Global Move to Stop Killing in Name of Religion Gains Ground

After years of preparation, the dream of the Rt. Rev. William Swing of San Francisco to organize a kind of religious United Nations will take a step forward Monday.

In colorful ceremonies at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, hundreds of delegates from around the world will sign the United Religions Initiative’s charter. It will mark the birth of what Swing, the Episcopal bishop of the California Diocese (San Francisco) calls a grass-roots organization dedicated to “stop killing in the name of God.”

He hopes that it will become a forum to build interfaith cooperation and eliminate religiously motivated violence.

Many of those signing have formed local URI Cooperation Circles on six continents designed to engage people of various faiths in cooperative efforts and dialogue.

While those signing do not necessarily officially represent the faiths they follow, Swing hopes that a grass-roots organization spanning the globe will have a positive impact.

The United Religions Initiative is headquartered in San Francisco. Its address is P.O. Box 29242, San Francisco, CA 94129. Call (415) 561-2300.

EVENTS

The Peace in the Hood/Paz en el Barrio Summer Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. today in the parking lot of the Los Angeles First Church of the Nazarene, at the corner on Juanita Avenue (one block east of Vermont Avenue) between 2nd and 3rd streets. Its aim is to build neighborhood unity. Included will be health services, live entertainment, food and games. It is co-sponsored by the church, the Bresee Foundation and Mid-Wilshire Christian Schools. Free. Call (213) 387-7822, Ext. 11.

* St. Monica Catholic Church will sponsor an evening of music and prayer Monday to celebrate the 19th anniversary of the reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia. Rosary is at 7 p.m. and Mass at 8 p.m. 725 California Ave., Santa Monica. Call (310) 393-9287.

* A cabala seminar will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday, sponsored by B’nai Tikvah Congregation, 1600 Buena Vista Drive, Vista. $15. Call Tsila Browne at (760) 599-4320.

* A patriotic concert and ice cream social, “Song of America,” will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Sunday by Covina United Methodist Church, San Bernardino Road and Hollenbeck Avenue, Covina. Free. Call (626) 339-7386.

* Music, food, face painting and booths are part of an outreach fair presented from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday by Temple Ner Tamid of Downey, 10629 Lakewood Blvd., Downey. Call (562) 861-9276.

* Yeshiva of Los Angeles and its Community Beit Midrash will hold their annual summer session of Torah study from July 5 through Aug. 1. Dozens of classes are offered for men and women on all levels. Yeshiva is at 9760 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. Call Rabbi Harry Greenspan at (310) 772-2487.

* Gourmet foods and wines from selected restaurants will be featured at a fund-raising dinner, “A Midsummer Night’s Cuisine,” from 6 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday, sponsored by Holy Family High School, 209 E. Lomita Ave., Glendale. $50. Call (818) 247-2222.

* Pianist David Rubinstein will perform Wednesday as part of the Music at Noon concert series sponsored by Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. Flutist Julie Long will perform July 5. Free. Call (626) 793-2191.

* A “healing Mass” will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, 877 7th St., San Pedro. (310) 833-3541. Father Austin Doran, the celebrant, did doctoral studies in theology at Angelicum University in Rome and for 10 years served as spiritual director at St. John’s Seminary.

* Summer Music Under the Stars will be presented at 7:30 p.m. July 12, 19 and 26 by the Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Road, Encino. $8 for adults, $2 for children under 12. Call (818) 784-4515 for program details.

* A sacred dance workshop, “The Spirit Moves,” featuring Carla DeSola and Josie Broehm, will be sponsored from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. today by Holy Spirit Retreat Center, 4316 Lanai Road, Encino. $40. Includes lunch. Call (818) 784-4515.

PEOPLE

Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist Simha Lainer, 96, has donated $500,000 to the University of Judaism for the Beit Midrash, or house of study, of the university’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. The Beit Midrash will be renamed to recognize Lainer and his late wife, Sara.

* Geoff Slaff and Dale Zurowski of Thousand Oaks have endowed a scholarship at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago in honor of the Rev. Lee Charles Barker, senior minister of Neighborhood Church in Pasadena.

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