Organizers of the Hollywood Bowl Easter sunrise...

Organizers of the Hollywood Bowl Easter sunrise service will launch a campaign next week for public contributions for the first time in its 67 years, a spokeswoman said.

After paying off a large debt last year and facing increased insurance costs, the volunteer group has so far raised only $5,700 through private solicitations toward the $40,000 budget for the April 19 service, according to Norma Foster, a member of the sunrise service board of directors.

In recent years, Foster said, the yearly cost averaged nearly $30,000 with a debt of up to $10,000 after all the donations and program sales were counted. But the deficit was almost $30,000 after last year’s service, Foster said.

“It was an uphill battle to retire that debt,” Foster said. “Then, for this year’s service our insurance premium went from $1,700 to $7,200.”

The board raised the possibility a few weeks ago that the service, which is televised locally, might not be held this year. Similar alarms were raised before to the 1973 and 1978 services, but private donations solved those crises.

Foster said this week that recently reelected board President William Lyons and other planners believe a public appeal for funds will allow the Bowl service to be held. Donations can be sent to Friends of the Easter Sunrise Sunrise Service, P.O. Box 10, Hollywood 90028.

Reflecting the fact that Easter falls on the same day this year for both Western and Eastern Orthodox churches, a Greek Orthodox priest will be one of the speakers on the program, Foster said.

About 8,000 people attended last year’s service, but Foster said attendance may be larger this year. The service will begin at 6 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. because of the earlier start this year of daylight-saving time.

DATES

A total of 20,000 Roman Catholics are expected to attend the three-day religious education congress that began Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles sponsors the 165 workshops and plenary talks at the annual gathering primarily for adults engaged in religious education classes at parishes throughout Southern California.

Father Lawrence M. Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest released last July after 19 months as a political hostage in Beirut, will be a guest speaker at the 11 a.m. service Sunday at the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

Two evangelists seen frequently on television are holding crusades soon in local arenas. The Rev. Frederick K. C. Price, pastor of the large Crenshaw Christian Center on the old Pepperdine College campus in Los Angeles, will hold forth Wednesday through Friday at the Long Beach Arena. The Rev. Jimmy Swaggert of Baton Rouge, La., will preach March 27-29 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

The Venerable Yeshe Dorje, a Tibetan lama of the Nyingma sect who has been the Dalai Lama’s official “weather-maker” for the last 13 years, will conduct an unusual session of teaching and blessings for AIDS victims and friends 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Plummer Park in West Hollywood. A spokesman, who said it is unusual for visiting lamas to address specific social issues, said the lama will give a blessing used in the past during epidemics.

HOLIDAY

A widely observed fun day on the Jewish religious calendar begins tonight at sundown. Purim festivities, often including carnivals, will be held at most synagogues. The holiday celebrates the overturning of a plot against Jews as told in the biblical Book of Esther.

PEOPLE

James C. McHann has been appointed president of Campus Crusade’s International School of Theology in San Bernardino, succeeding Ronald A. Jenson, who was named to head a leadership group in the worldwide evangelistic organization. McHann, a faculty member for eight years, is completing his doctorate from Aberdeen University in Scotland.