The Rev. Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusade at...

The Rev. Greg Laurie’s Harvest Crusade at Anaheim Stadium, the largest annual evangelistic crusade in the country, has grown bigger this year.

The pastor-evangelist, 42, drew a total of 144,000 to the home of the baseball Angels over three nights last summer.

For his sixth crusade in Orange County, Laurie has expanded the event to four nights, starting Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

“The crusades provide spiritual encouragement and fellowship for churched people even though the primary thrust of the crusades is . . . evangelism,” Laurie said. “As long as people come to these crusades, and continue to invite friends, I am willing to continue preaching.”

Laurie is accustomed to large crowds. His Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside averages a Sunday attendance of 12,000.

Featuring contemporary Christian music and plain-talk sermons, the Orange County crusade has the support of 670 area congregations, primarily evangelical and charismatic churches.

Laurie will conduct a San Diego crusade at Jack Murphy Stadium Aug. 18-20. About 85,000 people attended that crusade last year.

Mentioned in evangelical circles as another Billy Graham, Laurie has been a regular speaker at the Billy Graham School of Evangelism and at a Graham training center in Asheville, N.C. He also is on the board of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn.

The Anaheim Stadium Harvest Crusade includes a children’s event next Saturday at 11 a.m. The two-hour services all start at 7:30 p.m. Food collection receptacles will be set up at the entrances to the ballpark each night by the Salvation Army and Canning Hunger Ministries, based in Brea. (800) CRUSADE

RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS

* A small, clothed statue of the Virgin Mary is expected to attract thousands of Catholics of Mexican heritage daily, today through July 16, to Downtown Los Angeles’ “La Placita.” The 2-foot-tall Virgin of San Juan de

Los Lagos, a small town near Guadalajara, will be on display at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church. The venerated statue, said to date from 1629 and associated with miracles, drew tens of thousands of Catholics on its two previous visits to Los Angeles in 1983 and 1988.

* With a profusion of lanterns, Japanese Buddhists this month will hold Obon festivals, traditional mid-July observances honoring ancestors. Zenshuji Soto Mission is holding an Obon carnival from noon to 8:30 p.m. today and Sunday at 123 S. Hewitt St. in Little Tokyo. Obon memorial services will be held both days at 2 p.m. Higashi Hongwanji Temple, 505 E. 3rd St. set its Obon celebration for July 22 and 23.

REMEMBERING

* It was 25 years ago that the reform-minded leadership of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters took on its new identity as a lay institute after a controversial--and losing--battle with then-Cardinal James F. McIntyre of Los Angeles. Many Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns had adopted secular clothing and made other changes in community practices that, at the time, were bold interpretations of Second Vatican Council documents.

The Immaculate Heart Community, still based at 5515 Franklin Ave. in the Los Feliz District, will celebrate its quarter-century from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Immaculate Heart High School Auditorium. Speaking will be Sister Theresa Kane of the Sisters of Mercy of New York, who startled the Catholic world in 1979 when she greeted Pope John Paul II on the pontiff’s first U.S. visit by urging him to “hear the call of women . . . [to be] included in all ministries of the Church.”

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

* Two classes taught at Fuller Theologi c al Seminary in Pasadena each received $10,000 awards from the John Templeton Foundation as model science and religion courses. One award went to “Theology and Science,” a course designed to enable future church leaders to integrate scientific knowledge with their faith, taught by Nancey Murphy, associate professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller, and Richard Carlson, a physics professor at Redlands University. The second award went to psychology professor H. Newton Malony’s “Introduction to Integration,” which related faith to social and behavioral sciences.

HEALING

* A 45-minute Jewish “service for the healing of the soul” will be held 7 p.m. Tuesday at Temple Beth Hillel, 1226 Riverside Dr., Valley Village, for Jewish patients, their families and health - care providers. The synagogue, the largest Reform temple in the San Fernando Valley, has begun the monthly service as a way to reach out to Jews with medical problems, a spokesman said. (818) 763-9148

* Physician-psychiatrist Dwight Carlson, author of “When Life Isn’t Fair” and “Why Do Christians Shoot Their Wounded?” will begin a series of four weekly talks at 6 p.m. Sunday at Lake Avenue Congregational Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena, titled, “The Healing Power of Forgiveness.” An offering will be taken. (818) 795-7221

* Clinical psychologist James Finley, author of “Merton’s Palace of Nowhere,” will talk about “The Contemplative Dimension of Psychological Healing” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Doheny campus of Mt. St. Mary’s College at 10 Chester Place in Los Angeles. The cost is $6. (213) 746-0450, Ext. 2131

DATES

* A reception and program honoring Peg Beissert, who is retiring as director of the Lazarus Project, will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at West Hollywood Presbyterian Church, 7350 Sunset Blvd. Project leaders have tried to promote understanding between lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual Christians. (213) 874-6646

* Two professors from the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan will lecture at the Islamic Society of Orange County, 9752 W. 13th St., Garden Grove. Mahmod Ghazi will speak at 8:30 p.m. today on the status of women in Islamic law. Anis Ahmad will talk on “Fundamentalism and the Clash of Civilizations” at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. (714) 531-1722

CLARIFICATIONS

* A Lutheran marching unit in the St. Christopher Street Gay Pride Parade on June 25 was arranged by some Lutheran congregations and individual Lutherans--not by the Southern California West Synod as reported in Southern California File on June 17.

* The July 1 merger of English-language congregations from Westwood and Los Angeles Korean United Methodist Churches, will not be celebrated until July 23 at 12:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Korean facility, 7400 Osage Ave., in the Westchester area.