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March 2, 2002
RELIGION JOURNAL
Yes, God Is Everywhere, Even at the Local Mall
By FRANCINE PARNES
o be pastor of a church in a shopping mall, it helps to think like the Rev. Paul Knight
of Grand Forks, N.D. He loves ministering to mall customers who, shopping bags or
carts in tow, drop by his house of worship in the Grand Cities Mall.
"I remember the distraught elderly shopper who wheeled her empty Kmart cart from
the store into our sanctuary," Mr. Knight said. "She had been informed that morning
that her sister had died. In the midst of shopping, she found this place of solace and
met the presence of God. It's a gift to be at a church where people drop in just to see
what's going on."
Mr. Knight's sanctuary, Hope Evangelical Covenant Church, is one of a smattering
around the country that are in malls. Patrice Duker, a spokeswoman for the
International Council of Shopping Centers, says some 100 of the nation's nearly
1,200 enclosed malls have some religious presence, typically bookstores with
religion themes but occasionally churches.
Some, like Mr. Knight's, are full- fledged churches that own the property on which
they rest. Others are spaces leased, usually at market rates and primarily for the
purpose of holding periodic services. The common denominator is that they are
placed deliberately at a crossroads of community life.
"Our congregation sensed that locating in the mall was the kind of thing Jesus would
do," Mr. Knight said. "He'd be in the gathering place."
At the Bergen Mall in Paramus, N.J., the stained-glass Carmelite Chapel of St.
Therese attracts 200 people daily to Mass, said the Rev. Brice Riordan. Some 1,500
people a month attend confession.
"There are about 100 people walking out now after Mass," Father Riordan said by
phone the other day, "and where they go is their business. Some come from Macy's
or have breakfast later at Burger King. Some come for their peace and comfort with
God. Some have little problems that they like to let God in on. They know this is one
of his addresses."
The casual atmosphere helps.
"If malls are the Main Street of suburban America, they give the advantage of
reaching people in a nonreligious setting," said the Rev. John Chell, co- founder of
the Mall Area Religious Council, which promotes interfaith events at the Mall of
America in Bloomington, Minn. "Many seekers of religion feel less threatened in a
mall."
At St. Therese Carmelite Chapel at Northshore Mall in Peabody, Mass., "it's not
unusual to see people approaching the altar to receive Communion with their
employee badges from Filene's or Radio Shack," said the Rev. Herbert Jones.
Morning Mass attracts mall power-walkers. "One such woman comes very early,
walks for an hour, then opens the chapel for us and prepares the altar," Father Jones
said.
The Owensboro Christian Church in Owensboro, Ky., has taken the idea a little
farther than most: it actually bought its own mall.
"We did research before we relocated to the mall and found only two churches that
had done a crazy deal like this," said the church's pastor, Myke Templeton. "But what
we saw was enough to get us excited about the possibilities."
Mr. Templeton's church bought an ailing mall at a fraction of the cost of building from
scratch, remodeled one end of it and so had a 56,000- square-foot sanctuary, which
became the mall's anchor. The church is now landlord to 13 stores, though it has yet
to show a profit.
"We are a contemporary church," Mr. Templeton said. "Whatever we did was going
to reflect an out-of-the- box approach in the Bible Belt."
Omar McRoberts, a University of Chicago sociology professor, said it was not
surprising to find churches in malls.
"We're witnessing perhaps the beginning of a larger trend, as malls emerge as
important spaces that aren't home, neighborhood or work," Professor McRoberts
said. "Malls may begin to take on more community functions."
Mr. Knight, the pastor at the Grand Forks mall, agreed. "Initially," he said, "some
people didn't like us being in the mall, because we weren't retail. But wise retailers
recognize the need to offer services beyond shoes and clothes. Malls are already
leasing to eye clinics and travel agencies."
Even so, "mall churches aren't proliferating," said Mr. Chell, of the Mall Area
Religious Council.
"There are already enough places of worship in our neighborhoods across America,"
he said. "Instead, I believe spiritual presence in nontraditional formats will mushroom
in malls."
One such nontraditional approach is the mall ministry at the Burlington Center Mall in
Burlington, N.J., where there is no church but whose outreach programs include
Christian aerobics. An instructor encourages workout participants to "raise holy
hands" and "praise him, come on, praise him."
"God has shown we need to exercise in a way that will not only make us physically fit
but also spiritually fit," said Elsie Nicolette, the ministry's director.
At Plymouth Meeting Mall in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., Francis Gildea, general
manager, said: "I don't see any movement of churches going into shopping centers.
Business is difficult for shopping centers today. Odds are, a church would take up
several thousand square feet," which mall management would be trying hard to lease
to retailers.
Still, Mr. Gildea's mall has always had space for the Church on the Mall, which holds
a 50-year lease there provided in 1966 by James Rouse of the Rouse Company, the
mall's owner. The rent? A token $1 a year.
"A shopping center is a capitalist operation," Mr. Gildea said. "Trying to connect that
with religion doesn't always mesh well. Do you charge God rent? I don't think so."
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