A Little Tokyo church finds the answer to its prayers

Akagi is among those at Union Church who see divine intervention in the arrival of the Bel Air newcomers. "I believe God sent them here," she said.

There was a time when such intermingling might have been inconceivable.

For 91 years, Union Church has served as a religious and cultural home to its Japanese American patrons -- in good times and bad. In 1942, for example, community members had to gather at its original site a couple of blocks away to embark on their journeys to World War II internment camps.

At its height, in the late 1970s and '80s, Union was packed each Sunday with about 350 people, including many children and young adults.

But the forces of assimilation and gentrification have taken their toll, with only about 120 total attending separate English and Japanese services on a recent Sunday. Most of them came from communities outside Little Tokyo, including Monterey Park, Torrance and the San Fernando Valley.

It was this steady decline that drove Union's interim pastor, the Rev. Masaya Hibino, to seek the Bel Air partnership.

Hibino was attending a meeting of leaders at the Bel Air church in 2007 when he heard its senior pastor, the Rev. Mark Brewer, describe his vision of turning Los Angeles into "the greatest city for Christ" by, among other steps, connecting churches with one another.

Soon after, Hibino approached one of Bel Air's other pastors, the Rev. Enock De Assis, and broached the idea of an association.

"I could not see a bright future . . . if I didn't do something," said Hibino, 78. "I said, 'We need to change our church to reach out to the people who move into this area. We need to do something to come [up] with [a] new kind of worship.' "

Last October, the two congregations inaugurated joint monthly Sunday night services at Union that are known as "The Bridge."

Encouraged by the budding relationship, leaders from both churches are pressing ahead with plans to go weekly, starting after Easter.

Brewer and two other Bel Air pastors -- the Rev. Roger Dermody and De Assis -- believe they can woo downtown's thirtysomething crowd by arranging children's programs and low-cost child care at Union during the week and by inviting local residents to hear the church band play at an open-air plaza next door. They see an opportunity to bring together the area's young professionals and Japanese residents, as well as the homeless of nearby skid row.