Three women will be ordained today as...

Three women will be ordained today as pastors in Loma Linda, going against the wishes of officials of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whose world convention in July voted against granting full ministerial status to women.

The separate ceremonies in Loma Linda and Riverside Adventist churches will be the second round of ordinations unauthorized by church officials since three women were ordained to the full ministry Sept. 23 in the large Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Md.

“We are loyal and committed to the Adventist Church, but we feel we must live by our conscience on this one matter,” said Senior Pastor Dan Smith of La Sierra University Church in Riverside.

The North American division of the denomination had backed a proposal to permit women’s ordination on a division-by-division basis, but on July 5 delegates to the world convention in Utrecht, the Netherlands, rejected that resolution by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

The denomination, shaped since the mid-19th Century by the writings of Adventist prophet Ellen White, is known today for its emphasis on hospitals, health care and vegetarianism as well as for staunch advocacy of church-state separation, stemming largely from its observance of the Saturday Sabbath as a day of rest.

Seminary-educated Adventist women have served as pastors--baptizing, marrying and burying church members--but they have not been granted the same spiritual authority as male pastors.

Those scheduled to be ordained today are:

* Sheryll Prinz-McMillan, who is pastor of Loma Linda Victoria Church, where the ceremony will take place during the regular 11 a.m. service.

* Madelynn Jones-Haldeman, associate professor of New Testament at Adventist-run La Sierra University in Riverside, and Halcyon Wilson, an associate pastor at La Sierra University Church, where their ordination rites will take place.

Officiating at the 4 p.m. service at the campus church will be Pastor Smith; Lawrence Geraty, president of La Sierra University, and John Jones, dean of the school of religion at the university.

Officers of the Riverside-based Southeastern Conference for Adventists declined to comment on the planned ordinations.

“We don’t claim to provide an ordination that will be validated at this time by the rest of the church but we want to give these two women the full affirmation of our congregation and recognize their full equality here,” Smith said.

“There are people who will see this as rebellion,” said a participant in the planned ceremonies who did not wish to be identified.

“Nevertheless, the congregations will issue ordination certificates, and if the rest of the church wants to recognize them, so be it.”

CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Christmas concerts and music-filled worship services get under way this weekend and next at Southland churches. A sampling follows:

* Noted choral director Paul Salamunovich will lead the St. Charles Borromeo Choir of North Hollywood in a concert of Christmas carols at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Holy Family Catholic Church, 1301 Rollins St., South Pasadena. An offering will be taken at intermission.

* Handel’s “Messiah” will be performed by a combined choir and orchestra led by conductor Marshall Ramirez in the 26th annual concert at 4 p.m. Sunday at Westchester Lutheran Church, 7831 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Featured soloists will be from the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Company, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Orange County Master Chorale. Donation is $6; $3 for senior citizens and students.

* The 65-voice Towne Singers will present holiday concerts Sunday at Lutheran Church of the Foothills, 1700 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, and Tuesday at First Congregational Church of Glendale, 2001 Canada Blvd. Both concerts, featuring Christmas and Hanukkah music, will begin at 7 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door for $5. Information: (818) 584-1221.

* Anglican-style “Advent Lessons and Carols” will be presented at 5 p.m. Sunday in two Episcopal parishes--All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 504 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, and Episcopal Parish of St. Luke, 122 S. California Ave., Monrovia.

* “The Sounds of Christmas” will be performed by a combined 120-voice choir and orchestra at 7 tonight and at 4 and 7 Sunday night at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 185 S. Center St., Orange, directed by William J. Heide. An offering will be taken. Information: (714) 288-4400.

* The Church at Rocky Peak, located in Chatsworth near the freeway entering Simi Valley, will present its own “Sounds of Christmas” with a 100-voice choir and holiday narrations in six performances, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Tickets for most performances at the evangelical church, 22601 Santa Susana Pass Road, are $8. Information: (818) 709-0113.

* San Dimas Wesleyan Church will present its fourth annual Christmas program of music and drama in four performances at 7 p.m. Friday. The program includes special effects and secular and sacred music. Donations accepted by the church, located at 125 E. Gladstone Ave. Information: (909) 599-1603.

* New and traditional Christmas music will be performed by St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 600 St. Andrews Road, Newport Beach, the next two weekends, at 8 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Dec. 10. A 30-piece orchestra will accompany the 100-voice sanctuary choir and actors. Tickets are $5. Information: (714) 574-2253.

EXHIBITS

* A traveling museum celebrating Jerusalem’s 3,000 years using videos, animation, music and narration opened Friday at Beth Jacob Congregation, 9030 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills. It will remain for five days before moving on to other Orthodox Jewish sites in the Southland. Sponsored by the Orthodox Union, the exhibit will begin a five-day stay Thursday at Shaarey Zedek Congregation, 12800 Chandler Blvd., North Hollywood. Later stops will be at Shaarei Tefila Congregation, Los Angeles; Beit Midrash Congregation, Woodland Hills; Maimonides Hebrew Academy, West Los Angeles; San Diego Hebrew Day School and Beth Jacob Congregation in Irvine. Information: (310) 777-0225, Ext. 3.

* There are two local photographic exhibits of houses of worship: Historic synagogues of the world photographed by Neil Folberg are showing at the Peter Fetterman Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave., Gallery A7, Santa Monica, through Jan. 6. And starting Monday, photographs of French and Spanish cathedrals, churches and monasteries by David M. d’Etchemendy of Redondo Beach will be on exhibit through Jan. 31 at the Von der Ahe Library at Loyola Marymount University.

DATES

* A three-day conference in Chino on “Growing Reformational Churches” will open at 7 p.m. Thursday with an address by W. Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido. The conference is co-sponsored by the seminary and the host church, First Christian Reformed Church of Chino, 6159 Riverside Drive. Other speakers include Presbyterian Pastor James Boice of Philadelphia and author Michael Horton, president of the Anaheim-based Christians United for Reformation. Information: (619) 480-8474.

* The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony will perform the music of movie composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at University Synagogue, 11960 Sunset Blvd., Brentwood. The Italian-born composer wrote music for more than 100 feature films at major Hollywood studios. Tickets and information: (818) 753-6681.

* Russian Maj. Gen. Vychesslav Borisov, a born-again Christian who is now an official on a committee overseeing Russia’s new military chaplaincy, will speak at 6 p.m. Sunday at Full Gospel Assembly of God, 6262 E. Gage Ave., Bell Gardens, according to Pastor Colman McDuff. Information: (213) 773-2301.

* Concert pianist Richard Henger, known for his interpretations of Sergei Rachmaninoff and late romantic Russian music, will perform in a 2 p.m. classical concert Sunday at Hollywood Lutheran Church, 173 N. New Hampshire Ave. Tickets are $7.50.

CORRECTION

* A recent wedding-like ceremony said to be the first for a gay or lesbian rabbi in Southern California in fact was not, according to Reform Rabbi Denise L. Eger, who was joined in an April, 1994, rite with her partner, Karen Siteman, at Kol Tikvah Synagogue in Woodland Hills. Rabbi Steven Jacobs and Cantor Doug Cotier officiated at that ceremony.

FINALLY

Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Light, begins this year at sundown Dec. 17, but some speakers are ready with advice on preparations.

* The yearly “Christmas/Hanukkah Dilemma” faced by Jewish families with young children will be discussed by Rabbi Allen Maller at Culver City’s Temple Akiba, 5249 S. Sepulveda Blvd., at 7 p.m. Sunday. No charge.

* Writer-psychotherapist Laura Wine Paster will lead a women-oriented, pre-holiday celebration with Hanukkah menorahs at 8:15 p.m. Thursday at the University of Judaism. The fee is $8. Reservations: (310) 476-9777.

* The University of Judaism at 15600 Mulholland Drive will host a variety of Hanukkah programs, including a daylong seminar on the meaning of the holiday on Sunday at 9 a.m. that features talks and workshops by five rabbis--Morecai Finley, Judith HaLevy, Jane Litman, Jonathan Omer-Man and Stephen Robbins. The fee is $65. Information: (310) 476-9777, Ext. 246.