What do you do when you’re a thriving resort town with plenty of faithful people and no place to build all the churches you need? You build together, of course, in one spot, offering one model of architectural and communal integrity. That’s what Vail, Colo., based Vail Interfaith Chapel has done as it has sought to serve the spiritual needs of its residents.
The Chapel houses six faith traditions under one roof: Baptist, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Episcopalian. Yesterday’s Denver Post noted such distinction:
The interfaith community was born in the very early days of Vail, said Don Simonton, who was a minister for the earliest Protestant services held in Vail. Simonton now serves as treasurer of the Vail Religious Foundation, and is the director of the building committee for the new interfaith chapel being built in Edwards. The new chapel will house four congregations.
Vail Associates presented the early congregations with a proposal to build a single church on land the ski company would donate to them, so that’s what they did, Simonton said. The groundbreaking for the Vail Chapel happened in the summer of 1968, and the building was finished and dedicated in the fall of 1969, he said.
That’s the site of the Vail Interfaith Chapel today. The Vail Religious Foundation was already operating at the time, but there wasn’t much money to build the chapel, Simonton said. Everyone put their heads together and found the right people to help contribute.