Easter Season a Time of Promise, Protest : Holiday: Celebration of Christ’s Resurrection comes this year amid religious activism against scheduled execution of murderer and proposed welfare cuts.

In the midst of religious protests over the death penalty and government proposals to slash welfare costs, Christians of all denominations will pause today to celebrate Easter.

From churches to beaches to mortuaries, traditional sunrise services, musical programs and Easter egg hunts are planned throughout Orange County in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ.

But as Christians reflect on the meaning of Easter, clergy members are challenging the faithful to follow Jesus’ example of caring for the sick and the poor.

Easter celebrates Christians’ belief that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after the Crucifixion. The holiday symbolizes redemption and new life.

During this holiday season, many religious leaders are using the Easter pulpit to protest the scheduled execution of Robert Alton Harris. Harris, 39, who was convicted of killing two teen-agers in 1978, had been scheduled to die in the California gas chamber early Tuesday, but a federal judge Saturday issued a 10-day temporary restraining order postponing his execution.

Holy Week, which commemorates the events before and after the Crucifixion, has been marked by religious protests against the scheduled execution.

On Good Friday, the day Christians believe Jesus died on the cross, more than a dozen clergymen held a press conference in Orange to protest the execution.

The Rev. Dennis Short, pastor at First Christian Church in Garden Grove, said he addressed the issue during Communion services over the past few days.

“I talked about the old law that talked about an eye for an eye, but how Jesus brings a new law of love--one that takes seriously the commandment not to kill,” Short said.

Other religious leaders have enjoined the Christian community to mark Easter by helping those most in need.

Msgr. Jaime Soto, Episcopal vicar for the Latino community at the Diocese of Orange, called on the governor and other politicians to remember Christ’s message in their attempts to cut welfare programs.

“I have a fear that the political (climate) currently is to try to scapegoat immigrants and poor families,” Soto said. “Easter is not just about Jesus rising from the dead, but it’s about his love and mercy transcending the most oppressive of circumstances.”

Last month, a dozen Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders met with Gov. Pete Wilson in Sacramento to protest his proposed cuts in welfare benefits.

Calling themselves the Religious Coalition for a Just Budget, the group of 23 church leaders from across the state told Wilson that they disagreed with his welfare proposals. In a prepared statement, they said higher taxes on the wealthy would be preferable to forcing the “politically voiceless, the often invisible and most vulnerable” people in the state to bear the brunt of cuts.

Bishop Robert L. Miller of Yorba Linda, one of those who met with Wilson, said the general public “all too often wants to malign the poor as if they enjoyed their situation.”

“We have a message . . . to care for the poor and the voiceless,” said Miller, of the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Yorba Linda. “Those of us who are Christians ought to know that service to the poor is a big part of our calling. I don’t think Easter ought to make us any more or less committed.”

The churches have become the place of last resort for the homeless and many others who are unable to care for themselves, according to religious leaders.

“It shouldn’t be up to churches completely, but that’s where a lot of the burden has fallen,” said Ellen Gilchrist, program manager for the Episcopal Service Alliance in San Clemente.

The nonprofit agency, which serves South County, receives its funding from 47 Episcopal churches. Last month alone, the San Clemente service center provided food and financial assistance to more than 200 individuals and 900 families.

For the homeless, Gilchrist said, Easter weekend is one of the most difficult times of the year. Since most social service agencies are closed, many people have nowhere to turn but the churches for shelter and a free meal.

“This is when the churches get their heaviest loads,” Gilchrist said. “Some churches just aren’t set up for that, but it’s pretty hard for a church to say no to somebody in need.”