Congregations remove the language barrier

Four times a year -- usually at Christmas, Chinese New Year, Easter and Pentecost -- two Lutheran congregations sharing one facility in Anaheim come together for joint worship services.

Members of Grace Taiwanese Lutheran Church read Scripture and sing hymns in Chinese, and parishioners of Grace Lutheran Church, Anaheim, worship in English.

But their different languages no longer present a barrier.

With a new bilingual resource, the “Chinese Lutheran Book of Worship,” both groups can follow the service with ease.

“It is very convenient,” said the Rev. Thomas Chen, pastor of Grace Taiwanese Lutheran. It also serves as a “bridge to bring together first-generation immigrant parents and their [English-speaking] children,” said Chen, who was one of the ministers who worked on the historic resource book.

For their joint programs, Chen and the Rev. Milo Ken Anderson, pastor of Grace Lutheran, Anaheim, choose selections from the “Book of Worship.”

Anderson takes the lead on the sermon, because he is monolingual.

Chen, who speaks English and Chinese, translates a summary of Anderson’s sermon for those in his congregation who are proficient only in Chinese.

“Any time you have two languages going on, you always have a little bit of a break,” Anderson said. But over all, he said, the joint worship has worked out “relatively well.”

In the 376-page book, Chinese and English are printed on facing pages. Years in the making, the text includes services for every occasion -- communion, baptisms, weddings and funerals -- and prayers for child adoption and “those leaving”: students, military personnel and immigrants

The burgundy-colored book cover shows a modified Greek cross; its four equal-length arms have decorative extensions that appear to be birds in flight

The Rev. Kevin Anderson, who handles worship and liturgical resources for the 4.8-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, says two interpretations of the cross are that it represents the Christian church in every land -- north, south, east and west -- or the four Gospels.

As for the extensions to the arms of the cross on the book cover, he said: “You might see them as a bird, the Holy Spirit, flying out in all directions from the cross. . . .

“You also might see this as the cross budding with new branches, leaves and fruit, Christ as the Tree of Life,” he added.

The book is a welcome addition, said Gladys Chow, a lay leader at Christ Lutheran Church in Monterey Park.

As soon as her church, which has been without a pastor for some time, gets a new minister, she hopes the book will be incorporated into worship.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has 32 Chinese congregations, 13 of them in California.

In addition to the new Chinese worship book, the church organization has a similar resource, “Libro de Liturgia y Cantico,” for Spanish speakers and “This Far by Faith” for the African American community.

“We are enriched as Lutherans when we experience a diversity of music, language and expressions of faith,” said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

“The Chinese Lutheran Book of Worship is a great blessing as our church brings the good news of Jesus Christ to our neighbors, particularly in the fast-growing Asian communities throughout the United States,” said Hanson, also president of the Lutheran World Federation, representing more than 66 million adherents around the world.

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Haggard replaced

Nine months after the Rev. Ted Haggard was removed from leadership of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and resigned as president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, the mega-church has approved a new pastor.

According to a message posted on the New Life Church website, more than 95% of the congregation approved the appointment of the Rev. Brady Boyd, 40, a pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas.

Accompanying the announcement was a family portrait of Boyd, his wife and two children.

“This is a great day for New Life Church,” Boyd said in a statement. “All of us are excited about writing the next chapter together.”

Haggard was fired from the church he founded after church officials investigated a Denver male prostitute’s claim that Haggard had visited his apartment for sex and drugs.

Haggard admitted to sexual immorality but denied that he used drugs.

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Sikhs protest

Organizations representing the nation’s Sikhs are protesting a new Transportation Security Administration policy on screening procedures for head coverings.

Since the policy went into effect in August, dozens of Sikhs have complained that their turbans have been subjected to pat-down searches, officials said. In some cases, people have been asked to remove their turbans, which are considered sacred.

“The federal government has equated our most precious article of faith with a terrorist implement,” said Amardeep Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, based in Washington, D.C.

But agency spokesman Nico Melendez said the revised procedures subject “all persons wearing head coverings,” whether a turban or a cowboy hat, to the possibility of additional security screenings, which may include a pat-down search of the head covering.

“Individuals may be referred for additional screening if the security officer cannot reasonably determine that the head area is free of a detectable threat item. If the issue cannot be resolved through a pat-down search, the individual will be offered the opportunity to remove the head covering in a private screening area.”

Rajbir Datta, a spokesman for the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said that if the new policy is based on the fear of “nonmetallic threat items” getting through the security, everyone, not just those with head coverings, should be subjected to pat-down searches.

“What we are seeing and hearing [from Sikh travelers] is that they are being told all turbans need to be searched and in some cases removed,” he said.

The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Sikh Coalition are also representing Sikhs who have been denied entry into popular nightclubs and eateries in Carlsbad and Irvine because they were wearing turbans.

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Church gets a stay

An L.A. County Superior Court judge has decided that a dissident Episcopal congregation can remain in its La Crescenta church during its appeal in a property dispute.

In the Aug. 22 ruling, Judge John S. Wiley granted a stay of a July 3 judgment that found that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles was the rightful owner of the buildings and other property of St. Luke’s of the Mountains. The congregation broke from the diocese in February 2006 because of differences over biblical interpretation, including what the dissidents have described as the broader church’s too-lenient views on homosexuality.

The parish is one of at least four in Southern California and about four dozen in the U.S. that have seceded from the Episcopal Church since the 2003 consecration of an openly gay priest as bishop of New Hampshire. Many are involved in similar struggles over church property.

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connie.kang@latimes.com

Rebecca Trounson contributed to this report.