Mitzvah Day to Offer Many Opportunities for Involvement

More than 30 congregations in the San Fernando Valley will take part in Mitzvah Day 99 on Oct. 24, and more than 70 community service projects will be sponsored throughout the region. Stephen S. Wise Temple, 15500 Stephen S. Wise Drive, Los Angeles, will offer the most programs, with more than 40 projects that day.

Opportunities to help children and pets, the environment, the homeless and hungry, seniors and health-related causes will be among the offerings. In the largest project, 200 trees will be planted in conjunction with TreePeople at Lake Balboa in the Sepulveda Basin from 9 a.m. to noon.

Other chances for service will include arts and crafts projects that families can work on together for people in shelters, hospitals and other institutions, painting a mural at a homeless shelter, preparing meals for shut-ins and entertaining at senior residences.

The synagogue will also offer a blood drive, bone marrow registry and breast cancer evaluation and self-examination instruction on that day. Appointments are required for those events.

For more information about the Stephen S. Wise Temple events and to make appointments, call (310) 889-2274.

EVENTS

The Miracle City Community Church, 300 S. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena, will celebrate its 29th annual Harvest Festival on Sunday at 5 p.m. Call (626) 798-0254.

* Members of the California Heights United Methodist Church, 3759 Orange Ave., Long Beach, will join to help feed the hungry next Saturday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 7th Street and Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Call (562) 595-1996.

* The Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Road, Encino, will host a day of prayer to help participants explore issues of faith, meaning, wholeness, early religious experiences and midlife identity. “Our Critical Journey of Faith” will be held Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Call (818) 784-4515.

SERVICES

On Sunday, United University Church will celebrate the 125th anniversary of Old First Presbyterian Church, which joined with University Methodist in 1982 to form the current church. The day will include a continental breakfast at 9 a.m., oral history at 9:15, worship at 10:30 and a luncheon, storytelling and song at noon. United University is on the north side of the USC campus where Hoover Street meets Jefferson Boulevard. Call (213) 748-0209.

* The Tabernacle of Faith Baptist Church will celebrate its 55th anniversary Sunday through Oct. 24. The church was organized in 1944 by the late Rev. F. Douglas Ferrell and 38 charter members. An anniversary banquet will be held Friday at 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Torrance. The Rev. Samuel Chetti, executive minister of the American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles, will be the guest minister at the Culmination Service on Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. Call (323) 569-4162.

CONFERENCES

“Women and Spirituality: A Hindu-Roman Catholic Dialogue” will be the subject of a daylong conference at Loyola Marymount University, 7900 Loyola Blvd., Westchester, next Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The free event will feature discussions of Christian and Hindu traditions of women’s spirituality, sustaining the feminine sacred and Hildegard of Bingen’s vision of nature and its relationship to God. Call (310) 338-2846.

* “A Fresh Anointing for the New Millennium” will be the theme for the second annual “Ministry ‘99” conference, hosted by Gregory L. Dixon, senior pastor at First Church of God, 9550 Crenshaw Blvd., Inglewood, Wednesday through next Saturday. The conference is intended to provide a forum for pastors, ministers and directors to become better prepared for ministry in the church. Youth and young adult ministry, outreach ministries and technology and ministry are among the subjects that will be covered. Call (323) 757-1804.

LECTURES

Father Damascene Christensen, a monk at the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery in Northern California, will discuss his new book, “Christ the Eternal Tao,” at the Archangel Michael Orthodox Bookstore, 12550 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Call (310) 390-8065.

* George Hedges, co-leader of the Mahra Archaeological Project, will discuss “Explorations Along the Ancient Incense Route” on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. It is the second in the Fall Lecture Series of Claremont Graduate University’s Institute of Antiquity and Christianity. It will be held in the Founder’s Room of the Honnold Library, 800 N. Dartmouth St., Claremont. Call (909) 621-8066.

* “Gurdjieff: A Search for Meaning,” will be the subject of a lecture presented by the Los Angeles Branch of the Gurdjieff Foundation of California to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of George Gurdjieff. A recital will be held Oct. 28. Both events will be in the Fellowship Hall of the Westwood United Methodist Church, 10497 Wilshire Blvd., at 7 p.m. Gurdjieff founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man near Paris in 1922 and wrote numerous books. Call (310) 281-8149.

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Notices may be mailed for consideration to Southern California File, c/o Religion Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or faxed to Southern California File at (213) 237-4712, or e-mailed to [email protected]. Items should arrive two to three weeks before the event and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time. Because of the volume of submissions, we cannot guarantee publication.