Variety of Seders Planned
Passover, one of Judaism’s most popular holidays, will unfold in ritual meals at thousands of homes in Southern California on Wednesday night as families recall the biblical story of freedom from servitude.
Jewish Seders feature the unleavened bread called matzo, symbolizing the haste of Jews in their Exodus from ancient Egypt.
Most Seders will be held on Passover’s first two nights--Wednesday and Thursday--
although the spring festival officially lasts seven days among Reform Jews and Jews living in Israel, and eight days for Conservative and Orthodox Jews outside of Israel.
Yet, up to 1,500 Jews in special circumstances in the Los Angeles area will join in early Seders on Sunday, courtesy of Jewish Family Service and B’nai B’rith. Ticket holders who paid a nominal $2 for seats at the tables include recovering alcoholics, people with disabilities, elderly people living alone, recent immigrants and people with AIDS.
“These are for groups of people who otherwise would not be able to afford to go to Seders,” said Lisa Brooks, director of development for Jewish Family Services.
“We do about 12 services, many with help from B’nai B’rith,” she said. Jewish Family Services will have nearly $60,000 available this year to subsidize its own Seders and to allot financial aid to other agencies, such as Jewish Big Brothers.
Community Seders, many held by synagogues, are often filled quickly with reserved ticket holders, but not always. For example, users of American sign language are welcome at a community Seder at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday at Beverly Hills’ Beth Jacob Congregation, sponsored by the Jewish Deaf Community Center. The cost is $25. (310) 836-2666. Also, a Sephardic Jewish Seder at the Cava Restaurant in the Beverly Plaza Hotel will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday. Proceeds from the $50 tickets will benefit SOVA, a kosher food pantry. (310) 202-6412.
The story of Passover, called Pesach in Hebrew, is read from a narrative called the Haggadah. Songs are interspersed with readings and eating. Four cups of wine or grape juice are drunk at intervals in the rite.
Reflecting on the timeless story of freedom, “each Jew is commanded to recall that he or she was among those who participated in the Exodus,” said Rabbi Shimon Raichik of Chabad of Hancock Park.
SUNRISE SERVICE
For the second consecutive year, the long-running Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service will greet the dawn away from the Bowl, which is still undergoing renovation and new construction. Held last year at the Hollywood Women’s Club, the 90-minute service will be conducted April 7, starting at 6 a.m., at Hollywood First United Methodist Church at Franklin and Highland avenues. The Rev. Ignacio Castuera of the host church will give the sermon. Father Alfred S. Burnham of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Culver City will give the Pope’s Easter message. Music will be led by organist Bob Ralston. (213) 938-8410.
A full rundown of Easter sunrise services will be printed next Saturday.
PEOPLE
The Rev. Lloyd J. Ogilvie, the former Hollywood Presbyterian Church pastor elected in 1995 as chaplain of the U.S. Senate, will give the principal talk Friday morning at the Los Angeles YMCA’s 38th annual Good Friday Breakfast. About 1,200 people are expected to attend the 8 a.m. prayer breakfast at the Westin Bonaventure. Tickets are $14. Larry Attebery of KCOP-TV will read the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Linda Alvarez of KCBS-TV will give the benediction. Franklin E. Ulf, chairman of U.S. Trust Co. of California, will emcee the program. (213) 351-2224.
* Christian singer Steve Green, who won the first of his six Gospel Music Assn. Dove Awards in 1985 as Male Vocalist of the Year, will perform at 7 p.m. Friday in a 2,000-seat-capacity tent erected by Grace Brethren Church for Holy Week services across Sycamore Drive from Simi Valley Hospital. Green, who also has had four Grammy nominations, has a new CD out from Sparrow Records called “The Letter.” Tickets are $10 in advance. (805) 527-0195.
PALM SUNDAY
Bishop Frederick H. Borsch of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles will celebrate the Palm Sunday liturgy and Eucharist at Pueblo Nuevo, a religious and economic development center with 150 members near downtown Los Angeles. The group started less than four years ago with eight unemployed residents meeting for Bible study in MacArthur Park. The 11 a.m. service at Pueblo Nuevo, 1734 W. 7th St., will be followed by a fiesta honoring a key supporter, the Rev. Carol L. Anderson, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church of Beverly Hills.
* A 50-piece symphonic orchestra, including four harpists, will accompany the choir and soloists at St. Cyril of Jerusalem Catholic Church, 15520 Ventura Blvd. in Encino, for a presentation at 7:30 p.m. Sunday of Dubois’ “Seven Last Words of Christ.” (310) 475-2693.
* Pianist Bryan Pezzone, head of the keyboard department at CalArts, will perform “A Prelude to Passion” and other selections at 4 p.m. Sunday at Holliston Avenue United Methodist Church, 1305 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. (818) 793-0685.
* The combined choirs and orchestra of First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton will present “Saviour: A Modern Oratorio,” by Greg Nelson and Bob Farrell, at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. (714) 529-5544.
GOOD FRIDAY
Noontime meditations and liturgies centered on the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion will take place at innumerable Catholic, Episcopal and Protestant churches throughout Southern California. Sites will range from the Salvation Army facility at 3080 Hawthorne Blvd., Rancho Palos Verdes, and St. James Episcopal Church, 3209 Via Lido, Newport Beach, to inner-city Los Angeles at the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, 2085 S. Hobart Blvd., with clergy from seven United Church of Christ congregations taking part, and at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 1200 Manhattan Place, where seven African American clergy will deliver messages in the three-hour service.
* “People of the Passion,” nine dramatic readings written by actress Mary Betten, describing the impact the Crucifixion had on ordinary lives, will be presented by members of Grace Episcopal Church, 555 E. Mountain View Ave., Glendora, at 7:30 p.m. Friday. (818) 794-9960.
DATES
The annual Job Fair and Marketplace of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today on church grounds at 227 S. Harvard Blvd., will have representatives of major companies, film studios and law enforcement bodies available to discuss employment prospects. On Friday, First AME Church dedicated a renovated housing complex called FAME Gardens in conjunction with the Community Redevelopment Agency.
* The first of three Spring Meditation Festivals organized by the Los Angeles Intergroup and open to the public will take place at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday at the Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles. The purpose of the full-moon festival, which will continue with ceremonies May 2 and May 31 at the same location, “is to establish through meditation a conscious link with spiritual energies for the unfoldment of the divine plan on Earth,” a spokesman said. (213) 660-9546.
CORRECTION
The membership of Greater Bethany Community Church in Los Angeles was incorrectly given in the Southern California File of March 23. The number should be 4,000 members.
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CONGREGATIONS
Before preaching, prayers or pews, there has to be parking--especially at large churches.
A 782-space, two-level parking garage that cost $3 million was finished in time for the Easter season at Crenshaw Christian Center on the old Pepperdine University campus in Los Angeles.
Founding Pastor Frederick K. C. Price preaches before 5,000 to 6,000 people in a typical 9:30 a.m. Sunday service at the congregation’s circular FaithDome, which was completed in 1989 and has a seating capacity of 10,146.
“We expect between 7,000 and 8,000 people on Easter morning,” said a spokeswoman for the church, which once was located on Crenshaw Boulevard and retained its name despite the move.
The parking garage, already paid off, is near the entrance, 7901 S. Vermont Ave., on the northeast corner of the church grounds. Pepperdine’s bookstore and two dormitories stood there before the university moved to Malibu.
By building a garage on church grounds, the congregation’s leaders say they are providing secured parking and alleviating traffic for neighbors.
Shuttle buses from the parking garage are available to congregants. “It’s a long city block from the garage to the FaithDome,” the spokeswoman said.