Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church is a
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
located at 6601 Bradley Boulevard in
Bethesda,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, in the United States.
Founded in 1900 in a
carriage house
A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.
In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, initially as a
Sunday school
A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West.
Su ...
, the congregation relocated to Bethesda in 1956. The sanctuary was completed in 1965 and the pipe organ was added in 1972. In 2002, Covenant Hall and a gathering space were completed.
Bethesda Jewish Congregation
The church has a unique partnership with the Bethesda Jewish Congregation, an unaffiliated
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
congregation and
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
, in which they share the same space for worship. It is believed that this arrangement, dating from 1967, is the oldest such relationship in the United States.
In 1991 the Bethesda Jewish Congregation and Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church signed a pact,
and renewed as a
covenant in November 2003, that reads:
[
]
We, the members of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church and the Bethesda Jewish Congregation, form together this covenant to honor the Intimate and Infinite God of Creation, the One God we both worship. Taking to heart the biblical charge to be a light to the nations, we seek to offer a prophetic vision of interfaith partnership in a pluralistic world. Continuing a relationship begun in 1967, as spiritual siblings sharing sacred space, we commit ourselves to:
*Acknowledge and celebrate our commonalities and differences;
*Foster appreciation for the richness of our respective traditions;
*Encourage curiosity and dialogues between our two communities of faith;
*Bear witness to our faith in cooperative activity in the world;
*Create with each other what we cannot create separately.
Recognizing the word of our great teachers, we commit ourselves to fulfill the Great Commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your might. With deepest gratitude, we pledge to continue to celebrate the light bestowed upon us. May this union of spirit and space spark a flame of respect and understanding throughout the world.
References
External links
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Presbyterian churches in Maryland
Buildings and structures in Bethesda, Maryland
Churches in Montgomery County, Maryland
Bethesda Jewish Congregation
Churches completed in 1956
Religious organizations established in 1900
Religious organizations established in 1964
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