St. Andrew

St. Andrew, 806 NE Alberta Street

St. Andrew (which everyone calls St. Andrew's) is located in NE Portland.  The first thing one notices is the beautiful old church building.  It was built in the Gothic style, with light brown bricks and concrete adornments.   Additionally, there is an attractive modern building that appears to serve as a community outreach center next to the church and what appears to be the rectory.  

The interior of the church is cavernous, devoid of columns one might expect in a Gothic style church.  The interior gives a visitor the first clue of the the parish's outlook.  The pews, rather than all facing the altar, circle around an oval area which has an altar at one end and a reading podium at the other.  Many of the pews  lack kneelers. And , during the portion of the Mass where one typically kneels, only a small portion of the congregation did so.

Although the church has many large traditional stained-glass windows depicting Saints, the view of these windows is partially obscured by long green banners hanging from the ceiling and many small speakers, also hung by wire from the ceiling.  On this cloudy day, the church also lacked sufficient interior lighting to show off the charms of its interior.  Lastly, the light pink and light green paint scheme looked ready for a change. 

Normally, there is a 9:30 English Mass and a 12 noon Spanish Mass.  However, because of a church picnic this afternoon, Mass today was at 10:30.  The Mass was 60% in Spanish and 40% in English.  Fr. Chuck (Monsignor Charles Lienert) gave two homilies, one in Spanish followed by one in English.  Fr. Lienert did a good job making an effort to pronounce the Spanish words properly.  

This parish strongly emphasizes social justice.  My experience with social justice churches -- and people in general who care deeply about social justice -- is they are far more concerned about systemic problems or systemic evil than they are about the evil in an individual.  Fr. Lienert's sermon today makes my point.  The Gospel reading was the parable of the wedding banquet where Jesus admonishes his listeners not to choose the best seat at a wedding lest the host ask the guest to give up his/her seat for a more important person.  It seems to be a lesson on humility; in fact the host in the parable says,

        "For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
         but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:1, 7-14 was today's reading.)

However, Fr. Lienert said that the parable is not principally about humility, but is instead about how systems should treat people.  He said that Jesus' admonition in the Gospel reading to, "invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" when you hold a banquet, was directed toward what "systems" should do.  While I cannot say with any authority who the passage is primarily directed to (the individual or the system/government), I do think it is quite telling that Fr. Lienert downplayed the most obvious interpretation and said that the passage was primarily directed to "the system."

Fr. Lienert next told a story about a priest on a committee at the Second Vatican Council who proposed abolishing all titles in the Church.  In fact, under this priest's proposal people would be forbidden from referring to the Pope as "your holiness" or "your eminence."  Fr. Lienert said that that priest was now 80 and it was his wish that there be a Pope John 24 who would establish just such a rule.  Fr. Lienart, apparently a fan of the proposal, said it would, among other things, promote equality for women in the Church.  At this, half the congregation erupted in applause.  When the homily finished there was more applause.

It struck me as odd that in a time when many in the Church are saying that Vatican II went too far, here was a group that thought that Vatican II did not go far enough.  I wondered if St. John Vianney, St. Francis, St. Bernadette and the other Saints on the stained-glass windows would think that abolishing titles would be a good idea.  I also thought of the parallels of this idea with the ideas of Communism:  how a hierarchy formed in Communism despite the purported aim of equality of men--with party apparatchiks at the top.

While perhaps commendably idealistic, the "no titles" idea seemed naive to me.  It, and everything about St. Andrew  seemed to me to be informed by the 1960s.  Women's Liberation, stopping the oppression of minorities by white men, "black power," "viva la raza," etc.  Long hair for men has been replaced by facial hair.  If any of these things resonate with you, you will love this church.  On the conservative-liberal scale it is on the far end of the liberal side.  Compare it to Holy Rosary, which is old-fashioned to the point of not having a "handshake of peace" during the Mass.  At St. Andrew, the handshake of peace lasted five minutes!  (The highlight of which for me was shaking hands with Sally Cohen, who recently made it to the finals of American's Got Talent as a "hand-whistler.")

A final example of the left-leaning political bent of St. Andrew is that during the prayers, the woman leading the prayers prayed for "the people of Iran and Iraq."  Not a word about American soldiers in harm's way. 

To be fair, I think this church meets the needs of many.  Furthermore, my guess is that the church "walks the talk" when it comes to social justice.  The parish website mentions several such ministries.

Korean Martyrs Catholic Church

Korean Martyrs Catholic Church, 10840 SE Powell Boulevard

This small church is located just east of I 205 on Powell Blvd.  There is a 10 am Mass that  is partly in English and partly in Korean.  There is an 11 am Mass that is entirely in Korean.  I went to the 10 am Mass.

I was one of two non-Koreans at the Mass.  The congregation was rather small, but with a large contingent of teenagers.  The teens handled the music, providing singing accompanied with drums and keyboard.   There was a single Korean nun, the pastor and two alter servers.  The church is named after the some 8000 Christians martyred in Korea in the 1800s, of whom the church declared 103 to be Saints in 1984.  There is a statue in front of the church depicting Father Andrew Kim, the most famous of the martyrs. 

The Mass was said mostly in English.  The pastor, who the Archdiocese's website lists as Rev. Peter Ock-Jin Cho, gave the sermon in Korean.  Additionally, early in the Mass Father Cho interrupted the singing of the Gloria to say something in Korean.  Then the music and singing started again and again he interrupted.  He seemed to be addressing only the group of parishioners in the front right hand side of the church.  This happened maybe four times before he went on with the Mass.  I figured it was some sort of "teachable moment" but I could not figure out what he was saying.

One interesting thing about communion was that the alter servers each held a small basket full of lollipops, which they handed out to the children, presumably those children too young for their First Communion.  I guess they had too many small children upset about taking the trip to the alter and coming back empty-handed. 

Shortly after the sermon the entire congregation stood and began filing toward the front of the church.  I had no idea what was happening and I stayed put.  First I thought they might be forming a circle around the alter.  Then I saw they were approaching the front of the alter in two lines as if to accept communion.  I thought they might be kissing a cross.  Finally, I saw people bowing and pitching something into a small basket and figured that this is how they gather the offering.  At that point I was embarrassed for not contributing.

At the handshake of peace all who were near me took my hand warmly and wished me peace.  After Mass, no one caught my eye or asked why I was there.  I took a few pictures and left.