The Los Angeles-based synod of the Evangelical...

The Los Angeles-based synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will hold a special election Nov. 5 to choose a successor to Bishop J. Roger Anderson, who announced his resignation in June.

The Rev. Vance R. Knutsen, who retired from the active ministry at Salem Lutheran Church in Glendale, was named by the Southern California (West) Synod Council to serve as interim bishop. Knutsen will begin his duties Sept. 1 when Anderson, who turned 59 in July, moves to Arizona, where he accepted the pastorate of a church in Sun City.

Anderson, who lives in Thousand Oaks, has been bishop for the region covering Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties since 1987 when the synod was created. The synod includes 155 churches with nearly 60,000 members. Anderson said he wanted to spend his remaining years of ministry in a local congregation.

The election of the new bishop will take place at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. No nominees will be presented at the meeting, said Barbara Price, assistant to the bishop. The new bishop will probably be installed in January or February, she said.

Knutsen was pastor for 16 years at Clairemont Lutheran Church in San Diego and was vice president of the South Pacific District of the American Lutheran Church from 1981 to 1985.

SERVICE

A United Methodist Church team of engineers and architects has given about 200 free assessments of homes damaged by the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake to homeowners who have been uncertain about needed repairs, costs and the best ways to proceed.

The denomination instituted the same program after a hurricane in Florida and floods in the Midwest.

“This is an anti-gouging device,” said Don Inloes, director of emergency response for the Pasadena-based California-Pacific Conference of the church body.

Inloes said the first printed reports were to be sent to homeowners this week. Referrals may be made to the Residential Assessment Program by clergy, community workers or affected homeowners by contacting the church body’s headquarters at (818) 568-7332.

GRANT

Atheists United, based in Sherman Oaks, received a $50,000 grant this week to expand its television outreach in Southern California. The money came from the trust fund of James Hervey Johnson of San Diego, the late publisher of The Truthseeker magazine, with the stipulation that the grant be used “to expose religion as against reason” and to publicize Johnson’s views on religion, said Lee Baker, television project manager for Atheists United.

COURSES

Mini-courses--including crash courses in Hebrew--to help people prepare for the Jewish High Holy Days are being offered by the University of Judaism, starting Aug. 28.

The university’s continuing education department offers “Hebrew in a Single Day” for those with little or no knowledge of Hebrew who want to follow the prayer book during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services. The $75 fee for the workshop on the 28th includes lunch.

Another course in Hebrew lasts for a week. Three “Spiritual Preparation for the High Holy Days” courses are also scheduled.

The Jewish New Year begins with Rosh Hashana eve on Labor Day and the reflective 10-day period ends with Yom Kippur Sept. 15.

Class dates, times and fees vary for these and other courses. For information and to register, call the university at (310) 476-9777, Ext. 246.

EVENTS

* Youth for Christ, celebrating 50 years of existence, will open a five-day evangelistic training event for nearly 7,000 junior high and senior high students Wednesday night at the Anaheim Sports Arena.

Called LA ‘94, the conference includes popular speakers Tony Campolo, Josh McDowell and former San Diego Chargers player Miles McPherson. Musical artists include Steven Curtis Chapman, DC TALK, Petra and the Newsboys. The conference ends Sunday morning.

Registration for the full conference is $219. For information, call (800) 735-3252.

* The YMCA, observing the 150th anniversary of its founding in London, is welcoming more than 400 teen-agers from 75 countries this month to weeklong “World Camps” at eight U.S. countryside locations, including Camp Arbolado in the San Bernardino Mountains. About 50 campers will arrive at the Southland campsite today after a Friday visit to Disneyland.

* The 11th annual women’s convention of the Los Angeles Metropolitan District of the Church of God in Christ will begin three days of seminars and workshops Friday at the Doubletree Hotel, 191 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena.

* “East of Eden,” an exhibition using contemporary art forms to present spiritual imagery and concepts, will open Aug. 24 in the Fritz B. Burns Fine Arts Center at Loyola Marymount University. The opening reception for the five Los Angeles area artists will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Aug. 26 and is open to the public. The show will continue until Oct. 1. For information, call (310) 338-2880.

* Psychologist-author Neil Clark Warren, former dean of Fuller Theological Seminary’s Graduate School of Psychology, will be the guest speaker at the regular weekend worship services at Lake Avenue Congregational Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, at 6 p.m. next Saturday, and 9:15 and 11 a.m. Aug. 21. His books include “Make Anger Your Ally” and “Finding the Love of Your Life.”

* Willis Harman, president of the Institute for Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, will speak on “The Mystery of the Missing Philosophy” 11 a.m., Aug. 21, in this year’s Manly P. Hall Memorial Lecture at the Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles. The event, which includes music, notes the 60th anniversary of the society, which was founded by Hall, who died in 1990, to explore ancient wisdom of the East and West--themes that blended later into the so-called New Age movement.

CORRECTION

Daniel H. Gordis was misidentified in last week’s Southern California File in an announcement about his new post as vice president for public affairs and community outreach at the University of Judaism. Although he will continue to teach as an assistant professor of philosophy, he will no longer be acting as dean of administration and assistant to the president.