Index of Rev. Grey's Columns

My parents taught us songs about what a wonderful world it would be if each of us had enough to eat, enough time to play, and a good place to stay. Our homes were always simple, just the essentials. But within them my parents created a generous spirit of hospitality for all our friends. Most of us reading this have some kind of home, a place that shelters us from winter's freezing temperatures and spring's thunderstorms. Sometimes homes provide more than simple shelter. They can be places of refuge from the pressures of other parts of our lives. They can be a place that helps ground us for moving out in the world. This can be so whether we live with family or friends, or alone. Of course, it is also true that sometimes we encounter family tensions at home that make home feel like more of a battleground. I don't want to idealize homes. But I want to emphasize their importance, for human growth and health.

A few years ago, the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council invited the Interfaith Open Communities to an annual meeting to talk about housing. This led to the Transitional Housing Project. The Interfaith Council helped support the Transitional Housing Project and our church found ways to support it financially at times as well.

A few months ago, Win Kennedy, member of our church and long-time realtor in the neighborhood spoke at a First Forum about what he saw as a decline in affordable housing in our neighborhood. Since then, our Racial Justice Task Force and Social Justice Council teamed up with OWL (Older Women's League), the Interfaith Open Communities, the Hyde Park-Kenwood Conference, and the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council, initiating a community conference to address the changing nature of our community. On April 29 Representatives of various community organizations, the University of Chicago, and our 4th and 5th ward aldermen, Tony Preckwinkle and Leslie Hairston, came to our church and presented on a panel. The many in attendance broke up into three small groups to reflect on what we can do as a community.

I know that several of our church members who needed senior or assisted living have had to leave our neighborhood because there is nowhere in the neighborhood for them to live. I know that some of our members who live on limited incomes are having a hard time staying here in the neighborhood. Perhaps you know someone personally who is touched by these changes. Issues of affordable housing also touch on what kind of diversity we are willing to foster in this community; and what kinds of values we are willing to support. Will we choose to be a community that emphasizes love, caring, and generosity for all?

Some task forces will likely be forming to continue these discussions and take some kinds of action. I will be staying in close touch with these efforts, and want to thank Joan Staples, Kennie James, Allan Lindrup and Ellen LaRue, and many others for providing leadership for this event and witnessing to the possibility of a fairer world for all people.

In faith, with love,

Nina