c. 2007 Religion News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. _ “We’re a different kind of church!” the Bridgeport United Church of Christ’s Web site proclaims.
How different? The church is home to a Jewish congregation and housed a Catholic liturgical community that may return. While it is common for synagogues and churches to share space, several experts say they know of no other Protestant-Jewish-Catholic partnership in the country.
Bridgeport, which began in 1998 and moved into the modest two-story church in 2001, is a good venue for ecumenism, the Rev. Susan Leo says. “This building was built by Mormons back in the ’30s, and there is no permanent symbolism anywhere,” she says. “It feels like the presence of God without having anybody having to claim which faith of God is present.”
No cross was in sight at a recent Sunday service, but a Torah ark was at the rear of the altar, on wheels so it can be front and center for Shir Tikvah’s services on Friday night and Saturday.
“I’d much rather see that ark than a cross,” says Holly Bryant, a dental ceramist and church member who delivered the collection appeal. “To me, it is a symbol of hope rather than death.”
A few members of Shir Tikvah, founded in 2002 by 15 families once associated with another synagogue in Northwest Portland, “recoiled at the idea of using a church,” says Rabbi Ariel Stone. “Then when they saw the building, they said it was not going to be a problem.”
In 2003, the Koinonia Catholic Community (now Journey-Koinonia) completed the unusual trinity.
“Three women pastors in the same building,” says Peggy Friedl-Yee, Koinonia’s former pastoral minister. “What are the odds against that? It was a place where other people could understand who you were.”
The three activists _ Friedl-Yee defied papal dictates on the role of women, and when gay marriage was briefly declared legal in Multnomah County in 2004, Leo and Stone were prolific officiants _ collaborated on social causes, planned ecumenical decor and negotiated overlaps, such as when Passover fell on Holy Thursday, leading to a Catholic feast upstairs and a Jewish Seder downstairs.
Friedl-Yee stepped aside when Koinonia merged with Journey, which currently meets in an Episcopal church. But there are plans to raze that building, and this fall Journey-Koinonia held a retreat at Bridgeport.
Bridgeport is out of the way, says Sam Gioia, the lay pastor of Journey-Koinonia, “but there are things about it that are very attractive. The space is very friendly for us, more circular and congregational, and the right size.”
Leo says it’s important to her that Jews, Catholics and Protestants be able to share the “welcoming and warm” space. “Because I am really clear that God doesn’t care what path we take, just that we find a path that works for us.”
Middle school teacher Kate Farrell personifies Leo’s vision. Born Catholic, she joined Bridgeport but never quite connected. After Leo sent her to see Rabbi Stone, Farrell converted to Judaism and joined Shir Tikvah. “I felt at home right away,” she says. “So many things resonated for me.”
Leo’s own path took a turn in 1988 in Nicaragua, where she did relief work. She says she was asked at a church-sponsored rally, “Are you a Christian?”
“Through my head went images of all my heroes _ William Sloane Coffin, Martin Luther King, my uncle John, the Berrigan brothers, my mom,” she remembers. “They were all Christians. All the words I’d lived my life by _ love one another, turn the other cheek, be kind one to another _ were Christian phrases. It was my born-again experience.”
Leo, the UCC pastor, was ordained in 1999. She and life partner Diane Syrcle spotted the empty church building two years later. They uncovered handsome hardwood under a garish green shag carpet. A congregant designed seasonal banners that were then crafted by members of all three faiths.
The banners up for Advent depict a town below a starry sky, with menorahs in some of the windows.
“At Bridgeport,” Leo says, “we think of it as Bethlehem. At Shir Tikvah, they think of it as Jerusalem.”
(Edward Hershey writes for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.)
KRE/LF END HERSHEY
Editor’s note: RNS-AMERICAN-FAITH is an occasional feature that spotlights the changes and currents flowing through American congregations and faith communities. The stories in AMERICAN FAITH depict a ground-level view of what faith looks like in America amid changing demographics, worship styles and beliefs. We hope it offers a view of how faith is expressed and practiced by real people in real places.
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