Hope Pours From O.C. Pulpits : Religion: Christmas is a day of happiness in a year that was plentiful with human sorrows.

Marking a day of joy in a year that brought wildfires, mudslides and unprecedented levels of crime to Orange County, ministers and priests throughout the area are drawing on lessons from the extraordinary events as they deliver Christmas sermons.

At local churches large and small, many pastors are keying their Christmas messages to the challenging, often unhappy occurrences of 1993 while stressing the need for renewed faith and hope. Several are speaking of the good that can emerge even in times of trial.

“I’m going to be zeroing in on the message that the Christmas story teaches us about the importance of simplicity,” said the Rev. Bill Krekelberg, pastor of St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Laguna Beach, hit by a devastating fire Oct. 27 that destroyed 366 homes.

“The way the fires have ravaged Laguna, all of us are more aware of the simple things like the love and care we have for each other and family,” he said.

Meanwhile, at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Beach, the Rev. Raymond Fleming is emphasizing being receptive this Christmas to the spiritual aspects of the holiday and to the emotional and financial support offered by others in the wake of the fire.

“We’re used to being givers here, but it’s important to be receivers as well,” Fleming said. “We found that out in Laguna Beach with the fire this year. We found ourselves in need of help, of counseling. We need to be able to receive help from each other and from God.”

Others in Laguna, in turn, stressed being generous this holiday season to those who lost their homes and belongings in the disaster.

In his sermon, the Rev. Richard G. Schumm, pastor at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, is using a personal story--of his pleasure at decorating his Christmas tree each year with old, treasured family ornaments--to spotlight the losses of so many others, including three families in his congregation.

“Ornaments are very replaceable, but this is a nostalgic season, when we think back to childhood and things gathered over the years,” Schumm said. “We need to pour out our love to these wonderful friends of ours who’ve lost so much.”

Elsewhere in the county, people in communities struggling with crime are praying for an end to the violence.

At Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Santa Ana, the days leading up to Christmas for the Spanish-speaking congregation have been filled with messages of hope and prayers for a better year.

“We pray that there be less killings this year, less gangs, less graffiti,” said Father Jose Mendez, who is underscoring God’s gift of love in his two Christmas sermons. “We pray that young people know the opportunity that this country gives on education.”

Prayers are also being said this Christmas for those suffering economic hardship in the continuing recession.

At the Mission San Juan Capistrano, Msgr. Paul Martin is focusing on themes of thanks and blessings.

“If we have the gift of health and we have a job and we have God’s grace and love, then we are really quite rich,” Martin said. “It’s a message of counting our blessings and focusing on the reason of Christmas. Whose birthday is it, really?”

Many churches celebrated the holiday early with Christmas Eve services, including seven that were expected to draw more than 25,000 people to Garden Grove’s Crystal Cathedral on Friday, where the Rev. Robert H. Schuller was preaching on a theme of “Joy: It’s Possible in Bad Times.”

Christmas was celebrated early at the Chinese Baptist Church of Orange County in Anaheim, leaving members of the widespread congregation time to be with their families today. The Rev. William Eng stressed that Christmas is a search of meaning for many, a time to find fulfillment and hope.

“We shared about the shepherd who not only heard the good news, but spread the good news,” Eng said of his Christmas sermon. “We encourage people to be involved.”

In the coming week, the church plans to focus on families suffering economic hardship.

“How can we encourage them with that message of hope,” Eng said. “Things might be tough, but we have to keep the hope.”

At the 120-member Vietnamese Christian Church in Santa Ana, the Rev. Tuan Ma plans a similar lesson, one asking parishioners to reflect on Jesus’ life, but that also applies the Bible’s teachings to the difficult economic times many in the church are experiencing.

“It’s been a little bit difficult here this year,” Ma said.

In San Clemente, hard hit this year, messages of hope and thanks were trumpeted in many Christmas sermons.

The year started with torrential rainstorms and destructive flash floods and slides, including one in February that destroyed five bluff-top homes on La Ventana and endangered 45 others. A 30-foot-high mountain of dirt and rubble from the slide still blocks a section of Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point below the bluff.

This fall, fears about crime and gang violence peaked when a 17-year-old boy died after being speared through the head with a paint-roller rod during an attack at Calafia Beach County Park. Little more than a month later, a 15-year-old girl, also a student at San Clemente High School, was shot to death in front of a Capistrano Beach apartment complex.

“We have to work together for the good of the community,” said Father Frank Moran of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in San Clemente, where meetings have been held to address youth and gang violence. “We are God’s people. Despite all the things that have happened, we have to give thanks, too.

“I think it’s a time of hope. Everybody has tried to reach out to each other as best they can.”

The Rev. James A. King of St. Andrews by the Sea United Methodist Church in San Clemente said his sermon is about “eternal realities of life that Christmas brings.”

“In a time of change, when there’s not much you can count on,” King said, “the Christmas message is one of hope and peace and one that’s always there.”