A Polish ambassador named two months ago...

A Polish ambassador named two months ago to make contacts with Jews living outside of Israel prayed and spoke at a Rosh Hashanah service Monday in Burbank.

Krzysztof Sliwinski (pronounced Shlee-VINSKY), a Catholic journalist who has served as Poland’s ambassador to Morocco, has visited Jewish leaders in New York, Washington and Los Angeles during his U.S. visit.

With the assistance of Los Angeles attorney Barry Fisher, Sliwinski and Polish Consulate officials in Los Angeles accepted the invitation to attend the Jewish New Year services at Burbank Temple Beth Emet led by Rabbi William Kramer of West Los Angeles.

Fisher, long active in international human rights issues and U.S. church-state cases, has worked with Kramer in the past on religious liberty issues. Sliwinski chose the small Burbank synagogue from among several invitations from local temples, Fisher said.

The synagogue appearance at the start of the High Holy Days was significant, Fisher said, because Polish anti-Semitism during the Nazi era has resulted in lingering resentment of Poland by some Jews.

Krzysztof, however, citing centuries of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Poles, brought new year’s greetings to the 1,000 congregants “in the spirit of understanding and cooperation, with the emphasis on things that join us rather than divide.”

In his response, Kramer, a historian of Jews in the western states, said the majority of Jews who immigrated to California between the Gold Rush era and World War I came from Poland, primarily the province of Posen.

“The ambassador was well-received,” said Kramer. “The Polish officials arrived early and were the last to leave the two-hour service.”

PEOPLE

* Former Roman Catholic theologian Matthew Fox, who joined the Episcopal Church last year, will give a lecture Thursday at USC’s United University Church entitled “From Knowledge to Wisdom: Meaning in a Postmodern World.” Founder of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality in Oakland, Fox had been silenced by the Vatican in 1989 for his unorthodox views and was dismissed from the Dominican order of priests in 1993. The talk is free. Reservations: (213) 740-2673.

* The Rev. Joseph Hardwick, pastor of Praises of Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, has been elected president of the Western Baptist Convention, the regional body of the National Baptist Convention USA, the nation’s largest African American denomination. The Rev. Dudley Chatman, pastor of Greater Community Missionary Baptist Church of Pacoima, was elected to a five-year term as executive secretary. Chatman is also president of the San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council.

* The Rev. Kent D. Lawrence, senior pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena for 20 years, will retire after the church’s 10:30 a.m. service and reception Sunday. Next stop: An interim pastorate in New Zealand.

AWARDS

* The 3-year-old Catholics in Media Associates announced that its 1995 awards will go to New Line Cinema’s “Mi Familia”, CBS’ “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and PBS’ “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” and to actor Gregory Peck for lifetime achievement. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will present the awards after a Mass on Oct. 29 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The awards honor “projects and people in [the entertainment] industry who have by their work made clearer the word of God and affirmed the highest ethical standards of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” said Patt and Jack Shea, co-founders of Catholics in Media Associates. Information: (818) 907-2734.

HOLIDAY

* Hundreds of rabbis nationwide will urge congregants at Yom Kippur services to take dollars they might have spent for food on that fasting holiday and donate them to a Los Angeles-based hunger relief agency, Mazon. Since its 1986 founding, Mazon has awarded grants totaling nearly $9.4 million to food banks, hunger-fighting advocacy groups and emergency food programs, a spokesman said.

In addition, some temples and Jewish groups are collecting donated canned goods during the High Holy Days. For instance, a truck will be parked outside Temple Israel in Hollywood to receive goods on Yom Kippur. Hillel at USC will collect food on Yom Kippur for delivery to SOVA, Los Angeles’ kosher food pantry.

DATES

* A lecture series on Islam and its holy book, the Koran, will begin in October at the Islamic Center of Southern California, 434 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. Short talks on “The Koran for the Common Muslim” will be held at 12:20 p.m. each Sunday, beginning tomorrow, through January. Information: (213) 382-9200.

* The three-day Whole Life Expo, an eclectic spiritual fair now in its 13th year, will open at 2 p.m. Friday at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel. Author Lynn Andrews, Native American spiritual teachers, Timothy Leary and actor Steve Allen are included in the lineup of 200 speakers. Among 70 workshops, those on UFOs are the most popular, a spokesman said. Information and registration: (310) 399-2992.

* Positing an interplay between sexuality, spirituality and social power, Immaculate Heart College’s Master’s program in feminist spirituality will hold a multifaith conference Oct. 7 in Alhambra. Participants will also dance the “Dance of Change” during morning and afternoon rituals and workshops. The eight-hour conference, which starts at 8:30 a.m., will be held at Ramona Convent Secondary School, 1701 W. Ramona Road, Alhambra. Advance registration is $45. Reservations: (213) 386-3116.

* The production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” opening at Hollywood United Methodist Church on Friday at 7:30 p.m. will be a moving play in more than one way. The cast will lead the audience through the church’s Gothic arches and majestic wooden doors and past tall stained-glass windows. The Narthex Productions performance, directed by Michael Holmes, also includes a dinner served to the audience during the play. Reservations: 213 660-8587.

* “The Sounds of St. Petersburg,” featuring the 40-voice Cambridge Singers, will include Russian folk songs and sacred music at 4 p.m. Sunday at Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Cathedral, 650 Micheltorena St. in the Silver Lake District of Los Angeles. Tickets are $15 at the door.

* Animals will be blessed during the 10:30 a.m. Eucharist Sunday service at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church, 7501 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. A church spokesman said that all pets should be leasehed or caged. Information: (213) 876-2102.

* Rabbi Daniel Gordis, dean of the soon-to-expand rabbinical school at the University of Judaism, will autograph his new book, “God Was Not in the Fire,” from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the House of David, 9020 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills. Gordis will also talk on the book’s theme--the search for a spiritual Judaism. Information: (310) 276-9414.

* The New Age Bible and Philosophy Center, 119 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, a small group that minister Patricia Talis says has been in existence since 1931, will hear Dr. Hoang van Duc, a clinical professor of pathology at USC, speak on how thoughts and attitudes affect the immune system at 11 a.m. Sunday. Information: (213) 395-4346.

FINALLY

* Casablanca and three other West African cities are on the prayer agenda for Sunday. Mecca, the heart of Islam, is one of four cities to be prayed for on Oct. 6. And Jerusalem, a holy city for three faiths, is listed for Oct. 10.

Aided by what evangelical mission strategists call “spiritual mapping,” a global prayer campaign co-directed by C. Peter Wagner of Pasadena’s Fuller Theological Seminary has targeted 100 “spiritually important cities” for prayer by millions of Christians during October.

The cities, in 64 nations, range from Algiers, Algeria, to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. They are all in a so-called 10-40 window between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north of the Equator. Relatively few Christians live among the 2.5 billion people in those regions.

Directors of the campaign are Wagner, international director of the A.D. 2000 and Beyond United Prayer Track, and Michael Little, president of Christian Broadcasting Network, Virginia Beach, Va.

Wagner, who has written books on “spiritual warfare,” talks about “breaking strongholds of Satan” over certain cities and making a difference in the spirit world with concentrated prayers to seek openness to Christian teachings.

Wagner says he is optimistic about fulfilling Christianity’s “great commission” of establishing churches and making Bible messages available worldwide by the year 2000. “We have never been this close before,” he said.