For Christians, the Big Event : Forgiveness: In Tustin, worshipers focus on healing the pain caused by Stuart A. Tay’s slaying.

At a Good Friday service that focused on healing the pain caused by violence, a friend of slain honor student Stuart A. Tay asked a congregation to forgive his killers.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” Janet Lin, 18, said in a steady voice from the sanctuary of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, relating Christ’s words to the fatal bludgeoning of Tay on Dec. 31.

“I told (a friend) that I had decided that because of the murderers’ ignorance of Stu’s life--the value of his hugs, his smile and his laughter--that we had to forgive them in our hearts because they knew not what they were doing,” said Lin, a senior at Foothill High School, Santa Ana, where Tay, 17, attended.

Four teen-agers accused in his slaying pleaded not guilty this week in Orange County Superior Court.

The four--Abraham Acosta, 16; Robert C. Chan, 18; Mun Bong Kang, 17, and Kirn Young Kim, 17--all students at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, face charges of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait.

A fifth suspect, Charles Bae Choe, 17, pleaded guilty in February to first-degree murder in Juvenile Court and promised to testify against the other four.

The Rev. Reese Riley had invited Lin and five others to talk about issues of violence in the community in relation to Jesus Christ and the observances of Good Friday and Easter.

Riley organized the three-hour program to help deal with the pain suffered by the congregation after Tay’s slaying and other violent incidents that have occurred in Orange and Los Angeles counties in recent months.

Lin, like several of the other speakers, warned the congregation against apathy.

“Please don’t turn your faces from crime and pain and say, ‘It’s not my fault, it’s not my problem,’ and close your eyes and close your hands and think you remain untouched,” Lin said. “We have to stop looking around to hate and blame individuals.”

Riley urged his listeners to take responsibility for combatting violence.

“I’m convinced that there’s a lot of unrighteousness around,” Riley said. “It amazes me that we have a legal system that sometimes sides with violence. . . . It amazes me that citizens believe they don’t have the power to do anything. We’ve avoided our responsibility for what’s going on.”

Garden Grove Officer Philip Schmidt, another speaker, said he is worried about the possibility of violence after the verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating trial.

“Today, we look at Rodney King and we can’t help but think, ‘Will violence happen again?’ ” Schmidt said.