One World Market, 811 Ninth St., will showcase stunning Oriental rug creations made by artisans in Pakistan during its annual Oriental rug event Wednesday through Sunday, Sept. 2-6.

This is a popular happening at Durham's only fair trade store, and this year it will have even more importance, said Laura Wendell, executive director.

"This is a critical time for us because the economic crisis has put the store under stress and we are right before beginning to build our inventory for Christmas," she said.

Gil Melo and Jesse Gehman from the rug program will be at the store along with about 300 of the beautiful rugs that are made by talented artisans centered around Lahore, Pakistan.

Jakciss Oriental Rugs is the artisan group that produces the rugs marketed by Ten Thousand Villages in this country, the supplier for One World Market. The company was started in the late 1960s by Pakistan Baptist pastor Chaman Masih as a way to secure jobs for rug knotters in the villages.

It all began with only 10 families, a work force of both men and women that has grown to more than 850 families in about 100 villages that now receive fair prices for their heirloom-quality rugs.

Wendell said that One World Market usually sells 15 to 25 rugs each year to both individuals and decorators in the Durham area.

This year, the store will hold a seminar on the natural dye process that is used in these rugs. The seminar is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

"It will be interesting because before synthetic dyes were created, dyes were made from secret recipes in each family," Wendell said. "After synthetic dyes began to be used, all that knowledge was lost because synthetic dyes were cheaper and easily available."

She said the rug program has been working with families to find recipes so artisans can re-create the special colors that make these rugs so beautiful.

"At first, they had only a dozen or so recipes, but now it is up to a couple of hundred," she said. "There is a special look and feel of natural dyed rugs and people seem to gravitate toward them."

The seminar, led by the representatives of the rug program, is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.

Jewish Studies center to hold community events

A talk by a pioneer of Dead Sea Scrolls research will kick off a series of community events sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The events for the 2009-10 academic year will begin with the Sept. 14 lecture by Geza Vermes, emeritus professor of Jewish Studies at Oxford University. He will discuss the scrolls and evaluate their contribution to the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

Vermes' talk will be this year's Eli N. Evans Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies at 7:30 p.m. at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education. It is free to the public.

Other free community events sponsored by the center, an interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts and Sciences, will cover topics ranging from the revival of Jewish Mysticism to a film screening about a 1913 case in which a Jewish factory manager is accused of murder.

Nov. 16: Miri Rubin, professor of medieval history at Queen Mary, University of London, will explore the origins of ritual murder accusations against Jews in the middle Ages.

Jan. 25: Boaz Huss, associate professor at Ben-Gurion University, will examine some of the major features of contemporary Kabbalah (mysticism), and the context of the revival of Jewish Mysticism in today's culture.

April 19: Ben Loeterman, writer and director, will screen his new film "The People v. Leo Frank," which recounts the 1913 legal case of a Jewish factory manager in Atlanta who was accused of murdering one of his employees.

Other events will include academic lectures that are free and open to the public but are geared to a scholarly audience. They will focus on Jewish identities, poetry and politics and 18^th-century Hebrew printing. The speakers also will hold lunchtime seminars focused on their recent publications.

In addition, the center will host new book launches for history professor Christopher Browning's "Remembering Survival" and religious studies professor Jonathan Boyarin's "The Unconverted Self."

For details on all events, visit www.unc.edu/ccjs/ or call 919-962-1509.

St. Stephen's remakes concert series

St. Stephen's Episcopal has revamped its Sunday afternoon concert series, giving it a new name and announcing the schedule for 2009-10.

The name is St. Stephen's Concert Series and the new interim artistic directors are Dorothy Kitchen and Marian Tyson.

Andrew Tyson, pianist, will begin the series on Oct. 18, followed by the Borromeo Quartet and Dr. Joe Kitchen on Nov. 22; Dr. Dan Huff's UNC-CH Men's Chorale on Jan. 17, 2010; Dr. Tim Olsen, organist, on Feb. 21; and Nicholas Kitchen's Borromeo Quartet on April 18.

Concerts will begin at 4 p.m. An adult season subscription to all five concerts is $50, with individual tickets priced at $15 per concert. Students and children 18 and younger are admitted free.

To become a Friend of St. Stephen's Concert Series, make a donation of $100 or more. Such contributions help to underwrite the guest musicians and the costs of running the series.

E-mail marianmtyson@gmail.com for further information.

Church to hold 'Women of Wisdom Ministry'

New Visions United Christian Church, 6611 Guess Road, will celebrate its Women of Wisdom Ministry on Sunday, Aug. 30, at 11 a.m.

Guest speaker will be Evangelist Ronetta Pearsall of Raleigh. The theme is "Here I am to Worship."

The morning service will also debut the church's new Praise Dance Ministry. The Rev. Nathaniel B. Holloway is the pastor.

Women's meeting to host luncheon, speaker

The Durham Christian Women's Connection will hold its monthly program and luncheon on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 9:45 a.m. in the Croasdaile Village Commons dining room, 2600 Croasdaile Farm Pkwy.

The speaker will be Carole Gandee Jones of Carolina Beach, who enjoys outdoor adventure such as power walking and biking, which she has done in several countries around the world.

The special feature for the meeting will be given by Chris Helmstetter of Triangle Acupuncture.

Reservations for the buffet lunch that is $10 are necessary by calling 489-6924 or e-mailing dwconnection@ymail.com.