Churches try different tactics for next Sunday’s marathon
It’s not quite turning water into wine, but Pittsburgh churches ranging from cathedrals to startups have had to make lemonade of the lemons handed to them on the first Sunday of May.
As they prepare for the arrival of some 28,000 runners in next Sunday’s marathon — accompanied by many more thousands of spectators and a maze of street closures — some have canceled or rescheduled services; others are bracing for worship attendance and offering collections that are fractions of their normal sizes. At least one church is decamping for an out-of-town retreat.
Many are also trying to make the best of it with runners’ devotional services, pasta dinners for carb-hungry marathoners and other special events.
But there’s no getting around it: Marathon Sunday is a disruption for about 60 churches along the route from the East End to Downtown to the South Side.
By all accounts, when the Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon launched in 2009, there was tension between organizers and the dozens of churches it disrupted at short notice. And relations have improved in recent years, with pastors lauding the marathon’s efforts to meet with them and coordinate as best as possible.
“They’ve been very communicative and cooperative and do a lot of outreach to us,” said the Rev. Brian Evans of First English Evangelical Lutheran Church on
Grant Street Downtown. This year, for example, the marathon is providing it a golf cart so that people who have difficulty walking much of a distance, and who would normally park on Grant, can get to church from a parking garage. “But there’s still a large impact in that our worship attendance is probably 20 percent of what it would be on any other Sunday. That doesn’t change the reality that it’s a disruption.”
And the disruptions don’t end with the marathon. Downtown churches in particular face street closures multiple times each year for charity walks, movie shoots and other events.
Pastors said that a walk to benefit multiple sclerosis research last Sunday resulted in street closures and that they had received no advance notice.
“It was just a disaster,” said Rev. Evans. “Many people had to turn around and go home who were trying to get to church.”
Pastors hasten to add that they applaud the marathon and other civic events. They just believe there’s room for everyone if their needs are considered.
“We’re committed to Downtown Pittsburgh,” said Rev. Evans. “Anything that brings people Downtown, we support. But there needs to be some coordination with the other folks who are down here.”
Pastors estimate about 1,200 people, many commuting from outlying neighborhoods or suburbs, typically worship at five historic Downtown churches — St. Mary of Mercy Catholic, First Presbyterian, First Lutheran, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and Smithfield United Church of Christ.
“This church has been here 242 years,” said the Rev. Tom Hall, pastor of First Presbyterian. “This was a frontier town, this was a steel town, now it’s a tech town, and we’re still here.”
He draws on mandates from biblical prophets to “seek the welfare of the city,” and he cites numerous programs his and other churches provide, such as food assistance and socialservice referrals to the needy, not to mention upkeep of some of Pittsburgh’s most historic sites.
And he said the city should do more to prevent outside disruptions, such as a movie shoot a year ago that led to almost zero attendance at its annual Maundy Thursday service, a major event on the church calendar.
Help is on the way, said Guy Costa, chief operations officer in Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration.
“The city’s going to require any event permitted on Downtown streets to communicate plans with Downtown churches a minimum of two weeks in advance,” he said.
Patrice Matamoros, CEO of Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, said when the race was launched six years ago, organizers publicized the route but didn’t think through all the ramifications for churches. A tense meeting with pastors followed, and in ensuing years, she’s met with them regularly to coordinate where possible. The marathon has also offered such things as providing race registrations for affected churches whose members want to run for a church-related cause.
“We feel badly because that’s something we wouldn’t want to do – stop somebody from going to church,” she said. “We really try to work as best we can and provide as many resources as we can to a church. At the same time, we look at it as an opportunity to say you have on race day over 26,000 runners who are going to be running past your front door. What do you want your message to be to those runners?
‘‘We’re trying to take a tough situation for them and trying to make it as good as we possibly can.’’
Many are hoping to capitalize on the event by organizing cheering sections for marathoners, or choirs to serenade them.
The historic Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside is canceling its 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday services but marking the weekend with a “Bach marathon” on its organ all day Saturday, plus a Sunday night preview of a chant-infused Eucharist service to be launched later in the year. Shadyside Presbyterian is hosting a pasta dinner on Saturday for carbhungry marathoners and fielding a relay team to raise funds for relief in Haiti.
Allegheny Center Alliance Church is the official North Side support site for the marathon and, while canceling one of its weekend services, is launching a fleet of members running to raise funds for Urban Impact, its social-service affiliate. Over the years, the church has hosted a pancake breakfast and greeted the runners with balloons, cheers and music.
It isn’t just long-established churches affected. Orchard Hill Church, a large congregation in the North Hills, launched a new Cultural District campus in 2013, which meets at the Omni William Penn Hotel. That campus is canceling services on Marathon Sunday.
Last year, when it rented space at the August Wilson Center, “we were on the street passing things out,” said Orchard Hill business administrator Kevin Cotter. “But with where our new location is, the marathon doesn’t go anywhere near there.”
“As long as we’re Downtown, we’ll probably never be able to have church on Marathon weekend,” he said. But he hopes that when the church finds a permanent location, it can set up a tent and pass out water and cheer.
East Liberty Presbyterian Church plans a churchwide family retreat at a camp in Slippery Rock. But that will likely draw only a fraction of those who normally attend, said its pastor, the Rev. Randy Bush.
“We’ve tried different things over the years, [worshiping at] different times, Sunday afternoon, Saturday evening,” he said. The retreat is “nice, but it’s not a direct replacement or an effective replacement. By not having worship on that Sunday morning, we do lose a chance for fellowship, for programming, and for just maintaining our witness in the community.“
He said he recognized that holding the event on other days could be equally disruptive to synagogues, temples or mosques. “This is not to privilege our need. However Sunday morning is the dominant worship time for the Christian community so that is a reality.”
Added the Rev. Jonathon Jensen of Calvary Episcopal: “I’m glad Pittsburgh offers this [marathon] to showcase our city. A lot of good things have some smaller negative consequences, but it’s worth it. It brings in people, energy, money. That’s all good for the city of Pittsburgh.”