War Noted in Houses of Worship : Services: Southland’s religious community marks the first Sunday after outbreak of hostilities.

An Episcopal church in Los Angeles symbolically closed its massive front doors, a West Hollywood synagogue prayed for the safety of Israel and a Catholic church in San Fernando paid sober homage to troops overseas, as Southern California’s religious community marked the first Sunday since war broke out in the Persian Gulf.

It was a day of somber remembrances, political symbolism, quiet tears and moral debate. In various ceremonies, clergymen and parishioners alternately hoped for swift victory, protested the escalating violence, swayed to joyous songs and offered their love to the victims of U.S. attacks in the Middle East.

“That’s the trouble with being a Christian,” the Rev. Warner R. Traynham told a congregation of about 200 people at St. John’s Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles. “You can’t just stand for what is convenient or in fashion.”

With that, Traynham, dressed in a gold-trimmed green robe, stepped down from the pulpit. He, the choir and three acolytes holding a gold processional crucifix and candles led the entire congregation down the center aisle of the sanctuary and out to the front steps of the 57-year-old Romanesque building.

Under the carved Corinthian columns and a cooly bright sun, Traynham led a prayer while the heavy bronze doors were slid shut until the Persian Gulf War comes to an end.

The gesture is reminiscent of action taken during the Vietnam War, when the same doors were closed for three years, bearing what Traynham called silent witness to the wrongness of war. As then, the congregation now will continue to worship at the church but enter through side doors.

“War . . . shuts the door to normal and caring relations with our brothers, whom we now call enemies,” Traynham said. “War shuts the door to our obedience of God . . . who has taught us not to kill but to love our enemies.”

Across town, in West Hollywood, a congregation of Jewish immigrants, mostly from the Soviet Union, mixed questions of war and peace with prayers for Israel’s security.

“They feel personally attacked when their homeland (Israel) is attacked,” said Rabbi Gerson Schusterman, one of several organizers of Sunday’s program at the Chabad Russian Synagogue and Outreach Center on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Prayers and passages from Psalms were recited or sung in Hebrew, Russian and English. The audience of about 250 mostly older men and women listened intently and clapped along to a popular peace song, “Ya a se shalom.”

An officer from the Israeli Consulate also joined in the program, offering an update on the recent Iraqi missile strikes on Israel.

Some of the women, their careworn faces peering from under scarves pulled tightly on their heads, even wept during a prayer for President Bush and Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

“He who grants salvation to kings and dominion to rulers . . . may He bless, safeguard, preserve, help, exalt, make great, extol and raise high the President of the United States, George Bush, and Yitzhak Shamir,” sang Rabbi Berel Zaltzman.

In the San Fernando Valley, the congregants at Santa Rosa Church merely wanted their soldier-children back safely.

Before Mass began, parishioners went before the altar to read the names of the 97 young men and women from their families who are serving in the military overseas. A photo of each of the soldiers--people such as Ruben Gonzalez, Joseph Vega, Jess Cruz and Alfonso A. Casas--was pasted to a black piece of poster board, which was affixed to a six-foot cross.

Written in Spanish across the top beam of the cross was the phrase, “Pray for our youth in the Persian Gulf.” Above that was a dove with the word paz, or peace.

Some pointed out those they knew while others muttered silent prayers and made the sign of the cross.

“They’re dying on both sides. That’s one of the great evils of war,” Father Paul Nourie told the congregation. “The division it causes, the struggle it causes. . . .”

After the homily, the community again focused on the cross and the pictures of their loved ones so many miles from San Fernando. Lino Murillo and Rosalie Castillo stood before the cross and read each name aloud.

“Tony Delgadillo . . . Jose De La Cruz . . . Juan Franco . . . Carlos Gonzalez. . . .”

After each name, the congregation responded, “Lord, protect them.”

Times staff writers Aaron Curtiss and John Rivera contributed to this story.