Drawing doctrinal lines in the sand, religious...

Drawing doctrinal lines in the sand, religious leaders who have recently set up an organization called the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals will hold a national conference next month designed to call attention to Reformation-era teachings they believe are being compromised.

The April 17-20 conference in Cambridge, Mass., will seek to restore loyalties to Presbyterian, Reformed Church, Baptist, Lutheran and Congregational “confessions of faith” that constituted core beliefs in the 16th century break from Catholicism.

“Our problem is the accommodation to modernity we see in churches,” said the Rev. Michael S. Horton, whose Christians United for Reformation office in Anaheim is serving as the movement’s administrative office.

Horton contended that churches that employ marketing techniques to attract members and use the language of psychology in their preaching may be altering church doctrine.

“If God is there to make me happy, for example, then the biblical doctrine of sin and grace will be replaced by therapeutic doctrines of dysfunction and recovery,” he said. “People who defend that say they are just using contemporary modes of speech without realizing they are using different concepts--dysfunction is not sin.”

Chairing the Alliance, formed late last year by 13 men and one woman, is Presbyterian Pastor James M. Boice of Philadelphia. Horton and David F. Wells of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, Mass., are both vice chairmen of the alliance.

At 31, Horton may be the youngest leader in the group but he has gained prominence in conservative Protestant circles as a radio commentator and prolific author.

Another Southern California member of the Alliance’s council is church historian William Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido. A member of the Christian Reformed Church, Godfrey is also the guest professor for a seven-week course on the “Theology of Calvin” starting Monday night at the Lutheran-run Concordia University in Irvine.

PEOPLE

Oral Roberts, 78, the sometimes-controversial faith healer who founded a university bearing his name in Tulsa, Okla., has been living quietly in retirement in Newport Beach in recent years. He preaches about once a month at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim and enjoys golfing, said a friend. Roberts will speak Wednesday at the monthly luncheon of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council--the type of group the conservative minister might have avoided in his Bible Belt days because of the participation of Catholic, Jewish, Bahai and other groups that are not Evangelical or Pentecostal. The talk will be at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. Reservations are required by calling the council. (714) 548-4942.

EASTER PRODUCTIONS

* The Crystal Cathedral’s dramatic musical production “Glory of Easter” will begin its 13th annual run Friday night and continue through April 9. Seen by more than 2 million people both in the Garden Grove church and on pay-per-view telecasts, the pageant on the biblical accounts of Jesus’ final week involves a volunteer cast of 200 people plus live animals. Performances are at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. most nights. Tickets range between $12 and $30. (714) 54-GLORY.

* Stage actor Robert Macklin will perform as Jesus in “Road to Bethany” at several churches in coming weeks. His dramatic monologue will be seen at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 2600 Nelson Ave., Redondo Beach. (310) 370-4319. On March 24, he will appear at 10:55 a.m. at Orangewood Baptist Church in Garden Grove. (714) 539-9326.

CONFERENCES

* More than 18,000 Catholics are expected to attend the Religious Education Congress next weekend at the Anaheim Convention Center. The three-day conference beginning Friday is organized by the Los Angeles Archdiocese and draws participants and workshop leaders from around the country and abroad. Father Raymond Brown, a well-known biblical scholar, will be the keynote speaker next Saturday morning. Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., will celebrate the Saturday evening Native American liturgy. (213) 251-3332.

* Author-lecturer Marianne Williamson will join founding minister Michael Beckwith of the 4,500-member Agape Church of Religious Science on Thursday to open the Los Angeles congregation’s three-day conference on “The Spirit of Empowerment” at the Wyndham Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport. Other speakers will include John Randolph Price, author of “The Angels Within Us,” and his wife, Jan, who wrote a book on what she described as a near-death experience. Registration starts at $249. (310) 829-9173.

* Azusa Pacific University’s 8th annual Night of Champions on Friday will include appearances by Raghib “Rocket” Ismail of the Oakland Raiders, Olympic decathlon great Rafer Johnson and Dave Johnson, decathlon bronze medalist in the 1992 Olympics. The program is expected to draw about 5,000 young people to the university’s stadium for the program starting at 5 p.m. (818) 815-5344.

DATES

* A congregation that began meeting in 1956 at the Church of the Reflection inside Knott’s Berry Farm will celebrate its 40th anniversary Sunday. Bishop Bob Miller of the South Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will speak at a 3 p.m. service at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 7082 Crescent Ave., Buena Park--the congregation’s home after its first four years at Knott’s. Current Pastor Bill Norman and former pastors will attend a dinner program at 5:30 p.m. in the amusement park’s Cloud Nine theater-restaurant. (714) 827-6021.

* The 1979 film biography, “Joni,” starring quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada playing herself, will be shown at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, 2801 N. Brea Blvd. On the following Sunday morning, Tada, whose JAF Ministries to those with disabilities is based in Agoura Hills, will speak to the congregation. (714) 529-5544.

* A free lecture on “Gandhi and Mahayana Buddhism: A Humanism of Nonviolence and Compassion” will by given by Nicholas Gier, professor of philosophy at the University of Idaho, 7 p.m. Thursday at the Soka Gakkai International U.S.A. World Culture Center, 525 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. (310) 451-8811.

* Cantors Jeremy Lipton, Nathan Lam, David Silverstein and Chayim Frenkel will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Temple Beth Am, 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd., West Los Angeles. Tickets start at $18. (310) 652-7353.

* Drama coach Fabian Gregory Cordova will portray Jesus delivering the Gospel “sermon on the mount” before 2,000 schoolchildren at 10 a.m. Tuesday near the outdoor Life of Christ Mosaic at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Covina Hils. Students will come from five Christian schools, but the free program is open to the public. (213) 254-3131.

* “Charles Colson--Reluctant Prophet,” a new movie released by Billy Graham’s World Wide Pictures, will be shown Sunday at the monthly potluck luncheon of Trinity Church, a Reformed Church in America congregation, 11804 Hemlock St., El Monte. (818) 448-6040.

EASTER NEWS

A roundup of community Easter sunrise services held off church grounds will be published April 6. On April 13, a listing of major Eastern Orthodox Easter liturgies will be published. Please send pertinent information on the programs, major participants and traditions to the address or fax number below.

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QUOTES

On Catholicism evangelizing via computer networks:

“Cyberspace has the capacity to be the modern shore of the Sea of Galilee along which the Lord walks calling disciples to himself. [But] we may have to fight being drowned in a cacophony of voices or to vindicate truth against the instantaneous spread of error . . . someone’s partisan opinion of what ‘Catholic’ ought to be.”

--Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles in a paper given at Pontifical Council on Social Communications sessions last week at the Vatican.

On using technology in church ministries:

“With e-mail I am often as close with people who are great distances away as I am with someone in the next office. . . . That’s not the problem in most churches. They’re just discovering fax machines.”

--Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, speaking last week to (Southern) Baptist Communicators, at Glorieta, N.M.