Interim Pastor Ben Masters August 2022Our story begins in 2021, during the hottest summer on record for the Twin Cities, with a turning point in the longstanding conversation between this congregation and our campus partner, Our Saviour’s Community Services (OSCS).
In July, leaders from both organizations signed a memorandum of understanding for working together to develop a long-range vision for the 2300 block of Chicago Ave. Our story continues in the deep freeze of January, when new leaders took up the charge to discern such a vision. And in June 2022, they invited you to help write a new chapter. On June 19, OSLC hosted a forum about the work of the long-range property visioning team. Most of forum’s content is summarized in this booklet: https://tiny.cc/OSCS-OSLC (paper copies are available in the church office). You can watch the recording of the forum on our YouTube channel, but first let me share with you this community’s dreams. We have so many dreams! Across six tables, participants kept reaching for post-it notes to jot down another idea. Here are the highlights that people shared: Deeply affordable housing. Apartment buildings. Multigenerational housing. A village of tiny homes. We want to help Our Saviour’s Housing reach the next level. Green building. Solar panels. Geothermal heat. Climate-informed design. We are committed to putting creation care into practice. Make reparations real. Collaborate with a land trust. Empower BIPOC home ownership. Close the racial wealth gap. We can help build equity in the financial and society sense. More space for more ministry. What if we made space for a pre-school, a resource hub, a coffee shop that employs people in supportive housing? How about a playground, more green space, and a place to gather outdoors? Can we imagine classrooms with windows for ELC students? And, always, we need more parking! Threading through our dreaming is a desire for acting with community support. As one note read: Less ‘for.’ More ‘with.’ The property visioning team looks forward to connecting with the community stakeholders you suggested. Next month, team members will attend a series on community engagement from Nexus Community Partners. When snow covers the sleeping soil, the team will craft a plan for building a vision with you, OSCS stakeholders, and our neighbors in Phillips. You can expect to hear updates on this work in the fall. Today, tomorrow, and into the future, commend the property visioning team and all our community dreaming into God’s holy keeping. Onward in the Spirit!
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