The 70th Easter Sunrise Service at the...

The 70th Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl will involve the event’s largest-ever number of participants on stage--700 in all, according to producer-director Norma Foster.

Because Easter will be observed on April 15 this year by both Western Christians and Eastern Orthodoxy, Foster said, clerics from both branches have been chosen to deliver sermons: Bishop Frederick Houk Borsch of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and Father James C. Pappas of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles.

Dedicated to recently revived church life in Eastern Europe, the service will include bilingual blessings from clergy from churches of Romanian, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Yugoslav and Czech heritages.

The Rev. Cecil (Chip) Murray, pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Father Lawrence M. Jenco, a former Beirut hostage, also are scheduled to deliver short messages.

More than 400 participants will be part of the adult and children’s choirs, said Foster, who is also vice president of the volunteer committee that conducts the annual event.

The service will last for nearly two hours and will begin at 5:15 a.m. It will be televised locally and over the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network. CBS Radio is expected to carry the broadcast nationally.

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Tammy Faye Bakker returned to Southern California last weekend to attend the Rev. E. V. Hill’s luncheon marking his 29 years as pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Bakker told a news conference that she and her supporters have leased a new building in Orlando, Fla., for a ministry that eventually hopes to return to broadcasting. Jim and Tammy Bakker were in Palm Springs in March, 1987, when their PTL evangelistic TV empire started crumbling after Bakker’s resignation and his sex-and-payoff revelations. Bakker, now imprisoned in Rochester, Minn., was convicted last year on fraud charges and sentenced to 45 years. She said lawyers tell her they plan to file an appeal in about six months. “I talk to Jim every day on the phone,” she said. She said Hill appeared several times on their old PTL show and has continued to support the Bakkers.

Father Andres Rafael Luevano of Santa Ana has been named as president and rector of St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo, the first Latino priest ever to head one of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese’s seminaries. Priesthood candidates typically do their undergraduate studies at the college before completing training at the adjacent graduate seminary. Luevano, the son of a Mexican immigrant, will succeed Msgr. Sylvester Ryan at the position in June. That same month, Luevano will also receive his Ph.D. in theology and mysticism from Nijmegen Catholic University in the Netherlands.

DATES

Mar Raphael I Bidawid of Iraq, the patriarch of the Assyrian-Chaldean Eastern Rite Catholic Churches worldwide, is scheduled to participate in a Solemn Mass at 6 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul Assyrian-Chaldean Catholic Church in North Hollywood. The Assyrian-Chaldean Catholics are the largest Christian group (600,000 people) in Iraq, but only four parishes exist in California, including the North Hollywood parish and one in San Diego.

Singer-actress Carol Lawrence, active for a decade in Christian circles, plans to speak and sing at the 10:30 a.m. service Sunday of the Chinese Presbyterian Church of the South Bay. For a recent tour in China, Lawrence was tutored in Chinese by the Rev. Philip Lee, interim pastor of the congregation, which conducts English-speaking services at the Torrance YMCA.

Responding to a “tremendous increase” in requests for speakers and information, the Islamic Center of Southern California announced that next Saturday it will hold a seminar on the religion geared to a non-Muslim audience. Scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the seminar will describe fundamental beliefs of Islam, common misconceptions and how Muslims see the religion contributing to American life. Spokesman Omar Ricci said there will be no charge for the seminar and lunch.