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.
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."
