The School of Theology at Claremont will...

The School of Theology at Claremont will award degrees to 49 graduates today, the lowest number since 47 graduated 14 years ago.

Many seminaries have had a slight downturn in enrollment in recent years; the Claremont school had a high of 80 graduates in 1985. At the same time, the entering class of 97 last fall was the largest in its history.

The Methodist-run school’s commencement at 11 a.m. in the United Church of Christ, Congregational, in Claremont is the first this spring for the Southland’s principal seminaries.

Talbot Seminary will give degrees to 90 students in joint ceremonies with other schools of Biola University at 10 a.m. May 28 on the La Mirada campus. U.S. Sen. William L. Armstrong (R-Colo.) is the speaker.

The eighth commencement exercises of the International School of Theology in San Bernardino will be held June 2 at Arrowhead Springs within the mountainside complex of the related Campus Crusade for Christ. The featured speaker will be the Rev. James Montgomery Boice of Philadelphia, chairman of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy.

Talbot’s graduating class is eight students larger than last year’s, whereas the San Bernardino school’s numbers are down to about 30 graduates from 45 the year before. The spokesmen for a third evangelical school, Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, said its graduating class is about the same as last year.

Fuller, the nation’s largest nondenominational seminary, expects to award degrees to about 475 at its June 11 ceremonies, spokesman Hugh James said.

Training for the priesthood will be completed next week for 22 graduates of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, which is operated by the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese. No graduation ceremonies are held. Instead, 10 men headed for ordination as Los Angeles priests next September will be ordained as temporary deacons in their local parishes on May 28 and 29, according to Father Gabino Zavala, dean of students. The other 12 men will be ordained in other dioceses.

HOLIDAY

Ramadan, the monthlong fasting period observed by Muslims, will end at dusk Sunday, according to the Islamic Center of Southern California. Ramadan is the month that, tradition says, the Koran, the holy book of Islam, was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. During this period, Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from dawn to sunset each day. Eid ul Fitr, prayers and gatherings celebrating the end of Ramadan, will start Monday.

DATES

The Rev. G. Raymond Carlson, the administrative leader of the Assemblies of God, which has stripped ministerial credentials from fallen television evangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the last year, will be the guest speaker Sunday at the 10:45 a.m. service at North Hollywood First Assembly of God Church. Carlson has been general superintendent of the denomination since 1985. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley will appear at the 75th anniversary banquet of the congregation that will follow at the Sheraton Universal Hotel.

Sixteen Southland churches that put stock in prophecies of the future--not of the Nostradamus variety but of the fundamentalist “Bible prophecy” type--are participating in the 28th annual renewal of an event sponsored by the Church of the Open Door. After a 7 p.m. rally today at the host church, now located in Glendora, speakers such as Charles Ryrie, David Hocking and J. Dwight Pentecost will rotate in speaking appearances through May 22 at churches as far east as Grace Memorial Church in San Jacinto, as far south as Grace Bible Church in Solana Beach and as far north as Santa Clarita Baptist Church in Canyon Country.

Episcopal Bishop-Elect Frederick Houk Borsch of the Los Angeles diocese, who will be installed June 18, is the baccalaureate speaker at 10:30 a.m. Sunday for the Claremont Colleges at Bridges Auditorium.