'Interrupted Lives: Catholic Sisters Under European Communism'

Join Sisters of Social Service Oct. 25 and 26 for a ground-breaking film that tells the stories of religious sisters living their lives of faith, often in secrecy and against great adversity, during the reign of communism in Eastern Europe.

Early this fall, this seminal film is set to premier on ABC, and we’ll be hosting a panel with the women who created the documentary: Sister Anne Lehner, Sister Mary Savoie, Sister Margaret Nacke and Sister Judy Zielinski.

Come, bring friends, and contribute to the dialogue about these engaging and inspirational women. Five Sisters of Social Service are featured in the film.

Location: Sisters of Social Service, Encino at, 4316 Lanai Road in Encino

Dates and times:
Open community screening 1 p.m. Oct. 25
Young adult screening 6 p.m. Oct. 25
Women religious screening 10 a.m. Oct. 26

Admission is $10 for the general public, and $5 for young adults.

Watch the trailer at www.interruptedlives.org.

To RSVP, call (818) 285-3388, or e-mail carlosssdevelopment@gmail.com. Space is limited.

These are stories you won’t hear anywhere else, and an event you won’t want to miss.

The 3 p.m. Podcast | Lessons from Darth Vader

Glendale Community College on Thursday hosted a lecture on the anthropology of “Star Wars” and “Star Trek.”

Can you see my grin?

Daryl Frazetti, an anthropology and biology professor at Western Nevada College in Carson City, Nev., gave the talk. According to campus e-mails, the talk focused on the politics, religion, identity, technology, the cultural role of the individual and the anthropological concept of “race” that is inherent in both franchises.

Of course, I can speak about “Star Trek” with greater fluency, given that I was born and raised with it — specifically “Star Trek: The Next Generation” — more than I can about “Star Wars.” And before you “Star Wars” fanatics start sending me e-mails about how I don’t appreciate “Star Wars,” and how it’s better than “Star Trek,” know that I’ve fully embraced the lessons behind the teachings of Yoda, the Force and even what we can learn from the tyranny of Darth Vader’s iron grip.

For example, I look at Han Solo’s decision to help the Rebels as a turning point in his life. After being chastised by Luke Skywalker and accused of not caring for anyone else but himself, he realizes that the Rebels’ campaign to rid the galaxy of Darth Vader’s tyranny is bigger than himself. Although he does keep a bit of his arrogance intact.

The late “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a future Utopian society on Earth — where poverty, disease, starvation, racism and war do not exist — is the cornerstone of “Trek” and of all of its incarnations, from the original series to “Enterprise.” I’ve often told people who are not fans that for every experience in life, there is an episode in “Star Trek” to which you could probably connect it.

Take, for example, abortion. That topic has been discussed, prodded, analyzed and fought over for as long as I can remember. In the “Next Generation” episode “The Child,” ship’s counselor Deanna Troi, played by Marina Sirtis, is impregnated by an energy being whose desire it is to experience being born, living and dying. Upon learning of her pregnancy, the crew argues over what to do next. Should they abort the pregnancy to protect the ship? As Troi looks at an image of her fetus, she decides that she will carry the baby to term; the ship be damned.

Another episode spotlights suicide. In “Ethics,” Lt. Worf (the Klingon) suffers an injury while working in a cargo bay. A fully loaded barrel falls from a nearby storage shelf and lands on Worf, crushing several of his vertebrae, rendering him paralyzed from the waist down. As a Klingon, Worf cannot bear the insufferable insult to his honor by having others feel pity for him. So he decides to end his life.

But his friends and comrades in arms convince him that there is indeed life after such an injury, and that ending his life would truly be cowardly. This allows Worf to go through an extremely risky medical procedure to replace his entire spinal cord. In the end, Worf recovers his mobility, and he thanks his friends. There is also an underlying ethical dilemma that takes place on the part of the doctors involved with the procedure.

Drug abuse is also touched upon. In “Symbiosis,” two alien races argue over who owns the shipment of a major pharmaceutical drug called felicium. The more powerful of the two races claims the felicium is the cure to a deadly disease, when in reality, the drug is being used to keep a tight rein on the weaker race, leaving them addicted and powerless.

In a scene on the bridge, Wesley Crusher, played by Wil Wheaton, doesn’t understand the nature behind drug addiction. Tasha Yar (played by Denise Crosby), the Enterprise’s security chief, explains to him that when you’re addicted, “all you care about is getting your second dose; nothing else matters.” She explains to Wesley that being on drugs makes you “feel . . . good!”

They make you feel like you’re on top of the world, Tasha says.

After all this, Wesley still doesn’t understand, to which Tasha replies, “I hope you never do.”

MICHAEL J. ARVIZU is regional coordinator of the San Fernando Region Ministry With Young Adults. Reach him at (866) 304-0341, or e-mail michael.arvizu@sfmya.org.

The 3 p.m. Podcast | Father Rob

I met the Rev. Rob Holman in summer 2008 at Crescenta Valley Park, as he was about to go down a Slip ’n’ Slide with his son, Mitchell.

As they slid down the hill, the pair made every effort to stay on the plastic and not end up on the dry grass. When their trip ended, they were all smiles and went back for more.

I got a chance to talk to Holman for the first time that afternoon. As it turns out, La Cañada Congregational Church Pastor Skip Lindeman was there, too. He took a turn at the Slip ’n’ Slide as well, and I learned that afternoon that men of the cloth can have a good time, too!

The event at Crescenta Valley Park that afternoon marked the first time the Crescenta Valley hosted a community church picnic and outreach.

Holman had just been appointed reverend of St. Luke’s of the Mountains Anglican Church, so I was eager to speak with him. We agreed that I would call his office upon my return from vacation the next week.

I was very impressed with him.. He had goals for his church, but he was also a very prayerful man who would turn to God to help him achieve those goals.

We talked about his background, his family, what his hopes and dreams were for St. Luke’s — all the basic questions. He ended by saying that the people at St. Luke’s had welcomed him warmly into their community and were looking forward to having him serve as their pastor.

Then the Anglican congregation at St. Luke’s got sued.

They got sued because St. Luke’s idea of religion was different from the U.S. Episcopal Church’s idea of religion. The former saw things one way; the latter saw things a different way. So the former split in 2006, affiliating itself with an Anglican Diocese in Uganda.

When this happened, the Episcopal Diocese hit the roof and sued on the grounds that the property was theirs. Of course, St. Luke’s fought back, the congregation’s main argument being that they did have a right to the property after maintaining it for years.

They had a strong ministry there, they had families that had called St. Luke’s home for decades. Denying them the property would uproot all of that.

Still, the Episcopal Diocese insisted the property was theirs.

I got to interview Holman again, this time in the heat of a situation that would soon get worse. Again, I saw a very prayerful man who was turning to God to guide him in what to do next.

He ended by saying that the people at St. Luke’s were supporting him fully and were looking to his guidance as a pastor to lead them through this.

Then St. Luke’s lost its property.

Then St. Luke’s lost its appeal to that decision Sept. 17.

As it stands now, the Anglican congregation is under tentative court order to transfer possession of the property by Oct. 12 if the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a related appeal from a church in Orange County. This would mean new leadership for the church and a reversal to its original name of St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church.

I can’t say for sure who the winners and losers are here.

Did St. Luke’s really lose because they no longer have their property?

Did the Episcopal Diocese really win because they now have what they consider rightfully theirs?

St. Luke’s did what I believe was the most Christ-like thing I’ve seen anyone do. The church believed in something that made them quite unpopular to a certain group of people. St. Luke’s had supporters who stayed by their side, and others who decided to go somewhere else. They fought for what they believed in by never giving in to the demands of the Episcopal Diocese.

And in the end, they lost it all, except for the handful of faithful who would always call St. Luke’s Anglican Church — not St. Luke’s Episcopal Church — home.

MICHAEL J. ARVIZU is regional coordinator of the San Fernando Region Ministry With Young Adults. Reach him at (866) 304-0341, or e-mail michael.arvizu@sfmya.org.