The past year has been an active...

The past year has been an active one for the Southland’s many religious organizations. As 1994 draws to a close, here is a look back at some of their accomplishments and activities.

YEAR-END NEWS

* For the fifth year, the St. Vincent de Paul Society made a special Christmas-season delivery to poor and needy families in Tijuana. Twenty tons of merchandise was trucked in by volunteers from the group’s Los Angeles Council.

* The Adopt-a-Child-Abuse Caseworker program of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council provided 94 families and 530 children with more than $40,000 in goods and services in 1994. The group’s Food Pantry Coalition dished up nearly 2 million meals to 281,000 families and delivered more than 26,000 meals to housebound and disabled people through its Meals on Wheels program.

* The Western Province of Divine Word Missionaries recently held a Los Angeles celebration to mark 100 years of service in the United States by its brothers and priests. (Since 1889, the international Catholic evangelical group has included nuns as well.)

* After 17 years of studying and working in Los Angeles, the Rev. Enock Drati was elected Bishop of Madi and the West Nile in the Anglican Province of his native Uganda. Most recently a priest and headmaster of the school at St. Timothy’s Parish in Compton, Drati also spent time as a chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital and Fuller Theological Seminary, where he received his doctorate in missionology in 1987. Drati was consecrated in Uganda on December 3. “It is difficult to leave friends and parishioners in Los Angeles, but it is clear that God is calling me back to serve in my home diocese,” he said before he left.

* A Korean-speaking ministry was launched at Culver-Palms United Methodist Church in November under the leadership of the Rev. Kyu Chul Lee. Bible study and midweek prayer for all ages are available, in addition to regular Sunday worship at 12:30 p.m. (310) 390-7717.

* Two longtime members of the Congregational Church of the Messiah in Westchester, William Hembacher and Virginia Smith, were remembered at the installation of four new stained glass windows at the church. The memorial windows, whose designs incorporate symbols from the denomination’s official seal, were dedicated Dec. 11.

RECOVERY

* Rosewood United Methodist Church, the only Los Angeles-area United Methodist congregation forced to vacate its building because of damage from January’s earthquake, has returned to its location at 4101 W. Rosewood in Los Angeles. The church is home to three congregations: a primarily Filipino English-speaking group, a Spanish-speaking flock and the separately chartered Los Angeles First Korean United Methodist Church.

* According to the Hollywood office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, free food and clothing are available to needy people on certain days at the following churches: Bethany Lutheran, (213) 662-4176; Hollywood Presbyterian, (213) 463-7161, and Livingstone Christian Foundation and Ministries, (213) 484-1013. Phone for addresses, hours and qualifications.

* In the heart of an urban area torn by the civil disturbances of 1992, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in November dedicated an $8.1-million facility for the new Bishop Conaty-Our Lady of Loretto High School for girls. “This new building is a visual symbol to Los Angeles of the commitment of the Catholic Church to do its part to make this a better place for all of us to live, to work, to raise children, to be a community,” Mahony said.

* The Campaign for Human Development, the Catholic Church’s domestic anti-poverty program, has awarded $37,000 to Source for Empowerment and Economic Development of Los Angeles. The local organization offers loans of $5,000 to $100,000 to small owner-operated businesses and cooperatives in the central Los Angeles neighborhoods that were damaged during the 1992 riots.

* Responding to the civil disturbances, a group of church activists has founded the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union, which held its opening festivities on Nov. 30 at its headquarters, the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. Chartered with federal regulatory agencies and serving six counties in Southern California, the facility was established in part to assist in the economic recovery of the region by providing loans to small businesses. The Rt. Rev. Frederick H. Borsch, bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles, said that the credit union “will offer the members of our church opportunities to invest together in the lives and hopes of brother and sister disciples throughout the region.”

THE NEW YEAR

* A new year’s wish shared by Jewish Big Brothers and Catholic Big Brothers is that, in 1995, the more than 200 boys waiting for assignment to a Big Brother will get one. The applicants, from single-parent families, are from 7 to 14 years old.

The men who volunteer to spend time with them regularly serve as positive role models. Jewish Big Brothers also provides Big Brothers to girls and to children with disabilities. Catholic Big Brothers operates the largest program for hearing-impaired children of its kind in the nation.

Both groups are United Way agencies affiliated with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. Men who have time to give may phone Jewish Big Brothers at (213) 852-1173 or Catholic Big Brothers at (213) 251-9800. All applicants are screened.

* The First Baptist Church in Los Angeles will present a New Year’s Eve celebration featuring games, refreshments and the screening of a Billy Graham movie, “Scars That Heal, The Story of Dave Rover.”

The festivities take place from 9 p.m. until midnight tonight and are open to all. A worship service will be held at 11:30 p.m. Another worship service will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday. 760 S. Westmoreland Ave. (213) 384-2151.

* The Center for Spiritual Development in Orange will conduct a seminar entitled “New Year’s Eve: Sacred Time,” from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. today. Conducted by Sister Ellen Jordan, the event is called “a twilight retreat . . . to remember one’s spiritual journey of the past year as well as the opportunity to reorient oneself in openness toward the graces of the upcoming year.”

Eucharistic liturgy for Jan. 1 is included. For information about registration and continuing-education credit, phone (714) 744-3175.

* St. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange will hold a New Year’s Eve communion service today at 7 p.m. 154 S. Shaffer St. (714) 288-4400.

* Palisades Lutheran Church will present its New Year’s Eve service with Holy Communion today at 7:30 p.m. 15905 Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. (310) 459-2358.