Ecumenism: Four for St. Mark's

The first joint Protestant-Roman Catholic congregation in the U.S. is now being organized in Kansas City, Mo. Serving a largely Negro, downtown section of some 15,000 people, the unique ecumenical church, to be called St. Mark's, will be financed by the four participating denominations—Catholic, United Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal and the United Church of Christ. Pastor of the congregation will probably be the Rev. Kenneth Waterman, a Presbyterian; his assistants will be ministers of the other three faiths.

Of necessity, Catholics and Protestants have shared worship facilities on military bases and college campuses, but St. Mark's seems to be the first brand-new city parish that the two faiths have ever jointly sponsored. The moving spirit behind the venture is Waterman, who two years ago helped arrange a merger of his own First Presbyterian Church with a nearby United Church parish. Both churches had rundown plants and declining congregations; even together, they could barely afford the new church that Waterman felt was needed. Scouting around to see if other religious groups might be interested, Waterman eventually persuaded Roman Catholic Bishop Charles Helmsing and Episcopal Bishop Edward Welles to join in; construction of St. Mark's, which will cost $400,000, is expected to start in November. Designed to fit the liturgical needs of the four faiths, the church will seat 300 people in pews on three sides of a simple altar. To get around canon law, St. Mark's will technically be known as a "chapel of ease" rather than a parish for Catholics, but it will nonetheless be an approved place of worship.

Waterman is careful to explain that St. Mark's does not aim to syncretize the doctrines and rites of the four churches. Each denomination will hold separate religious services for its own members, although the ministers have not yet figured out precisely how to divide up Sunday morning. As members of a single Christian community, St. Mark's parishioners will be invited to join regular ecumenical prayer service. And the four ministers will work togther in providing spiritual counseling for the parish, religious education and social-action projects aimed at combatting crime and juvenile delinquency in the neighborhood.