Cleric Unwavering in His Trust of People

The Rev. Arnold G. Kuntz, retiring as president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s Southern California District, said Friday that one thing he has learned in 16 years of dealing with church, clergy and lay tribulations is that assuming the best about people works nine out of 10 times.

“The people who think that’s naive are naive,” he said in his official report to the three-day district convention at the Airport Marriott Hotel.

The district, which has 100,000 members in Southern California, Arizona, southern Nevada and Hawaii, will elect a new president today.

The region had a minimum of open conflict during the tumultuous mid-1970s when moderate elements split from the conservative denomination to form a new church. Kuntz noted in passing, however, that emotional congregational fights over “staying or leaving” did take place and that Missouri Synod Lutherans did not escape more commonly experienced problems arising from clergy burnout and divorces.

As if to illustrate his points about positive thinking, putting aside pride and risking being “naive,” Kuntz told a story about an encounter he had with a “stringy-haired young man” on a 10-speed bicycle who needed money about five weeks earlier.

While searching for a store at the South Coast Plaza, Kuntz said, the young man pulled quickly over to ask, “Are you a member of Calvary Chapel (a large nondenominational church in Orange County)?”

Kuntz said no and the man sagged with disappointment, muttering, “I’ve got to find a Christian.”

“I don’t belong to Calvary Chapel, but . . . I am a Christian,” Kuntz shouted after him. The young bicyclist turned back sharply and said, “Praise the Lord.”

He told a story of being unable to find a job and of his rent being overdue. He had to have $738.40 by 1:30 p.m. or he and his wife would be evicted.

“Ten to one, I added silently, he tells me his wife is expecting,” Kuntz said.

“And on top of everything else, my wife is expecting,” the man told Kuntz. “I’ve got all of it but $17.70

“Long hair and I looked into my wallet. ‘Praise the Lord’--this time I beat him to it. A 10, a five and two singles,” Kuntz recounted.

The clergyman reached into his pocket. “I knew when I laid claim to being a ‘Christian’ that I wasn’t going to get out of there with much more than change for the phone. . . . There in the palm of my hand was two quarters, one dime and two nickels--$17.70,” he said.

“Praise the Lord!” the young man exclaimed.

Kuntz said he was brought up in a home where “accepting the maneuvering hand of a God of purpose was elementary. We never talked about ‘luck’ at our house without an editorial on the overriding plan and purpose of God.”

Concluding his talk, Kuntz said there is no remarkable ending to prove that God or Christ has a way of paying off the charitable Christians. Kuntz had given the man his business card, but the churchman said, “I hope that young man really doesn’t show up one day with $17.70 in his hand to pay me back. I think that might spoil the whole story.”

Tens of thousands of Eastern Orthodox Christians in Southern California will celebrate Easter at ceremonies beginning before midnight tonight with the liturgy at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles typical of the color and tradition.

Exactly at midnight, in the darkened church, Father George J. Venetos, the cathedral’s dean, will enter carrying a lighted candle, inviting people to “come receive the light,” symbolizing the Resurrection of Jesus. The light is then passed from pew to pew until everyone is holding a lighted candle. When worshipers depart after the 1 1/2-hour liturgy they each will receive a red egg, again symbolic of the Resurrection.

Though a Vespers of Love service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Sunday at the cathedral, the popular conclusion for many Greek Orthodox is the annual lamb barbecue picnic, to be held this year starting at noon at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu Canyon.

Beginnings: David Davenport, 34, who has worked as an attorney in San Diego, an El Cajon pastor and a television preacher, will assume the office of president of Pepperdine University Tuesday on the opening day of the Malibu campus’s 42nd annual Bible Lectureship seminars. . . . .Lt. Col. John Gowans was installed as head of all Salvation Army programs and services in Southern California on Thursday at the denomination’s Los Angeles Congress Hall.