The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 21

1 ill I tcIMori calendar fTN TlCTi TVT '11 Pennywhistle Comics TV-Theater Your guide to special church events and activities, C-2. I The Sun Bernardino, California 1 ivionKs religion to i v.WW.J.w,....,.,w...v...,., Monks gather for the mid-day mass. The world isnt forgotten at Valyermo monastery -r-" ml 1 i aw their work Fs f- Father Werner inspects XI liiiix. A A Stories by Steve Cooper Photos by-Gary Voth Saturday show will feature dancers, magicians, jugglers and musicians. The Valyermo Dancers will present their annual vesper celebration at 4 p.m.

both days. An artist's alley will include works of oil and watercolor, sculptures and wood carvings. There will also be an exhibit of religious art. Whimsical ceramics created at the priory by the (Please see Festival, C-3) its cast San ut community. Thus, Benedictines view labor as an integral part of a life devoted to God.

"We praise God with our hands, as well as with our prayers," said Father Werner. It is largely with their hands that the monies have constructed their ranch since they purchased it 30 years ago. Before that, the priory had been in China. The history of the Valyermo monastery actually began in 1929 hen a small group of monks went to China from the Benedictine Abbey of St. Andre in Bruges, Belgium.

Following their calling to the Orient, they soon established a priory in Si'shan, north of Chungking. Because of the difficulties of World War II, they moved their monastery to the provincial capital of Chengtu. While there, The Institute for Research into Eastern and Western Civilization was founded to foster better understanding between Christians and non-Christians. Some of the monks taught in nearby universities. But when followers of Chairman Mao brought communism to the land in 1949, the European Christians soon faced persecution.

In 1952, the foreigners were expelled and their Chinese co-laborers faced imprisonment and death. "Life was very interesting in China before the Communists came. After they came it was terrible! It was hell! When I arrived in Hong Kong, the first letter I wrote to my parents I say, 'I have come back from wrote the Reverend Eleutherius Winance later. The now-homeless monks were lured to California by the possibility of working among Chinese emmigrants. That desire went largely unfulfilled.

They also wanted to establish a priory in an area where there were none. For that, the Mojave Desert location proved the perfect spot. The priory began with eight monks. The founding prior was the Reverend Raphael Vinciarelli. "We get all sorts of young men.

When some people want a way of life bad enough, they try to find it. They search. For many, the monastic environment gives them (Please see Monks, C-3) VALYERMO They are monks seeking lives of balance. Work and prayer. Christ and self.

First century and 20th century. God gets the glory when they succeed. They pray for wisdom when they fail. As they prepared for their annual fall festival this week, a few of the 26 resident monks took time to describe life at St. Andrew's Priory a Benedictine monastery in the desert 15 miles southeast of Palmdale.

The priory's 500-acre ranch stretches idyllically along a tree-lined creek bed on the desert side of the San Gabriel Mountains. The mood is calmingly pastoral and suits itself well to the task of contemplation. "We don't seek to completely shut ourselves off from the world that's why we have a television set and radios here. But do not want to be living in the world, either," said the Reverend Werner Papeians de Morchoven, sub prior of the monastery. The presence of a television may be unexpected, but it somehow fits with these worldly, other-worldly men.

They scuttle about in their floor-length brown habits, though some profess a preference for blue jeans. They have their prayer and their daily Roman Catholic mass. But they also have to run the business of the monastery. This is not a community solely devoted to contemplation and an inward-reflective life. The men are also hard-working businessmen who market a nationally known line of ceramics and encourage visitors to discover St.

Andrew's as a center for retreats. They also value the work of education. Monks from the priory teach at several Southern California colleges and universities. So, they cannot be expected to forego their dose of the nightly news. It is in keeping with the example they follow.

St. Benedict was a sixth century Italian churchman who wrote a guide for communal religious life. While stressing such spiritual necessities as contemplation and liturgy, St. Benedict also allowed for the practical economic needs of the Brother Dominic talks about life in the monastery. Monastery welcomes public to fall festival vae ceramics workshop.

VALYERMO -The world is allowed to intrude into the solitude of St. Andrew's Priory once a year during the annual fall festival. Nearly 20,000 visitors are expected during the festival, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept.

28-29. Dance celebrations, musical comedy, ceramic displays, art and craft exhibits and worship services are among the attractions taking place each day. The big event each year is the Priory's bowl theater. The 7 p.m. broaden Religious radio station works to station," he said.

KIHS is licensed to I1BI Acquisition which in turn is ow ned by DcRance, Guadalupe Associates, and Santa Fe Communications. Beindorf, who was formerly general manager of KNXT now KCBS, Channel 2) in Los Angeles and senior vice president of Satellite Program Network, was brought in by the parent company last February to steer the station out of red ink. Part of that push has involved broadening Channel 46's programming schedule in 1985, so station management has incorporated such secular shows as "Ask Washington," a political call-in talk program, cooking and fitness programs, Abbott and Costello films and afternoon children's shows. Another modification Beindorf instituted has been the method of selling commercial time. Initially, KIHS sold entire blocks of air time to independent producers.

Advertising operated much the way radio shows of the '30s did, with each program sponsored by a different group. Today, however, KIHS sells commercial spots much as other VHF and UHF stations do. Selected programs, such as the contemporary Catholic news magazine "Heart of the Nation," are still able to purchase block time, but the establishment (Please see Radio, C-4) By MIKE STEPHENS Sun Stall Writer Spreading the message of God via television transmitter isn't always as easy as it appears to the viewer watching at home. Sometimes, as In the case of one local station, the harsh realities of the business world Intervene. For much of its 17-month life, Ontario's KIHS has been known primarily as a beacon of religious light for Southern California viewers interested in Catholic-oriented programming.

Such religious staples as "Heart of the Nation" and "Mother Angelica" have been the core of the daily program schedule at Channel 46 since the station's inception in early 1984. However, said KIHS president Ray Beindorf, the station is beginning to air more secular programming in order to survive. "In the beginning the focus was all Catholic," Beindorf said. "Now the station is at a transition from all-Catholic to family religion, and will be moving over the months to just family type programming. Though it will still continue to have somewhat of a religious nature, it will be family oriented." Beindorf described the reasons for the changes as being based in the realities of operating a for-profit television station.

"There Just isn't enough income from a strictly Catholic station, or from a strictly religious ftatf phot by Di)4 A. Andwien Operations manager Pete Parise and assistant producer Rene Sedor of KIHS. i.