Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, preferring the...

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, preferring the desert to the sea, will be living in Palm Springs until February or March, a spokesman said. When the Bakkers returned to Southern California, from Gatlinburg, Tenn., last summer they started renting in Malibu but soon moved again to Palm Springs.

Palm Springs, of course, was the area where the Bakkers were holed up when the evangelist announced last March that he was resigning from the Assemblies of God ministry and quitting his PTL television network and amusement park.

Earlier this month, it was learned that Bakker has been ordained to the ministry by Faith Christian Fellowship International, a Tulsa-based association of charismatic churches, through the fellowship’s affiliate in the Mojave Desert city of Lancaster--a considerable distance from Palm Springs’ Coachella Valley.

The congregation was identified as the Springs of Life Ministry by the Antelope Valley Press, a thrice-weekly newspaper in Palmdale. The newspaper quoted church members as saying that Bakker had not spoken to the congregation but was being morally supported by the ministry. A man answering the phone at the Springs of Life Ministry this week said the ministry is making no comment on the matter.

Jeffrey Franklin, the Los Angeles-based agent for Bakker, said this week the couple is “doing well” and will be staying in Palm Springs until February or March. Other than that, he said he would have no comment. The Bakkers earlier indicated that they are interested in writing a book and exploring recording and television possibilities.

ACTION

Project Lovetide, a food and toy distribution program based in Fullerton, joined with the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Operation Blessing this year for a combined Christmas gift program to an estimated 15,000 people in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Distribution of personalized packages to needy families began on Thursday and will continue through the day before Christmas, an official said. The project combines the work of student volunteers at Pacific Christian College in Fullerton, about 30 churches connected to Project Lovetide and additional churches and para-church organizations which work with CBN.

PEOPLE

Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Roger M. Mahony announced this week that he plans to convene, after the holidays, a small group of academic, religious and defense industries representatives to start an annual forum on “the issues of peace.” Encouraged by the prospects for peace after the last summit of President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Mahony said such a forum “of the best minds here in Southern California” could be “a step toward deeper and fuller understanding.”

St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Hollywood has announced that the Rev. Robert Kettelhack, an Episcopal priest who has been diagnosed with AIDS, will preach at a special Advent Episcopal Diocese AIDS Mass to be celebrated by Suffragan Bishop Oliver B. Garver Jr. at 5 p.m. Sunday at the church. While continuing to be treated in an experimental program at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Kettelhack, 42, is maintaining an active AIDS ministry as associate rector of the parish. The Mass, the ninth sponsored by the diocese, is conducted for “persons with AIDS, their loved ones, care-givers and friends,” a spokesman said.

The Rev. Benjamin F. Reid, longtime pastor of the 3,000-member First Church of God in Los Angeles, is now a bishop--a rare designation in his denomination, the Church of God based in Anderson, Ind. For the last six years, Reid has been presiding bishop of more than 100 Churches of God in Nigeria, but the denomination--which emphasizes the autonomy of local churches--has avoided the title of bishop for its U.S. leaders. But the Interstate Assembly of the Church of God, serving black congregations in six Western states, recently installed Reid

DATES

Many residents of Swedish descent will attend the 101st annual Julotta service on Christmas morning at Angelica Lutheran Church at 1345 S. Burlington Ave., Los Angeles. It starts at 6:15 a.m. The Rev. Philip Ellman of Laguna Hills will present the service in English and Swedish while retired Lutheran Bishop Carl Segerhammer will participate using a liturgy from the old Augustana Lutheran tradition.

MEDIA

Actor Jimmy Stewart had been entertaining fellow members at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church with a Christmas program for about 10 years. This year some people decided that it would make a good television program, a church spokesman said. Fox Broadcasting agreed and will show “A Beverly Hills Christmas With James Stewart” in Los Angeles on Channel 11 at 1 p.m. Christmas day. Of course, in order to do that, Stewart and church friends had to bow to television production needs and actually celebrated the program early this year, in September.