CHATSWORTH — Following a shaky start, the first multi-faith clergy association serving the San Fernando Valley has found a timely issue to rally around: church burnings.
The Valley Interfaith Clergy Council is asking congregations to devote part of their services next weekend to decry the rash of arson fires at black churches around the country and to discuss the implications for race relations.
Despite well-publicized fund drives to rebuild burned churches, denunciations by religious leaders, and a briefing Wednesday for Los Angeles pastors by city officials, some Valley clergy say the issue may seem distant and irrelevant unless it arises during local worship services.
More than 60 fires have been set at African American churches in the last 18 months, mostly in the South.
"We want haters to know what they did was sinful by [the standards of] anyone's faith," said Rabbi Aaron Kriegel of Temple Ner Maarav of Encino.
"Those who burn one church or one synagogue affect the members of any church or synagogue," said Kriegel. It was Kriegel who suggested this year that the long-established Valley Interfaith Council in Chatsworth form a clergy group, which became the Clergy Council.
The council got off to a rocky start when the first meeting on May 30 bogged down with long presentations about the activities of the Valley Interfaith Council, a largely lay-led organization heavily involved in community services. Some observers said the clergy group was in danger of being perceived as nothing more than the promotional arm of the parent Interfaith Council.
"Although we got off to a bad start, we expect to have no less than 45 people at a church-burnings information meeting for the religious community on [July 29]," said Kriegel.
The meeting at St. Jane Francis Catholic Church in North Hollywood will brief community leaders on the latest fires and serve as a prelude to what the Valley Interfaith Clergy Council is calling the "Weekend of Reconciliation and Protest" on July 26-28.
"About 40 churches and synagogues say they will do something as part of their liturgy to focus attention on the burning of black churches," said Rabbi Jerrold Goldstein of Cal State Northridge's Hillel student center.
At Encino's Valley Beth Shalom, for example, actor-singer Theodore Bikel and a minister from the First AME Church of Los Angeles will discuss the fires at the synagogue's Sabbath service Friday night.
