Ministry of Togetherness

At the national level, the spirit of ecumenism has produced plenty of talk about interfaith union, but much of the real action is now taking place at the grass roots. In a number of U.S. communities, togetherness has become a reality, as churches of different denominations have cooperated to create new ecumenical parishes. Though it can take any of several forms, the ecumenical parish has behind it a basic conviction that the churches must cast aside their denominational autonomy and pool resources to meet the changing needs of community and religious life.

Most of the nation's ecumenical parishes have been organized in order to serve poverty-plagued urban slum neighborhoods, where shrinking financial resources often make it difficult to maintain separate churches. A case in point is the nation's first joint Protestant-Roman Catholic church, St. Mark's in Kansas City, Mo. (TIME, July 22), which serves a largely Negro district of 15,000. Staffed by a Catholic priest and three Protestant ministers (Episcopal, United Presbyterian and United Church of Christ), St. Mark's will break ground in May for its new building; the parish will maintain separate worship services, but the clergy will share in other pastoral functions.

Concerted Attack. The cooperative-ministry approach is also suited to situations in which the church needs to build up facilities from scratch. At Columbia, Md., for example, where nine "planned villages" are under construction, a dozen Protestant denominations have pledged more than $2,000,000 to construct campuslike, multichapeled spiritual centers in each. While the churches will conduct separate services, they plan to share ownership of the centers, maintain common administrative and teaching staffs, libraries and other community facilities.

Ecumenical parishes need not necessarily abandon their denominational identity. One of the nation's largest ecclesiastical combines is the Bushwick parish in Brooklyn, where 37 Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have joined "to unite the resources of the Christian community in a concerted attack" on the socioeconomic problems of the poverty-ridden district. Recently they hired a full-time coordinator, Presbyterian Minister John Peterson, to advise member-ministers on programs they might develop. The parish so far has fielded volunteer-manned patrol cars to assist police in curbing crime, organized a child-care program for working mothers, set up interracial, interfaith coffeehouses for youths.

Marriage of Convenience. Most of the ecumenical parishes are united in service and separate in worship. But cooperation can lead to common prayer. One example is the ecumenical parish created by the uniting of Los Angeles' First Presbyterian Church and the University Methodist Church. This marriage of convenience was born out of desperation in 1965 when the Presbyterians borrowed the Methodist church for worship after their own ancient structure was condemned as unsafe. At first, the two congregations took turns using the Methodist church for worship. Last summer they began holding joint services, and now the ministers of the two congregations share the responsibilities of presiding at Sunday worship. On a recent Sunday, for example, Presbyterian Logan Barnes preached the sermon while Methodist Minister Travis Kendall led the prayers. Kendall believes that this kind of "yoked congregation" is increasingly necessary for "sheer survival," makes possible "so many things that we couldn't offer separately. What we are doing now is the forerunner of what will happen all over the country."

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