Couple to Lead Church as Co-Pastors
A married couple will start next month as co-pastors of Pasadena Presbyterian Church, the city’s oldest church.
The Revs. Barbara A. Anderson and Mark K. Smutny, who have been married 16 years, have shared pulpit and administrative duties before. They previously served as co-pastors in Troy, N.Y., and Dayton, Ohio.
Pasadena Presbyterian, which was founded in 1875 and predates the city’s incorporation, will become one of only 80 congregations among the 11,350 churches in the denomination to have a married couple as co-pastors who are both full-time, ordained ministers.
The couple will begin by leading the Maundy Thursday service April 9. Smutny will give the Easter Sunday sermon, then the two will take turns preaching on subsequent Sundays.
To those who ask, “Who’s really the pastor?” a church spokesman said they respond simply, “We both are!” They succeed the Rev. Dean K. Thompson, who left in 1995 after 10 years as senior pastor. The 850-member congregation has been led by an interim minister and lay leaders since then.
Anderson and Smutny are only the sixth (and seventh) ministers to lead Pasadena Presbyterian this century. Its most famous pastor was the late Eugene Carson Blake, who left the congregation to become chief executive of the denomination and then general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
Anderson holds a doctor of ministry degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and Smutny is completing his work for that degree from McCormick. Both hold master of divinity degrees from Harvard Divinity School.
PRE-EASTER PERFORMANCES
A dramatic adaptation of a 1975 book by the Rev. Malcolm Boyd, “The Alleluia Affair,” will debut at 10:15 a.m. Sunday at All Saints Episcopal Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena. The writer-priest is currently poet / writer-in-residence at the Episcopal Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles. “I tried in the book to make a fresh, challenging statement about crucifixion and resurrection,” Boyd said. (626) 796-1172.
* Using a multilevel, 150-foot-long set in its sanctuary, Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch will present 10 performances, starting 8 p.m. Friday, of its seventh annual “Passion Play.” The musical production will conclude with two performances April 11. Reserved tickets are $10 and $8. (818) 831-7880.
* About 1,500 children from Christian and private schools are expected to hear a recital of Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Covina Hills. The costumed presentation by actor Fabian Gregory Cordova will take place on the forecourt of the outdoor “Life of Christ” mosaic at the cemetery and will be open to the public. The Reflections choir from Los Angeles Baptist High School in North Hills will sing.
* “He Rolled the Stone Away,” a musical composed and conducted by Olindo Marzulli, will be performed at Malibu Presbyterian Church, 3324 Malibu Canyon Road, at 7 p.m. today and at 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $7. (310) 456-1611.
* A two-church choir will sing Dubois’ “The Seven Last Words of Christ” at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Community Congregational United Church of Christ, 4111 Katella Ave., Los Alamitos. The Norwalk United Methodist choir will join the host church’s choir for the performance. (562) 425-4139.
GATHERINGS
Leading African American pastors and bishops will take part Sunday in the third annual ecumenical service of the Congress of National Black Churches’ Southern California affiliate group. Bishop Vernon R. Byrd, who oversees 100 congregations of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 16 Western states, will be the featured speaker at the 6 p.m. service at Brookins African Methodist Episcopal Church, 4831 Gramercy Place, Los Angeles. (213) 296-5610.
* Panels on Jewish medical ethics, Holocaust literature, cabala mysticism and Jewish literature are among topics planned for the annual Western Jewish Studies Assn. conference Sunday through Tuesday at the University of Judaism. $60. (310) 476-9777.
* Dozens of scholars will discuss “Gender and Love in the World Religions” next week at Chapman University in Orange. The three-day conference--open to the public--will start at 7 p.m. Wednesday with Julius Lipner of Cambridge University lecturing on “The God of Love and the Love of God.” In a plenary address at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Arvind Sharma of McGill University in Montreal will suggest a framework for “a general theory of women and religion.” Subsequent panels of Southland scholars will discuss topics of love, sex, women and faith as expressed in the histories of major religions. Free. (714) 628-7326.
BOOKS
Two new books on religious freedom and church-state issues:
* Phillip E. Hammond, a longtime religious studies professor at UC Santa Barbara, wrote “With Liberty for All, Freedom of Religion in the United States,” published this month by Westminster John Knox Press.
* Pepperdine political scientists Stephen V. Monsma and J. Christopher Soper edited “Equal Treatment of Religion in a Pluralistic Society,” a collection of 10 essays with varying points of view. Eerdmans will publish the paperback book next month.
DATES
Two free sessions will look ahead to Passover, which begins the evening of April 10. At 8 p.m. Sunday at the Westwood Kehilla, 10537 Santa Monica Blvd., Orthodox Rabbi Gershon Bess will discuss preparing one’s home for the holiday. (310) 441-5288. Kehillat Ma’arav, 1715 21st St., Santa Monica, will hold a workshop at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, led by Rabbi Michael Gotlieb, on how to enrich family Seders. (310) 829-0566.
* South African Islamic scholar Maulana Jeena of Johannesburg, South Africa, will begin a three-part series of lectures on Islam at Jamat-e Masjid ul Islam, 820 Java St., Inglewood, starting at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Jeena will speak Sunday on the patriarch Abraham and the Islamic tradition of sacrifice--themes for the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, which is expected to start April 7. (310) 672-0773.
* A one-day retreat at Mount St. Mary’s College in downtown Los Angeles, which will include “walking the labyrinth” on the garden paths of the 15-acre campus, will open at 9:30 a.m. next Saturday in the Catholic college’s Donohue Conference Center. $10. (213) 747-6508.
* Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, who was national president of Reform Judaism’s congregations from 1973 to 1996, will speak on Jewish outreach to gay, lesbian and bisexual Jews at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Leo Baeck Temple, 1300 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 931-7023.
FINALLY
Streets around downtown Los Angeles’ First United Methodist Church, at Olympic Boulevard and Flower Street, will be closed much of Sunday for the Los Angeles Marathon.
No problem. The usual 10:30 a.m. service at the church will be held instead at 5 p.m. Sunday. And, for the second year, the congregation is sponsoring six runners in the race, said a Methodist spokesman. The runners will be wearing shirts with the cross-and-flame symbol of the United Methodist Church.
The largest religious group in the marathon, however, consists of Catholic priests, nuns, seminarians and parishioners. Their T-shirts will read: “I do not run aimlessly,” from 1 Corinthians 9:26.
At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony will extend a blessing to runners at Our Lady Chapel at 809 Flower St., near the start of the race.
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PEOPLE
Arranger-composer H. B. Barnum, a veteran of radio, television and recording work in Hollywood, began this month as director of the music ministry at St. Paul Baptist Church in South-Central Los Angeles.
A church spokeswoman said Barnum has worked with Fats Domino, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Lou Rawls and Aretha Franklin. He composed and conducted music for the TV sitcom “Amen” and has a namesake celebrity golf tournament that benefits Los Angeles’ “Adopt a Senior” food program.
The church, whose pastor is the Rev. Joel Anthony Ward, is at 100 W. 49th St. (213) 233-4381.