Faith, Hope and Charity : Mahony to Lead Hollywood Bowl Easter Rites

For the Most Rev. Roger Mahony, the new Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, Sunday will mark his first time on the program of the annual Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service. And it will be the third time for evangelical author-preacher Lloyd Ogilvie, pastor of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

But television announcer Bill Welsh has been part of the Hollywood Bowl’s services for at least 25 years, and he will be back again Sunday--even though his string was almost ended this year.

Welsh, a well-known mainstay at KTTV (Channel 11) has covered the Rose Parade every year since 1948, but he says he did not keep records on when he and KTTV started televising the sunrise service. “I’ve done it every year since we started, I know that,” he said.

Channel 56 Stepped In

When KTTV’s management decided this year the station would not bear the cost of televising the service, it looked for a while as if there would be no television broadcast. However, KDOC (Channel 56) stepped in with plans to air the 4:30-to-6 a.m. program live and repeat it at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. More recently, KHJ-TV (Channel 9) officials decided to air the service live as well, using a feed from Channel 56.

The announcer, with permission from Channel 11, will be Bill Welsh.

“We can’t prove anyone is watching because there are no viewer surveys until later in the day,” Welsh said. “But I believe that for a lot of people who attend, it’s their only religious service all year. And a lot of famous people participate, showing that there is another side of Hollywood.”

The dawn rites, which have attracted between 8,000 and 14,000 people the last two dozen years, “has had light rain at times but never enough to hamper the service or the telecast,” Welsh said.

Asked to Read Scripture

In recognition of the announcer’s long association with the Bowl service, Welsh was asked to do the Scripture reading in the 1982 service.

Welsh said his most memorable moment was during the 1972 service when Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, freed from a stationary pulpit by a lavaliere mike, roamed the stage in his flowing robes for the sermon. Television minister Robert Schuller of Garden Grove similarly has used the full stage for his sermon, Welsh said.

Ogilvie, another popular preacher, returns to the program Sunday after an absence of 13 years. He was quickly put into service by the sunrise service committee in 1972, the same year he became pastor of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He did the Scripture reading in that year’s service and gave the sermon in 1973.

The 66th annual service Sunday has Ogilvie speaking on “faith,” Mahony on “hope” and stage producer Dick Sheehan on “charity.”

In keeping with the entertainment industry’s association with the event, veteran actor Eddie Albert will read a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi and Penny Singleton, who portrayed the comic-strip character “Blondie” in movies and on radio, will read “The Master Is Coming,” by Emma Lent. Singleton is co-chairing the program with philanthropist Sybil Brand.

Music will be provided by the Southern California Mormon Choir, the Young Hollywood Chorus, the Holy Family High School Glee Club and the Glendale Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Other Services Planned

The Hollywood service is the most elaborate in planning and execution but a number of outdoor services elsewhere in Southern California have established loyal followings.

Continuing a tradition begun in 1909, Riverside residents will walk up to the rocky ridge that is Mt. Rubidoux for a sunrise service that starts at 5:30 a.m. Boy Scouts will light the trails for the pedestrian traffic beginning at 3:30 a.m. The main speaker wil be former Pasadena First Nazarene Church Pastor Earl Lee, now retired and living in Wrightwood. Also on the program will be the Riverside City College Concert Choir and soloist Horace Stevens.

Sunrise services will also be held at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park’s four Southern California locations--Glendale, Hollywood Hills, Cypress and Covina Hills--with the largest crowd expected at the latter site. All the services will begin at 5:45 a.m.

Judging by past years’ attendance, officials say about 4,500 people will assemble in the forecourt of the Life of Christ Mosaic at the Covina Hills facility. Pastor James W. Angell of the Claremont Presbyterian Church will be the main speaker at the service, sponsored by the Covina Chamber of Commerce, the Covina Ministerial Assn. and the 64-church Pomona Valley Council of Churches.

The 25th annual Easter sunrise service at Forest Lawn’s Cypress facility in Orange County will feature Msgr. William J. Barry of Claremont, a past president of the multifaith Interreligious Council of Southern California, as speaker, with music by the Cypress College Community Chorale and tenor soloist Norman Nelson.

A Spanish-language service will be held indoors at Forest Lawn’s Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection and an outdoor service sponsored by the Burbank Ministerial Assn. will be conducted at the Hollywood Hills site.

Two amusement parks, Knott’s Berry Farm and Marineland, will again serve as outdoor sunrise service locations.

The Knott’s service at 6 a.m., to be held in a small (1,500 seats) amphitheater surrounded by covered wagons, will be the 33rd annual and is sponsored by the 54 Southern Baptist congregations in Orange County. The Easter message will be delivered by the Rev. William R. Hann, a Westminster pastor and the newly elected board chairman of California Baptist College in Riverside.

The Marineland service, also at 6 a.m., will be conducted for the 12th year by St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Palos Verdes, although it is billed as a nondenominational program. Pastor Thomas C. Cooper and Deaconess Brenda Jaffe will conduct the service in the Dolphin Amphitheater. The offering will support a local program for the needy and the Lutheran Church in America World Hunger Appeal, a spokesman said.

Other Easter sunrise services include:

- The 27th annual Brea-La Habra service at Memory Garden Memorial Park, Brea, 6 a.m.; Pastor George Saunders of the Brea First Baptist Church, speaker.

- The 22nd annual oceanside service in the parking lot next to Morro Rock, 6 a.m.; Pastor Ronald E. Fay of El Morro Church of the Nazarene in Los Osos, speaker.

- Wayfarers Chapel, one mile east of Marineland, in the amphitheater opposite the visitors center, 6 a.m.; Chapel Minister Jay E. Lee, speaker.