

Two National Day of Prayer services are scheduled for today in Florence: at noon at the Florence City-County Complex, 180 N. Irby St., and at 7 p.m. at Poynor Adult/Community Education Center, 301 S. Dargan St.

The Florence Parks & Leisure Services Department will hold an open house at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Barnes Street Activity Center in conjunction with the National Day of Prayer and the start of the Florence H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People Get Employed) Program.

Children of the World, a choir comprised of orphaned and disadvantaged children from different countries, will perform at 6 p.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church in Florence.

The Right Rev. Mark J. Lawrence will be the guest preacher during the annual service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Society Hill at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

For thirteen years, Belin Methodist Church in Murrells Inlet has hosted the annual “Blessing of the Inlet” on the first Saturday of May. In the wake of two wildfires that scorched nearly 20,000 acres in Horry and Georgetown counties, this year’s event will also help benefit the American Red Cross and the victims of the fires.

Well-known Florence foreign missionary Tommy Head was laid to rest Monday in Peru following a motorcycle accident Saturday in Pucallpa.

Service will be held Tuesday night at 7 pm, at Beth Israel, 316 Park Avenue, in Florence.

More than 250 people waited in line Monday morning in Florence to receive donations of free food boxes from the Harvest Hope Food Bank of the Pee Dee. The food bank set up a mobile pantry at Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ, near the corner of East Pine and Johns streets.

Volunteers from Barefoot Church in North Myrtle Beach will provide transportation to North Strand Helping Hand once a week for people seeking assistance with food, clothing, or financial resources.

Florence police investigating a string of break-ins that all happened downtown between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. And early Thursday morning, a barber shop on the corner of Dargan and Darlington streets went up in flames.

Saturday could be the first day of the rest of many childrens’ lives. Heartland Hospice, along with Little River United Methodist Church, will present a grief camp for kids on Saturday.