The evangelical-style Promise Keepers men’s movement, which...

The evangelical-style Promise Keepers men’s movement, which packed 13 stadiums last year for religious rallies, will kick off an expanded season April 19 and 20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

San Diego was among the cities added to this year’s lineup--expected to total more than 20 sports venues. The San Diego conference will be July 12-13 in Jack Murphy Stadium.

Promise Keepers headquarters officials in Boulder, Colo., said that conferences in Minneapolis and Indianapolis this year are already sold out. A total of 725,000 men attended the 13 gatherings last year, including 72,548 who showed up in May at the Coliseum.

Promise Keepers was founded in 1990 by then-University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.

“Until we are reconciled to God, we can never be reconciled to our families and brothers,” said McCartney, who has talked especially about the movement as a vehicle for breaking down racial barriers.

The movement was recently endorsed by the Rev. Luis Madrigal, executive director of the Hispanic Assn. of Bilingual Bicultural Ministries, who said the group represents hundreds of Latino churches in Los Angeles County.

“Promise Keepers is meant to help these men to be better husbands and fathers, building stronger families, and that leads to stronger communities,” Madrigal said.

Each conference costs $60, which must be paid at least two weeks before the event. (800) 888-7595.

‘CELEBRATING BROTHERS’

In a follow-up to last October’s Million Man March in Washington, Faith United Methodist Church hopes to have 100 men attending church services at 11 a.m. Sunday--”which would be double the number that usually come,” said Pastor M. Andrew Robinson-Gaither.

Men attending the “Celebrating Brothers” service, which is also noting Black History Month, will recite the 10-point Million Man March Pledge that renounces, among other things, unprovoked violence, drugs and abuse of family members, and promises individual moral improvement and support for black institutions.

The march engendered some controversy because it was conceived and led by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. But many Christian ministers who attended said that they found it uplifting.

“It was really a spiritual event,” said Robinson-Gaither.

Preaching at the service will be Elder D.C. Nosakhere Thomas, pastor of the Rainbow Praise Center in Rancho Cucamonga. Faith United Methodist is at 1713 W. 108th St. in Los Angeles. (213) 754-8453.

PEOPLE

* The Rev. Lloyd Ogilvie, appointed chaplain of the U.S. Senate last year after serving many years in the pulpit of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, will be honored by that congregation’s Creative Counseling Center on Friday night at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel. Ogilvie and his wife, Mary Jane, will be the first recipients of the Edith Munger Leadership Award, named after one of the founders of the counseling center. Tickets are $125. (213) 465-6020.

* The newly relocated Southern California Ecumenical Council has elected the Rev. Sally Welch of La Verne, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister, as president, succeeding the Rev. Barbara Mudge, who retired as rector of a Simi Valley parish and from her post as ecumenical representative of the Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese. The Rev. Al Cohen, campus minister at Cal State L.A., is the council’s new executive director. The council office moved from downtown Los Angeles to the Pasadena Presbyterian Church. (818) 578-6371.

* The Rev. Lloyd Sellers, chaplain at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, has been elected president of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council, replacing Ann Stern of the Bahai Faith of Newport Beach. Jim de Boom is executive director. (714) 548-4942.

AWARDS

* Vida Nueva, the Spanish-language newspaper published by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese, recently was named the “best overall publication” among bimonthly newspapers for the third consecutive year in the annual contest of the National Assn. of Hispanic Publications. Vida Nueva won five other first-place awards in news and photo competitions, including “outstanding reporting on Latin America.”

DATES

* An eight-week course in Buddhist meditation will be offered at Rosemead Buddhist Monastery on Sunday afternoons, starting Feb. 25. The course, focusing on the practical and nondevotional aspects of Buddhist meditation, will be taught by an American-born instructor, Dharmachari Sariputra, editor of Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal. The course is free, but space is limited. (818) 280-1213.

* The 20-year-old First Apostolic Church of Inglewood will rename itself New Bethel Apostolic Ministries in ceremonies starting at 4 p.m. Sunday, beginning with a parade from its former church at 110 E. Davis Drive to its present location at 425 S. La Brea Ave. The senior pastor is Andrew C. Turner II.

* Christian ethicist Emilie M. Towne of St. Paul School of Theology will lecture twice on Tuesday at the School of Theology at Claremont’s Mudd Theater. Speaking on learning and teaching at 4:15 p.m., she will follow with the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on the impact of HIV/AIDS on African Americans. (909) 626-3521, Ext. 1262.

* Conservative Judaism’s views on homosexuality will be discussed by four rabbis, including Rabbi Elliot Dorff of the University of Judaism, in an open forum at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Temple Beth Am, 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd., West Los Angeles. Also speaking at the free forum will be Rabbi Perry Netter of the host temple, Rabbi Denise Eger of Congregation Kol Ami and Rabbi J.B. Sacks of Congregation Shaarei Torah. (310) 652-7353.

* A workshop exploring the survival in this country of “Marian Devotion in Latino Catholicism” will be led by Orlando Espin, associate professor of religious studies at the University of San Diego, on three Monday nights starting next week at the Catholic-run university in Maher Hall, Room 213. The fee is $35. (619) 260-4784.

* Concert organist Todd Wilson, head of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, will perform at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at St. James Episcopal Church, 3903 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Suggested donation is $8. The concert will be preceded by Solemn Evensong, a service featuring the St. James Choir and starting at 4:30 p.m. (213) 388-3015.

* Rabbi Leonid Feldman, a nonreligious Soviet dissident who arrived in Los Angeles in 1980, then went to the University of Judaism and continued his studies to become the first Soviet-born Conservative rabbi, will return to Los Angeles this weekend as a guest speaker in the Bureau of Jewish Education’s Jewish University for Russian-speaking families.

Feldman, now the rabbi of a Palm Beach, Fla., synagogue, will speak at 5 p.m. Sunday at Etz Jacob Congregation, 7659 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 852-6563.

* More than 90 Christian and Jewish seminarians, including novice sisters in training, will meet in a retreat Sunday and Monday in a mountain camp above Malibu, exploring differences and examining religious stereotypes in what is now an annual event.

The future clergy come from St. John’s Seminary (Catholic), Fuller Theological Seminary and the School of Theology at Claremont (Protestant), and Hebrew Union College and the University of Judaism (Jewish).

FINALLY

Members of Pasadena’s Muir High School basketball team were upset when they saw a racial epithet written on a chalkboard in their locker room at another school. The slur was erased, but it reappeared when the team entered the room after the game.

“How long do we have to keep sucking up these comments?” a player asked a Muir administrator.

H. Newton Malony, senior professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, heard about the incident and sought to do something to show adult support for the players.

Malony organized a luncheon Thursday at the University Club for Muir players and coaches with more than a dozen faculty and staff people from Fuller--including dean of the chapel, William Pannell, an African American who wrote a book about racial reconciliation titled “The Coming Race Wars?”

“We wanted to let the players know we appreciate them for who they are,” Malony said.