Four months after the civil unrest in...

Four months after the civil unrest in Los Angeles, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee has distributed nearly $40,000 in relief funds to 11 organizations.

The money raised represents the committee’s first emergency appeal to benefit a community in the United States, according to Rochelle McAdam, co-chairwoman of the group’s Southern California Unit.

Founded in 1939 to aid Eastern European refugees, the committee funds grass-roots projects to promote social justice around the world. It has supported projects as diverse as a birth control clinic in Haiti and an economic development group in an African village. However, the committee does not dispatch its own personnel to initiate or run projects.

The same principle of project autonomy holds for the Los Angeles grants, McAdam said, adding that organizations “unlikely to be supported by the large philanthropies received particular attention.”

The committee’s Cambridge, Mass., headquarters directed the drive but left grant decisions to local leaders, McAdam said.

Contributions between $1,000 and $3,000 were made to the Al Wooten Junior Youth and Adult Center, the Assn. of Street Vendors, Campaign for a Fair Share, Concerned Citizens of South-Central, Dunbar Economic Development Corp.

Others receiving grants were the Ethiopian Community Center, Exodus Community Preservation Corp., Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, Resident Empowerment Project, Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs Today and First Unitarian Church.

McAdam said the service committee intends to continue raising funds for Los Angeles and plans to disburse an additional $20,000 this month.

DONATIONS

The Southern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is helping a national effort by the denomination to aid victims of Hurricane Andrew.

A 24-hour toll-free number has been established to handle donations of groceries, clothing, blankets and other personal items. The number is (800) 546-8400. Financial contributions can be made by credit card with calls to the Adventist Development and Relief Agency at (800) 424-2372. Callers should specify that they wish to make a donation to assist victims of Hurricane Andrew.

HONORS

Woodland Hills resident Sharon Schuster, president of the American Assn. of University Women, received the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization’s 1992 Anita Perlman Outstanding Alumna Award last month at the group’s international convention in Starlight, Pa.

Under Schuster’s leadership, the association’s educational foundation recently released a major report on sex discrimination in America’s public schools. Schuster, who has served for 12 years as chief deputy for Los Angeles Councilwoman Joy Picus, has been active in a shelter for battered women, a resource center for education issues and has served on the advisory council for Project ARISE, a federally funded sex-equity project.

Msgr. R. David Cousineau, executive director of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, has been elected chairman of United Way of Los Angeles’ Corporate Council of Executives. He will work with representatives from 300 health and human services agencies that United Way of Greater Los Angeles helps to fund.

A licensed clinical social worker, he is also national chairman of the Catholic Charities USA Task Force on United Way Relations.

“This will be a very difficult year for United Way, its agencies and the communities they serve,” he stated, saying that he will call upon all agencies to take a collaborative approach in meeting community needs.

Sister Jill Napier has been named a member of the board of trustees at Mt. St. Mary’s College Los Angeles.

The 24-member board, including Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and business, professional and community leaders, serves as the key decision-making body for the college.

Napier serves in the dual role of elementary school supervisor and budget director for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. She is also a part-time instructor at the University of San Francisco.

Father Asbed Balian has been named pastor of St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church of Pasadena by Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian, primate of the Armenian Church of North America, Western Diocese.

Balian was born in Beirut and educated in Beirut and Jerusalem. He served at churches in Australia and Argentina before coming to the United States in 1986. He celebrates his first service as pastor at St. Gregory at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Immediately after services there will be a buffet luncheon in honor of the pastor. The address is 2215 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. (818) 449-1523.

SPEAKERS

Robert Cummings Neville, dean of the Boston University School of Theology and president of the American Academy of Religion, the Boston Theological Institute and the International Society for Chinese Philosophy, will deliver the Earl Cranston Memorial Lecture at the School of Theology at Claremont at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. He will speak on “The Role of Religious Studies in Theological Education.” Admission is free. The school is at 1325 N. College Ave., Claremont (714) 626-3521.

James M. Robinson, professor of religion at the Claremont Graduate School and director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, will present a lecture at the institute at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. He will discuss recent developments in the efforts to open the Dead Sea Scrolls to scholarly examination. Admission is free. (714) 621-8066.

CELEBRATIONS

First United Methodist Church of Pasadena will celebrate the reopening and rededication of its 70-year-old sanctuary at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, with a special service.

After the church was damaged by the 1987 Whittier earthquake, the congregation undertook a $6-million seismic upgrading project in order to save the original Neo-Gothic architecture. Construction has been under way since July, 1991.

The community is invited to congregate in the church courtyard for the tolling of the church bell, and then to enter the sanctuary as a group. The Rev. George Mann, senior minister, will speak and special festival music will be performed. A reception follows.

The address is 500 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. (818) 796-0157.

Ground was broken Aug. 27 for a Pan-Orthodox Chapel to be built at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego. The Rev. Theodore Phillips offered a blessing for the chapel, which was donated by James Zathas. Several Eastern Orthodox clergy participated in the ceremony.

The prayer chapel will seat 50 and will be used for memorial services as well as holy days of the church, such as Saturdays of the Souls.

An old-fashioned tent revival will be part of the centennial celebration of the North Hollywood First United Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16-19 and 10:30 a.m. Sept. 20. Evangelist Kimball Boyd Coburn will preach and the Rev. Gene Golay will lead gospel songs. The address is 4832 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood. (818) 763-8231.

Please address notices to: Southern California File, c/o Religion Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053. Items should be brief and arrive at least three weeks before the event.