Agape

[kwassa]

Agape is the term for spiritual love.

It is also the name of a rather unique church that was in Santa Monica, California when I was a member, and has since moved a few miles south to Culver City, as is grew too large for its old sanctuary.

It a Church of Religious Science, that follows the teachings of Ernest Holmes, a follower of Mary Baker Eddy that founded his own New Thought denomination in the 1920s.

This church is unique for a CRS church. It is metaphysical, with emphasis on prayer spoken aloud, known as spiritual mind treatments.

What makes it interesting is this:
The rector is Reverand Michael Beckwith, a black man who is essentially a mystic. In the old days, there were black and white CRS churches that were essentially separate. He founded a church in a liberal white part of the city, it is completely eclectic, with all nationalities. He did start it with friends who are also black, and bring with them some interesting black cultural connections.

Sooooo ...... the result is very New Age, with other traditions brought in, but also the place has developed a mass choir that sings original compositions of a metaphysical nature in the style of a black Baptist gospel choir. It numbers over 120 when I was in the choir some 12 years ago. The choir director is Rickie Byers, who is also quite mystical and spiritual, and took it from three fellow choir members to what it is today.

Rickie writes the music, the Rev writes the lyrics, and the music is very, very good.

At the time I was in the church, it was quite popular with many people in show business, and I saw more well-known actors there than any place else I had been in LA. That was the least of the attractions.

here is their homepage:
http://www.agapelive.com/home.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. cool

music is one of the paths to enlightenment. Glad to see how it is being used in this church.

[Ranec]

2. Wow,

I'm always impressed by a choir that has more members than my entire congregation.

I always thought that the notion of agape as the love that God/Christ has for all people was one of the beautiful parts of Christianity. I imagined it as a nuturing parent writ large.

[Maat]

3. How interesting!

This CRS member thinks so.

So, if I understand what you are saying, during a time in which white churches and black churches were separate, this fine citizen, Rev. Beckwith, an African-American, formed a congregation in a "white" part of the City? I would love to know how it went.

Thanks for the link.

[kwassa]

6. Most churches were separated by housing segregation

As a denomination, it was not segregated, but the defacto segregation occured, like other denominations, as a result of housing patterns. This is changed radically in the past 40 years or so, of course. The part of Santa Monica where the original Agape church was is both a bastion of liberalism and a center of many New Age religious groups, so it was a fertile ground, actually. The westside of Los Angeles is really a hotbed of alternative religious exploration. I've tried quite a few things over the years.

The east coast, where I live now, is much less experimental, and much more traditional.

The original headquaters CRS church on Wilshire is very diverse, too.

Agape has a membership 0f 7000+, which must make it a megachurch as far as CRS is concerned.

[Maat]

4. Wow - the website was great.

My little congregation in the Temecula Valley, Southern California, only has about 200 members (which is rather good for a church in the middle of a very conservative part of SoCal).

[elshiva]

5. Music is essential to worship.

"When you sing, you pray twice."-St. Augustine of Hippo