More Christian Focus Will Be Given to Easter Sunrise Service : Hollywood Bowl: There were some quiet objections after a rabbi was invited and delivered one of the sermons in 1988.

Organizers of the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service, which has featured a rabbi and a broadly religious flavor in recent years, say they will reintroduce a more specifically Christian focus in the 71st annual service on March 31.

Some church people quietly objected to the invitation of Reform Rabbi Leonard Beerman to give one of two sermons in the 1988 service during a period when the service occasionally involved ministers from the spiritually eclectic Religious Science churches.

“I personally didn’t see anything wrong; the rabbi did a beautiful job,” said Bill Lyons, president of the volunteer Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service Inc. “But some people did not think much of it. Basically, Easter is a Christian celebration.”

Barnard (Barney) Sackett, a stage and film producer who was selected producer for this year’s program, said the varied music planned would make the program enjoyable for anyone, but that “this is primarily for the Christian community and we plan to tell the Easter story from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.”

In one departure from the usual Hollywood Bowl service, however, Sackett said he will drop the allegorical poem “The Master Is Coming” from the program. Instead, Sackett said, he will substitute “One Solitary Life,” which “tells more of the story of Christ and his crucifixion.” It will be read by actress Rhonda Fleming.

“That’s tragic, because ‘The Master Is Coming’ has always been read at the service,” said Norma Foster of Charisma Communications, the producer of the sunrise service for the four previous years. “The format over the last four years was the same as it was for the previous 15 years,” she said.

Foster’s fund-raising efforts rescued the 1987 service from possible cancellation, but she told the board after the 1990 service that she could no longer produce the program. “It took three months out of my year every year,” she said. Although she was instrumental in selecting clergy for the service, she said the board approved of the choices in every case.

The Rev. Harry Durkee, senior pastor of Hollywood Lutheran Church, said services of the last few years were “very interesting and entertaining, but I prefer the direction they are going.”

Durkee, will lead a short liturgical opening in the service recitation.

Participating this year for the fourth time in his 31-year pastorate, Durkee added, “I like their use of more Hollywood clergy too.”

The Rev. Roy McKoewn, founder-president of World Opportunities International, based in Hollywood, will deliver the sermon. The evangelical relief agency, now in its 30th year, distributes an average of 250 tons of food weekly in poor areas of Los Angeles.

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Jesuit Father Robert A. Fambrini, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, will lead the Lord’s Prayer.

A poem, “My Easter Dream,” selected out of a competition among Catholic schoolchildren, will be read by its winning author, George Howard of Montebello.

Celebrities remain a fixture in the service, which begins at 4:45 a.m. and was attended by about 12,000 worshipers last year.

This year, actor Dean Jones and actress Terry Moore are among those taking part. Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere, who has a show business background, will sing.