RELIGIOUS P.R.: Film critic Michael Medved, seminary...
RELIGIOUS P.R.: Film critic Michael Medved, seminary president Robert Edgar and lawyer-minister Oliver “Buzz” Thomas will be among featured speakers at the 65th annual Religious Public Relations Council convention that begins March 30 at the Universal Sheraton Hotel in Universal City.
Medved, who writes for the New York Post and co-hosts PBS’ “Sneak Previews,” will be the luncheon speaker March 31.
Edgar, a former congressman from Pennsylvania who is president of the School of Theology at Claremont, will lead a workshop on “Mixing Religion and Politics.”
Thomas was the principal architect of the broad religious coalition that backed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed into law in 1993.
The council is interfaith in nature. The most recent Los Angeles chapter presidents, for example, have been Mormon, Greek Orthodox and Bahai in affiliation.
Registration for the three-day meeting, including five meals, is $195. More information is available from Arlene Landon of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council office at (818) 718-6460.
SANCTUARY RE-ENTRY: For the first time since the Northridge earthquake last year, the 350 active members of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in North Hollywood will worship Sunday in familiar pews.
After city officials red-tagged the sanctuary at 6020 Radford Ave. as unusable because of quake damage, the congregation moved its Sunday services to its parish hall, the original sanctuary when the congregation moved to the site in 1946.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, the Rev. Richard Torgerson, interim pastor since 1992, and Marshall Bowen, minister of music, will lead the service.
The repaired sanctuary includes repainted interior walls, enhanced lighting and a large stained glass window of Christ the Good Shepherd, replaced by Judson Studios, which retained its original design specifications.
Repairs were completed just three weeks before the arrival of a new pastor, the Rev. James Schoenrock, from Yakima, Wash.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Four panelists will discuss what their religions say about justifiable instances of breaking the law in an open forum Thursday organized by the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council.
The panelists will be Father Patrick Murphy of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Sun Valley; Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy of the Los Angeles Police Department, who is a Mormon; the Rev. Dudley Chatman, pastor of the Greater Community Baptist Church in Pacoima, and Margaret Mossman, interim regional director, American Friends Service Committee.
The free forum, one of a series on a variety of topics, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Northridge Seventh-day Adventist Church, 17700 Plummer St.
BISHOP’S TOUR: United Methodist Church Bishop Roy Sano, based in Pasadena, will begin a tour today of three social service projects based at east San Fernando Valley churches with a short service at 9 a.m. at the denomination’s regional office at 10824 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Chatsworth.
Methodist clergy and laity may join the tour for $7 each, which includes lunch and transportation.