Local houses of worship work to welcome visitors from around the world

John Maloney, an usher at Christ Church Episcopal, is accustomed to meeting tourists who’ve decided to devote a few hours of their Las Vegas vacations to attending weekly Mass.

“I’d say probably every Sunday we get people,” Maloney says, many of whom learn about Christ Church Episcopal — and its location just a short taxi hop from the Strip — from hotel concierges.

So there was nothing out of the ordinary a few Sundays ago when Maloney met a couple who had taken a cab from their hotel to the church. He talked with the couple and, after Mass, asked how they’d be getting back to their hotel.

The couple told Maloney that they’d catch a bus. Maloney offered to drive them back himself. Along the way, Maloney and the couple stopped at Denny’s for breakfast.

“They were so appreciative,” Maloney recalls. “They said, ‘We’ll never forget Christ Church, because you really know how to do things.’ ”

Chauffeur service and a breakfast stopover likely rank as above-and-beyond what even the most hospitable Las Vegas congregations do in ministering to tourists. But Maloney’s experience does underscore a reality of Las Vegas religious ministry: On any given day, and particularly for houses of worship within a few miles of the Strip, downtown Las Vegas or other tourist corridors, transient out-of-towners probably will make up at least part of the flock.

It’s something ministers in most towns don’t face. But, says Rabbi Shea Harlig of Chabad of Southern Nevada, “we are a unique city.”

“People come to Las Vegas from all over the world, so you have people drop in to your church from all over the world,” says the Rev. J. Barry Vaughn, rector of Christ Church Episcopal, 2000 S. Maryland Parkway.

“On one of my first Sundays here, I had a couple who were here for a conference, and they came from Alabama and knew people I knew, because I’m from Alabama,” Vaughn says.

Many, if not most, religious congregations make it a point to greet visitors, even if briefly, sometime before, during or after a service. Others host after-service coffees or social gatherings at which visitors can be made to feel welcome. But, for some congregations, hospitality outreach goes a step further.

For Maloney, taking the Virginia couple out to breakfast was more than performance of his usherly duties.

“They were nice people,” he says. “I could picture myself in the same situation.”

Also, Christ Church Episcopal visitors receive a welcome packet with church information, prayer beads and cards on which the guests can write their names and offer contact information so that the church can keep in touch with them.

“A surprising number do that,” Vaughn says. “It’s a nice bag, like a tote bag. And an added advantage is, it’s bright red, so we can recognize them if they come for coffee.”

Blaine Beckstead, bishop of the Pinnacle Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says the ward welcomes tourists at various times of the year.

The ward’s chapel is near Jones Boulevard and Hacienda Avenue, which, he says, is relatively near the Strip,

“We do get, maybe on a fairly regular basis, visitors who are in from out of town,” Beckstead said. “They might be here for a convention, or sometimes it’ll be families that are meeting down here and staying in one of the time shares, and they come to church.”

Beckstead notes that his ward also is near The Orleans. When Brigham Young University competed in a basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena earlier this year, “we saw probably somewhere in the ballpark of 50 visitors that weekend,” he says.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas accommodates the spiritual needs of tourists via two Strip-situated churches, Guardian Angel Cathedral, 302 Cathedral Way, near Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, and the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer, 55 E. Reno Ave., near Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

Bishop Joseph A. Pepe says both churches are “well-attended” each week by tourists, casino employees who stop in before or after work, and — particularly in the case of the cathedral, which Pepe notes is the diocese’s mother church — local residents who choose to worship there.

Both churches are designed to be not just convenient but “very welcoming” to visitors, Pepe says. Ushers, for example, are “very sensitive to the fact they’re dealing with people from all over the world and, therefore, they bring kind of a welcoming spirit.”

For some tourists, worshipping during a Las Vegas vacation takes serious effort. For example, Harlig says, “on the Sabbath, we don’t drive, and we have people who walk from Mandalay Bay to us.”

Chabad of Southern Nevada is at 1261 Arville St., off of West Charleston Boulevard, so, Harlig says, “we’re talking a two- to two-and-a-half hours’ walk.”

Also, Harlig says visitors wishing to say the Kaddish, a mourner’s prayer prayed by at least 10 people, while visiting Las Vegas have called to ask if he could arrange for others to join in the prayer. One visitor, he adds, even offered to pay his fellow mourners for their assistance.

Meeting traveling worshippers’ needs isn’t just a matter of courtesy, Vaughn says.

“Hospitality is central to both the Old and the New Testaments. You can’t go through the Scriptures without seeing how important this is,” Vaughn says. “The Old Testament talks about how important it is to welcome the stranger, the person who has no claim on your kindness, and Jesus was absolutely adamant about that.

“Beyond that, a church is not going to survive in this day and time unless they do a good job of encouraging people to visit and welcoming visitors,” Vaughn adds. “But the most important thing is, it’s just the right thing to do.”

Why are some visitors so determined to incorporate a religious service into a Las Vegas vacation? “I’m avoiding, in my head, saying maybe they come here and need to,” Vaughn jokes.

“Going to church is not nearly as strong as it used to be,” he continues. “But it’s like any other good habit. You wouldn’t take a vacation from brushing your teeth or any other thing you do on a regular basis, so why would you want to take a vacation from your spiritual life?”

The Internet makes it easy to find a place of worship in just about any vacation destination. “I think it’s almost replaced the Yellow Pages,” Vaughn says. “We just revamped our website, and I think it’s more helpful than ever in helping people find us.”

But old school still works, too. Ann Heardt, office manager of University United Methodist Church, 4412 S. Maryland Parkway, says that when tourists attend the church, they’re asked how they learned about it.

“Probably one out of five visitors will say, ‘The hotel told us about your church.’ ” Heardt says. “And I know in the past we have sent out mass letters to some of the hotels telling them when our Christmas and Easter services are.”

Harlig says most visitors already know of Chabad of Southern Nevada before they arrive here. For many, he adds, “unless they know they could get a service here, they wouldn’t come to town.”

Pepe notes tourists often participate in confession at both the cathedral and shrine, and that tourists who attend Mass at the cathedral sometimes also make a point to “ask for a special blessing.”

“I always greet them at the door after Mass,’ ” he says. “And, invariably, people from all over the world come and say: ‘Could you pray over me or bless me? I have a daughter at home sick or a mother who’s dying.”

Sometimes, a tourist even will approach local clergy to seek spiritual guidance.

“That happens when people get into trouble in town,” Harlig says. “It can be financial trouble. Sometimes it’s religious. Maybe they’ve done something inappropriate.

“Sometimes it feels more comfortable because I’m not the rabbi in their community and they have something — some vice they’re dealing with — and, because I don’t really know them and don’t know their family, they’d rather talk to me than someone they know.”

Vaughn hasn’t experienced that. While members of his congregation do ask him for guidance, he says, “I can’t remember somebody who identified themselves as a tourist who did that.”

He laughs.

“On Good Friday, I did have a tourist come to our Good Friday service,” Vaughn adds, “and he wanted to find a place where he could go listen to jazz and blues.”

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.