c. 2006 Religion News Service

MONTCLAIR, N.J. _ It was a regular Sunday night at Just Jakes, a downtown bar. Regulars were shooting eight-ball, downing drafts, and tilting their heads at 10 mounted screens showing the Oscars, college basketball and “Caddyshack.”

Meanwhile, down a hallway in a comfortable back room, 25 young bar patrons and two Catholic priests talked about Jesus.

In this room the TVs were off, but waiters kept the beer and wine coming. After all, alcohol is implied with “Theology on Tap,” a church-run religion discussion series drawing crowds to bars and restaurants in Montclair and elsewhere.

The discussion series is a growing Catholic evangelizing tool nationwide, a way to explore tenets of the faith with 20- and 30-somethings in a relaxed atmosphere where questions and answers flow as freely as the suds.

The idea is that young people who don’t attend Mass regularly, or at all, will become more comfortable with their faith through the program and develop into routine churchgoers, said the Rev. Jim Chern of Our Lady of Lourdes in West Orange, who started the program with a Montclair priest in 2002.

“What we’re trying to do,” Chern said, “is say that all the things you learned growing up, all the things about the church in terms of its tradition, are part of today. … But maybe it’s not been presented in a way you could appreciate, so maybe we bring it to you in a different form.”

“Theology on Tap” began in the Chicago Archdiocese 26 years ago. Now, at least 700 parishes and Christian ministries around the country sponsor sessions.

Formats vary. At some, priests are the main speakers. Others have guest lecturers. A recent speaker at Just Jakes was local author Allan Wright, who urged listeners to respect Jesus’ teachings in full, not just on Sundays but all week long.

“When Jesus comes into our heart, he doesn’t want to rent, or do a time share,” said Wright, who wrote “Silent Witnesses in the Gospels.” “He wants to move in with everything. He wants to look in your closets, go in your basement.”

The crowd laughed at his “time share” quip and asked questions. The priests _ Chern and the Rev. Bill Sheridan of Immaculate Conception in Montclair _ moderated.

Chern, 32, and Sheridan, 42, have built a following of dozens, holding monthly sessions on sexuality, on challenges facing Pope Benedict XVI, and on maintaining one’s spirituality through the rigors of a work week.

“It’s an open forum. You can say pretty much whatever you’re feeling,” said Jessica Coleman, 29. “I love the topics that come up. They’re not things that you’d regularly talk about.”

While most attendees said they were regular churchgoers before “Theology on Tap” came around _ they learned of it through church bulletins _ several said the sessions have changed behavior and improved churchgoing habits.

Marty Towey, 39, said the sessions made him more comfortable with religion, and that he now attends Mass more often.

“This environment allows me to take it at my speed,” he said, sipping a bottle of Budweiser after Wright spoke. “It’s a friendly environment, where I can truly question and figure out where my faith is.”

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He added: “Part of it is that Father Bill and Father Jim are contemporaries of mine, so it’s a lot easier. They’re not the icons that you had to approach when you were a child.”

Another attendee, Jackie Di Baisi, 28, said that since the session on spirituality and work, she prays at her bartending job “any time I get a chance.”

Chern said he and Sheridan thought to start “Theology on Tap” in Montclair four years ago after Chern noticed that young people affiliated with Our Lady of Lourdes, his church, seemed more comfortable around him in non-church settings.

“I’d meet so many people in town, say, a softball team at a local bar, and they’d all be like, `Hey Father, we’re from Lourdes, too!’ But I never saw them at Lourdes.

“Obviously there was a connection there, and they felt comfortable enough talking to me, especially in a bar setting. But there was something that kept them from coming to Mass or being here on a regular basis. We felt, if we can do something in a safe place for them, we could talk about faith and the importance of our religion.”

He said he has used sessions to explain reasoning behind some controversial church beliefs.

“Premarital sex? The church is against it. Contraception? The church is against it. Homosexual relations? The church is against it. You all know that. But do you know why? When we start talking about the reasons why, and explaining it, and flushing it out a little bit, they might not be completely won over by it, but they’ll see, at least, there’s some logic for it. They’ll see why the church believes it.”

MO/PH END

(Jeff Diamant writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)