ENTRANCING; VATICAN-STYLE DOORS OPENING IN GLENDALE.

Byline: Nathaniel Greely Staff Writer

Tapping a 500-year-old tradition, Pope Paul II opened the Holy Doors of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City on Christmas Eve to begin the church's Jubilee 2000. In La Crescenta, Monsignor Robert W. Gipson began a new tradition by opening replicas of the Holy Doors at St. James the Less church.

Closed since November, the doors of St. James have been transformed into likenesses of the Holy Doors that Pope Alexander VI installed at St. Peter's in 1425. The Vatican doors are opened only to announce a Holy Year. Gipson said he was glad to be able to open the ones in La Crescenta for a Holy Year with so much significance.

``The Holy Year, or Jubilee, is a year of renewal, repentance, celebration and thanksgiving to God for his many gifts,`` Gipson said. ``The Jubilee 2000 commemorates the 2000th anniversary of the birth of our Lord, a special year for all Christian churches.``

The Jubilee, which began on Christmas Eve, will continue until the Feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6, 2001.

A group of 20 parishioners, directed by Anna Maria Planas, spent a week copying each of the 16 panels from photographs of the Holy Doors and carefully reproducing them in bronzed foil. Although those involved are not professional artists, they have produced a remarkable likeness, Gipson said.

The congregation passed through the doors on Christmas Eve as a symbol of entrance into a relationship with God through Christ, and Gipson hopes the doors will serve as reminders of obligations to help others.

``I hope these doors will remind us to take action to bring peace, joy and love to all peoples,`` Gipson said.

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Photo: At St. James the Less church in La Crescenta, Monsignor Robert W. Gipson opens one of the reproductions of the centuries-old bronze Holy Doors of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer