2,000 Services to Mark Date of A-Bombings

As many as 2,000 regularly scheduled religious services this weekend and next in Southern California will take note of the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in what an official of the Interfaith Center to Reverse the Arms Race has termed “an unprecedented breadth of support in the religious community” for anti-war sentiments.

Tony Wolfe, executive director of the Pasadena-based organization, said his office has mailed out 500 liturgical packets to interested congregations, about 50 volunteers have called pastors and rabbis, and the Los Angeles Roman Catholic archdiocese has sent letters to pastors in its 283 parishes to urge participation.

Eleven West Los Angeles synagogues will blend the observance of Tisha B’Av, commemorating the destruction of Judaism’s First and Second Temples, with themes on the dawn of nuclear weaponry in a special service tonight at Leo Baeck Temple. Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman, the temple’s spiritual leader and a co-founder of the interfaith organization, will lead the service.

The service is further linked to a month-long arts festival, backed by secular and religious groups, which is using the theme, “Imagine There’s a Future.”

By participating in the festival, said the Rev. Eugene Boutilier, director of the Southern California Ecumenical Council, “the religious community has a unique opportunity to express our outrage over the threat that the escalating arms race poses to humanity.”

Another festival-linked event occurs Aug. 4 when Cardinal Timothy Manning, the retiring archbishop of Los Angeles, will read a peace message from Cardinal Joseph Satowaki of Nagasaki during a special afternoon Mass at St. Francis Xavier Chapel, a Maryknoll Japanese mission in Little Tokyo. On the same day, the Japanese cardinal will read a message from Manning at the Nagasaki cathedral.

In an independently organized event planned months ago in Santa Barbara, Archbishop Roger Mahony, named on July 16 to succeed Manning, will co-direct a five-day retreat on “Becoming Artisans of Justice and Peace” at the La Casa de Maria, starting Wednesday night. Mahony, who has been serving as the bishop of the five-county Stockton diocese, will lead the retreat with Chris and Dan Delany, members of the Catholic Worker movement.

The Los Angeles chancery, in a belated press announcment, said formal installation of Mahony as archbishop will begin Sept. 4 in San Fernando at Queen of Angels High School Seminary in San Fernando. Mahony will formally present to archdiocesan officials that afternoon the papal letters authorizing his appointment.

A public ceremony will be conducted Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in St. Vibiana’s Cathedral with many civic and church dignataries attending. Priests of the archdiocese received the dates and other details in the mail Tuesday but no news announcement was made until late this week.

Evangelical Protestants and Mormons have been cheered by enthusiastic turnouts recently in Southern California.

By Sunday night, the final evening of the 10-day Southern California Billy Graham Crusade, officials should exceed their goal of 500,000 cumulative attendance at Anaheim Stadium, based on nightly attendance so far. The evangelist drew 384,000 at his last crusade at the stadium in 1969.

Attendance expectations by Southern California Mormons were met last Saturday night for the church’s 1985 Rose Bowl Dance Festival, according to spokesman Gary C. Lawrence. He said a Bowl official estimated there were 93,000 persons in the facility, including the approximately 15,000 dancers and volunteer workers.