Worship

By ROBERT HUNT

Local melting pot

Lake Highlands is home to many religious communities

Shortly after I moved back to Lake Highlands, my morning walk took me past a rather nondescript building with an unusual sign — the North Texas Hindu Mandir on Baronne Circle.

My curiosity was piqued. I hadn’t thought of a Hindu Temple in Dallas. Soon I learned that many of my neighbors were descended from Hindus who came from India via the West Indies decades ago. Their Pandit (teacher and worship leader) worked as an engineer in a local tech firm, and this mandir, or temple, was their spiritual home.

Eventually I learned that my neighbors included people of many religions, and like the Hindus, they were repurposing churches and shops, or even constructing new buildings, for their worship, education and fellowship.

My next discovery was a Bahai center on Plano Road on the way to my favorite donut shop. The Bahai religion was founded in 19th-century Iran but quickly spread worldwide with its message of the unity of all peoples and religions. Persecuted in Iran, Bahais are now found across the globe and have become a multi-ethnic religion.

Further afield was the Buddhist Temple of Dallas, founded by Thai Buddhists, with its classic Thai-style temple tucked into a leafy neighborhood on Stultz Road. Like most Buddhist organizations in Dallas (and there are many), they offer meditation classes and public celebrations of Buddhist holidays accompanied by cultural shows and food booths.

Not far north on Greenville Avenue in Richardson is the Sikh Gurdwara Singh Sabha serving Sikhs from much of North Dallas and Richardson. The Sikhs came from the Punjab province in India, where their first gurus taught the unity of all religions and the commonality of all monotheistic religious revelation.

Continuing north to Centennial Drive, we find the Islamic Association of North Texas, with its mosque, school and medical clinic. It serves the substantial Muslim population in Lake Highlands, Richardson and much of North Dallas.

Lake Highlands is also home to large numbers of migrants from Cuba, Central America, Brazil and Mexico. We tend to assume those from Latin America are Catholic, yet alongside Roman Catholicism are indigenous expressions of religion that have grown up out of the potent interactions between traditional African religions, indigenous American religions and Christianity.

So sure enough, I found shops acting as religious centers in the Garland Road area for Santaria (primarily from the Caribbean) and Candomblé (primarily from Brazil). These religions center around home worship, but they’re represented by dealers in ritual objects and fortune tellers who are usually ritual leaders as well.

When I was growing up, religion in Lake Highlands meant Christianity, visible from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church at Ferndale and Walnut down to Lake Highlands Presbyterian at Audelia and Northwest Highway. And more than a dozen others around and between.

Now, perhaps less visible but very real, are the old, but new to many of us, religions of those who continue to make Lake Highlands a vibrant neighborhood for all of us.

DR. ROBERT HUNT, PHD, is director of SMU’s Perkins School of Theology Global Theological Education department. For information about helping support the Faith section, call 214-560-4212.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

PARK CITIES BAPTIST CHURCH / 3933 Northwest Pky / pcbc.org Bible Study 9:15 / Worship Services 10:45 Traditional, Contemporary, Spanish Speaking / 214.860.1500

WILSHIRE BAPTIST CHURCH / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100 Open to all / Worship at 11 a.m. Sunday School at 10 a.m. / wilshirebc.org

BIBLE CHURCHES

NORTH HIGHLANDS BIBLE CHURCH / nhbc.net / 9626 Church Rd. 214.348.9697 / Sun: LifeQuest 9:00 am / Worship 10:30 am / Sun: Youth 6-8 pm/Wed: AWANA 6-8 pm

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185 Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel 10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

EPISCOPAL

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH / stjd.org Worship: Sat 5:30 pm, Sun 8 & 10:30 am / Christian Ed Sunday Morning & Weekdays, see calendar on website / 214.321.6451 / 848 Harter Rd.

LUTHERAN

CENTRAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA / 1000 Easton Road A Welcoming and Affirming Church / Rev. K.M. Truhan Sunday School 9:00 am / Worship 10:30 am / CentralLutheran.org

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH (ELCA) / 6202 E Mockingbird Ln. Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

METHODIST

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH RICHARDSON

503 N Central Exwy / fumcr.com / 972.235.8385 / Dr. Clayton Oliphint 8:45, 9:45, 11:00 am Traditional / 11:00 am Modern

LAKE HIGHLANDS UMC / 9015 Plano Rd. / 214.348.6600 / lhumc.com Sunday Morning 9:30 am Sunday School / 10:30 am coffee Worship 8:30 am & 11:00 am Traditional / 11:00 am Contemporary

PRESBYTERIAN

LAKE HIGHLANDS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / 214.348.2133 8525 Audelia Road at NW Hwy. / www.lhpres.org Sunday Worship 10:00am, Traditional 1st & 3rd, Contemporary 2nd & 4th(5th). Sunday School/Christian Ed Classes: 11:00am

NORTHPARK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / Summer Worship at 10:00 a.m. www.northparkpres.org / 9555 N. Central Expy. / 214.363.5457 Welcoming Seekers, Thinkers and Doers.

NORTHRIDGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / 6920 Bob-O-Link Dr. 214.827.5521 / www.northridgepc.org / Sunday Worship 10:00 am Church that feels like church and welcomes like family.

PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/ 4124 Oak Lawn Ave Sunday Worship 9:00 & 11:00 A.M. To all this church opens wide her doors - pcpc.org

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