St. Francis of Assisi Parish

St. Francis of Assisi Parish
1131 SW Oak Street, Portland

St. Francis of Assisi is a parish in the same vein as St. Andrew and St. Philip Neri.  It is, for lack of a better descriptor, a liberal parish.  The most startling thing, for me, was for the congregation to be greeted at the beginning of Mass not by the priest, but by a woman with long grey hair in a ponytail, wearing glasses and a green piece of clothing that I can only describe as a vestment.  By all appearances, she is a priestess.  For a while I thought she would be saying Mass.  Instead, she stood with the pastor during the entire service and led parts of the service.  Based on reading the website and bulletin, I believe her title is Pastoral Administrator. 

It would appear that one of the hallmarks of liberal parishes, along with an emphasis on social justice (which I support), a belief that women should be ordained (which I do not support), is a stressing of egalitarianism.  This "we are all the same," 'we are all equal" idea is anti-hierarchical and is expressed at St. Francis by listing their pastor not as "pastor" (a shepherd who leads his flock), but as "priest moderator."  And neither the parish bulletin nor its website lists Father Robert Krueger at the top, but several rungs down as if he is just one of many leaders in the church.  (On the website, the Pastoral Administrator gets first billing.)  As the website says:  "We are also unique in that we have a Pastor Administrator, Valerie Chapman, who sees to the daily management of the parish in every way except those duties only allowed by priests, namely celebrating Mass and administering the Sacraments."

The church building was built in 1931.  It is a wood and concrete structure located close-in eastside Portland.  It is on SW 12th Avenue between Pine and Oak streets, just three blocks south of E. Burnside Street.  The exterior of the church is not terribly attractive but the inside is quite nice.  The interior walls and ceiling are made of beautiful unpainted wood.  There is an attractive set of wooden Stations of the Cross and a few other nice artistic touches.  The altar is placed atop a good-sized unvarnished tree stump, obviously satisfying someone's back-to-nature aesthetics. 

At today's Mass there was an enthusiastic six-person choir supported by a pianist, guitarist and flutist.  A drumset was available to the flutist, but he only used brushes softly on the snare drum. 

In his homily, Father Krueger expounded upon Jesus' warning in Matthew that one "cannot serve God and mammon."  He talked about how scarcity can bring out the worst in us; that greed and hording are the results of anxiety over not having enough.  That instead we should follow Jesus' admonition not to "worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear." 

All well and good, but then Father Krueger started talking about the "attack on unions" in Wisconsin, where the governor is seeking to take away the unions' right to collective bargaining.  He said we should support the unions.  I am not so sure.  The conflict between unions and management is not about fairness, in my opinion, but about who can have a bigger share of the pie.  Management, despite not doing any labor, would like the biggest share.  The unions, despite not risking any capital nor coming up with the idea to form the entity, also wants the biggest share.  To say that Jesus supports workers over management does not make sense to me.  Why is the workers' desire for mammon any more noble than management's? 

Here is where the liberal ideal of egalitarianism comes close to Communism.  The liberal would like the workers' share of the pie to be much larger.  But carried to its logical end, this will kill the golden goose and impoverish the worker.  Achieving the right balance between workers and management, it seems to me, should be the goal of society at large.  Whether removing collective bargaining rights for State workers in Wisconsin would achieve that goal is not clear.  But it seems that State workers' wages and benefits have outpaced the private sector these last 20 years and some scaling back is appropriate.  The plight of today's State workers is pretty good.

The "Our Father" was sung with the entire congregation holding hands across the aisles.  The line, "Our Mother, who art in Heaven" was added to the prayer.  The kiss of peace, much like at St. Andrew, lasted something like five minutes, with everyone greeting everyone else.  It was a little chaotic for my taste, but I am sure it is a much-beloved practice of the parish

Although one can't learn much about such things by attending a single Mass, I want to touch upon St. Francis' social outreach.  According to St. Francis' website, the parish feeds 300 people daily at its "Dining Hall" located in the church basement.  The neighborhood has its share of those in need and a few of those persons were present during the Mass.  Certainly these social justice churches do much good work. 

Finally, although St. Francis is not my cup of tea, the parishioners could not have been more friendly or more sincere.  If you think that modern day America has strayed from some of the ideals of the Sixties, if you want a parish where you can help the poor, if you feel that an old-school parish fails to "honor diversity," then you will love St. Francis of Assisi Parish.

Sacred Heart Parish

Sacred Heart 
3910 SW 11th Avenue

Sacred Heart is located in the Brooklyn neighborhood, which is close-in southeast Portland.  It is the neighborhood just to your right after crossing over the Ross Island Bridge eastbound.  It is an interesting neighborhood that you may have never been to if not house-hunting or if you don't live nearby.

The church's exterior is wood, painted white with a prominent steeple.  The interior is very much in the same vein as Immaculate Heart, the very first church in this blog.  I would not be surprised if Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart were designed and built by the same people, but I don't know.

The handshake of peace was done at the beginning of the Mass.  Father Bruce Brown said he would be 75 this April.  Before we adjourned we sang Happy Birthday to a 10 year-old girl who is active in the church.  The parishioners were mostly white.  There were a few young families but not many.  It appeared that many parishioners were retirees and indeed there is a senior living facility next door. 

St. Agatha Catholic Church

St. Agatha Catholic Church
7983 SE 15th

St. Agatha is located in Sellwood.  According to the church's website, the current building dates from 1920 and is in the Early Gothic Style.  The interior walls look like painted, irregularly shaped cinder blocks.  According to the website, however, the church is built with "hollow brick and native tufa stone quarried on land belonging to the Benedictine fathers at Mt. Angel."  The ceiling is made of beautiful dark wood with attractive wooden beams.   

Speaking of the Benedictines, the Benedictine fathers ran St. Agatha for 80 years.  In 2000 the Benedictines turned the church over to the Archdiocese of Portland.  And, speaking of Mt. Angel, the current pastor, Nathan Zodrow, OSB, was Abbot at Mt. Angel Seminary from 2001 to 2009. 

Apparently, Father Zodrow had been temporarily assigned to St. Agatha the last couple of months.  Today, Archbishop John Vlazny presided over Father Zodrow's installation Mass.  The St. Agatha parishioners warmly and enthusiastically welcomed Father Zodrow as their pastor for the next six years.  This will be Father Zodrow's first time as a parish priest, and as he says in his open letter in the parish bulletin, "I find the 'fit' remarkably good."

The parishioners at the 10:30 am Mass were mostly Caucasian.  St. Agatha had a friendly feel. 

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.