After 57 years of pastoring the Hollywood...

After 57 years of pastoring the Hollywood Church of Religious Science, the Rev. Robert H. Bitzer, at age 92, is cutting back on his ministerial duties but not completely retiring. He will continue to teach special classes and act as guest speaker at the church on Sunset Boulevard. But Sunday services have been led by the newly named co-pastor, the Rev. Domenic Polifrone, since Oct. 1.

When Bitzer organized the Hollywood church in 1930, it was at the behest of Ernest Holmes, the Los Angeles-based founder of the now-worldwide metaphysical movement. The Hollywood congregation was said to be the first branch church established by Religious Science.

Religious Science emphasizes, among other things, health through positive attitudes and teaching aimed at enhancing self-esteem. It has been open to metaphysical aspects of the Judeo-Christian tradition and eastern religions.

Bitzer was honored Friday night at a testimonial dinner in Beverly Hills for his long tenure in Hollywood and his prominence in the broader movement.

In 1949, Bitzer was elected president of the International New Thought Alliance and served for 15 years. After a split in the Religious Science movement in the mid-1950s, Bitzer was president of Religious Science International for 10 years.

Raised in Virginia, Bitzer first studied to be an organist, although he did not have a religious career in mind.

As a young man with the Virginia National Guard, he went to the Mexican border when American troops sought Pancho Villa during revolutionary turmoil in Mexico. During World War I, he trained as a pilot in Canada and England, then trained other pilots in France. Only in the mid-1920s did he abandon a pre-medical education for a life in the ministry.

PEOPLE

Hazrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad, supreme head of the international Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, took part in ceremonies Friday laying the foundation stone for a mosque in Chino. The Ahmadiyya Movement, founded in 1889 by Ahmad’s grandfather, is considered heretical by most Muslims because the founder, Ahmad’s grandfather, claimed to be a promised reformer--the Mahdi in Islamic tradition--and one who would unite other religions under the Islamic fold. Ahmad, living in London in exile from Pakistan because of laws there proscribing Ahmadiyya activity, is on a U.S. tour that includes the edication of mosques in Tucson and Portland, Ore. The Southern California community is small--only 250 members, said Anwer Khan, a spokesman. But the sect has about 15,000 American members and an estimated 10 million worldwide, he said.

ACTION

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, at its board meeting last weekend near San Bernardino, took steps to tighten surveillance of its 400 member organizations and agreed to handle the administration of the National Religious Broadcasters’ own new proposed financial accountability program. Evangelical Council President Arthur Borden said that his Washington-based organization will require its affiliated ministries to submit copies of their annual 990 Internal Revenue Service forms to the council. “The 990s have salary information, which we’ve never asked for before,” Borden said. The council board also voted to make on-site auditing visits to about 50 of its members each year.

DATES

Do New Age beliefs and Native American traditions mix well? They do for Sun Bear, founder-leader of the Bear Tribe “intentional community” based in Springdale, Wash. A one-time consultant and stunt man for television Westerns, Sun Bear has combined holistic and esoteric teachings with Indian tribal healing traditions for a series, since 1980, of Medicine Wheel Gatherings. When participants join in spirit, he said in a news release, “we channel love and healing energy to the Earth Mother in an atmosphere of honor, respect and ceremony.” Just such a weekend gathering begins Friday at Calamigos Ranch near Malibu, with adult registration costing up to $150 per day. One advertised speaker recently canceled out: Jose Arguelles, whose writing about “harmonic convergence” excited New Age enthusiasts last August.