The state Legislature has designated next Friday,...

The state Legislature has designated next Friday, Saturday and Sunday as “Statewide Days of Prayer” for the victims of gang violence.

The Assembly and Senate, on March 30 and last Monday respectively, approved unanimously the non-binding resolution proposed by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles).

The resolution noted that gang-related violence took 452 lives in Los Angeles County last year, surpassing the previous record of 387 killings. In Sacramento, there were 622 incidents of deaths or woundings in 1987--eight times more than five years earlier.

Designating days of prayer is appropriate, the resolution said, because it “could strengthen our resolve to prevent the gang activity which ultimately leads to violence.”

In a separate statement this week, Roberti said he hoped that individuals will pause for prayer and that “places of worship set aside special times during worship services for prayers.”

FUND RAISING

The threat of rain reduced the crowd at the 69th Easter sunrise service at the Hollywood Bowl on March 26 and left organizers with a $20,000 deficit. That was expected to be offset only partially by the usual orders for souvenir programs and posters. But with responses to radio appeals for more donations, the shortfall was reduced to $6,150 by Thursday, said Norma Foster, producer-director of the annual event. The address of the volunteer committee is Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service Inc., P.O. Box 10, Hollywood, Calif. 90028.

ACTION

Four inmates from federal prison camps at Lompoc and Boron plus four men on a work furlough program in Inglewood have begun renovating a South-Central Los Angeles drug treatment center in a community service project sponsored by Prison Fellowship Ministries. The center will provide care for children 4 years and younger who were born chemically dependent because of drugs taken by their mothers, said Brian Kennedy, a ministry representative. Charles W. Colson, founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship, will speak at the center’s dedication service at 7 p.m. next Saturday at Faithful Central Missionary Baptist Church, one of several churches participating in the project.

DATES

Fourteen Armenian children brought to Los Angeles for medical treatment after the devastating Dec. 7 earthquake will be present during a Divine Liturgy 10:30 a.m. Sunday at St. Garabed Mother Church in Hollywood. Each will receive a cross during Communion from Archbishop Datev Sarkissian, Western prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The children were brought to Los Angeles by the Medical Outreach Program for Armenia.

The legacy of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983), who founded the Reconstructionist movement and taught that Judaism is an “evolving religious civilization,” will be discussed at a symposium 3 p.m. Sunday at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Bel-Air. Taking part will be Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, president emeritus of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia; Rabbi David L. Lieber, president of the University of Judaism, and Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin of the host temple.