Catholic Reform Group Conference Set

Call to Action, a reform-minded Catholic organization, will hold its first Western regional conference next weekend at Claremont McKenna College in an attempt to galvanize liberal voices in Southern California.

The group drew national attention last year when members of the Call to Action chapter in Lincoln, Neb., were threatened with excommunication by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz for the group’s advocacy of change on priestly celibacy, women’s ordination and other issues.

The 1995 national meeting of the organization drew 4,000 registrants and coverage by CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Objecting to what he called the program’s implication that Call to Action represented the future direction of the church, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony persuaded host Mike Wallace to do another televised segment on the 1996 Religious Education Congress in Anaheim attended by 20,000 Catholics each year.

Call to Action, which has affiliated chapters in San Diego and San Jose and a fledgling group in Orange County, expects about 300 registrants for its regional conference in Claremont, said Evi Quinn of Carlsbad, a conference organizer.

“We invited the bishops who head all 12 dioceses in California and all the auxiliary bishops of Los Angeles, but so far it doesn’t look like any will attend,” Quinn said.

The three-day meeting will begin Friday with an opening talk at 7:30 p.m. by Tom Fox, editor of the National Catholic Reporter, a liberal weekly newspaper in Kansas City, Mo. Priest-theologian Michael Crosby of Milwaukee, author of “The Dysfunctional Church,” will give the keynote speech at 9 a.m. next Saturday.

Psychotherapist-author Patricia Martens of St. Louis will discuss “Human Sexuality and Conscience” at 7:30 p.m. next Saturday.

The 15 workshop speakers include two San Diego State faculty members--Florence Morgan Gillman speaking on early Christianity and Father Ron Pachence talking on relations between Islam and Christianity. Other seminar topics include marriage after divorce, welcoming gays and lesbians, married ex-priests, women in the church and immigration policies.

Registration fees vary. (619) 487-7055.

PEOPLE

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Rabbi David Wolpe, 38, who was an administrator and teacher at the University of Judaism for years, began in July as the new senior rabbi of the 1,350-family Sinai Temple in Westwood. Author of several books, Wolpe for the last three years was assistant to the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

Wolpe succeeds Rabbi Allan Schranz, who was on a year’s leave from the 90-year-old Conservative synagogue.

* The Rev. Gary Beard, newly appointed as senior pastor of Downey United Methodist Church after nine years at Huntington Beach United Methodist, is noted for his balloon ministry with children. “People are always giving me balloons, and I pay for my helium tanks from wedding honorariums,” Beard said. “I do it a lot.”

A Methodist mini-carnival perhaps could be formed around Beard and clergy colleagues with special avocations: magician Gilbert Stones from Woodland Hills, “Dolly the Clown” Kenneth Gosselin from San Fernando and black belt martial artist Phil Wood from the Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia.

* Joop Koopman, editor of the National Catholic Register in 1995 when the Encino-based weekly was bought and moved six months later to Connecticut, was terminated, effective this week. A 10-year veteran of the newspaper, Koopman said differences in journalistic philosophy arose with the new priestly owners, the tradition-minded Legionaries of Christ.

DATES

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In a protest against the death penalty, the Peace and Justice Committee of Pasadena’s All Saints Episcopal Church will hold a four-hour vigil Monday night--the evening before the scheduled execution at San Quentin State Prison of condemned murderer Thomas M. Thompson. The meditation at the church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., will start at 9 p.m. Earlier, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese urged Gov. Pete Wilson to grant clemency, saying the U.S. bishops commiserate with victims of violence but also contend that society does not benefit by taking another life.

* Asian studies scholar John McRae of Cornell University will speak on “Buddhism in China” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the monthly free lecture series at the new Hsi Lai University campus, 1409 N. Walnut Grove Ave., Rosemead. Moderating the session will be Richard S. Millman, provost and dean of the faculty at Whittier College. (626) 571-8811, Ext. 105.

* Three noted women cantors will appear together in concert at Stephen S. Wise Temple, located off Mulholland Drive in the Sepulveda Pass, at 7 p.m. Sunday. Billed as “The Three Sopranos,” they are Linda Kates of the host temple, Alisa Pomerantz-Boro of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego and Ilene Keys of Temple Sinai in Oakland. $15. (310) 476-8561, Ext. 2265.

* The Rev. Frederick K.C. Price, pastor of the Crenshaw Christian Center, whose syndicated television broadcasts have attracted a nationwide following, will greet about 250 pastors next week at his 10,146-seat FaithDome. The clergy are members of the nationwide Fellowship of Inner City Word of Faith Ministries, which will begin a five-day annual conference Tuesday at the church complex, 7901 S. Vermont Ave. (213) 758-3777.

* Alan Wallace of the UC Santa Barbara religious studies department will give a talk at 11 a.m. Sunday on “Buddhism: A Religious Science of the Mind” at the Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles. $5 donation. Wallace also will lead a two-hour workshop, starting at 1:30 p.m. $15. (213) 663-2167.

FINALLY

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A Santa Barbara man has picked Friday--the eighth day of the eighth month--for willing groups of eight people to meditate or pray simultaneously with healing thoughts for physical ailments from AIDS to addictions.

Randy Baldes, a businessman, said the eight-minute ceremony outlined by his Tonglen Foundation will be held as far away as Hungary, Croatia and Kenya, all starting at 7:30 p.m. PDT.

“We’ve written a ceremony that honors the spark of compassion that is the source of all healing,” he said. (805) 969-0713.

Participants, at separate locations, are expected to include singer Kenny Loggins, teacher-writer Marianne Williamson and writer Jack Canfield (co-author of the bestselling “Chicken Soup for the Soul”), all of Santa Barbara. Other promised participants include author Deepak Chopra of La Jolla, actress Mariette Hartley of Los Angeles and Ken South of the AIDS Interfaith Network.

Why the emphasis on the number eight? After citing as self-explanatory “the seven energy centers in the body plus the eighth element, the Holy Spirit,” Baldes said it had to do with numerology. “It’s completely intuitive,” he added finally.

The Rev. Margaret Stortz of Oakland, president of the nationwide United Church of Religious Science, has recommended the rites to members. Baldes said leaders of Unity churches and Dignity USA, a gay religious movement, also have urged participation.

Contributors: For the first three weeks in August (while John Dart is on vacation), please send notices for consideration to Nona Yates, Metro/L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or fax news releases to her attention at (213) 237-4712. Items should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time.

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FESTIVAL

The Hare Krishna movement’s Festival of the Chariots, a traveling Hindu vegetarian feast and parade featuring three floats, will be held Sunday for the 21st year at Venice Beach.

The event begins at 11 a.m. when four-story floats decorated with fresh flowers will be hand-drawn from Santa Monica Beach to the Venice Beach Pavilion. There also will be classic Indian dancing, puppet shows and displays on vegetarianism, meditation and reincarnation.

An estimated 18,000 free meals were served last year, according to a spokesman for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the formal name for Hare Krishnas. The movement takes the festival to 50 cities worldwide during the year.