RELIGION / JOHN DART : ‘Rainbow People’ Look to Expand

The ethnically diverse United Methodist churches, calling themselves “the rainbow people of God,” hope to fill the Universal Amphitheatre next Saturday for a celebration launching new efforts to reverse a long-term membership slide.

Membership in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination has steadily dropped in the past 25 years from about 11 million to less than 9 million. United Methodist membership in Southern California was 108,000 last year, down from 129,000 a decade earlier.

The Vision 2000 Launch Event at Universal Studios is a regional prelude to church-growth workshops and campaigns to increase church attendance at the Methodists’ 373 congregations in Southern California.

Just as important as church expansion is helping neighborhoods cope with their changing racial and ethnic compositions--regardless of whether the ministries result in new members--said Bishop Roy I. Sano, whose Pasadena-based jurisdiction covers churches in Southern California and Hawaii.

“Neighborhoods that may now seem strange to us are made up of people who have spiritual needs as well as many gifts to give a church,” said Sano.

The bishop himself illustrates what United Methodists are about these days.

Sano often avoids typical evangelistic language in talking about goals. “I became a Christian because of the kindness Christians showed to me, then I saw how the life of Jesus Christ motivated these people,” he said. “People understand the language of love before they understand the language of theology.”

Three weeks ago, Sano assumed the presidency of the denomination’s 66-member Council of Bishops, the first Japanese American ever elected to the one-year post. The council president is less influential than presiding bishops of the Episopal Church or the Evangelical Church in America, but Sano will chair four bishops’ meetings and will often represent Methodists on other occasions.

Supervising the launch event at the Universal Amphitheatre is the Rev. Brandon Cho, a Korean American minister who heads the United Methodist district based in Chatsworth.

The performing choirs include a 200-voice Korean choir, a 400-voice Pacific Islander choir and a group of African American gospel singers, Cho said. One of the principal speakers and a featured soloist are African American, he added.

“We intentionally sought to get gender and ethnic diversity on the program in living up to our reputation, especially in Southern California, as ‘the rainbow people of God,’ ” Cho said.

One worry is whether the Methodists will fill the 6,200-seat amphitheater.

“We need a full house in order to break even,” Sano said.

As of Friday, 5,000 tickets were sold, according to Charles Joye, an assistant to Cho.

Tickets are selling for $10 each. Despite the warning on a colorful Vision 2000 brochure distributed to United Methodist congregations, ticket sales did not stop on the May 15 deadline.

“We will sell tickets at the door if available,” Cho said. The program will begin at 12:30 p.m. and end at about 4 p.m.

Although the musical direction and production is in impressive hands--those of H. H. Hanson of Tustin, who was in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles--the program is without any big names from the worlds of religion, entertainment or sports.

“The people we did ask are people known to Methodist leaders, though not known among the general public,” said Hanson when asked about the speakers and singers during an interview.

Other than Bishop Sano and Hanson, the program features United Methodist church leaders from other states. Singer Cynthia Wilson-Felder of Richardson, Tex., has recorded on the Warner Alliance label, but she is primarily known within Methodist circles, church officials said.

If the event has a parochial character, at least it is not likely to be fraught with controversial issues.

About 900 Methodists attended a national meeting in Atlanta on April 28-29 to endorse a “confessional statement” along religiously conservative lines and calling on the denomination to discourage theological diversity and place more emphasis on biblical authority.

On the liberal side, some groups continue to advocate that the denomination repudiate its official stance that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching,” contending that it leads to discrimination against gay and lesbian Christians.

However, the Vision 2000 program was designed to focus on other matters.

“This is a pep rally, basically,” said the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church, which includes an active ministry to gays and lesbians. “There is a place for this kind of celebration event in our church.”

Bishop Sano said there are hopeful signs that helping different language and racial groups find a home in the United Methodist Church is working.

He cited the opening of a new, $1.2-million sanctuary for Centenary United Methodist Church in Central Los Angeles, the innovative cooperation of four Latino congregations in the Long Beach area and the recent merger of a small, older, Anglo congregation in Pomona with a larger and better-funded Korean congregation.

“The Anglo church members were not intimidated; they didn’t depart for another church,” Sano said. “This is the result of learning how to be better neighbors.”