The National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.--the nation’s...

The National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc.--the nation’s third largest Protestant denomination--is expected to attract 40,000 delegates and visitors to its annual meeting Sept. 4-9 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The 110th assembly follows the opening this year of the $10-million National Baptist World Center in Nashville, Tenn., the denomination’s new headquarters. The predominantly black denomination claims more than 7.5 million members in 30,000 churches, trailing only Southern Baptists and United Methodists.

The denomination still owes about $7 million on the center, “but we will pay off another $1.5 million as we leave Los Angeles,” said the Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, the denomination’s secretary.

Convention time is traditionally a fund-raising time for the National Baptists.

But the Rev. T. J. Jemison of Baton Rouge, La., reelected last year for a five-year term as president, says the goal is to pay off the mortgage over the next three years. “We need many of our churches to give a minimum of $10,000” at the Los Angeles meeting, Jemison said.

The National Baptists, who also met in Los Angeles in 1983, will begin formal business sessions at 9 a.m. on Sept. 5. Jemison will give his presidential address the next morning.

About 17,000 people are expected to attend a pre-convention musical at the Convention Center on Sept. 4.

A Sunday morning service at the Convention Center will serve as a substitute for worship services in local National Baptist churches, according to the Rev. Joseph B. Hardwick, pastor of Praises of Zion Baptist Church in Los Angeles and chairman of the convention committee.

PEOPLE

Jane Dempsey Douglass, 57, a former Claremont professor who now teaches historical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, was elected this week in Geneva to replace South African anti-apartheid leader Allan Boesak as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Douglass, a Presbyterian elder, taught for more than two decades at the School of Theology at Claremont and at the Claremont Graduate School. She will serve as president until the next general council of the World Alliance, which includes 157 member denominations from more than 82 countries. Boesak resigned after his reported affair with Elna Botha, a South African television journalist, prompted him to step down as pastor of his congregation outside of Capetown and to resign as moderator of his denomination, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church.

DATES

Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser, recovering from shoulder surgery this season, regularly attends Pasadena’s Lake Avenue Congregational Church. The right-hander, who talked openly of his faith during his banner 1988 year, will speak at the church’s 6 p.m. service Sunday on his spiritual pilgrimage during the ups and downs of professional sports.

An old-fashioned Catholic-Protestant debate--on the classic Protestant theme that the Bible is the sole authority for faith--will be conducted at 7:30 p.m. Monday at St. Cyprian’s Catholic Church in Long Beach. The debate matches Gerry Matatics, a Catholic evangelist and former Presbyterian minister, and James White, a Fuller Theological Seminary graduate and author of “Answers to Catholic Claims.” A flyer from the sponsor, Catholic Answers Seminars, has invited all comers to “bring your toughest questions” but “in a spirit of friendly exchange.”

Concert pianist Matthew Herskowitz, 22, recently hired by the New York City Ballet as a composer and accompanist, will give a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at La Tijera United Methodist Church in Los Angeles. Herskowitz will play works by Bach, Ravel, Liszt, Chopin and one of his own compositions, “Transcendental Fugue.” Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens.