A few churches cross longstanding racial divide

Instead of traditional hymns or contemporary praise songs every Sunday, there might be Japanese drums one week, American folk music the next, and Senegalese drums after that.

"I've never had this much fun in church in my whole life," said Don Jenkins, a member of Bethany United Church of Christ.

But more than just fun, there is a grander experiment at work in this little church in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood.

Since its founding in 2000, Bethany has been intentionally multiracial, multicultural and intergenerational. Now, about a third of the congregation is Asian, about a third black, and the rest Caucasian, Hispanic, Native American and people of mixed races.

"Most churches are homogenous and they're comfortable with that," said Bethany's senior pastor, the Rev. Angela Ying. "We felt God was calling us to do a new thing."

Bethany is an exception to the observation the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made decades ago that remains largely true today: that the Sunday church-service hour is "the most segregated hour" in America.

A recent study found that only 7 percent of congregations nationwide are multiracial, defined as places where no one racial group is 80 percent or more of the people attending.

Overall, that makes church congregations about 10 times more racially divided than neighborhoods and 20 times more racially separated than schools, said sociology professor Michael Emerson, director of Rice University's Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life, in Houston, and author of the book "People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States."

Even among multiracial churches, Emerson believes, about half probably won't remain that way in the long run. That's because such churches "don't have to be intentional to happen. But they have to be intentional to survive" as integrated congregations.

That means they have to be clear in their purpose, have practices that make it happen, and have effective ways of dealing with inevitable conflicts.

At Bethany, practices such as different musical styles have led not just to a diverse membership but a growing one.

The church is part of the wider community and that community should be reflected in the church, believes Ying, who is 43. The challenge for her congregation was: "How, on the corner of Beacon and Graham, do we reflect that in the 21st century?"

Diversity by design

Bethany was formed after the previous United Church of Christ congregation in that location had dwindled to a few members.

Some of the remaining congregants teamed up with downtown Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church to start a new church.

They decided this new congregation would be intentionally multicultural, which made sense because Beacon Hill is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in Seattle, said Plymouth's then-senior pastor, the Rev. Anthony Robinson.

They asked Ying, who grew up in the Midwest and moved to Seattle in 1993, to become founding pastor. It seemed a good fit; the energetic Ying is a second-generation Taiwanese American married to a German American. She's also passionate about social-justice issues, had experience working with immigrants and refugees, and was a leader in her denomination and in groups like the Washington Association of Churches.

These days, more than 100 adults and 50 children attend Bethany's Sunday services. It is at these services where the church's multicultural vision might best be seen.

Oftentimes, congregation members are invited to say prayers in their native languages. A team chooses the music each week based on the message and tone of that week's service, and with an eye toward the musical styles most meaningful to the different cultures in the church.

On one Sunday, when the service focused on the baptism of Christ, someone played the harp — so it was "calm, deep. You could almost hear water falling down on you," Ying said. Another Sunday, the scriptural passage was about Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding. "So is it quiet? No. It's a party!" Ying said. An African drum group played.

"People tell me, 'We never know what to expect from week to week,' " said Bethany member Jenkins, an insurance broker from Kirkland, who co-leads the church's worship and music team. "We seem to attract people who like surprises."

Another multicultural church that has different music styles is Redmond's Antioch Bible Church, which has featured black gospel, contemporary, country-western, reggae, jazz and classical music in its services.

It reflects the philosophy that "when we have a style of music you don't like, it's your opportunity to praise God that someone else is listening to music that they like," said Al Veillette, Antioch's pastor of adult ministries.

It's also one of the key practices of multiracial congregations, said Emerson, the Rice University professor. "Let's say you're a white congregation doing hymns or praise choruses. Just opening the doors and saying we want to be multiracial doesn't cut it. It has to be a blend."

Other common factors in such congregations include having a leader who's passionate about, and probably has a background in, multiracial experiences; being flexible enough to change things that aren't working; and being in neighborhoods that are diverse. Local congregations also say it's important that church leadership reflect different races.

Working out differences

Multicultural congregations also have certain conflicts and benefits in common, Emerson said.

There are conflicts over music, cultural debates over issues like the importance of punctuality, and sometimes arguments over whether one group has more power.

But congregants also say "it gets in your blood. If you go back to a homogenous church, like all one race, it would be boring," Emerson said. They talk of learning things about other cultures, of seeing God in new ways. And they say it reflects what their faith calls them to do — "like this is the way the creator intended it to be," Emerson said.

All that is familiar to the Rev. Harvey Drake Jr., senior pastor at Emerald City Bible Fellowship in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood.

Members of that church, which is about 45 percent African American, 45 percent Caucasian and 10 percent other races, make sure their leadership council includes those of different races. They play different genres of music. And they have forums on racial, cultural, generational and class issues.

Often, the forums are on sensitive topics, such as child rearing. For instance, many African-American families make sure their children behave in church, whereas some white families tend to think if they discipline an unruly child, it stunts the child's creativity, Drake said.

In these discussions, "folks get upset, folks feel picked on," Drake said. But that means they can begin to talk honestly and often end up understanding each other better and developing stronger bonds.

Some people assume if you just gather people of different races together, that's enough, he said. "But then you're not addressing the issues that keep people separated."

Such differences are also discussed at Bethany.

"If they can get past the urge to change or eliminate the differences or the urge to leave, then they come to appreciate and understand one another better," Jenkins said.

Janet Gwilym, a paralegal from Beacon Hill, said going to a multiracial church was important to her in part because of her two children. Gwilym, who is white, is married to a Chinese American. "I wanted them to be in a place where they were exposed to a lot of different ideas and cultures, where the norm is diversity."

Keeping a multiracial congregation vibrant is hard work, Ying said. "And it's not for everyone."

But on Sundays, when she invites worshippers to say the Lord's prayer in their own native languages and hears the "beauty of the variety of sounds, but knowing it's the same prayer, we get a glimpse of the kingdom of God."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com