YOUNGSTOWN – It doesn’t take much effort for Father Edward Noga and Rev. Paul W. Heine to find reasons to bond.

Father Noga, pastor of Youngstown St. Patrick Parish, and Rev. Heine, of Martin Luther Lutheran Church, lead inner-city churches on the city’s South Side. They preside over blended congregations. They live on or near church property, so they are acutely aware of social and economic problems in their neighborhoods, especially in terms of home foreclosures and abandoned properties.

Listening to their conversation makes it easy to understand why their bishops have encouraged them to unite their congregations around common causes.

The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Northeastern Ohio Synod entered into a covenant almost a decade ago that calls for Christian unity through prayer, study and actions. Bishop George Murry, S.J., and Lutheran Bishop Elizabeth Eaton approved the Lutheran-Catholic Covenant Action Plan for 2008-11. Among other things, the plan encourages neighboring congregations to live their faith by identifying and implementing shared ministry goals.

“This is the latest example of congregational cooperation,” said Tom Sauline, a consultant in the Diocese of Youngstown’s Office of Religious Education and co-convener of the Lutheran-Catholic Covenant Commission here. Area Catholic and Lutheran churches have been gathering for Advent and Lenten study reflections or facilitating pulpit exchanges for more than eight years, he noted. The former New Hope Academy grade school in the old St. Patrick School building also was a Lutheran-Catholic initiative.

Cooperation makes sense because “More gets done when we do it together,” said Father Noga, who has been pastor of St. Patrick on Oak Hill Avenue for more than 20 years.

“It’s a Matthew 25 thing,” said Rev. Heine, referring to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, in which Jesus charges His followers to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger and visit prisoners.

Rev. Heine came to Youngstown about two years ago from Trinity Lutheran Church in downtown Columbus, where the neighborhood consisted of commercial buildings, he said. He lives down the block from Martin Luther Lutheran Church, which is at Clearmount and Hudson avenues, in a residential neighborhood.

Asked for his impressions of Youngstown, one of Rev. Heine’s first observations was a “profound sense of hopelessness – not just among people up and down the street, but among the leaders,” he said. So many rivalries and factions had been created among people that “no good idea was judged on its own merits,” but by who presented the idea, he added.

The neighborhood has improved in the last two years, Rev. Heine said. It’s a quieter neighborhood with less gunfire, which he credits to the efforts of Youngstown Police. Some cooperation exists between residents to look out for each other and take care of their surroundings, rather than wait for someone else to do the work, he said.

What hasn’t improved is the housing stock. Beautiful, well-kept homes exist on Clearmount Avenue, but they stand alongside many vacant homes that have been abandoned, or lost in foreclosures. Some are decaying rapidly, with sagging porches, broken windows and boarded-up entryways. Others have been stripped of aluminum siding and other valuable, recyclable materials. The buying and selling of homes on the Internet also has negatively affected the neighborhood. An out-of-state woman who purchased two homes near Martin Luther Lutheran Church recently called Rev. Heine to seek his help in selling them. She told him she hadn’t seen the homes before buying them and wasn’t planning to invest in them. “It just holds the neighborhood captive,” Rev. Heine said of homes like these.

Rev. Heine also dislikes what he called “the mischaracterization of the neighborhood as down-and-out people who do desperate things,” he said. These homeowners tend to be longtime residents and family-minded people who want a good life. “Every house has a story, and all the stories are different,” he said. “I love this neighborhood. I know these neighbors better than anywhere else I’ve lived.”

The streets surrounding St. Patrick Church also are largely residential, but about 70 percent of the land in that neighborhood is now vacant, Father Noga said. Those residents who remain “have lived there forever,” he added.

Father Noga and lay leaders of St. Patrick Parish have launched neighborhood revitalization efforts in recent years by acquiring various properties. Some were part of a swap with the City of Youngstown, which resulted in construction of a new children’s playground near the old St. Patrick School (now a Summit Academy campus). Others were used for parking lot improvements, a Habitat for Humanity home construction site and vegetable gardening. Church members also mow grass and clean up many other abandoned lots “because we’re tired of looking at the mess,” he said.

Even though the vast majority of both churches’ parishioners live outside of the city, “If we got a representative group together, regardless of where they live, their concerns would be identical,” Father Noga said. “I think our churches would pretty much mirror each other.”

In the new year, when these pastors begin to bring their congregations together, they believe the conversation will encompass many topics: Housing conditions; block watches (“We want to be a hub for that,” Rev. Heine said); empowering residents to take ownership of their neighborhoods; and participating in local government by attending meetings and speaking out on important topics.

Rev. Heine said his congregation is generally very good about supporting acts of charity. “Issues of justice are a lot more difficult. To change the system is what we really want to be about,” he said.

As Father Noga and Rev. Heine have been getting to know each other, other movements are underway in the city. The Raymond John Wean Foundation provided funding for the creation of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative and the hiring of community organizers to work with residents on issues of safety, economic development, financial security and more. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a $2.7 million award to the City of Youngstown as part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Act, to help communities affected by high numbers of foreclosures and predatory lending schemes. Youngstown has applied for additional NSP money from the State of Ohio – money that can be used to demolish or renovate structures, depending on needs.

Rev. Heine said he’s very interested in working with MVOC and getting block watch groups to make recommendations about setting priorities in the city’s wards.

Father Noga said his goal is to demystify the political process so church members can discuss common issues and choose a course of action. “Let’s learn the process and make a statement,” he said.

The creation of MVOC and NSP funding award was coincidental to the development of the Lutheran-Catholic Covenant Action Plan, but it’s further proof that the right conversations are taking place at the right time, Sauline said.

Debora Shaulis Flora is a veteran journalist working in Youngstown