Adventists to Ordain Woman Today

Despite the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church’s vote one year ago against extending full ministerial status to women, one of the largest Adventist congregations in Orange County will ordain a female associate pastor today.

At least six other American women have broken ranks previously in the denomination--three ordained in September in Takoma Park, Md., and three ordained Dec. 2 in Riverside.

The ordinations are valid only within the congregation that bestows them, but churches that act against the wishes of the denomination have angered some Adventists.

The 1,100-member Garden Grove/Irvine Seventh-day Adventist Church will ordain Margo Pitrone in a 4 p.m. ceremony, said the Rev. Duff Gorle, senior pastor of the church.

A male associate pastor at the church, Jared Fulton, who normally would be eligible for full ordination next year, has also decided to receive local ordination today as a way to protest the prevailing rules of the international church body.

“In a church system as hierarchal as ours, I think this is a sign of changing times,” Gorle said.

Officials of the Adventists’ five-county Southeastern Conference, based in Riverside, took no action against the three women ordained in December. They were: The Revs. Halcyon Wilson, associate pastor at La Sierra University Church; Madelynn Jones-Haldeman, associate professor of New Testament at La Sierra University, and Sheryll Prinz-McMillan, pastor of Loma Linda Victoria Church.

“The conference is in the middle of a tug of war,” said spokesman Mic Thurber. In the Southeastern Conference, which also includes San Diego, Imperial and San Bernardino counties, 10% to 15% of the ministerial work force consists of women--an unusually high ratio, Thurber said.

“We have women who are serving wonderfully in local churches, and those churches want to affirm their work with full ordination,” Thurber said. “At this point, however, we choose not to get involved directly in the issue.”

AME CHURCH

The Rev. T. Larry Kirkland Sr., pastor of the 9,000-member Brookins Community AME Church in Los Angeles, was one of three clergymen elected bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church at the denomination’s convention this week in Louisville, Ky.

Kirkland, 53, is expected to be assigned to a district in Africa, although such a post in the past has not required U.S. pastors to move there. Kirkland was elevated to the episcopacy on the convention’s third ballot. A bid by the Rev. Carolyn E. Tyler Guidry of Los Angeles to be the first AME woman bishop fell short.

Kirkland, who has served Brookins Community Church at 4831 S. Gramercy Place for 19 years, will be back for services Sunday morning, a spokeswoman said.

QUOTES

From expressions of support for the black churches victimized by arsonists:

* “The violence done to these faith communities is felt by all Americans. We all suffer by these actions. We are all victims of these crimes.”--Cardinal Roger M. Mahony.

* “We commit ourselves to continued education in our congregations on issues related to racism and hate; to advocacy for justice against threats and intimidation.”--Long Beach-area Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Islamic leaders

The statements by the Los Angeles cardinal and the Long Beach group asked that contributions, designated “Burned Churches Fund,” be sent in care of either the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 3211 4th St., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017, or the National Council of Churches/Church World Service, Box 968, Elkhart, Ind. 46515.

EDUCATION

The City of Hope National Medical Center will be giving 26 seminarians classes that include practical, bedside training on dealing with hospital patients. Rabbi Norman T. Mendel, head of pastoral care at the City of Hope in Duarte, directs the unusual two-week program, which begins Monday. The seminarians are from Fuller Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College, St. John’s Seminary, the School of Theology at Claremont and the Islamic Center of Southern California.

DATES

* An ecumenical service will be held in Pasadena on Wednesday honoring His Holiness Aram I, head of one of two major branches of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Aram I, catholicos or pope of the Lebanon-based Armenian Apostolic Church, has been in Southern California since late June on his first pontifical visit. He is also moderator of the World Council of Churches. The service, sponsored by the New York-based National Council of Churches, will be held at St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Church, 778 S. Rosemead Blvd., following an invitation-only 12:30 p.m. luncheon. The service, open to the public, is expected to draw leaders from various churches, as well as the Revs. Joan Brown Campbell of New York, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, and Sally Welch, president of the Southern California Ecumenical Council.

* Biologist Charles Birch of Sydney, Australia, a winner of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion for his work relating science to religion, will speak Monday afternoon at the School of Theology at Claremont. The seminar, titled “Self-Organizing Systems and Evolution,” is sponsored by the campus-based Center for Process Studies. It begins at 4:10 p.m., in the Davis Community Center on the seminary campus. (909) 621-5330.

* The Rev. Paul Clasper, former dean of the Anglican Cathedral of Hong Kong, will give three addresses on the life of author C.S. Lewis at an ecumenical retreat July 19 and 20 at the Arrowhead Springs Conference Center. The July 20 morning talk will focus on one of Lewis’ best-known books, “Mere Christianity,” said the Rev. Dan Clark of North Hollywood, western president of the sponsoring Disciplined Order of Christ spiritualty movement. For reservations, call (818) 766-8103.

* A Lakewood rabbi will offer a course on Judaism and Islam, comparing the scripture, theology and rituals of the two faiths, at the University of Judaism, starting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Rabbi Claudio Kaiser-Blueth of Temple Beth Zion-Sinai will teach the five-session course. The cost is $84. (310) 476-9777, Ext. 246.

* Bishop Patrick Ziemann of the Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa will give the keynote talk July 20 at an all-day retreat on discipleship at the Center for Spiritual Development, 434 S. Batavia St., Orange. The cost is $35. Registration deadline is Wednesday. (714) 744-3175.

* A contemporary drama drawing upon stories in the Gospel of Mark, “The Traveling Light,” will be presented by the Master’s Theater at 7 p.m. Thursday by the First Baptist Church of Palos Verdes, 28 Moccasin Lane, Rolling Hills Estates. Preceding the drama, a free dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. For reservations, call (310) 378-1253.

PEOPLE

* The Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher Jr., pastor of the First Baptist Church of Glendale for an incredible 69 years, began his annual summer vacation in Oregon this week. It will be two months before the lively, humorous preacher, who turned 94 last week, will be seen again in the pulpit.

But before he left, Brougher secured a noted guest preacher for five summer services. He is the Rev. Robert C. Campbell, who was general secretary of the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. from 1972 to 1987. Campbell, who retired in 1989 and moved to Santa Barbara, will be guest preacher this Sunday and on July 14, and Aug. 4, 11 and 18.

“I’ve been trying to get him to our church for five years,” Brougher said.

* Jesuit scholar Thomas P. Rausch, professor and head of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, has written “Catholicism at the Dawn of the Third Millennium,” recently published by Liturgical Press. Rausch said he tried to “present a contemporary understanding of Roman Catholicism,” for a general audience as well as for inactive or dropout Catholics “who want to know what contemporary Catholics believe and do.”

* Rabbi Sidney S. Guthman has succeeded the Rev. Ginny Wagener, director of the South Coast Ecumenical Council, as president of the Long Beach Interfaith Clergy Assn. Guthman is a chaplain at the Long Beach Veterans Administration Medical Center and rabbi of Congregation Sholom in Leisure World.

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Notices may be mailed to Southern California File, c/o John Dart, L.A. Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, or faxed to Religion Editor (213) 237-4712. Items should arrive about three weeks before the event, except for spot news, and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time.