MUSLIMS: If, as anticipated, the Islamic fasting...

MUSLIMS: If, as anticipated, the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan ends Friday night, more than 2,000 Muslims are expected to assemble for early morning prayers on Saturday on the lawn in front of Oviatt Library at Cal State Northridge.

The Eid service on the grassy expanse will mark the end of daytime abstinence from food and drink during the last lunar month--a holiday that Muslims believe teaches self-discipline and encourages kinship with believers of other ethnic backgrounds.

Calculations of the moon’s phases indicate that the Islamic month will end Friday night, but if the new moon’s crescent is not sighted that night, the Eid prayers would be delayed one day, until April 5, said Ahmed El-Gabalawy, president of the Islamic Center of Northridge, the event’s organizer.

The 7 a.m. service will consist of 15 minutes of prayer, followed by a 15-minute talk.

FOURSQUARE: In a testimonial to the growth of its two-sanctuary complex in Van Nuys, the Church on the Way will host the annual convention next week of its parent denomination, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

More than 2,000 delegates are expected to register for the five-day meeting, which begins with a service at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

The Los Angeles-based Pentecostal denomination has about 1.5 million members in 25,000 churches in 80 countries.

The Rev. Jack Hayford, senior pastor of the Church on the Way, is serving as convention chairman. Services at 8:30, 10:40 a.m. and each evening are open to the public Thursday through Sunday, the last day of the convention.

FARCE: A musical parody of political campaigning--for the offices of synagogue president and vice president--will be presented by the Hellzaplotzin’ Players of Adat Shorashim in Reseda for three performances in April.

“The story revolves around a mythical temple overburdened with money, so it’s obvious this is a real farce,” said Earl S. Draimin, producer and lyricist.

“Campaign Capers” has a cast of Valleyites headed by Bernie Bubman and Rita Silverstein; Bubman and Bill Silver co-direct the production.

All seats are reserved and ticket prices range from $10 to $25. For more information, call the temple, located at 18449 Kittridge, at (818) 345-7833.

TOGETHER: St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in Granada Hills will host a joint service with Prince of Peace Lutheran Church of Northridge on Sunday, but St. Stephen’s Pastor Philip Natwick said the 9:30 a.m. service does not necessarily signal a renewal of merger talks.

“The two churches had a full-blown attempt at a three-way merger before with Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Granada Hills, but that fell apart,” Natwick said.

Prince of Peace, whose pastor, the Rev. Kapp Johnson, has departed on a study leave, has 300 members. St. Stephen’s has about 450 members and Bethlehem has about 225 members.

All three churches belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination that itself was formed out of a three-way merger in 1987. Natwick, elected in November to the denomination’s 50-member Church Council, will attend a meeting of that governing body next week in Chicago.

INTERFAITH: The Santa Clarita Interfaith Council has elected the Rev. Preston Price, 46, pastor of Santa Clarita United Methodist Church, as president for a one-year term.

The council’s 10 affiliated congregations include Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon and Bahai members. The group, which recently completed its formal organization, coordinates inter-religious programs.

The council also elected Rabbi Ron Haus of Newhall’s Temple Beth Shalom as vice president.

PUBLISHED: Rabbi Elijah J. Schochet, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Kodesh in West Hills for 31 years, has published his fifth book on Judaic studies, “Amalek, the Enemy Within” (Tara Publications).

Amalek, the foe of the Israelites during the biblical story of Exodus from Egypt, is described by Schochet in a variety of ways, including as a symbol for evil in the religious literature of Israel.

An adjunct professor of rabbinical literature at the University of Judaism, Schochet said his best-known book was titled “Animal Life in Jewish Tradition.”