NORWAY – A memorial service for Joy Gasta will be held at 2 p.m. today, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at 479 Main St.

Special speakers will be Joe Perham and Helen Zidowecki.

A dance in tribute to Gasta will be performed by Deb Irons. Gasta, a longtime minister in Oxford Hills, died Oct. 2.

Historian to speak at Bates College

LEWISTON – Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University, will give a presentation titled “Religious Literacy: What Americans Don’t Know About the World’s Religions, and Why Their Ignorance Is Imperiling Our Politics” at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave., at Bates College.

The public is invited to attend the 2005-06 Zerby Lecture in Contemporary Religious Thought, sponsored by the chaplain’s office, free of charge.

Chairman of the department of religion and director of the graduate division of religious and theological studies at Boston University, Prothero is a historian of American religion who specializes in Asian religious traditions in the United States. The annual Zerby lecture honors the late Rayborn L. Zerby of Lewiston, professor emeritus of religion and dean of the faculty at Bates. For more information, people may call the chaplain’s office at 207-786-8272.

Fund-raiser at Blues Club Sunday

AUBURN – The Midnight Blues Club and the Life Center will host an afternoon of food, fun and music from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, at the Midnight Blues Club on Center Street.

Ten percent of all food sales will be donated to the Life Center for its Special Olympics team.

Performances will include the local bands FDX, which will play classic rock and blues, along with Counter Balance, The Johnny D. Band, and others.

There will be silent auctions, raffles and 50-50 tickets.

Lisbon voters accept 5 roads

LISBON – Fewer than 30 residents, including town officials and ballot clerks, took about a half-hour to approve all seven articles at a special town meeting Thursday night.

Accepted as town roads were Willow Circle, Polar Circle, Hemlock Street, Patron Terrace, and an extension of Hinkley Street.

Also approved were articles dealing with changes in the conditional-use ordinance, re-lettering sections of the zoning ordinance, amending the building code, and changing the itinerant vendor ordinance by requiring they be considered and licensed as a victualer.

J. Michael moderated the meeting.

Accident victim’s condition improves

BETHEL – A Massachusetts man injured in a violent crash Thursday on Route 2 had his condition upgraded from critical to fair Friday, a spokeswoman at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston said.

David Ashley, 69, of Westford, suffered a broken hip and leg after his compact station wagon crossed the centerline and collided with an empty casket company truck from Auburn just west of Bethel Auto Sales, Bethel Police Chief Alan Carr said. The truck driver was not injured.

– Terry Karkos