New Women’s Organizations Emerge

With the men-only Promise Keepers evangelical movement in full swing--drawing 1.1 million to Christian rallies at sports stadiums last year alone--the female counterparts were bound to follow.

Women’s organizations have long formed the bulwark of church life in America, but the burgeoning men’s movement has inspired new groups trying to capture some of the excitement associated with large, nonsectarian rallies.

One of the most ambitious gatherings in the works is a Rose Bowl event May 16 and 17 featuring Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham; Anne Graham Lotz, a daughter of the Grahams who is also active in ministries; and popular author-speaker Jill Briscoe.

Other speakers will include Bunny Wilson, author of “Liberated Through Submission,” and Alaina Reed Hall of television’s “Sesame Street.”

Estimates of expected attendance at the revival meeting range from 50,000 to 80,000, according to co-sponsors Chosen Women, based in Tustin, and Women’s Ministries Institute, based in Pasadena.

Like Promise Keepers, the organizers will focus on reconciliation among racial and ethnic groups in an evangelical context, said Pat Clary of Women’s Ministries Institute.

At the same time, Chosen Women’s Joanne Herdrich said her group and its parent body, Women of Honor, are not linked to Promise Keepers.

“We really don’t want to draw a parallel to Promise Keepers; they have follow-up groups, for instance,” Herdrich said.

Other fledgling women’s groups include Women of Faith--supported by Campus Crusade, Zondervan Press and Integrity Music--which is planning to have rallies in as many as 20 cities this year.

Then there are smaller groups: Promise Reapers, based in Houston; Heritage Keepers out of Wichita, Kan.; and Praise Keepers, making plans to spread their movement beyond Lake Ozark, Mo.

MEN’S MOVEMENTS

Promise Keepers, founded by former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney, has announced it will hold a nonpolitical gathering Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C., after kicking off its 1997 revival season with rallies May 2 and 3 in Detroit’s Silverdome and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

In the meantime, some regional men’s religious gatherings inspired by the Promise Keepers example are planned in Southern California:

* The third annual regional conference for Catholic men will hear Catholic recording artists John Michael Talbot and Father Richard Rohr, author of “Wild Man’s Journey,” among others, at the Long Beach Convention Center Theater on Feb. 8. The all-day gathering is expected to draw men from the Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino dioceses. Talbot will perform in a concert open to families at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, call Catholic Men Fellowships at (714) 580-1060.

* Bob Buford, author of “Half Time,” and the Rev. Wellington Boone of Atlanta, a popular African American speaker at Promise Keepers rallies, will speak at the Crystal Cathedral’s annual International Men’s Conference Feb. 27 to March 1 at the Garden Grove church complex. Host Pastor Robert Schuller, Associate Pastor Juan Carlos Ortiz of the church’s Latino ministry and guests such as Jerry McClain, singer-composer of “Happy Days,” will be on the program. (714) 971-4236.

CONFERENCES

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, national president of Reform Judaism’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, will speak next Saturday night at the Jewish organization’s regional convention in Costa Mesa. The biennial meeting at the Red Lion Inn will begin Friday and continue through a Sunday luncheon with Leonard Fein, director of the union’s Commission on Social Action, speaking. Dru Greenwood, national director of Reform Judaism’s outreach commission, will moderate a joint rabbinical-lay forum at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 9 on outreach programs to mixed-faith couples and the issue of officiating at interfaith weddings. (213) 653-9962.

* The 18th annual Philosophy of Religion Conference at the Claremont Graduate School will discuss on Friday and Saturday the legacy of 18th century philosopher-historian David Hume. Speakers will include Peter Jones of the University of Edinburgh, Van A. Harvey of Stanford University, Stephen T. Davis of Claremont McKenna College and British scholar A.G.N. Flew. The conference at Albrecht Auditorium is free and open to the public, and will not include a reading of scholarly papers. They can be purchased for $15. (909) 607-3876.

DATES

Nancy Howell of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., will talk on “A Feminist Cosmology,” the subject of her upcoming book, at 4:10 p.m. Thursday at the Claremont School of Theology. The talk launches a lecture series by the seminary’s Center for Process Studies. Free. (909) 621-5330.

* “Songs of Franz Schubert” will be performed by soloists and choir at 5 p.m. Sunday at All Saints Episcopal Church, 504 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 275-2910.

* C. Peter Wagner will lead a two-day “Warfare Worship Workshop,” starting at 8 a.m. Friday at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Travis Auditorium. The topic refers to spiritual warfare as defined by Wagner and other evangelical and charismatic exponents. Free and open to the public is a workshop worship service at 7 p.m. Friday at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 54 N. Oakland Ave. (818) 584-5290.

* The Judson Gallery in Los Angeles will present the Coptic icons of Stephane Rene in a monthlong exhibit starting Sunday. Rene will lecture on Coptic iconography Feb. 16 at the gallery, 200 S. Avenue 66. (800) 445-8376.

FINALLY

A Lutheran bishop will be the featured speaker at seminars titled “Someone You Know and Love Is Gay” at three churches in the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Rev. Paul W. Egertson, bishop of the Los Angeles-based Southern California Synod West, will speak during the five-hour seminar Sunday at Newport Harbor Lutheran Church, 798 Dover Drive, Newport Beach, which will start at 2 p.m. (714) 548-3631.

Other speakers, including gays and lesbians and their family members, will repeat the seminars with Egertson on Feb. 9 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 5969 Brockton Ave., Riverside, and March 2 at Calvary Lutheran Church, 424 Via de la Valle, Solana Beach. No advance registration is needed.

The sessions are designed “to continue dialogue among fellow Christians,” said Peggy Yigst of the synod-backed Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

HOLIDAY

Muslims, still observing the daytime fasting of Ramadan, will celebrate the “Night of Power” (Lailat al-Qadr) at mosques Tuesday night, commemorating the night when tradition says the Prophet Mohammed received the first revelations of the Koran.

Among the Night of Power observances are those at the Islamic Center of Southern California, 434 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, where physician brothers Maher and Hassan Hathout will speak, and at Masjid Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, near the USC campus at 1025 W. Exposition Blvd., with noted reciters of the Koran from abroad. Both events will start at 7:15 p.m.

The Ramadan fast is expected to end next Saturday night, with Eid al-Fitr celebrations starting Feb. 9.