Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
this 1931 church, he decided to remove the imposing cross that once hung there.
It was all about trying to connect his congregation with God and the Spirit, no
matter their background; indeed, at a service here, Jesus is never mentioned,
although the clergy is certainly Christian. At the Sunday morning 90-minute “cel-
ebration” services, the congregation looks as if someone threw a net over
whomever was passing by on the Tenderloin street outside: young, old, black,
white—even, one recent morning, a little kid who wanted to wear his tiger cos-
tume to church. I've never seen anything like it, but I get the strong sense that it's
what a Christian church is supposed to look like.
Williams, who retired the pastorship but is usually on hand anyway, is a little
like a kindly high school principal, and his services are a little like a late-night TV
talk show, accompanied by a skilled six-piece jazz band (Leonard Bernstein was a
fan, and Quincy Jones still is), backed by a 100-plus-voice choir (the Glide
Ensemble, and man they're good) and peppered with “Right on!” and “Shalom.”
He's a solid American institution, counting Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, and
Robin Williams among his fans, and having appeared by himself in the Will
Smith movie
The Pursuit of Happyness.
His wife, Janice Mirikitani, a well-known
city poet, has also been working at the church since 1969. Their message, repeated
throughout, is one of diversity, compassion, ending racism, brotherhood, and
acceptance, and it doesn't take long before the crowd is on its feet, clapping, sway-
ing, and otherwise digging what I consider to be a real embodiment of Jesus's cen-
tral New Testament message: Never once does anyone pretend that he knows
which political party that God would vote with. Instead, the church operates 87
entities designed to help others in a city that desperately needs such outreach,
from help with housing and healthcare to jobs training. Don't miss it; there's
nothing else like it, and it's impossible to feel unwelcome. Services are at 9am and
11am; don't show up with less than 15 minutes to spare or you'll almost certainly
have to participate by TV from a fellowship hall, and that would be a shame.
A similar worldview is espoused by the
Swedenborgian Church
(2107 Lyon
St., at Washington;
%
415/346-6466)
a place that cares less about the specific
ideological aspects of Christianity as it has been lately interpreted and more about
the spiritual and historical lessons in the Bible. The philosophy is based on the
teachings of a guy named Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist who lived in
the early 1700s. Here, a worship service is, well, more Scandinavian, and less
demonstrative than at Glide. Here, the Oprah-ready aspects of Swedenborg's spir-
ituality—we are all in charge of our own destinies, and it's better to live truthfully
than to beat the Bible and evangelize—are explored in an intelligent fashion, and
Jesus is not left off the roster of invoked names. It's the denomination-free church
for the brainy; Glide is for the singalong crowd. Bonus: The little brick
Swedenborgian Church, built in 1895, is such an important and early example of
the Arts and Crafts movement that it has been designated as a National Historic
Landmark. Sunday worship is at 11am.
Old St. Mary's Church
(660 California St., at Grant;
%
415/288-3809; www.
oldstmarys.org)
has an interesting background, having been built in 1854 as
California's first cathedral and, miraculously, surviving from then to now. The inte-
rior isn't particularly beautiful, ornate, or old, but the parish's congregation, which
has evolved into a blend of Chinese-born and English-speaking worshipers, would
count as unusual almost anywhere in America. Mass is celebrated twice daily. At
