The dean of denominational leaders in Southern...

The dean of denominational leaders in Southern California will retire in September after 22 years as the top regional executive for United Church of Christ congregations.

The Rev. Fred Register, who will turn 65 that month, has outlasted many bishops and ministerial executives based in the Los Angeles area since taking the position of “conference minister” in 1968. The North Carolina native previously held the same post in Nebraska.

From his conference office at First Congregational Church of Pasadena, Register oversees the work of 141 churches with 30,000 members in Southern California. The Cleveland-based denomination has 1.6 million members nationwide.

Noted for expertise in ecumenical and interfaith relations, Register for seven years chaired the national United Church of Christ delegation to the ongoing Consultation on Church Union, formed by mainline denominations to explore possibilities for mergers or closer ties.

Register is currently president of the multifaith Interreligious Council of Southern California, with a term expiring next February. He served as president of the Southern California Ecumenical Council in 1973 and 1974.

In keeping with the region’s ethnic mix and with the denomination’s progressive social stances, a church official said, a panel looking for a successor probably will favor a woman candidate and/or “a person of color,” other qualifications being equal.

Anglo males prevail among the presiding regional leaders for Southland religious bodies, notable exceptions being the Rev. Peggy Clark, the top administrator for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and bishops in predominantly black denominations.

RESOLUTION

In an overwhelming voice vote of approval, the San Diego Episcopal Diocese on Feb. 3 became the first in the Episcopal Church to extend blessings to the theologically conservative Episcopal Synod of America, a fledgling body that critics have called a divisive “church within a church.” However, the resolution adopted by the San Diego Diocese portrayed the Texas-based organization as one of “loyal Episcopalians” providing for legitimate expression of traditionalist views. An amendment added to the resolution at the diocesan convention in Palm Desert made it clear that the diocese “recognizes” the synod but is not affiliating with it.

DATES

Ted Engstrom, president emeritus of World Vision, the Monrovia-based evangelistic relief agency, will close the 60th annual mission conference of the Church of the Open Door in Glendora with sermons at the 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. worship services Sunday. Still a much-sought figure in evangelical circles, Engstrom serves on the boards of 21 institutions and agencies, including African Enterprise, Azusa Pacific University, Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church and the Luis Palau Evangelistic Assn.

The Rev. Martin E. Marty, a widely respected historian of modern American religion, will give a public lecture at 8 p.m. Thursday in Peterson Hall at UC San Diego--one of a series of San Diego speaking engagements. The University of Chicago Divinity School scholar, who directs a major project analyzing fundamentalist-like religious movements worldwide, will talk on fundamentalism in the campus speech.

The top administrator for the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church will discuss the changes in Eastern Europe today in Liberty Hall at the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Memorial-Park. Neal C. Wilson, president of the Adventists’ General Conference, will speak during the religious liberty rally from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.