July 12, 2000

African Methodist Episcopal Church, nation's oldest black denomination, elects its first woman bishop, Rev Vashti Murphy McKenzie, pastor of Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore; her husband, Stan McKenzie, would normally be expected to serve as episcopal supervisor in Women's Missionary Society; election of McKenzie and three other bishops is delayed a day because of conflict over how many bishops will retire; photo (M)

New York Theater Workshop will host annual Community Day on July 16 in Manhattan, at which playwright Claudia Shear will discuss her plays with director Christopher Ashley; photo; Buddha Records issues remastered compact disc of Dust Bowl Ballads of late Woody Guthrie, folk troubador; Katonah Museum of Art will stage exhibit, Maine and the Modern Spirit, that will explore myth of Maine as American Eden and state's role in evolution of American art; photo; Indo-American Arts Council will present plays by Mahesh Dattani and Vijay Tendulkar at its first Festival of Indian Theater, beginning on July 14 at TriBeCa Performing Arts Center (M)

Clyde Haberman column questions blood bank bans on certain donors, including any man who has had even single homosexual encounter in last 23 years and people who have spent six months or more in Britain from 1980 to 1996; notes centers, struggling with low donations, also question bans, imposed by Food and Drug Administration out of concern over AIDS and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (M)

Despite an intensive attendance campaign, nearly 40 percent of students in kindergarten though 12th grade are missing from the most ambitious summer school program in New York City's history. The poor showing could prove a costly and embarrassing indication of just how hard it is to make a difference for children in a system as big and as complex as the city's. Article, Page B1.

Is time money? No, but it is worth a lot more to many workers. By a margin of almost two to one, respondents in a recent national survey by Harris Poll that was commissioned by FleetBoston financial said they would rather have more time off than be paid more money.