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Downtown Churches Make Game-Day Plans

Posted on: Thursday, 26 January 2006, 06:00 CST

By David Crumm, Detroit Free Press

Jan. 26--Religious leaders in downtown Detroit are pleased that the city is hosting the Super Bowl, but the big game is hardly a godsend for churches. It's literally throwing roadblocks around their ministries.

"We think the Super Bowl is a great experience for the city, but we also believe that what we do every Sunday has eternal consequences," the Rev. Steven Kelly, rector of St. John Episcopal Church, the Victorian-Gothic church on Woodward near Comerica Park, said this week. "It will be a challenge to get downtown that Sunday for worship, but we don't want to miss church, even for one day."

Like other downtown churches, St. John has adapted to the Super Bowl. Members of any church near Super Bowl sites should check this weekend for any changes in service times or parking instructions.

Kelly has told members, for example, that they should approach the church from the north for the 10 a.m. service that Sunday, and that they must leave promptly at 11 a.m., long before kickoff at Ford Field about 6:30 p.m.

The church also is one of two downtown churches opening hospitality centers for police. "We see it as a part of our ministry," Kelly said.

The other police hospitality center will be at Christ Episcopal Church on Jefferson near the Renaissance Center.

Hardest hit will be Second Baptist Church on Monroe in Greektown, Detroit's oldest African American congregation. The church usually is jammed on the first Sunday of Black History Month. The schedule is dire, because the church is raising funds for a renovation.

"We could find that only 30 people show up instead of the hundreds we might have gotten," Trustee Henry Watson said.

The Rev. Kevin Turman, Second Baptist's pastor, said he is changing the church's normal schedule of 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sunday services to a single 10 a.m. service so people will be able to leave earlier.

Because of concerns that Greektown might not be accessible by a tour bus Feb. 4, Second Baptist also was left off the itinerary of two church tours.

"We wanted visitors to realize that churches are some of Detroit's greatest jewels, so that's why we arranged these bus tours," the Rev. David Eberhard, pastor of Historic Trinity Lutheran Church near Eastern Market, said Tuesday.

Tour itineraries are posted at www.historictrinity.org/dhcatour.html.Trim:

Contact DAVID CRUMM at 313-223-4526 or dcrumm@freepress.com.

photo

St. John Episcopal in Detroit will open a warming station for police. (ELAINE LOK/Special to the Free Press)

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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