The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York

6: Congregations within a Congregation: Contemporary Spirituality and Change at the Riverside Church

6 Congregations within a Congregation Contemporary Spirituality and Change at the Riverside Church Lawrence H. Mamiya Paul Tillich, the famous German theologian who taught at the Union Theological Seminary across the street and was an occasional visitor and lecturer at the Riverside Church, was once shown a copy of Time magazine. He looked at the table of contents, including its various categories of Arts, Entertainment, Politics, Economics, Sports, and Religion, and scoffed, “They’re all religious.” Tillich meant that each area of life can express a person’s “ultimate concern,” or what elicited that person’s devotion, loyalty , and respect.1 He recognized that the “secular” areas of life, such as the stock market, politics, science, sports, music, and the arts, can have their own religious dimension as an expression of a person’s ultimate concern. Tillich’s broad view of religion and contemporary spirituality is relevant to the variety of people who come to the Riverside Church as members or as visitors. For example, Betty Davis said that she was attracted to Riverside’s arts and crafts program and participated in it for more than ten years without attending a worship service or joining the church. Then, under Dr. James Forbes’s pastorate, she eventually joined, became active in church committees, and eventually was elected as the chair of the Church Council and a member of the History Project Committee.2 Davis’s story has been repeated many times in the lives of members or visitors who come to Riverside for its famous preachers, worship service, music concerts , theater events, social justice concerns, majestic architecture, or even its sports teams.  Contemporary spirituality at the Riverside Church of New York City is diverse, pluralistic, and complex. It reflects the current trends of religion in America, which is composed of multiple centers and expressions of faith and spirituality. The main argument of this chapter is that there are multiple congregations at the Riverside Church or “congregations within a congregation,” of which the main Sunday morning congregation at the : a.m. worship service in the nave is but one example. The term congregation refers to a group of people gathered around a particular faith concern. Accordingly, to congregate means “to gather.” The simplest definition of a church congregation is found in the New Testament: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew :). Many New Yorkers who would never cross the threshold of a church, synagogue, or mosque try to meet their need for transcendent spiritual experiences by going to a concert at Lincoln Center, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, seeing a play or a movie, or vicariously participating in a sports event with the Knicks, Yankees, Mets, or Jets. In events with large numbers of people, whether in a sports stadium or a large hall, the collective enthusiasm of the crowd, or what the sociologist Emile Durkheim called “collective effervescence,” can create an uplifting experience that is similar to a religious experience.3 From a Christian perspective , Tillich would ask whether these concerns and experiences are really ultimate. Riverside can be classified as a “megachurch,” a very large church with a membership of two thousand or more with multiple ministries.4 As we have seen, Riverside is a “megachurch” with a liberal theological heritage, whose ministerial and lay leaders have often blurred the distinctions between the religious and the secular by creating programs to meet secular needs within the confines of the church building. The goal has been to create a holistic ministry covering all facets of human life. Over the years, each of these program areas has developed its own following. Thus, there are the theater, drama, and dance congregation, the arts and crafts congregation , and the congregation drawn by Riverside’s musical events and concerts . There also are congregations for employees and staff, senior citizens and the elderly, the Black Caucus, Maranatha for gays and lesbians, the social justice and prison ministry, and the Riverside Hawks basketball team. Congregations can overlap but they also can stand alone. Membership in one of these congregations does not necessarily include church membership , although it can sometimes lead to it.         .      This idea of not requiring church membership in order to participate in the church’s programs reflects Riverside’s liberal heritage. For example, the poor people who come to the church’s Food Pantry program for baskets of food...