After 11 fantastic years as pastor of Trinity United Methodist in beautiful Ballard, I have spent the last couple weeks moving across town to pastor University Temple United Methodist. Change brings both grief over the loss of connection and community, and, at the same time, exhilaration toward the possibilities that come with new location, new community and new connections. The nice thing, for me, is that I'm simply moving from northwest to northeast Seattle. Although I change congregations I don't have to lose friendships or my own basic orientation as a Seattleite.
I loved living in Ballard. It's a stable part of town, and even though a raging minority goes all NIMBY whenever homeless issues surface, for the most part the neighborhood was gracious, generous and truly desiring that everyone survive and thrive. I'll miss living among those good people. I'll miss that stability and I'll miss Terry, my Real Change vendor.
In the University District there is a different feel. The streets are more alive and energetic, more ethnically and generationally diverse. The street still has a bit of grit with an edge vibrating at almost all times. It's an urban edge, and it's the reason many of us like living in cities. I've always believed that a well-adjusted urban dweller is one who is fascinated by the edge and is skeptical of normality and order. I don't know about you but whenever I'm in the suburbs with those "not a blade of grass out of place" houses I get the willies and want to get out of there fast. But in the city with the diversity and pulsating animation that can be felt on the street I always feel that I belong. I like the city. I like people. I like seeing things out of place. I like life in its many splendid colors.
There is a downside to city living. The secrets aren't hidden. At the Temple we have a needle-exchange program in the alley; we house ROOTS, a young adult shelter for the growing horror of young adult displacement in our society; we participate in Teen Feed events; and we run a thrift store for the poor. In other words, by moving outside Ballard with its residential stability I am now immersed inside a neighborhood of greater complexity where the poor are visible.
In such an environment it is of great importance that churches speak up for those who fall down in the alleys. Indeed a University District faith presence will continually connect the academic life of the University of Washington campus -- with its =intellectual, artistic, imaginative riches -- to a liberating presence in the alleys. It is the alley that reveals the dysfunction of our militaristic capitalist way of life that creates poverty of soul, of status and of possibilities. It is my hope that the Temple might become useful in connecting the academy to the alley in ways that bring redemption and hope.