Lutherans, Episcopalians Plan Covenant

Formalizing their cooperation, four bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church will sign a covenant Sunday pledging joint ventures between their two denominations in Southern California.

Although the Lutheran denomination declined to approve a nationwide concordat with the Episcopal Church last summer because of some ecclesiastical issues, regional efforts to coordinate church expansion strategies and other common interests have proceeded on a faster track in the Los Angeles area.

The covenant signing and Eucharistic celebration at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Hills will expand the formal links to include the San Diego Episcopal Diocese and the Lutherans’ Pacifica Synod, which already have begun coordinating work in the southern and eastern counties of the Southland.

“Mainline Christian churches in Southern California are increasingly aware that we need one another,” said Bishop Robert L. Miller, 64, who is retiring next month from the Yorba Linda-based Pacifica Synod.

In El Centro, Lutheran congregants use an Episcopal facility, and in Santee a Lutheran congregation shared its church with an Episcopal group for several years, Miller said.

In contrast to the Midwest, where there is a strong Lutheran presence, “we can’t afford going our own way” in the multi-faith Southland, said Miller, who will preside at the Eucharist on Sunday.

Giving homilies at the service will be Episcopal Bishops Gethen Hughes of San Diego and Frederick Borsch of Los Angeles and Lutheran Bishop Paul Egertson of the Los Angeles-based Southern California (West) Synod.

Miller, who has headed the Pacifica Synod since 1988, will be succeeded in August by the Rev. Murray D. Finck, 49, a former pastor who has been assistant to the bishop for ministry and pastoral care since 1993.

Finck was elected on the fifth ballot at the synod’s recent assembly. He won by 268 to 122 over the Rev. John F. Bradosky, senior pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach, which is the largest Evangelical Lutheran church in the state, with 2,616 members. The Rev. Jan L. Womer, a pastor from San Francisco, finished third in the balloting that began with 34 names.

A self-described moderate in theology and social issues, Finck will oversee a synod of nearly 60,000 Lutherans in 126 congregations in six counties and the state of Hawaii.

Finck will be installed as bishop Aug. 2 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach.

Using a Presbyterian church for the ceremony is “symbolic of our closer relationship with Presbyterians and other Reformed denominations, and the Presbyterians offered their sanctuary, which is twice as large as any of ours,” Finck said.

HOLIDAY

Shavuot, the Jewish holiday recalling the biblical accounts of God’s revelation to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, will be observed tonight and Sunday at many Southland synagogues--some with traditional all-night study sessions.

At Temple Judea, a Reform congregation in Tarzana, participants will study subjects ranging from the traditional (the Ten Commandments and the Book of Ruth) to the secular (Roth IRAs and hypnosis). Dairy foods associated with the holiday--blintzes and cheesecake--will be available for students in the informal classes, which start at 9 p.m. and last into the morning.

Yeshiva of Los Angeles and Community Beit Midrash, 9760 W. Pico Blvd., which had 600 men and women participants last year, will begin its all-night classes at 11:45 tonight.

Among synagogues confining their study celebrations to the evening hours, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, 1434 N. Altadena Drive, will observe the start of Shavuot from 7 p.m. to midnight, and Beth Knesset Bamidbar, 1611 E. Avenue J, Lancaster, will start with a 7:15 p.m. service and end with a closing ceremony at 11 p.m.

CONVENTIONS

The American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles, which will open its annual convention Friday night at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City, will hear Executive Minister Samuel S. Chetti outline regional church goals for the next dozen years and listen to the Rev. William S. Epps, pastor of Los Angeles’ Second Baptist Church, preach at the banquet next Saturday night.

In a pre-convention meeting of American Baptist clergy, the Rev. Jack Hayford, a nationally prominent Pentecostal minister and senior pastor of Van Nuys’ Church on the Way, will speak twice Thursday--at 4 p.m. and during a 7:30 p.m. service--at Calvary Baptist Church, 2828 W. Manhattan Beach Blvd., Gardena. (213) 955-9948.

* Bob Brower, the newly elected president of Point Loma Nazarene University (which changed its name from “college” to “university” this month), will speak Friday night at the annual Los Angeles District convention of the Church of the Nazarene. The three-day convention at Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene will open at 8:45 a.m. Thursday. (626) 794-7104.

DATES

Hundreds of Hindus are expected to take part in a fire ceremony, Gayatri Maha Yagna, Sunday on the grounds of Valley Hindu Temple, 18700 Roscoe Blvd., Northridge. Up to 150 small fires will be lit at 11 a.m. as a part of ceremonies and mantras chanted to Mother Gayatri that begin at 9:30 a.m. Fourteen people from the Gayatri headquarters in India will perform the ceremony accompanied by commentary in English. (818) 407-8908.

* The 85-year-old Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Alhambra, which is merging with the larger, predominantly Filipino St. Benedict Mission, will celebrate their union at 10:45 a.m. Sunday at the parish at 412 N. Garfield Ave. Bishop Frederick Borsch of the Los Angeles diocese will be the presiding celebrant and preacher at the service. The mission congregation, which has been led since 1994 by the Rt. Rev. Artemio M. Zabala, former bishop of North Central Philippines, has been worshiping at the host Holy Trinity parish. (626) 282-9118.

* St. Benedict Catholic Church in Montebello will hold a farewell celebration and Mass on Sunday in honor of an order of Benedictine monks that have staffed the parish since 1906. The Most Rev. Martin Lugo, abbott of the Benedictine monks of St. Gregory’s Abbey, Shawnee, Okla., will be the principal celebrant of the Mass during the 4 p.m. ceremony at the church, 820 N. Garfield Ave. The Benedictines, who will be replaced by priests of another order, are relinquishing the parish July 1 because of a shortage of priests at the abbey, a spokeswoman said. (213) 721-1184.

* Jim Hopper, a San Gabriel Valley-based teacher of Vipassana Buddhist meditation, will lead a retreat next Saturday for a Unitarian meditation group at Throop Memorial Church, 300 S. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. A donation of $35 is asked for the four-hour retreat, which will start at 1 p.m. (626) 795-8625.

Notices may be mailed for consideration to Southern California File, L.A. Times Religion desk, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053, or faxed to Religion desk (213) 237-7412. Items should arrive two to three weeks before the event, except for spot news, and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time.

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PEOPLE

Radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger will be honored Friday at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove for providing “a moral compass” on the nationally syndicated “Dr. Laura” call-in program. The occasion will be the annual concert showcasing the Crystal Cathedral Academy’s students and will thank those who have contributed to scholarships for the arts and music academy.

Arvella Schuller, the principal force behind the academy, is recovering from a heart bypass operation but plans to attend the concert, a spokeswoman said.

“It will be her first major public appearance since she suffered a heart attack in April,” said her husband, Robert H. Schuller, the senior pastor. The concert will also feature singer Carol Lawrence and organist Fred Swann, who is leaving for Los Angeles First Congregational Church in the fall. (714) 971-4000.

* The University of Redlands is saying goodbye to New Testament scholar James Hester, a professor of religion who is retiring after 31 years, and saying hello to a new, full-time Baptist chaplain, the Rev. John T. Walsh, who has held similar posts at Princeton, Harvard and UC Berkeley. Walsh, who starts July 1, will also lecture in the university’s religion department and serve as director of the Jameson Center for the Study of Religion and Ethics.