1,000 Expected at New Thought Conference in Palm Springs

Opening next week in Palm Springs, a conference on the millennium is expected to draw more than a thousand New Thought believers and thinkers.

Sponsored by the 3-year-old Assn. for Global New Thought, based in Chicago, the five-day conference begins Wednesday and features Barbara Marx Hubbard, whose name was placed in nomination for vice president at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, and Jean Houston, author of 15 books and co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research.

Other speakers include Wayne Teasdale, a member of the task force planning the next council for the Parliament of World Religions; Sunanda Gandhi, co-founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence; author Larry Dossey; and Robert Muller, former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations.

The New Thought organization has about 300 church and organizational members and more than 600 individual members, Executive Director Barbara Bernstein said. She said New Thought should not be confused with the more amorphous New Age thought, and places emphasis on positive thought, teaching and compassion. She said member churches include Unity churches and Churches of Religious Science.

The theme of the conference is “Awakened World: Bridge Across Millennia.” Cost is $350, or $85 per day. The convention center is at 277 N. Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs. (847) 866-9525

EVENTS

Five thousand volunteers from 44 synagogues are expected to turn out Sunday to take part in 120 social service and community projects sponsored by the Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance for Tikkun Olam--Hebrew for “repairing our world.” There will be projects on helping children, families, the homeless and the infirm and the disabled, and on the environment and education. Volunteers are asked to call (818) 464-3219.

* A Hindu-Roman Catholic dialogue will be held today from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Pereira Hall, Room 31 at Loyola Marymount University, 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles. Free.

* The Rev. Karen Heimbuch will give a free dramatic reading of one of Aimee Semple McPherson’s sermons Sunday at 9:30 a.m. at Valley View Junior High School Auditorium, 3347 Tapo St., Simi Valley. It is sponsored by NewHeart Foursquare Church. McPherson was a flamboyant Los Angeles evangelist in the 1920s and 1930s who founded the Angelus Temple in Echo Park, mother church of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

* Father Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine monk and director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, will lead four sessions on meditation. They will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at St. Brendan Church, Van Ness Avenue at 3rd Street, Los Angeles; 10:10 a.m. Wednesday at Samuelson Chapel, California Lutheran University, 60 W. Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Pius V Church, 7691 Orangethorpe Ave., Buena Park; and 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Church of the Good Shepherd at Santa Monica Boulevard and Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills.

* A seminar on the Dead Sea Scrolls featuring Martin G. Abegg Jr. and Peter W. Flint, co-directors of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at Trinity Western University in Langley, Canada, will be held today from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Hope Lutheran Church, 6720 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. $45 at the door.

* A marriage conference featuring Bob and Yvonne Turnbull will be held Friday and next Saturday at the Gardena-Torrance Church, 1457 W. 179th St., Gardena. Admission for “Team Mates: a Celebration of Marriage,” is $40 per couple. (310) 671-4772.

* Jesus Seminar founder Bob Funk and Lloyd Geering, emeritus professor of religious studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, will conduct a two-day seminar Friday and next Saturday on “Jesus and God in the Global World.” It will be held at Woodland Hills Community Church, 21338 Dumetz Road, Woodland Hills. $50 (818) 346-0820.

* The fourth anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin will be observed at 5 p.m. Sunday at Temple Kol Tikvah, 20400 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills. Speakers will include Deputy Israeli Consul Uriel Palti, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles President John Fishel, and the Rev. Jeffery Utter, immediate past president of the Interfaith Council.

MUSIC

John Weaver, chairman of the organ department at the Juilliard School and music director at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, will perform pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Louis Vierne and Cesar Franck at 4 p.m. Sunday on the pipe organ of Los Angeles’ First Congregational Church, 540 S. Commonwealth Ave. at the corner of 6th Street. (213) 385-1345 for tickets.

* The Joy & Peace Youth Choir will present “A Gospel Extravaganza” at 4 p.m. Sunday at the New Testament Baptist Church, 1215 E. Robidoux St., Wilmington. Free. (323) 757-9723.

* Two Christian concerts sponsored by the White Memorial Medical Center will be held at 5:30 p.m. today and Sunday at the medical center, 1720 Cesar E. Chavez Ave., East Los Angeles. Violinist Jaime Jorge and the Heritage Singers performing in Spanish will be featured. Free. (323) 265-5050 (English) or (323) 267-4352 (Spanish).

*

Notices may be mailed for consideration to Southern California File, c/o Religion Editor, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, faxed to Southern California File at (213) 237-4712, or e-mailed to religion@latimes.com. Items should arrive two to three weeks before the event and should include pertinent details about the people and organizations with address, phone number, date and time. Because of the volume of submissions, we cannot guarantee publication.