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Want to know more about the Baha’i  faith? New to Greensboro and looking for a Lutheran church? Hundreds of local religious institutions add to the diversity of the Piedmont Triad.

 Some rent storefronts, while others have million-dollar sanctuaries. Some are known for massive outreach programs, others for their singles ministries and free after-school tutorials. There are Conservative  and Reform synagogues and Baptist groups — Southern, Independent and Full Gospel, to name a few.

And they are active.

As tanks rolled into Iraq in March 2003 , members of Frieden’s Lutheran Church  in Gibsonville grasped threads of a shawl during morning worship services and mailed them to President George W. Bush.

At St. Pius X Catholic Church  in Greensboro, members  are given the chance to dig deep into their pockets to fight world hunger.

Numerous houses of worship conduct back-to-school giveaways, with fresh haircuts, bookbags and supplies that parents might not have the money to buy.

The interfaith religious community has made a big imprint in Greensboro’s history. More than four decades  ago, 12 people from three denominations met to discuss starting an inner-city ministry.  By 2003, the Greensboro Urban Ministry was supported by more than half the churches and synagogues in Greensboro.

 The physical structures also add to local history. When the Quakers built columns on their meeting house on Asheboro Street in 1910 , the predecessor to First Friends was one of the first signs of a congregation that was going mainstream.

The modern slanted roof at the historic Providence Baptist Church symbolizes urban renewal in the black community, showing what was lost and gained.

The Greensboro Buddhist Temple on Liberty Road has done that with colors and sounds of an ancient culture.

Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church is largely hand-carved, with a pink granite exterior, high ceilings and period sculptures. Above the main entrance rests a statue of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

“It is among the monuments left to us by the success of past generations,” Benjamin Briggs of Preservation Greensboro  said. “It should be called a cathedral.”

West Market Street United Methodist Church’s building, with windows recycled from the German pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, is often overlooked by drivers maneuvering through Greensboro’s downtown.

Last, but not least, the sand-colored stones imported from Israel for a wall at Temple Emanuel on Jefferson Road celebrate the congregation’s Jewish roots.
 
Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com