Temple Micah, a Reform Jewish group, and St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, which have shared an edifice on a landlord-tenant relationship for seven years, are embarked on negotiations for a permanent Joint relationship, the two congregations announced this weekend. Shortly after its founding in the rehabilitated southwest Washington area, the Temple Micah congregation in 1966 rented the St. Augustine’s edifice.
In 1971, while the rental relationship continued, they agreed to look forward to enhanced communication and common activities. Temple Micah was permitted to put a permanent altar in the edifice, a Mezuzah on the main doorway post and a sign on the lawn. Now a 10-member joint committee representing the laity and clergy from the church and the temple is seeking to negotiate an understanding “whereby the financial obligations and other responsibilities for and rights in and benefits of the building and facilities may be equally shared.”
Sidney Booth, vice-chairman of the committee and a former Temple Micah president, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “the religious integrity of each group will be scrupulously maintained.” Rabbi Bernard Mehlman and the Rev. Thomas R. Smith, the clergymen of the congregations, said in a joint statement that “the potential for exchange and enrichment of each tradition makes this experiment not only good practical sense but a sound theological hope.” Temple Micah’s congregation, which has steadily grown in size and activities, now numbers about 300 adult members including several Blacks. St. Augustine’s has about 200 members.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
