Churches Orange County

Every Thursday morning, they flock to the church that looks like a concrete circus tent, asking the Rev. Ralph A. Wilkerson to summon the healing powers of Jesus Christ to obliterate tumors, mend broken marriages, drive arthritis out of joints, repair faulty hearts. "Now, Jesus! Now, Jesus! Now, Jesus!" Wilkerson commands, as he touches the face of a worshiper, who collapses backwards into the waiting arms of two suited assistants.

Plans for a $4.5-million interfaith chapel at Chapman University--which has seen two architects and protests from conservative Christians and Wiccans--suffered another setback this week when Orange planning commissioners rejected the project on aesthetic grounds.

The sweet smell of noble fir trees tweaked their noses, more than 6,000 twinkling lights filled their vision, and the graceful shapes of the nearly life-size Nativity figures awed parishioners arriving for Christmas Eve Mass at St. Boniface Catholic Church. The Nativity scene, the creation of Keith Stievo, a church member and entertainment supervisor at Disneyland, has become so renowned in recent years that it attracts an estimated 15,000 people from throughout the county.

On a scorching summer day in 1976, Orlando Barela, a member of one of Santa Ana's notorious street gangs, faced down an enemy in the middle of a crowded carnival. Barela, then 18, calmly pulled out a sawed-off shotgun, leveled it at the rival gang member and opened fire, wounding his adversary in the arm and causing widespread panic among carnival-goers. The man Barela shot lost the use of his right arm and Barela lost his freedom, serving two years in prison for the deed.

One floor removed from the rumble of bowling balls and the crack of tenpins lies the quaint, little chapel of Irvine Lanes. No steeple marks the Church of Christ Our Redeemer AME, which also lacks a public sign or a listing in the telephone book. Yet its windowless, second-story sacristy is filled with a young flock singing "We Shall Overcome" while struggling to ignore the occasional faint scent of sweat socks and old beer.

Swastikas and devil-worship symbols were found spray-painted over portions of a Baptist church Friday, and police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime. "We don't have any suspects, but if we apprehend anyone we would probably charge them with a hate crime," Police Lt. Rex Stricklin said. Stricklin said someone sprayed the symbols and Nazi signs on the outside of eight doors at the First Southern Baptist Church of Fullerton.

In an era of fallen televangelists and mass-marketed religion, Pastor Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa approaches its 25th anniversary unscathed by scandal and seemingly ever mindful of the pride that could precede a fall. According to a new survey, about 12,000 people attend services at the chapel each Sunday, making it the third-best-attended Protestant church in the nation.

What happens when the teaching of the Bible--to feed the hungry and house the homeless--clashes with the laws of modern government, which sometimes prohibit those acts, as happened with the Rev. Wiley S. Drake in Buena Park? The Times Orange County asked local pastors to discuss the dilemma of following both the laws of God and man. The Rev. Norbert Oesch, 57, pastor, St.

On Sundays, although there are more than a thousand people at Mass at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress, Karen Barnes rarely feels lost among the pews. That's because throughout the week, activities draw the Barnes family to the church and draw church members to the Barnes home three blocks away. "There isn't ever a time that we go to church that we don't recognize members of our parish," she said. When Sunday comes, "you're not just praying by yourself, you're congregating.

Churches around Orange County are gearing up for Easter celebrations, which will range from simple homilies, hymns and sanctuaries lined with fresh lilies to million-dollar productions, high-tech innovations and full orchestras. Many churches are offering sunrise services, and others are scheduling the rites throughout the day to accommodate as many people as possible.