The office of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota have been located in Minneapolis for years. We’ve been located in this building particularly since the 90’s. We knew early on in this Episcopate that this building no longer served the needs of ECMN, but it’s been a long road to where we are now.
And it hasn’t gone perfectly.
As the Trustees approached the office transition for ECMN’s Bishop and Missioners, they wanted to enter into it with the same heart and vision that we encourage faith communities to have: where is God at work, and how can we join God in that work?
Yet when we are reminded that our God is a God of timing, we recognize that, maybe, just maybe, it was all leading up to this.
This time, and this place. North Minneapolis.
God calls us to move into the neighborhood, to join God in what God is doing there. And North Minneapolis is the perfect place for ECMN to do this. Not because it’s so broken and in need of repair, but because there are churches and organizations who have been doing this good work for decades, and we have so much to learn from them.
This place is going to work for us both in its structure and space, but also in its location.
But we also wanted to make sure that we were locating ourselves IN a community. We knew that we needed to learn and grow through relationship, that we needed to be connected to our neighbors, and be working to steward the gifts and resources that God has given us to be useful and usable in that space.
When looking for contractors, we chose a contractor that was going to work for us, and that understood missional work and sourcing labor and products from the community we were building in.
And as we outfit the space to meet the needs of ECMN, we’re taking into consideration the widest possible definition of that community – we’re asking ourselves questions like: how will this space be useful in 20, 40, 60 years? How can this be a usable asset for every faith community in the state? How could this space serve our neighbors?
There are so many things that we don’t know yet, so many things that we need our neighbors to teach us. And we’re excited about that. Because its in learning from our neighbors that we form relationship, and relationships are the catalyst for transformation.
As we prepare our new building for ECMN, we’ll seek to engage in God’s invitation to us – stepping into this new neighborhood, and into God’s call for us in this new place.
Be on the lookout for an invitation to the open house for ECMN Broadway edition. We’re hoping to be in the new space in early Fall.
Source: Bishop Brian Prior – A New Home for ECMN