L.A. Bishop Reaffirms Support of Gays

Los Angeles Bishop Roy I. Sano said this week that he has had no regrets about joining 14 other United Methodist bishops who told the Methodist convention last month of their pain over the denomination’s rules against gay and lesbian clergy.

Delegates at the quadrennial meeting in Denver, which ended April 26, rejected by a 577-378 vote any change in the Methodist stance that homosexual activity is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

But Sano, who leads more than 100,000 United Methodists in Southern California, said the brief statement of “personal convictions” by 15 bishops led to a frank discussion by the 130 active and retired bishops whom Sano said treated each other with respect.

“At a time when people talk about culture wars and heightened rhetoric,” Sano said in an interview, “it’s good to know there are pockets of civility in the church--even where there are profound differences in points of view.”

But the 15 bishops’ statement near the start of the convention surprised many delegates because the long-standing controversy was not considered a pressing issue this year. Among retired bishops signing the statement was Melvin Wheatley of Laguna Hills.

Though only 11 of the church’s 50 active bishops issued the statement, the signers included Sano, who was ending a one-year term as president of the Council of Bishops; Council Secretary Melvin Talbert, the bishop of the San Francisco area; and Ohio Bishop Judith Craig, who had been selected to address the convention on behalf of all the church’s bishops.

“We believe it is time to break the silence and state where we are on this issue that is hurting and silencing countless faithful Christians,” said the signatories, who simultaneously pledged to uphold the present discipline, or policies, of the church.

The lone objection on the convention floor came from the Rev. William Hinson of Houston, who said the objecting bishops “have indeed broken their silence and much, much more.”

But Sano said a collective statement of the Methodist bishops, who do not vote in convention proceedings, acknowledged “the serious differences that exist among United Methodists on issues related to homosexuality. . . . We have been talking with one another in a new spirit of honesty and openness that is both painful and hopeful.”

Though his stance was in the minority among Methodist bishops, Sano’s views resembled the publicly stated opinions of Los Angeles-based Bishops Frederick Borsch of the Episcopal Church and Paul W. Egertson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Like Sano, Borsch and Egertson have said they will uphold church doctrine and policies on gay and lesbian restrictions even as they have signaled their openness to change in their denominations.

HONORS

The Salvation Army will honor Franklin Graham, designated last year as the successor to his evangelist father, the Rev. Billy Graham, during the Army’s annual fund-raising dinner Thursday night at the Hotel Inter-Continental in Los Angeles. The younger Graham, noted for his international relief work as head of Samaritan’s Purse, will receive the William Booth Award, named after the Salvation Army’s founder. The senior Graham is a past recipient.

The Army’s Sally Award, first given to director Cecil B. De Mille in 1957, will go to Edward M. Carson, former chairman and chief executive of First Interstate Bancorp. First Interstate, recently bought by Wells Fargo & Co., donated more than $425,000 to the Salvation Army in recent years. Carson also chaired the Army’s Hollywood Capital Campaign, which raised $5 million for a new youth shelter. For dinner information, call (213) 896-9160, Ext. 252.

PEOPLE

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will be recognized for her efforts to foster better understanding of Islam on May 30 in Los Angeles, where she will address the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Muslim Women’s League. Salam Al-Marayati, director of the council, said Mrs. Clinton has traveled in the Muslim world with her daughter and hosted an Eid celebration at the White House for Muslims similar to Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations held there. Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, a physician who is president of the Muslim Women’s League and the wife of Salam, was a White House appointee in September to the International Conference on the Status of Women in Beijing.

* After 11 years as senior pastor of the 495-member Hollywood United Methodist Church--a lengthy stay at one church under the Methodist system of itinerant assignments--the Rev. Ignacio Castuera will become pastor of the North Glendale United Methodist Church, which has 228 members. The Rev. Edward Hansen, a campus minister at Cal State Long Beach, will succeed Castuera at the Hollywood church July 1.

* Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has named parishioners Joan Harper of La Canada Flintridge and Saundra Willingham of Altadena as chairwoman and vice chairwoman, respectively, of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s Justice and Peace Commission. The commission advises the archdiocesan Office of Justice and Peace, created in 1989 by the cardinal and directed by Tom Chabolla.

VOLUNTEERS

From Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, appeals will be made this year for Big Brothers and Sisters.

For the first time, the four Los Angeles-area agencies (Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Jewish Big Brothers and Catholic Big Brothers) have united to coordinate recruitment of volunteers. Actors Estelle Harris of “Seinfeld” and Sherman Hemsley of “The Jeffersons” taped public service announcements for the drive, which features picnics, concerts and other events between Sunday and June 17. Inquiries to any agency can be made at (800) 453-KIDS.

DATES

To help pastors, church administrators and religious workers avoid legal pitfalls in today’s litigious society, a daylong workshop at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena will be presented Friday by attorney Dennis R. Kasper. A partner in the Los Angeles firm of Lewis, D’Amato, Brisbois & Brisgaard, Kasper specializes in labor-management matters and represents religious charitable groups. For more information, call (800) 235-2222, Ext. 5339.

* Unitarian-Universalists of the Pacific Southwest District will open their three-day convention Friday night at San Diego First Unitarian Church with an address by the Rev. Tony Larson of Racine, Wis. The liberal religious denomination, based in Boston, has 205,500 members nationwide and 7,100 members in the district’s 52 congregations.

* Ruth Seymour, general manager of KCRW-FM, affiliated with National Public Radio, will deliver the commencement address at Hebrew Union College’s graduation ceremonies at 3 p.m. Monday on the campus adjacent to USC. Seymour will also receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree along with author Herbert Gold, Jewish community activist Ruth Nussbaum and Solomon Golumb, director of technology at USC’s Annenberg Center for Communication.

CELEBRATIONS

Ongoing Jewish celebrations of the 3,000th birthday of Jerusalem--the city holy to Judaism, Christianity and Islam--resume Sunday with a daylong festival and concert at the Westside’s Temple Beth Am.

Israeli classical guitarist David Broza, whose song “Yehiya Tov” (“It Will Be Good”) is considered by many as an anthem of the Mideast peace process, will perform at the 7:30 p.m. concert.

“Jerusalem is the historic, spiritual and religious heart of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Perry Netter, who helped to produce the noon-to-5-p.m. Jerusalem 3000 Festival at the synagogue, 1039 S. La Cienega Blvd. Festival tickets are $5. For concert tickets, call (310) 652-7353, Ext. 223.

At the San Fernando Valley’s largest synagogue, Rabbi Harold Schulweis will lead Valley Beth Shalom’s Jerusalem 3000 Celebration in Encino at 8:15 p.m. Friday with music by the congregation’s choir led by Noreen Green.

On May 29, a performance of “If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem,” will be held at the Jewish Federation Building, 6505 Wilshire Blvd. The free, public performance at 8:15 p.m. features humorous vignettes and songs celebrating the universal spirit of the city by Dalia Friedland of Israel’s Habima Theater, and Anna Cropper, venerable English theater and TV star. (213) 852-7730. The duo will also appear June 1 in Santa Barbara’s Congregation B’nai B’rith and June 2 in San Diego’s Repertory Theater.