Source: Howard County Times
For nearly 40 years, the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center has stood as a pillar of Columbia's unique value of religious inclusion, where different congregations worshipped under the same roof.
But, for some, that ideal is being threatened.
First, the village's Architectural Review process approved a plan to reconfigure the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center, with St. John the Evangelist United Methodist Church moving into a new separate building on the Interfaith campus.
Then last week, village officials approved a plan to place a 16-foot cross on the rear of the new building facing Twin Rivers Road. Some residents say the separate church building featuring a cross, a symbol of Christianity, departs from Columbia's philosophy of religious inclusiveness that began with the 40-year-old Wilde Lake Interfaith Center.