A handful of hardy souls arrived at an Amarillo Baptist church early Thursday, eager to begin a 72-hour 'pray-in' protesting a scheduled weekend witches convention.
The Rev. Rick Braswell, associate pastor and minister of evangelism at the San Jacinto Baptist Church, organized the vigil when word spread that the Church of Arianhu, a sect of the Church of Wicca, planned a two-day seminar at an Interstate 40 motel.
Braswell said Thursday church members signed up to pray, filling 'every hour on the hour, from 6 a.m today to 6 a.m. Sunday morning. We could have gone on (beyond that),' he said.
'I feel like it's (the convention) totally demonic _ definitely against the scriptures upon which Christians are supposed to believe,' said Braswell, 46,who came to Amarillo from Euless, Texas, four months ago.
The scheduling of the witches' seminar was pegged to coincide roughly wih the Oct. 23 arrival of the 'Samain,' the witches' new year, organizers said.
The seminar will include speakers from four states who will discuss esoterica ranging from 'psyonics' to self-help and psychic phenomena.
A member of the Arianhu Church who asked not to be identified said among the speakers will be Bob Moser, a Tucson, Ariz., electronics expert who is 'primarily into research on why psychic things work _ and if they do, how they do.'
Other speakers, she said, will include a Church and School of Wicca trustee, Skip Tarrant, of New Bern, N.C.; Cathy Delaney of 'the San Francisco area'; Galena Price of St. Louis; and astrology expert Michael Shoemaker of Virginia Beach, Va.
Not all participants claim to be witches, the church member said.
Brochures and news stories about the convention created a stir in some parts of the Texas Panhandle, particularly in the farming community of Dimmitt, where self-avowed witches and Arianhu Church members Loy and Louise Stone live in a modest rural home northwest of town.
The two were charged with murder in November 1977 in the death of a teen-age girl who was shot while she sat in a pickup truck with friends in the Stones' driveway.
Loy Stone, 50, was acquitted by a Plainview, Texas, jury in February and charges against his wife were dropped.
