Eastern religions, yoga classes, spiritual exercises, a labyrinth and community over doctrine

 

ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS, NOV 14-15 - This photo taken Oct. 29, 2015, shows labyrinth in the main hall of The Bishop John E. Hines Center for Spirituality and Prayer in Houston, Texas. The labyrinth is based on the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral in France. 

By KYRIE O'CONNOR Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON

Christ Church Cathedral, a fixture in the heart of downtown Houston, sits just 6 sprawling Houston miles from Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church, the largest megachurch in the world.

The handsome Episcopal church, established in 1839 when Texas was still an independent Republic, soon will unveil a new worship space as striking in its way as Lakewood, once the 16,000-seat home of the Rockets.

In January, The Bishop John E. Hines Center for Spirituality and Prayer will open in a repurposed printing plant at 500 Fannin, just across the street from Christ Church. The new space — harnessing a countervailing force in spirituality that has taken root nationwide — will incorporate elements from Eastern religions and emphasize community over doctrine, offering yoga classes and a labyrinth where visitors can walk and meditate.

The Very Rev. Barkley Thompson, dean of Christ Church Cathedral, said he believes what's being done in one corner of downtown Houston may help define what the Christian church will look like in 25 years. The Hines Center will "provide a sanctuary, a context in the heart of the urban center," Thompson said, "where those who are spiritually seeking can connect with God and develop spiritual practices," based on the teaching and compassion of Jesus.

With its roots in the British Anglican Church, the Episcopal Church is uniquely poised to bring traditions together under a Christian umbrella, said Chloe Starr, an associate professor of Asian Christianity and theology at Yale Divinity School. Over its history, for good or ill, the British Empire brought Anglicans into contact with many complementary spiritual practices.

Sean Fitzpatrick, director of the Jung Center of Houston, applauded the "courage and real forward thinking" of those involved in the Hines Center.

"This is the latest chapter in the encounters of the East and West," he told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1GZgp0v). "For alternate ways to relate to the divine or the mystery, you look to other cultures: Why are we here? What can you do with suffering?"

Yoga, Fitzpatrick points out, is the ultimate East-West convergence. Really more of an amalgam of British military calisthenics and Indian gymnastics with a dusting of ancient Hindu practice, yoga as we know it has evolved from a constant interplay of Eastern and Western influences, Fitzpatrick said.

But there's another way to look at it. The Transcendentalists of the 1830s and 1840s, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, dabbled in Eastern ideas, as well.

"It's very much a part of American history," said Jeffrey J. Kripal, a professor of religion at Rice University.

While young people may not sign on to traditional Abrahamic religions, they also aren't interested in becoming Hindus or Buddhists, Kripal said.

"They don't think anything is perfect. Every religion is false and true at the same time."

This way of thinking only will increase over the next decade, Kripal predicts, as millennials take the cultural and political reins.

In contrast with the ornate carved wood and soaring stained glass of Christ Church Cathedral's sanctuary, the Hines Center will be flooded with natural light and retain traces of its industrial past.

"It's the coming together of the old and new, with new meaning," Hines program director Jennifer Buergermeister said. It's an all-week kind of space, not a Sunday-morning-only one.

The green 1932 building, formerly Wilson Stationery and Printing Co., is now owned and occupied on the upper floors by the Episcopal Health Foundation.

Ziegler Cooper Architects is designing the Hines space.

A permanent labyrinth stained and etched into the middle of the terrazzo floor will be the central image. A large, intricate wooden Celtic cross, a symbol of both the continued Christian tradition and the willingness to branch out beyond ordinary bounds, will hang on the two-story wall to the back. A movement studio will offer yoga, t'ai chi and sacred movement classes.

The mezzanine level, which features large windows, will house an art studio. There's also room for a prayer space, lounges for one-on-one spiritual-direction sessions, a lending library and showers.

The center hopes to attract the elusive 20- to 35-year-old millennial generation and beyond.

"We meet people where they are in their spiritual journey," Hines director Brooke Summers-Perry said.

She herself worked in multifamily home development until the economy and corporate burnout got her.

"I hit my rock bottom two blocks from here," Summers-Perry said, gesturing toward the Chase Tower. "It's why I'm so passionate about bringing this together. I'm one person who has felt the need for balance and wholeness."

The church also has a vibrant community of worshippers in their 20s and 30s, she added.

Karen Alston, 30, is looking forward to 6:30 a.m. yoga classes when they begin in January. Alston, who was raised a Baptist, started attending Christ Church Cathedral a few years ago. She was church shopping after moving to Houston from Boston and gave Christ Church a try because it was close to home.

"Before I was involved in the church, I was into yoga," she said. "The balance and calm and peace that I felt from that is reflected in the liturgy of the Episcopal church, as well. What I was looking for, as a millennial, in church life and community, was something with traditional church ties. I wanted things with history and depth. They're not contemporary, but they speak to the contemporary vein of millennials."

Alston also meditates and walks labyrinths. Some days before work, she attends a brief prayer service, even if it's just her and the lay reader.

Other Houston churches also have tried to reach younger audiences with less-traditional measures.

St. Paul's United Methodist Church and St. John's Downtown both have labyrinths for meditation. Ecclesia and the Catholic Charismatic Center have adopted nontraditional music and art programs to reach new audiences.

Jeremy Bradley, who is 29 and the minister for youth and young adults at Christ Church Cathedral, is comfortable in a traditional church setting, but many of his friends are not.

"I have quite a few friends at Ecclesia," he said, citing the nontraditional church on the edge of downtown. Some don't like organ music, some aren't keen on being preached to, but they still seek a faith experience, Bradley said. "The Hines Center resonates in always trying to find ways to approach faith and the spiritual journey."

Bradley has tried yoga as well as spiritual movement, which was out of his comfort zone. The labyrinth is more to his liking.

"For me personally, it's about learning to slow down," he said.

It's a somewhat different approach from that of a megachurch such as the nondenominational Community of Faith, which aims to meet the more practical needs of its neighbors.

Situated near U.S. 290 in Hockley, this church is close to the Grand Parkway and serves an area where the suburbs seem to gobble up the prairie by the minute.

"We're here to walk in friendship with the community," said Bradley Thomas, the connections pastor for Community of Faith.

The church is involved in local schools, playgrounds, reading programs, rebuilding houses — "not to get them to come to church but because we love them," Thomas said. A typical weekend sees 5,000 to 6,000 souls coming in the doors, he added.

Community of Faith offers classes in marriage, parenting and improving home finances, for example, and provides a "high-energy" kids' area and programs for special-needs children.

"We're interested in creating an environment of welcome," Thomas said.

A recent Pew Research Center Study showed that 35 percent of millennials list their religious affiliation as "none" — but that doesn't mean they're all atheists. The Hines Center hopes to reconnect to those millennials who fall into the category of "spiritual, not religious," Thompson said.

The center is named for Bishop John E. Hines, a former Christ Church rector and bishop of Texas who became the 22nd Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and who died in 1997. His namesake center is the cornerstone of the cathedral's "Vision Action Plan" developed by the 3,000-person congregation in 2013, Thompson said. Two things became apparent in their discussions.

"No. 1, the cathedral congregation is hungry to know God and to know about God. The other is the cathedral congregation is passionate about reaching out to the increasing number of millennials and others who are living and working downtown," he said.

The church polled downtown residents extensively to determine what would attract them.

A 2014 analysis by Jeff Green Partners showed a population of 174,483 within 3 miles of downtown, expected to increase to 183,824 by 2019.

"The fact is we are uniquely put in the center of the city, and there are so many community longings, as well as an increase in those living downtown," Summers-Perry said. "All those longings are being listened to."

The $2.4 million capital buildup and startup costs for the center have been fully funded. Thompson said they expect it to be self-sustaining by its third year through memberships and class fees.

Christ Church has made other nontraditional efforts to draw people in. The Cloister Gallery features changing exhibits of sacred and spiritual art; Treebeard's restaurant operates a cafeteria in the cathedral's annex; and The Beacon, a nonprofit, offers help to downtown's homeless population.

It's all part of reaching out to spiritual seekers who don't respond to traditional church service and want to design their own faith practices.

Thomas Moore, whose book "The Care of the Soul" and other works were a hit in the '90s and later, has published his most recent book, "A Religion of One's Own," on this topic.

"I travel quite a bit, and I hear this all over," he said. Young people's needs are often not being met. "They are not fed by traditional Christian and Jewish religion. They want something, but they can't go back."

While he sees plenty of people who are soothed and strengthened by tradition, it's not for everyone.

"It's a tougher world, and you have to think for yourself more," Moore said.

Buergermeister looks forward to the time, soon, when office workers can just stop by and sit a while at the Hines Center.

"This is the new heartbeat of downtown," she said. "We need to slow down and hear that heartbeat."

Charlotte Observer