Congregations Plan Outdoor Events, Environmental Festivals

With the school year winding down and summer beginning to bloom, several congregations and faith-based groups across Southern California are taking spirituality outdoors.

Presbyterian volunteers from 14 Westside churches will break ground today on two houses in South-Central Los Angeles as part of a Habitat for Humanity project. Leading the building campaign is Westwood Presbyterian Church, along with churches from Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Hawthorne, Culver City and Pacific Palisades. The wall-raising ceremony will be held at noon at 96th Street near Central Avenue. James Adams, coalition chair and an elder at Westwood Presbyterian, said the houses are the most recent to be built as part of the 96th Street Initiative, a two-year project to build 26 affordable homes by the end of the year.

Temple Mishkon Tephilo, the Conservative Synagogue by the Sea, will host an environmental awareness event for the community on Sunday titled “Green Day.” Starting at 11 a.m., Shantel Zimmerman of Santa Monica’s Green Team will explain how to make homes and local environments more in tune with positive ecological practices. After the presentation, participants are invited to carpool to the Ballona Lagoon for an exploratory walk through the wetlands ecosystem. The event is free and open to the public. Participants will meet at the temple office at 201 Hampton Drive in Venice.

Next Saturday, the Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene’s Bresee Foundation will hold the Peace in the Hood--Paz en el Barrio summer street festival. The event, which will be held outside the church on West 3rd Street, will include games, face painting, gospel and rap music, and free health screenings provided by neighborhood hospitals and clinics. Food provided by the church’s diverse congregation will include Korean, Filipino and Latino dishes. The First Church of the Nazarene is at 3401 W. 3rd St., one block east of Vermont. (213) 387-2822.

PEOPLE

Taitetsu Unno, religion professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, will visit the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple this weekend and speak at the 10 a.m. Sunday service. Unno, a Buddhist lecturer, has recently received critical acclaim for his book, “River of Fire, River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism.” Copies of the book will be available and a signing will follow his talk. The event is free and open to the public. Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, 505 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, (213) 626-4200.

* Episcopal Bishop Frederick Borsch will be one of three humanitarians honored Wednesday by the National Conference for Community and Justice. The award is presented to leaders who have contributed to programs to fight racial and religious tensions in Los Angeles. Others to be honored at the Beverly Hilton black-tie dinner are Keith Russell, chairman of the Mellon Financial Group, and Andrea Van de Kamp, West Coast head of Sotheby’s and chair of the board of governors of the Music Center of Los Angeles County.

* Rabbi Ted Falcon, who founded the meditative-oriented Makom Ohr Shalom synagogue in 1978, returns for his final visit of 1999. His most recent book on Kabbalah is titled “A Journey of Awakening.” Falcon will lead Torah study today at 10:30 a.m. at the Brentwood Presbyterian Church, 12000 San Vicente Blvd. at Bundy Drive.

* Rabbi Richard Levy has been named director of the Los Angeles school of Rabbinic Studies for Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Levy, a prominent figure in the Reform Movement, is outgoing president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. As president, he was chief architect of the recent statement that endorsed an optional return to traditional practices. Levy succeeds Rabbi Sheldon Marder, who will become Rabbi for the San Francisco Jewish Home for the Aging.

MUSIC

For many, the Russian Orthodox Church is a mysterious collage of golden icons, smoky incense, and bearded priests. The Cambridge Singers will attempt to dispel some of the mystery with a program of Russian Orthodox music from the 19th and early 20th centuries called “Ikons and Incense: Sacred Music of Russia.” Tonight at 8, the group will perform at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church at 4949 Alton Parkway in Irvine. On Sunday at 3 p.m., the singers bring their music to St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Church at 778 S. Rosemead Blvd. in Pasadena. Tickets at the door are $17 general admission, $12 for students, seniors and disabled people.

* “Seriously Sacred” is the theme of a concert to be presented Tuesday night at 7:30 at the Westwood United Methodist Church. The program includes a selection of classical and mystical music that will explore the use of the organ in extended works using sacred texts. Suggested donation is $10 to $15. Westwood Methodist Church is at 10497 Wilshire Blvd.

* Pasadena Presbyterian Church continues its weekly “Music at Noon” series Wednesday with violinist Leslie Katz. The concerts are held in the church sanctuary at 585 E. Colorado Blvd. Call (626) 793-2191 for 24-hour concert information.

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