A stained-glass window depicting St. Genesius, the...

A stained-glass window depicting St. Genesius, the patron saint of actors, will be dedicated today at St. Mary of the Angels Church, which was founded in 1918 as a mission church to the entertainment industry.

The window, already in place at the Los Feliz-area church, will be the only such tribute to St. Genesius outside of New York City, according to actor Brock Peters.

The legend of Genesius dates from the 3rd Century, according to the “Dictionary of Saints” by John J. Delaney. Genesius was said to be an actor who was converted to Christianity during a baptism scene of a play satirizing the Christian sacrament. The actor later announced his conversion to Emperor Diocletian, who had watched the performance. Enraged, the emperor ordered Genesius to be tortured until he reconverted, but the actor refused and was beheaded. “Though the legend is an ancient one, it is no more than that,” Delaney wrote.

Designed by Donald Gelder and executed by Judson Studios of Pasadena, the 4 1/2-foot-diameter window will be dedicated at ceremonies beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The Rt. Rev. Richard Willars, bishop of the Diocese of the Pacific Southwest of the Anglican Catholic Church, will join the Very Rev. Gregory Wilcox, the rector, in officiating. The congregation was once part of the Episcopal Church, but broke with the denomination after the 1976 national convention that approved of women priests.

ACTION

Clergy and lay leaders of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in California will launch its participation today in a broad signature-seeking campaign to improve voter registration and community services. Bishop E. Lynn Brown of Los Angeles, presiding bishop of the 9th Episcopal District, has endorsed the Sign Up Take Charge Campaign proposed by a coalition that includes the South-Central Organizing Committee and the United Neighborhoods Organization in Los Angeles. “We must organize to build a permanent power base,” Brown said in a statement. The closing sessions today of the denomination’s Southern California conference at Phillips Temple CME Church in South-Central Los Angeles will also hear from Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Pete Wilson.

PEOPLE

The day before United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez ended his 36-day fast on Sunday, Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony telegrammed Chavez with praise for his “spiritual fast” and “prophetic leadership” in protesting the use of pesticides on fruits and vegetables. Mahony said the fast called “all of us to consider even more deeply two pressing concerns affecting our nation’s food supply: the health and safety of all who labor in the fields, and the purity of the foods which are placed on our tables.”

Deborah E. Lipstadt, former director of Brandeis-Bardin Institute, has been appointed scholar-in-residence at Wilshire Boulevard Temple for 1988-89. She is author of the critically acclaimed “Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust.”