Reform Rabbis to Consider Policy on Interfaith Weddings

The question of whether Reform rabbis should be encouraged to officiate at interfaith weddings will be discussed next weekend in Los Angeles by the national Board of Trustees of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

Reform rabbis, who serve more than 860 congregations in North America, have a long-standing stance against participating in any ceremony that solemnizes a marriage of mixed faiths, which most rabbis believe contributes to the depleting of American Jewry via cultural assimilation. At the same time, Reform rabbis recognize the right of colleagues to make their own decisions.

Neither the group’s trustees nor the general assembly has taken a formal position on the issue, which many synagogue members want changed to permit flexibility.

“Some feel that saying ‘no’ at that crucial time runs the risk of offending the new couple just when we want to bring them close,” said Dru Greenwood, director of the group’s Commission on Reform Jewish Outreach.

David Belin, an honorary vice chairman of the board of trustees, has asked the Reform organization to develop interfaith wedding language that would allow ceremonies in which the couple agrees to create a Jewish household and raise any children as Jews. The 225-member board will hold business sessions Dec. 13-15 at the Century Plaza Hotel.

In a Sabbath service Friday night at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Eric Yoffie, the group’s newly elected president, will give the sermon in an 8 p.m. service that will draw many Southland Reform rabbis and lay leaders. The trustees meeting will be at the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC

Actor Robert Newman, who has a continuing role on the CBS soap opera “Guiding Light,” will star as a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge in a Christmas musical next weekend at a San Fernando Valley church.

“A Time for Christmas,” a Broadway-style musical directed by Erika Andrews, will feature Newman and a volunteer cast in five performances, starting Friday at 8 p.m., at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch.

Other show times are: Dec. 14, 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Dec. 15, 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tickets are free. For reserved seats, call (818) 831-9333.

On Friday night, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach premiered its four-part “Christmas Concert,” which takes a musical look at Christmases past. Shows will resume at 4 p.m. Sunday; at 8 p.m. Friday, and on Dec. 15 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. $6. Reservations: (714) 574-2283.

Among musical programs on Sunday only:

* Handel’s “Messiah,” featuring soloists from the Los Angeles Music Center Opera Company, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Orange County Music Chorale, will be performed at Westchester Lutheran Church, 7831 S. Sepulveda Blvd., at 4 p.m., with choir and orchestra led by Marshall Ramirez. $8 and $5. (310) 670-5422.

* Pasadena First Baptist Church, at 75 N. Marengo Ave. in Old Pasadena, will present its annual Candlelight Carol Service at 6 p.m. led by Paul Baker. An offering will be taken for a Christmas charity program. (818) 793-7164.

* “Thou Shalt Call His Name Jesus,” a program of dramatic readings and music, will be presented without charge at 7 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1101 N. Central Ave., Glendale. Soloists include Robert Poynton, a former member of The Lettermen. (818) 243-9993.

* Resident organist Lloyd Holzgraf of Los Angeles First Congregational Church will present his 28th annual Advent Concert at the stately church at 540 S. Commonwealth Ave. Tickets are $11 and $6. (213) 385-1345.

Later in the week, holiday music programs will include:

* Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, will feature music by Mozart on Thursday at 8 p.m. Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” and a carol sing-along will conclude the program at 505 N. Rodeo Drive. $25 and $10. (310) 271-5194.

* A 140-voice choir and a 100-voice choir, backed by a 40-piece orchestra, will present “A Christmas Masterpiece” 10 times through Dec. 22 at Church on the Way’s western campus at 14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, starting at 7:45 p.m. Friday. $10 tickets are available by calling, Tuesday through Friday, (818) 779-8450.

* Actors David Birney and Charles Cioffi, leading the “Revelry-R-Us” players, will perform in a benefit for mission projects at 7 p.m. Friday at Westwood Presbyterian Church, 10822 Wilshire Blvd. “A Christmas Pudding, a Confection of Songs, Stories, Poems and Other Sweets of the Season” is asking $5 at the door. (310) 474-4535.

HANUKKAH

The Jewish festival of lights, the eight-day celebration that began Thursday night, will be observed with programs for youth and adults Sunday at the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum in the Sepulveda Pass. In addition:

* Yehuda Glantz, a popular entertainer from Argentina and Israel, will present a concert at 7 p.m. Monday at Bnei David Congregation, 8906 W. Pico Blvd.

* A Hanukkah “Rededication to Recovery” meeting for Jews seeking to overcome an addiction in any 12-step recovery program will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Temple Beth Hillel, 12326 Riverside Drive, Valley Village.

* Grammy-winner Doug Cotler, a composer and performer, will present a concert Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at Beverly Hills’ Temple Emanuel, 884 Burton Way. Prices vary. (310) 288-3742.

DATES

A huge cargo plane at Long Beach Municipal Airport will be loaded Tuesday with 65,000 shoe boxes of gifts collected from donors in the Western United States and bound for needy children in Bosnia. The project is run by Samaritan’s Purse, a North Carolina-based ministry headed by Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham. In 1995, Californians donated 45,000 shoe boxes of gifts.

* The founder of Benedictine monasteries in Pecos, N.M., and in San Luis Obispo will lead an Advent-related retreat at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Brentwood’s St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church, 11967 Sunset Blvd. Abbot David Geraets will speak, then lead participants in a monastic prayer. $10 donation. (310) 476-7403.

* The only Conservative synagogue between Thousand Oaks and San Luis Obispo-- Congregation Am HaYam--will dedicate a Torah donated by Temple Sinai of Westwood Village at 4 p.m. Sunday. The ritual, led by Rabbi Gerald Hanig at the synagogue’s rented space at 351-A Irving Drive in Oxnard, will be followed by a Hanukkah ceremony and party.

FINALLY

As many as 5,000 people are expected on the Biola University campus in La Mirada for a progressive Christmas concert.

Not progressive in the sense that the conservative school is suddenly turning “liberal.” The progressive refers to the fact that spectators will be able to move--from one mini-concert to another--on Dec. 13 and 14, starting both days at 7:30 p.m. They will choose among six locations to hear the Biola Chorale, the Biola Gospel Choir, the dramatic “Second Shepherd’s Play,” the Symphonic Winds, a chamber orchestra and pop-rock group “full-time-job.”

Tickets for “Celebrate the Son” are $15. (310) 906-4548.

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 desk (818) 772-3385. 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.

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PEOPLE

The Rev. Michael S. Horton, 32, recently named one of the 50 top young evangelical achievers by Christianity Today magazine, has announced that the Christians United for Reformation organization, which sponsors his radio program and writing, has closed its Anaheim office and merged with the Philadelphia-based Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Horton is a co-vice president of that theologically conservative movement.

In addition, Horton, who is a research fellow at Yale Divinity School, was accepted in the fall as a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, a better-known denomination than the Episcopal Reformed Church with which he had been affiliated. Horton will be returning to Anaheim for Christmastime services at the year-old Christ Reformed Church, co-pastored by the Rev. Kim Riddlebarger, which now has about 300 congregants on a typical Sunday.

* Bishop T. Larry Kirkland Sr., a newly elected African Methodist Episcopal Church bishop who began serving this fall in a Central African district torn by tribal strife in Rwanda, will preach at least twice this month in Los Angeles churches. Kirkland will speak Sunday at the Los Angeles First Church of God, 9550 Crenshaw Blvd., at the 8 a.m. service, and on Dec. 15 at Paradise Baptist Church, 5100 S. Broadway, at the 9:30 a.m. service. Kirkland, who was at Brookins Community AME Church for 20 years, will serve his African district in three-month stretches under a system of work permits, with one month between each stay, according to a spokesman for Kirkland.