When the Rev. J. Edwin (Ed) Bacon...

When the Rev. J. Edwin (Ed) Bacon Jr. became rector of Pasadena’s All Saints Episcopal Church this year, the priest took the reins of a large, well-to-do parish made famous by his innovative predecessor, the Rev. George Regas, who was a major presence in the denomination.

Quite a task for any Episcopal priest. But Bacon recently told parishioners that the social service network in the parish has energized his ministry.

“I have found my niche here at All Saints working on your behalf with those whose circumstances have brought them to the brink of an abyss,” Bacon wrote in the parish newsletter.

As Christmas approaches, Bacon said, the mixture of affluence and service in church life--as well as potential and poverty in everyday life--can be seen also in the Gospel Nativity stories.

“Just as the Bethlehem stable brings into sharp contrast the glory and the sordidness of life, so much contemporary human drama brings the same competing forces to our attention,” Bacon said.

Church messages of concern for the hurting in society are not uncommon at Christmas.

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, in his Christmas statement this week, noted the many people who cannot find adequate employment or fear the loss of jobs, the families who cannot afford medical care, the misunderstandings between ethnic and racial groups, and “youth gangs [that] rob our young people of their full potential to be contributors to our community.”

Both Mahony and Bacon talked about the “transforming” power of the Christmas story.

“Those who work among the poor discover this supreme truth,” Bacon wrote. “In the hidden lives of the poor we discover the Christ child . . . meeting us at the obscure Bethlehem stable, infusing our lives with joy and light.”

VOLUNTEERS

Jews in Southern California who might otherwise be idle on the Dec. 25 holiday have formed volunteer groups through the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles that will lend a hand to needy individuals and institutions on Monday morning. The federation’s Tikkun L.A. volunteer day brought out 300 people last year. In cooperation with LA Works, the federation has identified places where repairs, paint jobs, cooking and distributing food can be done.

In addition, Temple Israel of Hollywood for the 11th year will serve a complete turkey dinner on Christmas at the Hollywood United Methodist Church to as many as 850 people. Last year, a temple representative said, more than 100 synagogue members helped with the dinner or distributed toys, blankets and toiletries.

MUSICAL

The long-running “Glory of Christmas” production at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove will be interrupted Sunday, when the Rev. Robert Schuller and other ministers at the 8,000-member church will lead 10 services, including seven candlelight services every 90 minutes beginning at 3 p.m. and ending with one at midnight.

Meanwhile, “Glory of Christmas” ticket sales were expected to approach 150,000 by this weekend for the three daily performances of the Nativity drama, which began Nov. 24 and runs through next Saturday, a spokeswoman said. Heather Whitestone, Miss America 1995 and a ballerina despite her deafness, performed in the musical Dec. 15 through Thursday. The production will resume its schedule of shows at 4:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, and tickets on those two days are discounted to $12 each. Information: (714) 54-Glory.

PEOPLE

* Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, the founding rabbi 32 years ago of what became one of the largest synagogues in North America, this week began a six-month sabbatical leave from Stephen S. Wise Temple to write a book. Zeldin, who turned 75 this year, will write about his life and beliefs about modern Judaism, said a spokesman for the 1,900-member-family temple atop the Sepulveda Pass. His only previous sabbatical in 1971 lasted a month, cut short by temple duties. “When he returns, he will go on half-time and will concentrate on completing the first phase of the permanent facilities” of the temple-linked Milken Community High School, the spokesman said.

* Jazz great Dave Brubeck will join Cantori Domino, a choral group based in Santa Monica, and other artists to perform the pianist-composer’s religious works in three Los Angeles area concerts. The series is thought to be the first devoted solely to choral compositions of the 75-year-old Brubeck, said a Cantori Domino official. The concerts are: “Pange Lingua Variations,” based on a traditional Latin hymn, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Augustine-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, 1227 4th St., Santa Monica; “La Fiesta de La Posada,” based on Mexican pre-Christmas celebrations, at 7 p.m. Friday, Bel Air Presbyterian Church, 16221 Mulholland Dr., and “The Gates of Justice,” which uses Jewish themes and Martin Luther King Jr. writings, at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 31, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Tickets are $30 for each concert; $15 seniors and students. Reservations: (818) 226-9269.

* Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, a former New Yorker who has become a spokesman for West Bank settlers and chief rabbi of the West Bank town of Efrat, will be the keynote speaker Sunday night for the West Coast conference of the Orthodox Union, an organization of Orthodox synagogues. The group’s two-day convention at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Century City will start Sunday. “Various speakers will address the issue of whether the Orthodox killer of [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin was a distortion or a reflection of religious Zionism,” according to Rabbi Alan Kalinsky, West Coast director of the Orthodox Union.

* Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, head of the San Gabriel pastoral region of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, is one of six bishops named to the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Women in Society and in the Church. Though the American bishops three years ago abandoned an attempt to craft a pastoral letter on women amid criticisms from liberal and conservative Catholics, the bishops’ ongoing committee will continue to explore ways in which women may be leaders in the church despite the ban on priestly ordination.

HOLIDAY DATES

* Swedish Americans from throughout Southern California will travel to Angelica Lutheran Church in Los Angeles on Monday for the 7 a.m. Julotta service to be held for the 109th year. The bilingual service will celebrate Jesus’ birth. Retired Lutheran Bishop Carl W. Segerhammer will give the Christmas message. The presiding minister will be the Rev. Susan Wolfe Devol, pastor at the church at 1345 S. Burlington Ave.

* The last Hanukkah candle lighting will take place Sunday night in thousands of Jewish homes--and in a community celebration in downtown Santa Monica from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Rabbi Naomi Levy will lead the menorah lighting at 5:45 p.m. on the steps of Temple Mishkon Tephilo, 206 Main St. Before that ceremony, music will be provided by the Ellis Island Klezmer Band, thousands of latkes (potato pancakes) will be served and the “Aleph-Bet . . . Blast Off” puppet show featured on the Jewish Television Network will perform at 4 p.m. Adults who are not synagogue members are asked to donate $5.

* “Instead of taking your picture with Santa Claus this year, come and take a picture with King Herod, the Wise Men [or] shepherds,” urges a spokesman for the Iglesia Metodista Unida [United Methodist Church] of Huntington Park, 2660 E. Gage Ave. Photo opportunities with live Nativity characters will be offered today for two hours, starting at 2 p.m., on the front steps of the church.

FINALLY

The pastor of a Methodist church in West Hollywood plans to go “bar-hopping” again on Christmas Eve.

In what is now a seven-year tradition for the Rev. Tom Griffith, the pastor of Crescent Heights United Methodist Church will enter bars and restaurants in his area for three hours Sunday night, inviting patrons to attend his midnight candlelight service, which features traditional carols and a retelling of the Christmas story.

Griffith started the bar-hopping ministry in 1989 for fear of leading a service before empty pews. That year, he zipped through drinking establishments and eateries dressed in ministerial robes, handing out “complimentary tickets” to the midnight service.

“The first couple of years, two or three bars asked me to leave,” he said. “Now, they say, ‘Oh, you’re here again.’ ”

Thirty people came that first year; the next year 60 came.

Attendance fell off to 45 people last year “because of a pouring rain,” said the minister whose church at Fountain and Fairfax also has a 7 p.m. Christmas Eve service.

Each year, he said, at least one person attending the Christmas Eve service tells him that he was in the bar Griffith visited only because he didn’t want to stay home alone.