Lake Street Church

Its blue steeple and prominent stained glass windows may be staples of Christian churches, but something is different about the atmosphere of Lake Street Church. On Sundays, people trickle in wearing suits, soccer uniforms, jeans and choir robes. And the outfits are not half as diverse as the people: During the last ten years, the church has brought together atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, agnostics and Christians.

Lake Street Church, 607 Lake St., has given new meaning to the term "religious tolerance" as it spearheads the interfaith dialogue movement in the Evanston community. It is not exactly what one would expect from a church that is officially Baptist.

"We do everything we can to get kicked out [of our Baptist affiliation], but nobody will do it," said Judy Langford, 58, wife of LSC's Reverend Robert Thompson.

As part of its interfaith work, LSC has hosted Living Buddha-Living Christ, a collaborative service with the Buddhist Council of the Midwest, each spring for the past 11 years. This year the service brimmed with readings from sacred Buddhist and Christian texts, bells, chimes, monastic chants, and prayers - in addition to the usual Sunday choir.

This approach has attracted a diverse crowd. Paula Fitzgibbons, 39, a freelance writer, left her old church when it became too conservative. She attended LSC once, to have her children baptized. After hearing her first sermon, Fitzgibbons was hooked, and commuted an hour to LSC every Sunday for two years before moving to the area.

"[There is a] raw honesty to the people at Lake Street that allows you to be who you need to be," Fitzgibbons said. "When I came to Lake Street I was just pleasantly astounded at how many traditions were represented."

Fitzgibbons is not the only person who stumbled upon the church. A few found its Web site and gave it a try, while others came seeking a place where all faiths were accepted.

"We were looking for somewhere where we would both feel comfortable," said Katie Smith, 34, a Jewish homemaker whose husband is Christian.

LSC tends to focus more on diversity than number of attendees, who currently number about 292 each week. Not only does the church boast members of 16 religions, LSC also openly engages in interfaith dialogue, ranging from participation in community discussions to hosting interfaith services.

In June, the church participated in a celebration at a Sikh temple in Palatine, and an interfaith health care reform discussion in Edgewater. LSC's most recent project is preparing for the 2008 World Community Sunday, a yearly event where different religious groups come together to worship. This year's theme is "repairing the world together," according to Reverend Ann-Louise Haak, 39, associate minister of LSC.

"We can all agree that there is so much in our world that is really broken right now," Haak said. "With this theme we are trying to illuminate the fact that no one country, no one entity, no one person can repair all the ills of the world. But if we can come together as people of faith firmly rooted in our own traditions … it creates some real possibilities to change the world."

In addition to holding yoga and meditation sessions each week, most of LSC's work is "pretty informal," according to Haak.

LSC has also formed relationships with different religious congregations and often participates in their worship services. "It takes lots of different shapes and forms," said Haak.

Despite its prevalence, however, Haak acknowledged that interfaith work can be challenging. "[When] you step across traditional and reinforced lines of different [traditions] and boundaries of demarcation, it is threatening to people who feel very strongly that our lives are supposed to be lived in these proscribed circles," she said.

Opposition has not stopped LSC from leading the community in interfaith work.

"I can't imagine in my lifetime a better time frame for interfaith dialogue," Fitzgibbons said. "It's essential to be able to understand someone … to just break down all the walls and just to see them as fellow human beings who you relate to and connect with."

kathleengoodwin2007@u.northwestern.edu

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