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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: What would you have done if you had wanted to
attract worshippers to a church in Hollywood that hardly anyone was coming to
anymore? The pastor there decided to offer the kind of music show people
like.
At the Crescent Heights Methodist Church in West Hollywood, attendance at Sunday
morning worship was down to four people. The pastor, Reverend John Griffin, knew
something had to change.
West Hollywood is home to many actors, singers, and others in show business, many
of them unchurched. Also, many are victims of AIDS. Pastor Griffin himself has
AIDS.
Realizing he needed to reach a community in crisis and drawing on local talent,
he started a sing-along service -- not of old hymns but of pop and show tunes,
such as some from the Broadway show, "Les Miserables."
Reverend JOHN GRIFFIN (Pastor, Crescent Heights Methodist Church): I think
that's the church's job, at least here in Los Angeles in West Hollywood -- is
just to start by getting people together to be moved and to be uplifted. There is
some marketing to it, you know; you have to have something that attracts people.
I'm not trying to shock people. No, you know, I'm just trying to get people in
the doors. If singing the hymns that are in the hymn book worked, I'd be doing
it.
ABERNETHY: Sarah Wright says she stopped going to church 30 years ago.
Now, she says, she's found a home.
SARAH WRIGHT (Parishioner): I think that you can probably identify with a
lot of these songs. I think everybody can. Life is very difficult for a lot of
people. I mean, it's filled with pain. And you come here because you want comfort
and you can find it in this church.
Rev. GRIFFIN: For our community, we can think about how AIDS has
devastated us and left so many empty chairs at our tables.
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Bishop BEVERLY SHAMANA (United Methodist Church, San Francisco): I think
this touches people in a whole new way and says, yes, come back.
ABERNETHY: Beverly Shamana is San Francisco's United Methodist bishop, in
Los Angeles for the weekend. This is her first "Sing-Along Sunday."
Bishop SHAMANA: To people who say, "Is this really church, should church
be happening like this?" I would say yes. Enthusiastically yes.
ABERNETHY: Two hundred and fifty years ago, Methodism's founder John
Wesley took songs from the tavern and brought them into church. Griffin says this
is not so different.
Rev. GRIFFIN: We're in the Wesley spirit. We're not just saying, come to
us and learn the secret handshake. Instead we're going outside these walls and
finding what is reaching people and bringing people in.
ABERNETHY: But what do show tunes have to do with religion?
Pastor GRIFFIN: It has everything to do with God. You know, God is in our
midst and God is experienced in community. If we are loving, then people have a
chance to experience God, to see God.
(speaking to parishioners at sermon): And so, let us go from this place with our
ears open and ready to hear. And our hearts open, committed to the cause. And
that cause being a witness of God's love in this world. Amen.
PARISHIONERS (in unison): Amen.
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