es. The Catholic Church runs the
University of Dallas, a liberal-arts university in Irving, as well. The
Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in
the Arts District oversees the second-largest Catholic membership in the
United States. The Society of Jesus, a
prestigious group of Catholic priests,
operates the Jesuit College
Preparatory School of Dallas and is
active in the community.
The Eastern Orthodox Church,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Non-Denominational
Christianity, as well as Unitarian and
Unity faiths, are Christian sects that
also find a home in the Metroplex.
The city is also home to a large
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints community, with fifteen stakes
throughout Dallas and surrounding
suburbs. Its first center of worship in
the city, the Dallas Texas Temple, was
built in 1984.
Furthermore, a large Muslim communi-
ty exists in DFW and operates the old-
est mosque in Texas (located in
Denton) as well as some 40 other
mosques. The oldest mosque in
Dallas, Masjid Al-Islam, was founded
in the 1960’s.
Dallas and its surrounding suburbs
also have a significant Jewish population. Temple Emanu-El, the largest synagogue in the South/Southwest, was
founded in 1873 and is affiliated with
the American Reform Jewish
Movement.
Dallas also has a large Buddhist
community. Immigrants from Thailand,
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal,
Tibet, Japan, China, Taiwan and Sri
Lanka have all contributed to the
Buddhist population, which frequents
numerous Buddhist temples dot the
Metroplex. Also, there are substantial Sikh and Hindu communities in
the Metroplex and its surrounding
suburbs.
There is even a special celebration
for those who do not align themselves with any religion, but otherwise require faith’s sense of community. The Winter SolstiCelebration
has been going on for the past 15
years, and has become a minor
Dallas cultural tradition for the “
spiritual but not religious.”
