Thirteen episodes of a new TV religious...

Thirteen episodes of a new TV religious quiz program were taped last weekend in New York City and will start their run this fall on Faith & Values Network, the national interfaith cable network.

Called “Inspiration, Please” in imitation of the old radio quiz program “Information, Please,” the program produced by Trinity Church in Manhattan asks questions testing religious knowledge.

Selected as the program’s on-camera host was Robert G. Lee of West Hills, one of the busiest warm-up comics for television studio audiences at sitcoms such as “Wings,” “The Golden Girls,” “Perfect Strangers,” “Step by Step” and “Family Matters.”

Lee has also been working steadily as a Christian stand-up comedian, as “comedy nights” have gained popularity at some churches and church meetings. The comic is a member of Bel-Air Presbyterian Church.

In a brief phone interview, Lee said that most questions on the program are about Christianity, but there are some about Judaism and Islam too.

The program’s producer, Don Epstein--who has credits with secular quiz shows and TV specials--said the questions on “Inspiration Please” will also draw on art, music and literature influenced by religion.

One question in a mock competition before the taping sessions demonstrated the show’s sense of humor: “If Esau and Jacob were professional baseball players, what American League team would they be most likely to join?” Answer: “The [Minnesota] Twins.”

Lee said that if the show can attract sponsors, it has a chance to continue beyond the first 13 programs.

The New York-based Faith & Values Network, formerly known as VISN, is seen on a limited number of cable franchise systems in Southern California.

CELEBRATION

* It was 25 years ago that a visiting Vietnamese Buddhist monk, the Venerable Thich Thien-An, opened the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles. The center “was one of the four original Zen centers founded in the United States to cater specifically to the needs of western-born Americans,” said a spokesman. Indeed, when Thien-An died 10 years later, he was ultimately succeeded by an American-born woman disciple who took the name Karuna Dharma.

The center at 928 S. New Hampshire Avenue will celebrate its quarter-century next Saturday with a multicultural festival and an illustrative history of Buddhism in the city. At least 10 other temples got their start there, as monks from the center developed large enough groups of followers to establish their own places for meditation and teaching.

The free event is open to the public. (213 384-0850)

CONVENTIONS

* Jehovah’s Witnesses have been filling the Long Beach Arena this summer, with six Los Angeles area district assemblies held there, each averaging about 12,000 participants. The final of a series of three-day programs of talks, Bible dramas and baptisms in English concluded last Sunday. A series of five Spanish-language conventions for the district will begin on Friday.

“We used to do this in four weekends at Dodger Stadium, but we moved this summer to the Long Beach Arena because people wanted to have the meetings inside with air conditioning,” said convention coordinator Lloyd Harding of Santa Clarita.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

* Scholarships of $2,000 each have been awarded by the Max and Pauline Zimmer Foundation to two Jewish rabbinical students, a Muslim student and a doctoral candidate in Byzantine history who are fellows in the new Academy for Judaic, Christian & Islamic Studies at UCLA.

The Academy Fellows Program was designed to develop knowledgeable leaders in Jewish, Christian and Muslim cooperation, said George B. Grose, academy president.

The fellowship winners are: Patricia Fenton and Richard Chizever, both studying for the rabbinate at the University of Judaism; Muhammad Marei, former editor of Al-Talib, the Muslim student newsmagazine at UCLA, and Constantina Scourtis, a UCLA doctoral student.

PEOPLE

* While USC officials evaluate the future of the school’s chaplaincy following the retirement this spring of University Chaplain Alvin Rudisill, Rabbi Susan Laemmle will serve as interim coordinator of campus ministries at the onetime Methodist-related university. Laemmle will also continue as director of the Hillel Jewish Center, a post she has held since 1992.

* Sidney Katz of Los Angeles is scheduled to be elected international president of Conservative Judaism’s Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs next week during the group’s biennial convention at South Fallsburg, N.Y. Katz has been an active member of Sinai Temple in Westwood.

STATISTICS

* The United Methodist Church, which has 8.6 million U.S. members, announced that 51 of its 68 regions, or so-called annual conferences, have reported membership losses during 1994, contributing to a total net drop of 56,000 and continuing the denomination’s 30-year decline in numbers. The Pasadena-based California-Pacific Conference, which covers Southern California and Hawaii, had the fifth-largest drop--2,739, putting its current total at 113,193 members.

BOOKS

* The richly illustrated “Wine of the Mystic”--the classic “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” as interpreted by the Los Angeles founder of the 75-year-old Self-Realization Fellowship--has been named the best book in the field of religion by Publishers Marketing Assn., which honors excellence in independent publishing. Published last year, the analysis of the “Rubaiyat” by the late Paramahansa Yogananda explores the riddles of life, death, karma, reincarnation and free will, among other topics.

* Praised by evangelical Christians as a reasoned approach from their viewpoint on gay and lesbian issues is “Straight & Narrow? Compassion and Clarity in the Homosexuality Debate” (InterVarsity Press), by Thomas E. Schmidt, who teaches New Testament and Greek at Westmont College in Santa Barbara.

AFFILIATION

* Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood was recently accepted into Reform Judaism--the seventh predominantly gay and lesbian synagogue in the United States to become affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations since Beth Chayim Chadashim in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles became the first to be admitted in 1973.

“This application went through perfectly smoothly,” said Rabbi Janet Marder, associate director of the UAHC’s regional office in Los Angeles. “A congregation having an outreach to the gay, lesbian and bisexual community is no longer an issue,” she said.

Congregation Kol Ami, led by Rabbi Denise Eger, has nearly 200 members. It formed three years ago after a split occurred in Beth Chayim Chadashim, where Eger was the rabbi.

FINALLY

* “I have never been a handbell devotee,” confessed the Rev. John Townsend, senior pastor of Los Angeles’ First Baptist Church since 1965.

Handbell ringers--typically lined up, facing the pews, shaking their bells with either hand--show up frequently in church Christmas programs and occasionally perform concerts in parishes.

But Townsend, influenced largely by First Baptist’s new organist who is also an experienced handbell director, has come to see a generous donor’s recent gift of money for a full set of handcrafted bells as a plus for the inner-city church just west of Downtown.

“Handbells speak no language,” Townsend said. “It’s one more way to cross cultural lines so people can make music together. In our kind of church we need everything we can get to bring Filipino, Hispanic, Korean, African American and Anglo people together.”

Ten people have already signed up for training by organist Kyle Irwin after the church’s initial appeal for volunteers with a rudimentary knowledge of music, Townsend said.

Notices may be sent to Southern California File by mail c/o John Dart, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA., 91311, or by fax to Religion Editor, (213) 237-4712. Items must be brief and arrive at least three weeks in advance of the event announced. Include a phone number, date, time and full address.