TV Reviews : Engrossing Portrait of an Interracial Church

With so much emphasis now on the church as a potential agent of healing in the L.A. riots’ tense aftermath, local viewers may look with curiosity--and perhaps even jealousy--upon San Francisco’s remarkably interracial and vital Glide Memorial Church, subject of the engrossing PBS documentary “Maya Angelou: Rainbow in the Clouds” (tonight at 9 on KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15, at 8 on KVCR-TV Channel 24).

Glide Church is probably too exceptional a case to portend much of a trend in the Christian church at large, but students of religion and urban affairs alike would do well to tune in this hourlong special and consider how the congregation’s success in the community might be emulated.

Formerly just another dying church in San Francisco’s run-down Tenderloin district, Glide was resurrected by the Rev. Cecil Williams, a no-nonsense black pastor who has managed to attract the most ethnically (and, apparently, economically) diverse congregation fathomable.

It’s an almost unimaginable cultural and theological hybrid--of the traditional black church, with its loose, joyous worship and intense preaching; of the evangelical church, with its eagerness to bring stragglers in to hear about Jesus; and of the liberal church, with its emphasis on artistic expression (an interpretive dance routine about surviving incest), not to mention its social activism (the aggressive distribution of “safe sex” kits to unwitting street people) and inclusiveness (a gay couple with AIDS sings Glide’s praises). It’s a church that actually goes on marches through the seamy streets, its rainbow coalition happily shouting “It’s recovery time!”

Writer, poet and actress Maya Angelou (perhaps best known for “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”) is not only the program’s host and frequently tearful interviewer, but also a member and frequent preacher at Glide. This hour is closer, then, to a commissioned testimonial than an objective report. An outside voice would have brought Glide’s idiosyncrasy into better comparative focus for viewers, and the program’s one real failing is not making any attempt to suggest what Glide’s victories might or might not mean to a larger church world segregated in almost every way.

Then again, Angelou’s personal approach packs a punch, especially when she’s questioning former drug dealers and the like about how Glide’s outreach turned them around. It’s a wholly effective piece of advocacy journalism: You may just find yourself tempted to book a flight out Saturday to catch the Sunday morning service.