MOURNERS GATHER TO SAY GOODBYE, SHED TEARS OFFICIALS SEND OUT PRAYERS TO GRIEVING FAMILIES, FRIENDS.

Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer

MALIBU - Uniting in remembrance, families and friends of the passengers and crew of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 gathered to honor them Saturday in a gymnasium on bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in which the plane went down last week.

Eighty-eight lighted white candles - one for each victim - lined the stage where Gov. Gray Davis, government officials and clergy offered prayers to help the healing. The nation's transportation secretary read a statement of condolence from President Clinton.

Eighty-eight white doves were released after the memorial service, held inside Firestone Fieldhouse on the Pepperdine University campus. The flock soared over the nearly 1,000 who attended, and then headed north - in the direction of the crash site.

White, red and pink roses given to the friends and family attending the memorial were dropped later by two U.S. Coast Guard helicopters near the crash site 10 miles off Port Hueneme.

``Today, all of California aches with you,'' Davis said.

``The men and women aboard Flight 261 were our friends, were our neighbors, were people we loved,'' the governor said. ``And we share our grief with you, we share our love with you, and we share our prayers with you. God has called home the people you love, but the departed will remain with us in our hearts and our memories forever.''

In prayers, Protestant, Catholic and Hindu priests, a Jewish rabbi and an African Methodist Episcopal minister said the tragic deaths took so much from so many.

``But one thing that death cannot take away from us . . . is the love we have in our hearts for those who have gone on before us. The grave cannot take that away,'' the Rev. Leonard Jackson said.

``We can reflect as though a ship has been cast out to sea and it goes on and on and on until you cannot see it, but you know that it's there.''

As family and friends mourned at Pepperdine, surfers and kayakers paddled into the chilly ocean waters to offer their own tributes Saturday.

Dozens of surfers held hands in a circle in the waters off Malibu as they floated on their boards and dropped flower wreaths into the sea.

`THEY'RE IN OUR HEARTS'

Farther up the coast, a coterie of kayakers formed a circle in the waters off Oxnard. They recited the Lord's Prayer and pointed oars toward the sky as dozens of white doves were released from a boat nearby.

``It almost made me cry and I didn't even know the people on the plane,'' said 24-year-old Oxnard resident Traci Daniel, one of the kayakers. ``It just made me feel good to be a part of it. I'm a firm believer that our spirits go to a heavenly type of place. They're looking down and they saw the ceremony. They know they're in our hearts and minds.''

The 83 passengers and five crew members perished when the MD-83 went out of control and plunged into the ocean Monday. Only four bodies have been recovered.

Navy crews on Saturday continued to map the airplane's wreckage nearly 700 feet below the surface with a sonar device aboard a deep-diving robot.

Flight 261 was headed from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco and then Seattle.

Memorial services are planned for Monday in San Francisco and Feb. 12 in Seattle, said Chris Thomas, an American Red Cross spokesman.

Pepperdine was chosen for Saturday's service because the picturesque campus offers stunning vistas of the ocean.

The university also had a facility close enough to the crash site and large enough for the 600 family and friends who were joined by several hundred invited guests and public agency representatives, Thomas said.

SHARING IN THE GRIEF

A piano solo played over speakers as the fieldhouse filled with mourners, who were brought in on more than 20 buses from a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport.

Some wore photos of victims on their clothing. Most wore blue-ribbon lapel pins as a sign of support for the victims.

``Throughout this week, the community around you and the nation have felt both pain and compassion,'' said Glenn Calkins, a spiritual care team leader for the American Red Cross who opened the service.

Rodney Slater, U.S. Department of Transportation secretary, read remarks from President Bill Clinton.

``While there are no words that can ease the pain of your devastating loss, we hope that you can draw strength and comfort from one another and from the knowledge that Americans throughout our nation share your grief,'' the president stated in his letter read by Slater.

The clergy represented the diversity of the crash victims.

``No one can walk in your shoes, and yet you're not alone. We are with you, all of us, we are with you,'' said Rabbi Aaron Kriegel. ``The country stands with you and cries with you and mourns with you. You are not alone.''

`CORRIDOR OF CARING'

Monsignor Christian Van Liefde represented Cardinal Roger Mahony and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. ``Our prayer and our hope is that your loved ones will rest now in peace,'' Van Liefde said. ``We pray also for you, the families and friends whose hearts have been torn apart in this tragic week.''

Offering a prayer for comfort and healing, Capt. Ron Swafford, a U.S. Navy chaplain, said, ``Lord, it will be so hard to go home ... to say goodbye when we can't say it in person.''

But the chaplain added that he hoped the healing process would be helped by the encouragement and care of friends and strangers who will never forget the tragedy and its victims.

``As we gather today to say farewell, help us, Lord, to open the gift of our loved ones' lives for years to come by using and remembering the treasury of memories they left with us,'' Swafford said.

As the solemn service ended, some walked to the front of the gymnasium and placed photos on the stage.

When they left, they walked between two rows of representatives of the public agencies involved in the aftermath of the crash. Some dropped their roses in baskets that were taken aboard the helicopters.

The ``corridor of caring'' symbolized a connection between the family and friends and the ocean, where their loved ones lay.

- Staff Writer David Greenberg contributed to this report.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) A flock of doves flies toward the ocean Saturday after being released at a memorial service at Pepperdine University in Malibu for the victims of Monday's crash. The doves - 88 in all, one for each victim - turned north after flying out over the ocean and headed toward the crash site.

Rod Mar/Associated Press

(2 -- color) Surfers join hands during a memorial service for the victims of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 at Surfer's Point in Ventura. Nearly 100 surfers participated in the service near the crash site.

Michael Caulfield/Associated Press

(3) Kayakers raise their oars, signaling the release of doves during a memorial in Oxnard on Saturday.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News