ITO PRAYERS: A prayer committee at Van...

ITO PRAYERS: A prayer committee at Van Nuys’ Church on the Way issues a weekly brochure listing the people they are praying for, ranging from sick church members to business executives, media leaders and government figures.

The bulletin also publishes thank-you notes from people who were notified of being on the prayer list. In January, for instance, CBS news anchor Dan Rather said the “spiritual support is truly valued by me and my family” and IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. thanked the church “for keeping me in your prayers.”

A recent thank-you came from Superior Court Judge Lance A. Ito, who is presiding over the O. J. Simpson double-murder trial in Los Angeles. It said, in part:

“I am convinced that it is the prayers of my friends at my church, Lake Avenue Congregational in Pasadena, as well as those of many brothers and sisters in Christ personally unknown to me, that have given me strength, resolve and hopefully wisdom as well.”

PASTORS LEAVING: St. James Presbyterian Church in Tarzana, where earthquake repair estimates have escalated from $400,000 to roughly $1 million, will lose its two pastors as well.

Senior Pastor Ken Baker, 45, said that he will leave June 18 to become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Colorado City, Tex.

“I’ve been rebuilding, remodeling or constructing every church I’ve been at in my ministry,” Baker said. “It’s a very draining thing. Let someone else put their energy into concrete and steel.”

Associate Pastor Carl Horton is scheduled to leave the 340-member congregation on June 25 to become associate pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Neb.

Meanwhile, the congregation on Ventura Boulevard has yet to decide on options such as whether to repair or rebuild its closed sanctuary or relocate to another site.

METHODISTS CELEBRATE: The First United Methodist Church of Reseda this week rededicated its repaired sanctuary with a special Sunday service led by Pastor Emma Moore-Kochlas and attended by Bishop Roy Sano.

The final cost of the earthquake repairs was $205,000, which included the rebuilding of more than 700 feet of parking lot walls. An $80,000 Small Business Administration loan and a grant of $74,000 from the denomination’s committee on relief complemented a small insurance settlement and individual donations, a church spokesman said.

CATHOLIC NEWSPAPERS: For its coverage of the Northridge quake’s effects on Catholics and their churches, The Tidings, the weekly newspaper of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, won its third consecutive award for best news reporting at the Catholic Press Assn.’s national meeting in Los Angeles last week.

The Tidings, whose four-person staff is headed by Editor Tad Tamberg of Studio City, won first place in the same category the previous year for coverage of the 1993 fires in Malibu. The paper placed second the year before that for its stories on the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In the general excellence category for national Catholic newspapers, the Encino-based National Catholic Register placed second, behind The National Catholic Reporter, based in Kansas City, Mo.

BEL AIR CHURCH: As expected, members of Bel Air Presbyterian Church voted this week in favor of hiring the Rev. Michael H. Wenning as senior pastor of the congregation on Mulholland Drive in Encino.

Wenning, who has served a Laguna Hills Presbyterian congregation for the last nine years, was the unanimous choice of the church’s nominating committee.

The new pastor will start working in the church office in August but will begin preaching on Sept. 10, said Lona Wig, the church’s business administrator.

YOUTH THEATER: A full stage production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” will be performed at 7 p.m. Wednesday by a synagogue youth theater group at Shomrei Torah Theatre, 18449 Kittridge St., Reseda.

Tickets are $7 or $4 for children 12 and under, and they will be available at the door. For more information or advance tickets, call the main synagogue office in West Hills at (818) 346-0811.