LANCASTER PRIEST CARRIES ON WORK FROM 2,000 YEARS : MAN FOLLOWS IN APOSTLE'S STEPS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

The reverend's home is in a mobile-home park, and services are held in the Lancaster Odd Fellows Temple.

But the Antiochene-Malabar Rite, Holy Catholic Church of America claims a near 2,000-year tradition, dating back to an apostle's missionary visit to India.

``I'm not doing this because I want to,'' said the Rev. Bernard Price, who is scheduled to be ordained a bishop Dec. 1. ``I'm doing this because I have to. We have to build and grow and keep the ritual group alive.''

The Antiochene-Malabar Rite traces its beginning to the early years of Christianity when St. Thomas, the ``doubting'' apostle, arrived in Malabar on the west coast of India to preach Christ's teachings, Price said.

Separated by great distance from the Christians of Europe and western Asia, the group did not participate in the divisions that split Roman Catholicism from the Eastern Orthodox Church, or Protestants from Roman Catholics, according to Price.

Price says the rite believes that there is only one Christian church, that denominational differences do not matter and that all Christian groups are part of that one entity.

``We want to, as we grow, get all of Christianity back as one,'' said Price. The American expression of the rite was authorized in 1891, when the Antiochene-Malabar Rite patriarch mandated a mission to the Americas.

About 25 people have been worshiping at Price's mobile home in Friendly Village Mobile Home Park as the Church of St. Thomas. But Sunday they dedicated their new quarters at the Lancaster Odd Fellows Temple at 628 W. Oldfield Ave.

Price said he is looking for 20 acres of land somewhere between Lancaster and Palmdale to house the Antiochene Malabar Rite headquarters.

``How fast we can do that I don't know,'' said Price. ``We're targeting for five years.''

Price was ordained a priest 23 years ago, and started the Church of St. Thomas a year ago.

Besides working with his ritual group, Price volunteers his time as a chaplain at High Desert Hospital, where he also works at the Hope Center, an HIV/AIDS outpatient clinic.

``My main ministry is in AIDS,'' said Price. ``I do field visits in my home and in theirs.''

``We deal with death all the time,'' he said, adding that in the past two months he has buried 12 people.

Price also volunteers at the Tarzana Center, a drug abuse treatment center, where he also teaches a course on spirituality.

As part of his ordination as a bishop, Price has asked three other California bishops who have some lineage with the Antiochene Malabar Rite to come to Lancaster.

During the Dec. 1 ceremony, Price will be asked to answer several questions which will be witnessed by those in attendance and then asked to lie face-down on the floor as an act of total submission to God.

``Then there will be the laying of the hands, where each of the bishops will place their hands on the new consecrator and transmit the power of 2,000 years ago to present times.

``It's a very formal Mass with much, much music,'' said Price. ``It's literally the making of an apostle, a thing to behold.''

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Photo: The Rev. Bernard Price will be ordained a bishop inthe Antiochene-Malabar Rite, Holy Catholic Church of America.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News