Stability Returns to Founder’s Church

After nearly eight months of turmoil, relative calm has returned to the Founder’s Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles--the onetime flagship for the metaphysical, motivational denomination, the United Church of Religious Science.

The Rev. Arthur Chang is back as pastor after he being fired in September by the congregation’s board of trustees without a vote of members as required by church bylaws. Hundreds of congregants left with Chang, who temporarily conducted Sunday services at a restaurant near Los Angeles International Airport.

As lawsuits were filed, ex-Religious Science minister Terry Cole-Whittaker arrived in December to fill the pulpit at Founder’s Church. Cole-Whittaker had dropped out of church life in 1985 when she suddenly quit a widely seen but debt-ridden television ministry in San Diego.

The stalemate was broken at the congregation’s annual membership meeting April 20.

Five new board members sympathetic to Chang were elected, forming a new majority on the board of trustees. The new board accepted the retirement of the Rev. Dorothy Love, who had continued at the church, and relieved Cole-Whittaker of preaching duties, said Deloise Maddox, the newly elected board president.

“We are talking with Terry Cole-Whittaker about a final payment,” Maddox said. “The suits are still being negotiated, but both sides are working to come to a mutual agreement.”

Cole-Whittaker was out of town this week, but a spokesman said “she wishes the church well.”

COMMENCEMENTS

Sister Helen Prejean, whose book “Dead Man Walking” was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon, will be the main commencement speaker at Mount St. Mary’s College at 10 a.m. today.

At other commencements next Saturday:

* Astrophysicist France Anne Cordova, vice chancellor for research at UC Santa Barbara, will address Loyola Marymount University’s graduation ceremonies, which start at 10 a.m.

* U.S. District Judge W. James Ware will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and will speak at the 10:30 a.m. graduation.

* Claremont School of Theology, which eschews honorary degrees and commencement addresses, will confer advanced degrees on 53 students at its 9 a.m. graduation.

DATES

The internationally coordinated March for Jesus next Saturday--scheduled in 600 U.S. cities--includes a Los Angeles rally and march at MacArthur Park. The annual marches draw primarily evangelical and charismatic Christians. Marchers will assemble at MacArthur Park at 9 a.m., then proceed at 10 a.m. along a 1.7-mile route that circles back to the park. At the end will be a prayer rally led by local pastors, said organizer Lyle Plocher of Set Free Ministries. (213) 413-0121.

* The Center for Spiritual Development in Orange will offer a retreat next Saturday for mothers and adult daughters dealing with “resolving painful issues from the past” as well as with positive legacies of motherhood. The cost is $55. (714) 744-3175, Ext. 400.

* Leonard Fein, director of Reform Judaism’s social action arm, will speak at Temple Isaiah’s 50th anniversary service Friday night at the West Los Angeles synagogue, 10345 Pico Blvd. (310) 277-2772.

* Jewish and Catholic Big Brothers are joining with Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles and Big Sisters of Los Angeles in a volunteer recruitment campaign from Mother’s Day to June 15 (Father’s Day). (800) 453-KIDS.

* The Los Angeles Council of Churches will honor volunteers in released-time education, chaplaincies and other ministries in a program at 7 p.m. Friday at Phillips Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, 973 E. 43rd St., Los Angeles. Donation $30. (213) 733-4527.

* Marking the 125th anniversary of the city’s first African American church, the Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray will lead members of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in observing “Biddy Mason Day” at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. services on Sunday. Mason, a slave who walked to California and purchased her freedom, bought a home in what is now downtown Los Angeles and held the church’s first services there. A play dramatizing the history is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at First AME Church, 2270 S. Harvard Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 730-9180.

CORRECTION

The Times printed the wrong telephone number for Entertainment Fellowship, which is holding a retreat next Saturday for Hollywood professionals. The correct number is (818) 909-0841.

FINALLY

A monthlong exhibit celebrating a quarter-century of the contemporary goddess movement opens today in West Los Angeles with altars and symbols of ancient religions as well as representations from Native American culture to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Catholic tradition.

Titled “A Circle of Altars: Women Celebrate the Feminine Divine,” the exhibit includes an entry submitted by the Immaculate Heart College Center featuring the use of bread in evoking images of the divine.

The altars and symbols--also drawn from Hindu, Celtic, Egyptian and Greek cultures--will be shown from 3 to 6 p.m. in a pre-Mother’s Day celebration, then reopen on Tuesday nights and Saturday and Sunday afternoons for the rest of May. A $3 donation is requested. (213) 782-9249.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Circle of Aadia, a feminist spirituality group.f

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PEOPLE

Michael Stafford, who was a U.S. Army Ranger in the Vietnam war and works as an auto shop teacher at Hesperia High School in Hesperia, will receive a rare honor in a Buddhist ceremony Sunday.

A student of Buddhism since the age of 16, Stafford is known in Buddhist circles as the Venerable Thich An-Giao and the abbot of the Desert Zen Center in Lucerne.

The Venerable Thich Man Giac, supreme patriarch of all Vietnamese Buddhist Churches in America, will conduct a seldom-seen “mind seal transmission” rite with Stafford at noon Sunday in Chua Viet Nam Buddhist Temple at 9th and Berendo streets in Los Angeles as part of Buddha’s birthday celebrations.

A spokeswoman said the ceremony will put the American Zen master in a direct lineage back to Gautama Buddha. Man Giac “decided to make public this extraordinary event so that American, Vietnamese and Korean Buddhists can celebrate together,” the spokeswoman said.