A celebration of the spring equinox on...

A celebration of the spring equinox on March 21, featuring a feminist-oriented ritual drawn from ancient Greek myths of Demeter and her lost daughter Persephone, will take place at Immaculate Heart College Center in Los Feliz.

The evening program, which will open a four-day course on “Feminist Liturgy and Ritual,” is sponsored by the Masters Program in Feminist Spirituality at the educational center.

“We are doing cutting-edge technology,” said Susan Marie Maloney, head of the 12-year-old feminist spirituality program.

“The greatest challenge to traditional theology is [recovering] the experience of women,” which she said has been largely excluded from the Catholic church’s rituals and doctrines.

The March 21 ritual and discussion, titled “Return to the Mother,” will be led by therapist-activist-performer Wendy Hunter Roberts, who has been part of an alternative medical clinic for 15 years and has taught at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

In describing the event’s symbolism, Roberts said, “As women, we’ve been orphaned from the Mother, living in the underworld . . . for thousands of years.”

Demeter mourned her lost daughter Persephone, or Kore, who was lost in the underworld, according to the Eliade Guide to World Religions. When Persephone is reunited with her mother, it symbolized “rebirth for the initiate and abundance for the earth,” Mircea Eliade wrote.

Roberts will lead participants in a series of ritual chants, songs and a call in four directions to earth, wind, fire and water. In a circle symbolizing the womb, the egg and the earth, celebrants will call on “the Queen of Heaven” as they sample barley cakes in a recipe Roberts said was taken from the Bible.

Roberts will address the meaning of rituals and the death and rebirth images in the ancient “spring mysteries,” the announcement said. A donation of $10 will be asked for the evening event, which will take place at Immaculate Heart High School, at Western and Franklin avenues. (213) 386-3116.

PEOPLE

* The Rev. Domenic A. Polifrone returned this week to the pulpit of a pioneering metaphysical congregation, the Hollywood Church of Religious Science. The church was founded in 1930 by Robert H. Bitzer, who remained the pastor until his death in 1994. In the 1980s, Polifrone served as co-pastor with Bitzer, but left in 1990 to form his own church. Since then, Polifrone has established the Affiliated New Thought Religious Science Centers, now a network of 33 churches. In appointing Polifrone pastor of the 500-seat Hollywood Church of Religious Science at 7677 Sunset Blvd., trustees also approved a merger with the minister’s New Thought Center of Los Angeles.

* Neil Sandberg of Los Angeles, who through the Pacific Rim Institute helped the American Jewish Committee explain Jewish concerns about negative stereotyping to Japanese, Korean and Chinese government, media and business leaders, will become director emeritus of the institute. The 8-year-old organization is shifting its base of operations to Washington. Sandberg, 70, will remain a consultant and be succeeded by Jason F. Isaacson as the institute expands its mission to include India and Southeast Asia.

MUSIC

* The Cambridge Singers and the Claremont Chorale, 100 voices in all, will perform operatic selections, including the triumphal scene from “Aida” and the coronation scene from “Boris Gudunov,” at 3 p.m. Sunday at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 550 E. Colorado Blvd., and 4 p.m. March 17 at Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium in Claremont. Tickets range from $9.75 to $15.50. (818) 541-7673.

* Actor David Birney will narrate the symphonic-choral production of Arthur Honegger’s “King David” at 4 p.m. Sunday at Westwood Presbyterian Church, 10822 Wilshire Blvd. $5 donation. (310) 474-4535.

* German concert organist Juergen Maag will perform works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt and others on the symphonic pipe organ of Hollywood United Methodist Church, 6817 Franklin Ave., at 4 p.m. Sunday. Donation. (213) 776-4023.

* The Texas Lutheran College Concert Choir will sing with the locally formed New City Parish Choir at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Angelica Lutheran Church, 1345 S. Burlington Ave., Los Angeles. An offering will be taken. (213) 387-9037.

* “Fractured Pieces,” personal faith testimonies of young Christians set to a rock score by recording artists Greg and Rebecca Sparks, will be presented six nights by La Crescenta Presbyterian Church on the next two weekends, starting 8 p.m. Friday. Offerings will be taken. (818) 249-6137.

DATES

* Rabbi Sanford Ragins of Los Angeles’ Leo Baeck Temple will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Occidental College’s Morrison Lounge on “The Land and the Lord: The Religious Background to the Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.” The talk is free. (213) 259-2677.

* Dorothy Smith Patterson, who chairs the Unitarian-Universalist Service Committee, will be the dinner speaker tonight at the Long Beach Unitarian-Universalist Church’s annual Human Rights Forum. The forum will begin at 3 p.m. with a workshop led by Liz Fisher, author of “Gender Justice: Women’s Rights as Human Rights.” (310) 833-3682.

* “Sisters and Brothers,” an exhibit by Ruth Weisberg using paintings in a manner reminiscent of Renaissance mural displays, opened Friday at the Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University. The show will run through April 13. A public reception for the artist, who is dean of the USC School of Fine Arts, will take place at the gallery Sunday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

* France Anne-Dominic Cordova, chief scientist for NASA since 1993, will be honored as Bishop Amat High School’s alumnus of the year tonight at the Catholic school’s banquet in the Sheraton Grande Hotel. Cordova, a 1965 graduate, went on to earn a doctorate in physics from Caltech. Actor Joe Campanella will emcee and Paul Salamunovich will conduct members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. (818) 960-4360.

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CONFERENCES

Two gadfly organizations within the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be holding conferences in Southern California this month that are expected to attract a few hundred people at each.

The groups of unofficial churchgoers promote intellectual freedom through conferences and magazines that sometimes challenge church policies and interpretations.

Both the Adventist and Mormon churches were formed in 19th century America and have struggled in the 20th century to shed sectarian images. At the same time, they have earned plaudits for their health teachings, humanitarian works and emphasis on family values. Both are tightknit organizations headed by conservative leadership.

The Assn. of Adventist Forums, which publishes Spectrum, will open a four-day national conference Thursday at the Bahia Hotel in San Diego. Speakers will include Spectrum Editor Roy Branson, historian Edwin Gaustad and Charles Teel Jr., who teaches at the Adventist-run La Sierra University in Riverside. (619) 561-2360.

The Sunstone Symposium West, which takes its name after Sunstone magazine published in Salt Lake City, will meet March 29 and 30 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Irvine. The opening night speaker will be historian D. Michael Quinn, author of “Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power.” (801) 355-5926.