Ascension Catholic Church

Ascension Catholic Church
743 SE 76th Avenue

Ascension is a friendly church located on the back side of Mount Tabor in what I believe is the Montavilla neighborhood.  Architecturally it is not a very interesting church.  The red brick exterior is plain and boxy.  The only thing architecturally interesting about the interior is the exposed beams made of 8 or so 2 x 6 boards, many of which were curved during the manufacturing process to produce arched beams.  This is a look I have seen in several Portland churches that appear to have been built in the same era -- late 60s or early 70s.  There were some interesting paintings in the church that certainly enhanced its ambiance. 
 
The ethnic make-up of the church was predominately White with Hispanics being a close second.  There was a smattering of Asians and no Blacks.  There were many families with young children.

 
At the 10:30 am Mass there was a good-sized choir accompanied by a guitarist, pianist, drummer, bassist and percussionist with that instrument that looks like a wind-chime with 20 or so metallic strips hanging down.  The music was fine but I am not a fan of drum sets in church.  It produces music that is too rousing for the circumstances -- especially when the drummer steps on the bass drum pedal.  The problem with music that is so rousing is that the parishioners remain "un-roused."  They continue to sing in a subdued fashion or not at all, producing an incongruency between the music and the response to the music that creates an unpleasant tension and is distracting.  Since a bunch a Catholics are not apt to let loose and really sing, the cure is to tone down the music so as not to overwhelm the parishioners' singing.

The Franciscans have run the parish since 1915.  Fr. Ben Innes, OFM, is the pastor.  Based upon remarks made in his homily I am led to believe that he goes by the nickname of "Big Ben."  He is not a small man.  He gave an interesting sermon that included a "stay tuned for part 2 next week" that made me want to hear the rest.

Holy Family

 Holy Family Catholic Church is located in the 7500 block of SE 39th (SE Cesar Chavez Blvd.) near  Eastmoreland and Reed College. 

The inside of the church has some modern, artistic touches such as a clear glass window in the shape of a cross behind the altar with the crucified Jesus etched or molded into the cross-shaped window.  Also, behind the tabernacle are two large copper colored plates perhaps intended to remind one of the shape of a host, serving as an interesting backdrop.  Suspended above the tabernacle by a tripod is what appears to be a censer. 

The choir director was a pistol of a woman, providing the firmness and energy necessary to produce quality singing.  She alone is worth the price of admission. 

There is a school next to the church and many young children were in attendance.  The parishioners at the 10:30 am Mass were overwhelmingly white with one Filipino family and a single African-American man being the only other races represented that day.  The church was full for Mass. 

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As usual I spoke to no one.  When I started this journey one of my goals was to meet new people.  That certainly hasn't occurred, mostly due to my own failure to reach out and introduce myself I suppose.  This church made a very favorable impression on me nonetheless.

St. Stephen Catholic Church

St. Stephen
1112 SE 41st Avenue
Portland 97214

St. Stephen, like Holy Cross, is located just off a major thoroughfare and yet few people likely know it is there.  In St. Stephen's case, it is located in the Richmond neighborhood two blocks east of SE 39th and about two blocks south of SE Belmont. 

The building reminds me of St. Andrew in NE Portland with its tan colored brick exterior and cream trim.  It is an attractive, medium size building.  I went to the 11 am Mass last Sunday.  Many parishioners were late and the Mass began about ten minutes late.  Reverend Petrus Hoang was the celebrant.  Fr. Hoang is a sweet-faced Vietnamese priest with a distinctive accent.  What I understood of his sermon was uplifting, but his accent and the church acoustics made following him a challenge.  The parishioners were mostly white with maybe two Vietnamese families present. 

It was a rainy morning and I was eager to get out of the weather going into and coming out of the church.  I did not come away with much of a feel for this parish, positive or negative, perhaps on account of the weather.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Our Lady of Sorrows 5239 SE Woodstock Boulevard

This small church, built in 1917, is on the corner of southeast 52nd and Woodstock.  The outside is  simple, wooden and painted white.  The inside is nicely painted, appointed and decorated.  The parish's website states, "May no one who comes to our community to join us in worship ever leave us a stranger."  It's a nice sentiment and although no one introduced themselves to me nor I to them, I do not feel that I left a stranger either.  From the Vietnamese woman who smiled and asked if she should get out of my way while I took a picture of a statue to Fr. Ron Millikan's looking me warmly in the eye after Mass and saying, "God bless you sir," I felt welcomed in this small parish.

Speaking of statues, there are many interesting statues and icons in this church.  There is even a "Pilgrim Virgin Statue" you can bring to your home that looks just like the statue here.  Catholics are accused of worshiping graven images with our use of statues.  The reader should understand that the Catholic Church teaches that it is wrong to worship statues and denies that that is what statues in its churches are for.  Catholic Answers has a good defense of the practice of using statues in religious contexts. 

The parishioners at the 11 am Mass were a nice mix.  There were Whites, Hispanics, Vietnamese and a family of Eastern Europeans who I guessed were Czech but could have been Ukrainian or Russian or ?  There was also a nice mix of ages.

Our Lady of Sorrows made a favorable impression on me.  The setting, the interior and the friendliness of its parishioners all recommend it.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

St. Elizabeth of Hungary 4112 SW Sixth Ave Dr.

You might think, based on a quick look at the address, that this church is located in downtown  Portland.  But, it is actually located on Marquam Hill, just south of OHSU Hospital.   The next thing you might think is that the parish is well to-do, as it is located in the West Hills.  On this account you would be correct.  Finally, being a small parish in the West Hills, you might think the parishioners would be snooty or stand-offish.  On that, I am happy to report, you would be mistaken.


As you can see from the photo (which just shows the entrance - the main part of the church is hidden to the left), the church is small and could pass for a residence if not for the cross atop it.  The inside is neat and attractive, with natural wood in the mode of St. Birgitta and St. Thomas More. 

I felt as if I were in a country church.  Perhaps it was the small size of the church or perhaps it was the acoustical guitarist with a somewhat country style of playing that caused this feeling.  The parishioners were nearly all white and were uniformly friendly.  I think the small size of the church contributes to this. 

A pianist and a bass guitarist accompanied the guitarist.  The guitarist said they were looking for a clarinet player.  There were 6 others in the choir today for a total of 9.  The guitarist was much better than average and I especially enjoyed his use of runs.

At the end of Mass Fr. Jim (Rev. James Kolb, O.S.P. -- a Paulist rather than a diocesan priest), asked if there were any visitors.  I raised my hand with at least one other.  Then he asked the other visitor to introduce herself.  Afterwards, he asked if there were another visitor.  This time I did not raise my hand, as I did not want to introduce myself or tell people I was doing a blog and thereby put them on the defensive.  I know it was intended to be friendly, however, and by by not exposing myself in that small way, I lost a chance to meet members of the church, which was one of my goals starting this project. 

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.