Christmas church services, help for homeless happen in LA County

By STEVEN HERBERT

Christmas in Los Angeles County Sunday included the customary Masses and church services celebrating the birth of Jesus and annual events providing meals to the homeless and poor.

English-language Christmas Masses were celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Archbishop José H. Gomez celebrated the 12:30 p.m. Mass in Spanish with the Spanish-language choir leading in song.

The 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Masses were streamed at facebook.com/olacathedral and youtube.com/olacathedral and broadcast on digital Channel 7.2 and Channels 703 and 1246 on Spectrum cable systems, Channel 467 on Frontier systems, Channel 1133 on Cox Cable systems and Channel 520 on Mediacom systems.

The Midnight Mission expected to serve nearly 2,000 meals to homeless and near-homeless individuals.

The Midnight Mission could not hold its customary Christmas Day Santa’s Village Toy Giveaway in its gymnasium because of COVID-19 restrictions. However, it was held at the nearby Void Studios with USC football players among those serving as elves.

The Christmas brunch and toy giveaway provides “our homeless and near-homeless guests not only with a traditional holiday meal, but also with the emotional satisfaction that comes with the opportunity to celebrate a national holiday,” said Georgia Berkovich, the mission’s director of public affairs.

“Of the many services The Midnight Mission provides to our unique community, one of the most important is the sense of family we offer to those who often feel lost and forgotten during the holidays and other days of celebration.”

Organizers of the annual Christmas dinner at Hollywood United Methodist Church planned to serve more than 1,000 meals from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. All in attendance received personal care items while children received toys.

The Christmas Dinner was originally a project of the Hollywood Interfaith Coalition, whose churches had been serving Thanksgiving dinner.

Some of the coalition’s Jewish participants thought it would be a nice idea for the Jewish participants to take over the serving of Christmas dinner so the members of the coalition celebrating and observing Christmas could stay home with their families.

Temple Israel of Hollywood became the lead organizer and host of the event in the 1980s.

The Laugh Factory in Hollywood hosted its 43rd annual free Christmas dinner and show with seatings starting at noon. The comedy club welcomes those who are away from home, as well as those who may be lonely, homeless or simply in need of a warm meal and a few laughs, owner Jamie Masada said.

Vaccines and health screenings were also provided along with toys for children.

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