Stepping up its probe of allegedly improper campaigning by churches, the Internal Revenue Service on Friday ordered a liberal Pasadena parish to turn over all the documents and e-mails it produced during the 2004 election year with references to political candidates.

All Saints Episcopal Church and its rector, the Rev. Ed Bacon, have until Sept. 29 to present the sermons, newsletters and electronic communications.

...Bacon was ordered to testify before IRS officials Oct. 11.

..."There is a lot at stake here," Bacon said in an interview. "If the IRS prevails, it will have a chilling effect on the practice of religion in America."

...Federal law prohibits the IRS from releasing the names of those under investigation, but the agency in July said it had 100 cases pending — 40 of them churches.

Among them is the agency's case against the NAACP, which drew the IRS' attention in July 2004, after the organization's chairman, Julian Bond, criticized the Bush administration's policies on civil rights.

...All Saints came under IRS investigation shortly after Regas delivered a guest sermon that depicted Jesus in a mock debate with then-presidential candidates George W. Bush and John F. Kerry.

The sermon, which did not endorse or oppose any of the candidates, addressed the moral and religious implications of various social issues facing the nation at the time.