This is a time of transitions, both for Grace-Street
Ministry and for the way homeless services are delivered in Portland.
In our small ministry, co-founder Pastor Mair Honan has
retired, and I’ve been hired as the new Executive Director. Thankfully, Pastor Mair remains
connected to the ministry as Pastor Emerita, and she is readily available with
her wisdom and advice. At the end
of January, our second-longest serving street minister, Pastor Bob, will also
be retiring (read his farewell blog post in January). As Bob moves away, we will be bringing on another pastor,
Pastor Jessica Moore, and so we will continue to be at full strength on the
street.
Things on the street are in flux as well. There is ongoing controversy about
where a new homeless shelter might be sited, as the outdated Oxford Street
overnight shelter is long overdue for replacement and the pressure to develop
this last bit of the Portland peninsula has become too strong to resist. It is our hope that the homeless will
not be isolated far from downtown.
In spite of its obvious difficulties, the community is vibrant and often
wonderfully generous and supportive.
I fear that isolating them on the outskirts might very well damage their
sense of their own community, but more importantly their connection to the
larger Portland community. So much
has already been taken from them.
I hope their sense of being a part of the world is not the next loss.
And all this is happening as winter is upon us, and the day
shelter has cut their hours significantly, causing the usual anxiety about the
cold and dark to ramp up exponentially.
It’s at this time of year, particularly under
circumstances such as these, that the co-pastors of Grace-Street are the most
needed. We bring love, we bring
light, we bring comfort and we do our level best to channel the divine and walk
with them into the sorrow and the fear.
It’s a blessing and a privilege to be able to do this work.
Pastor Jeff Logan