Sacred Sounds Welcome New Year

Los Angeles heard the first peals of New Year cheer at noon Friday as religious centers around the city played church bells and sounded ram’s horns, beat drums and sang full voice in a kind of virtual symphony called “Opus 21: A Festival of Sacred Sounds,” orchestrated by the city’s Cultural Affairs Department.

More than 2,000 religious groups were asked to make their distinctive sacred sound and then repeat it at 4 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight to mark the turn of the year at Greenwich mean time, Eastern Standard Time and, finally, Pacific Standard Time. Although the city did not know how many denominations would participate, organizers had great hopes.

“It’s an interfaith city,” said Adolfo Nodal, the Cultural Affairs Department’s general manager. “For all the denominations to make their sacred sounds is an expression of the spiritual quality of our neighborhoods.”

Several Los Angeles churches that hold annual New Year’s services added something extra this year.

All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena scheduled its New Year’s Eve communion service for 7:30 p.m., as usual, to avoid Rose Bowl Parade parking problems. But this year the communion wine was to be champagne.

At Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Los Angeles, three congregations prayed together at 10 p.m., a service featuring a millennial litany by the Rev. Marian Young of Ward church. “We’re focused on praising the Lord for bringing us into a new millennium,” she said.

Edward Shawl, 83, a Ward member for 56 years, attended the service as usual. “It’s a custom at our church, to let the new year find you praying.”

At 1:30 p.m., Cardinal Roger M. Mahony joined several hundred people in a New Year’s Eve Mass said in Spanish and English at Our Lady Queen of Angels, the oldest Catholic church in the city, built in 1814.

The Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra opened its small chapel so that the faithful could visit the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux. Some of the estimated 50,000 Southern Californians who came during the last two days waited as long as two hours to honor the French nun, who died of tuberculosis in 1897 at the age of 24. Friday night a procession escorted the relics to the nearby Church of St. Therese, where they will remain until Sunday.

Religious scholars say 600 religions are practiced in Southern California, and, because many do not consider Jan. 1 the start of a new year, City Hall’s call for sacred sounds drew them into the observance.

At the Brahma Kumaris World Spirituality Organization in Los Angeles, a Hindu-based meditation center, Sister Gita joined the city’s celebration by chanting with two fellow nuns. At 9 p.m., during a public prayer service, they burned personal notes.

“We wrote down things to let go of in the new millennium and we put them into the fire,” Sister Gita said.

Rabbi Perry Netter of Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles blew the ram’s horn, or shofar, at noon and 4 p.m. It is a sound usually saved for the most important Jewish holidays. Netter said he joined the sacred revelry as a show of support. “It is a sign of harmony within our religious diversity.”

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As noted in the story, Our Lady Queen of Angels, also known as La Placita, is the oldest Catholic church in the city. However, it was started earlier than 1814. Groundbreaking was in 1784.

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