Benefit to Shore up Shaky Church : Della Reese Leads Program Tonight to Raise Funds for Quake Repairs

It’s Orange County’s answer to Live Aid. Musicians from all over Southern California will get together tonight to raise funds to help repair the First Church of Religious Science in Fullerton, which was damaged to the tune of thousands of dollars during the Oct. 1 earthquake.

The quake, church officials say, cracked the walls and dislodged a chimney in the 79-year-old building at 117 N. Pomona Ave. Worse, it loosened connections between the walls and the roof, to such a degree that the roof could cave in.

Della Reese, the nationally known pop singer, will headline the 7 pm. concert in Plummer Auditorium at Lemon Street and Chapman Avenue in Fullerton. But the supporting acts--performers from Orange and Los Angeles counties’ church and nightclub circuits--may prove every bit as interesting.

They hope to raise enough money not only to repair the church but to strengthen it for future earthquakes. Engineers estimate that the total bill will be around $100,000--a lot of money, but as the church’s pastor, the Rev. Marlene Oaks, points out, “it’s the oldest church in Fullerton, so it’s a real landmark. It’s a major part of the (city’s) heritage.”

The city has offered a redevelopment loan that will cover 25% of the reconstruction costs, Oaks said. But the money won’t be available unti the other 75% is in hand, she said.

Meanwhile, because of the damage, the city has prohibited more than 10 people at a time from occupying the building. Since the quake, services have bee moved to the Temple Beth Tikvah, a synagogue 3 miles away. As a result, Oaks said, attendance at Sunday services has dropped from 150 to about 120.

The concert is the most ambitious fund-raising effort the church has fund-raising effort the church has undertaken, Oaks said. So far, about $40,000 has been raised from a jewelry sale at Christmas, T-shirt sales and donations from other churches in the area. Tickets tonight will cost $25.

The concert was suggested by Pat Proud, an insurance investigator and part-time singer and composer. One night in January, Proud recalled, “I woke up and I just suddenly felt we should have a concert, and I wrote a song.” She called it “The House That Love Built”--her idea, she said, of “what a church is.” Tonight’s program will carry the same title.

The music will take many forms, from light, synthesizer-based “New Age” jazz to progressive jazz to folk. Reese, who last year was ordained as a minister with the Universal Foundation of Better Living in Chicago (and who says she was “a New Age musician before New Age got here”), got involved through Eric Strom, the music director of the Huntington Beach Church of Religious Science, who will serve as master of ceremonies.

In 1985, Strom sang with Reese in Brilliance, a group that also included pop singer O.C. Smith, now an ordained minister with his own church in Los Angels; Merry Clayton, who once sang with the Rolling Stones and who now acts on “Cagney and Lacey,” and Vermettya Royster, a former member of the Clara Ward Gospel Singers.

“I would be very disturbed and distressed if the place where I went to worship God were destroyed,” Reese said. (Reese is charging for the performance but said she will be taking only what she needs to pay her band).

Other musicians were just as enthusiastic about donating their time to the project, said Myra Kaplan, music director at the Fullerton church and coordinator of the event.

“It’s that feeling and need inside to help,” Strom said. “We’re not just talking about it, we’re doing something about it.”

“It’s like helping a friend or a family member,” said Kristopher Witty of the pop duo Balance. “Somebody says ‘so-and-so’s cousin’s house burned down, we’re all going to get together and help him rebuild it.”’

“It’s people needing people,” said Barbara Cooper, who attends the Religious Science Church in Burbank and plays New Age music with her husband, Lloyd, in a group called the Coopers. “It doesn’t matter what institution or who’s in trouble. People need to band together to help people.”

“It’s like helping a friend. They offered to pay me, and I said, ‘Please reinvest it in the church,’ ” saxophonist Paul Biondi said.

As of midweek, tickets for about 50 of the auditorium’s 1,334 seats had been sold, church officials said. The performers were optimistic that the turnout would be high. “I think Della Reese is a good drawing card,” said Ed Domene, who has been a soloist at the Fullerton Church for the past 25 years.

Future fund-raising plans include an auction May 6. Among the goods to be sold: a “wedding package,” with Oaks offering her services as a minister and Kaplan acting as organist.

“It would be just a terrible thing to tear the church down,” Oaks said. “We have a project that’s worth doing.”

“THE HOUSE THAT LOVE BUILT,” a benefit concert for the First Church of Religious Science in Fullerton. Tonight, 7 p.m. Plummer Auditorium, Lemon Street and Chapman Avenue, Fullerton. $25 Information: (714) 525-1126