CRANBERRY TWP - The Cranberry congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints will have an open house the week of April 12 to 17 at its new meetinghouse at 2771 Rochester Road.

The 16,000-square-foot meetinghouse includes a chapel, cultural hall, family history suite, classrooms and offices.

Meetinghouses and chapels accommodate regular Sunday worship in addition to social and recreational activities. They differ from Latter-day Saint temples, where marriages are performed.

The new meetinghouse will serve nearly 500 Latter-day Saints in Cranberry, Seven Fields, Zelienople and other communities.

"We are excited to open the doors of this beautiful meetinghouse to the community," said Brad Agle, bishop of the Cranberry Congregation. "The open house will be an opportunity for our friends and neighbors to see how we worship and how we implement out programs for adults, youth and children."

Construction on the new structure began in November 2003. Costs for the project totaled several million dollars, said Mary Nelson, chairperson for the open house.

Open house activities, including 20-minute tours, will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

On Tuesday, volunteers with computers will do quick ancestry searches on two genealogy Web sites in the Family History Center.

"It'll be fun to just pop a name in and see how many hits we get," said Lynne Arrington, a spokeswoman for the congregation.

For those interested in doing more extensive research on their antecedents, the Family History Center will be open free to the public during hours which have yet to be set, said Arrington.

"Each (genealogy) library is a little different from the others. We try to tailor to fit the area. Ours has unique Pennsylvania records," she said.

On Wednesday, the topic will be the church's humanitarian service project and its service to the world.On April 14, the women's auxiliary will provide an introduction to the church's Relief Society.April 15 will be highlighted by Five Steps for a Family Fun Night. The events will include a visit by Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke. He will be available for photographs and will autograph memorabilia visitors bring with them that evening.April 16 will include learning to help at home with a special event for children ages 3 to 11.A youth meeting with Hoke and Vernon Law, the 1960 World Series Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher and a Cy Young Award winner, will be part of the April 17 events. The youth meeting, Achieving Your Dreams, will be at 7 p.m. April 17 including a congregational sacrament meeting from 11 a.m. until noon.

The Sunday morning meeting is open to the public with a reception following."We are a family-oriented Church, and we are delighted to be a part of such a family-oriented community," said Linda Johnson, president of the Cranberry Congregation's Relief Society, the church's organization for women.The Cranberry meetinghouse also will serve periodically as a regional meeting place for the members of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania North Stake, which includes congregations from Lisbon, Ohio, to Indiana, Pa. Membership in the Pittsburgh area is about 5,500.The church has a world-wide membership of 12 million.For information on the church, call 724-772-1912.