A coalition of 14 churches is helping...

A coalition of 14 churches is helping Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center bring preventive medicine and health education to poor people in their Los Angeles neighborhoods.

The medical center estimates that the five-mile radius it serves--Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park and north-central Los Angeles--contains only about 15% of Los Angeles’ residents but a disproportionate 26% of its poor.

Through existing outreach programs of Protestant, Catholic and Armenian Orthodox churches, the medical center is sending volunteer physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians, dietitians and educators into the community.

“What the partnership is trying to do,” explained Father Stephen Ryan, the center’s head chaplain, “is minister to the whole person--body and spirit--at the place people are most likely to come.

“It is difficult for the poor and elderly, especially immigrants, to get to health centers. But they are accustomed to coming to churches, which are a safe haven even for the undocumented and the homeless. While they are there for food and clothing,” he said, “we’re able to reach them with health programs.”

To illustrate his point, Ryan told of a widely publicized campaign offering free flu shots at the medical center on three consecutive Friday afternoons. Only 50 people turned out.

By contrast, he said, nearly 300 parishioners and homeless people showed up for immunizations on a recent Sunday at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

Besides flu shots, the partnership’s programs include nutrition seminars, prenatal care classes, childhood immunizations and forums on health-care reform.

The Hollywood partnership includes the Assistance League of Los Angeles and the Community Health Council of Rebuild Los Angeles. But Ryan, a member of the Order of Servants of Mary, hopes to further broaden its religious, social service and medical referral networks. He is trying to enlist Jewish and Islamic participation in the program. He is also “at the talking stage” with Covenant House, a program for runaways, and the Los Angeles Free Clinic. Cancer screening, mammography and substance-abuse programs are being planned.

For information about the Greater Hollywood Health Partnership, call Father Steve Ryan or the Rev. Luz Maiuri at (213) 913-4863.

DATES

* The Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis, executive director of the NAACP, will speak at an 11 a.m. Sunday service celebrating contributions of Christian men at the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, United Church of Christ. Chavis will be honored, as will Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack and church members Judge Xenophon Lang and Reginald Hawkins. 2085 S. Hobart Blvd., Los Angeles (213) 731-8869.

* Eldridge Cleaver, a Black Panther Party leader and civil rights activist in the 1960s who became a born-again Christian, will speak at 10 a.m. today on “From Black Power to Christ Power” at the Men of Bethel Prayer Breakfast at Bethel A.M.E. Church. 7900 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles. Admission is $10. (213) 750-3240.

* Graffiti will be “on trial” at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Pauline Hirsh Gallery in the Jewish Community Building of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Members of the audience will serve as jury members while artists, gallery owners, Metropolitan Transportation Authority representatives and journalists argue the case for graffiti as “an art form or plague.” Admission and parking are free. 6505 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 852-7706.

* The Rev. Gardner C. Taylor, who delivered the sermon at a pre-inaugural ecumenical service for President Clinton, will be guest speaker at the Roger Williams Baptist Church Sunday at 10:45 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. Taylor is pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church of Christ of Brooklyn, N.Y., and former president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. 1342 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 731-9249 or (310) 642-6512.

* “Jews, Media and Culture” is the topic of the third annual Reconstructionist Institute from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at the University of Judaism. The image and self-image of Jews as shaped by movies, television and literature will be explored by speakers that include TV personalities, literary figures, academicians and Reconstructionist rabbis. The $60 admission includes lunch and materials. (310) 476-9777.

* The Southern Area Clergy Council will present peacekeeping awards to individuals and organizations at its first annual “Keep It Good in the Hood” breakfast at 8 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at the Ramada Hotel in Compton. Arthur A. Fletcher, chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, will be guest speaker. The council is an ecumenical, multiethnic coalition of ministers and lay people dedicated to bettering their community through social action. Admission is $25. (310) 769-0522.

* Orthodox People Together sponsors its third annual Pan-Orthodox Adult Retreat, led by Father Sergius Black, abbot of St. Gregory Monastery, Berkeley, and Mother Victoria, abbess of St. Barbara Monastery, Santa Barbara, on Friday evening and Saturday, Nov. 5-6, in Riverside. The theme is “Exploring Orthodox Monasticism: Its Place in American Life.” For registration information, call (310) 378-9245.

* Metropolitan Community Church Silver Lake celebrates its 17th anniversary with a banquet at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, at Les Freres Taix restaurant. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg and others will receive awards. For reservation information, call (213) 665-8818.

* “Mom’s Day Out,” a low-cost Christian day-care program designed to provide mothers with an opportunity to have time away from their children, is offered from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at New Life Community Church in Artesia. Fees are $7 a day for the first child in a family, $5 for the second, $3 for the third and no charge for the fourth. Registration is required. (310) 924-4466.

HONORED

* The Rev. Edward J. Read, senior pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) retires Sunday after 33 years of service to the church. He was also president of the South Coast Ecumenical Council in the harbor area and a member of the National Board of Directors of the Christian Church.

* Renee Kogel of Laguna Beach is one of nine members of the first class to graduate from the leadership program of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism in Farmington Hills, Mich. The society is an international movement of secular Jews who celebrate their ethnic identity and culture but who reject supernatural authority. Kogel, who graduates Sunday, is a member of the society’s Orange County chapter. She will be able to legally perform marriages and other rituals.