Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

The Rev. Robert Schuller says he would like to hear from his friend, Nobel Prize-winning Archbishop-elect Desmond Tutu, on the subject of apartheid in South Africa.

But the television evangelist has rejected Tutu’s own nominee to be the keynote speaker at the Reformed Church in America’s annual meeting at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.

Concerned that the largest opposition group in South Africa has been infiltrated by “violent elements,” Schuller informed the Reformed Church leadership that he would not permit the speech by Alfred Nzo, secretary general of the African National Congress, the oldest multiracial organization opposing white rule in that country.

E. Wayne Antworth, director for communications for the Reformed Church in America, said Thursday that the denomination’s leaders learned two weeks ago that Nzo’s June 18 talk would be banned because the appearance “could be detrimental to their (Schuller’s) ministry.”

All sessions of the denomination’s meeting, including the keynote address, were to be held in the arboretum of the cathedral. In the face of Schuller’s decision, the General Synod’s executive committee decided on what it described as a “compromise,” moving Nzo’s speech to the nearby Doubletree Hotel.

The ANC, outlawed in 1960, has become increasingly militant. Its guerrillas have doubled their attacks in the last 18 months, according to both ANC and police sources. In response, South African troops and warplanes attacked alleged ANC guerrilla facilities in three neighboring countries on May 21 in what the government said were actions against terrorism. The U.S. State Department condemned the raids. It does not list the ANC as a terrorist organization.

About 275 representatives of the 350,000-member denomination will meet at the cathedral June 14-20. The delegates represent nearly 1,000 congregations in the United States and Canada.

The gathering, considered a coup for Schuller since it is the first time the denomination will meet on the West Coast, was marred by the rejection.

Although it moved the location of Nzo’s speech, the executive committee unanimously reaffirmed its commitment to hear an ANC representative.

“This is a change in location,” Antworth said, “but not a change in agenda.”

In a prepared statement explaining his concern, Schuller, whose “Hour of Power” television show is broadcast across the country, said: “It is unfortunate that the African National Congress has in recent years been infiltrated by violent elements. The anti-apartheid position of the South African churches would be more appropriately represented by a distinguished nonviolent church leader such as (Anglican) Archbishop-elect Desmond Tutu. For my part, I deplore the violence of apartheid and the violence of revolution.”

Schuller did not explain what exactly he meant by violent elements.

Tutu has addressed gatherings of the Reformed Church in America, and, according to Antworth, it was “at the suggestion of and with encouragement from” Tutu that a ANC representative be invited to address this year’s meeting.

Instead, the keynote address to the General Synod, typically reserved for heads of state, is to be made by Oliver Tambo, president of the ANC, which the church considers South Africa’s “government in exile.”

A thin fiber of light will mean new hope for victims of cancer, vascular disease and isfiguring birthmarks--all candidates for laser therapy at the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic, which opened last week at UC Irvine.

The laser institute is reported to be the first facility in the world where laser research and treatment will take place side by side.

The clinic offers outpatient services in six treatment rooms and a surgical suite; on the other side of the lobby, researchers will investigate new ways to apply the laser.

UCI researchers are attempting to punch holes in cells with the light beam to inject new genetic material, and they are studying ways to reattach nerves and fuse blood cells.

Work at the institute will “help unlock the mysteries of the cell” and help lead to cures for blindness, cancer and other diseases, director Michael Berns said.

In what police said was a form of Russian roulette, a man was shot in the head, and police arrested a friend on suspicion of homicide.

George H. Nagata, 22, of Long Beach was at the Huntington Beach home of Randy D. Keller, 25, a physician’s assistant, when they began pointing the gun at each other, Police Sgt. Luis Ochoa said.

In Russian roulette, he said, “you take a gun and put anywhere from one to more bullets in it. Then you spin the cylinder, close it and pull the trigger. If it falls on an empty chamber, you win; if it falls on a bullet, you’ve lost.”

In this case, Nagata pointed the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver at Keller, but it did not fire, Ochoa said. When Keller pointed the gun, it fired into the victim’s face.

He died later at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital. Keller was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The Anaheim Convention Center got a new general manager last week, recruited from Orange County--Florida, that is.

Lynn Thompson, 42, for the past six years has run Orlando, Fla.’s, “Centroplex,” which includes the Orlando Stadium, Expo Center, Tinker Field, Ben White Raceway and Bob Carr Performing Arts Center.

Thompson will begin the new job July 9 at an annual salary of $77,500. The convention center last year had 1.7 million visitors who attended 54 conventions and trade shows.

Anaheim Memorial Hospital’s board of directors fired the hospital’s chief executive officer, Peter Gray, after a suit was filed charging him with embezzling $633,355 of the hospital’s money.

The suit alleged that Gray had laundered the money through two financial institutions and had used some of it to buy a home in Yorba Linda.