New Clergy Council Rallies Against Torching of Churches

Following a shaky start, the first multi-faith clergy association serving the San Fernando Valley has found a timely issue to rally around: church burnings.

The Valley Interfaith Clergy Council is asking congregations to devote part of their services next weekend to decry the rash of arson fires at black churches around the country and to discuss the implications for race relations.

Despite well-publicized fund drives to rebuild burned churches, denunciations by religious leaders, and a briefing Wednesday for Los Angeles pastors by city officials, some Valley clergy say the issue may seem distant and irrelevant unless it arises during local worship services.

More than 60 fires have been set at African American churches in the last 18 months, mostly in the South.

“We want haters to know what they did was sinful by [the standards of] anyone’s faith,” said Rabbi Aaron Kriegel of Temple Ner Maarav of Encino.

“Those who burn one church or one synagogue affect the members of any church or synagogue,” said Kriegel. It was Kriegel who suggested this year that the long-established Valley Interfaith Council in Chatsworth form a clergy group, which became the Clergy Council.

The council got off to a rocky start when the first meeting on May 30 bogged down with long presentations about the activities of the Valley Interfaith Council, a largely lay-led organization heavily involved in community services. Some observers said the clergy group was in danger of being perceived as nothing more than the promotional arm of the parent Interfaith Council.

“Although we got off to a bad start, we expect to have no less than 45 people at a church-burnings information meeting for the religious community on [July 29],” said Kriegel.

The meeting at St. Jane Francis Catholic Church in North Hollywood will brief community leaders on the latest fires and serve as a prelude to what the Valley Interfaith Clergy Council is calling the “Weekend of Reconciliation and Protest” on July 26-28.

“About 40 churches and synagogues say they will do something as part of their liturgy to focus attention on the burning of black churches,” said Rabbi Jerrold Goldstein of Cal State Northridge’s Hillel student center.

At Encino’s Valley Beth Shalom, for example, actor-singer Theodore Bikel and a minister from the First AME Church of Los Angeles will discuss the fires at the synagogue’s Sabbath service Friday night.

The idea for the Weekend of Reconciliation emerged from a meeting last month of more than 25 clergy, led by the Rev. Dudley Chatman of Pacoima. Chatman, president of the Valley Interfaith Council, appointed the Rev. Zedar Broadous to chair the Clergy Council’s subcommittee on responses to the church burnings.

Some clergy leaders attended a Sunday service of Chatman’s Greater Community Missionary Baptist Church. “The congregation seemed so moved to have the visible support from our delegation of clergy,” said Rabbi Goldstein.

In another development, the retirement this week of Rabbi Bernard M. Cohen, 66, is likely to benefit the Valley Clergy Council. Cohen founded the Los Angeles Clergy Network 12 years ago, while serving as rabbi at Temple Solael in West Hills.

With his retirement, he will hand over management of his expanding Clergy Network to local religious councils, including the Valley group.

Originally formed in the Valley as a series of free monthly luncheons centered on medical and health issues, Cohen’s Clergy Network spread to Los Angeles and Orange County, with chapters forming also in Fresno, Phoenix and Big Spring, Texas.

“I’m tired,” Cohen said in explaining his decision. “This educational effort really belongs to councils, but the question has always been, ‘Who is going to do it?’ ”

The Rev. Jeff Utter, a Valley Clergy Council leader who is also pastor of the Congregational Church of Chatsworth, pledged to continue Rabbi Cohen’s work. “We will broaden the kinds of speakers and issues we address as we continue Bernie Cohen’s educational meetings,” he said.

Kriegel said many clergy have limited opportunities to learn from colleagues of different faiths.

Clergy associations have often been short-lived. Notable exceptions, mostly involving conservative Christian clergy, include a citywide ministerial association in Burbank, and the Van Nuys-based Valley Pastors Fellowship, which brought together dozens of evangelical and charismatic ministers to bolster evangelistic crusades.

“It’s difficult to bring together clergy on a permanent basis,” Utter said. “The ministry is a high-demand profession and clergy don’t have much spare time.”

Utter said the Interfaith Council, of which he is a vice president, “has been very much of a lay-led organization in its 32 years, and that may partly explain why it hasn’t been successful in gathering clergy.”

Lay people and clergy do not necessarily have the same viewpoints, so such a group is overdue, Utter said. “The pastor, rabbi and imam have a point of view on the problems of society that is worth reinforcing and articulating in the context of the Valley.”