For Southern California Presbyterians interested in a...

For Southern California Presbyterians interested in a master of divinity degree, the San Francisco Theological Seminary will open this fall an accredited southern branch, including a potentially popular bilingual program in Korean theological studies.

The Presbyterian seminary, whose main campus is in San Anselmo, will offer courses at Immanuel Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Synod offices in Los Angeles’ Wilshire District and at the School of Theology at Claremont, among other sites.

The Rev. Cyris Hee-Suk Moon was named in May to direct the Korean studies, which officials say should help many immigrant Korean Presbyterian clergy in Southern California to serve their congregations better and to enter fully into the denomination’s English-speaking community.

Among his degrees, Moon holds a bachelor of arts in Christian education from Pepperdine University and a Ph.D. from Emory University in ancient Near Eastern studies and the Old Testament. Since 1986, he has been associate director of the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland.

Ten courses that stress Presbyterian perspectives and history will be offered this fall, said Jack Rogers, vice president of the Southern California branch. Rogers, a former faculty member and administrator at Fuller Theological Seminary, occupies office space near the interdenominational seminary in Pasadena.

The three-year master’s program in the Southland, going under the name Presbyterian Seminary in the West, calls for degree candidates to spend the third year on the San Anselmo campus.

MERGER

Two Reform Jewish synagogues--the 50-year-old Beth Sholom Temple of Santa Monica and Temple Shir Shalom of Mar Vista--approved nearly unanimously Tuesday a merger to become effective July 1. The proposal had been under discussion since mid-February when Beth Sholom Rabbi Michael Berk decided to take another position after his contract expires June 30.

The 180-member Mar Vista temple, which had been renting space in a Catholic church, will join the 250 members of the Santa Monica temple, bringing with them Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels. He will team with Beth Sholom’s female cantor, Perryne Anker. The combined temple will be known as Beth Shir Sholom, or House of the Song of Peace.

CONFERENCE

The 19th-Century fervor in American churches to restore features of primitive, 1st-Century Christianity contributed to the birth of a number of new denominations from the Churches of Christ and Holiness churches to Mormonism and Pentecostalism. A four-day conference at Pepperdine University in Malibu will bring together an unusually wide range of scholars to address “Christian Primitivism and Modernization.” Speakers include Franklin H. Littell of Temple University, who will give the Thursday night keynote speech, as well as George Marsden of Duke Divinity School, David E. Harrell Jr. of Auburn University, Russell Spittler of Fuller Theological Seminary, Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago Divinity School and Thomas Alexander of Brigham Young University. The conference closes with common worship at 9 a.m. June 9 at the Malibu Church of Christ on campus, according to conference director Richard T. Hughes.