LPC and the ‘hood

A group of 10 to 15 of us met for 5 weeks in the fall to talk about Eric Jacobsens’s book Sidewalks in the Kingdom and think a bit about neighbourhood, community and our Church.

Our last week became a rich discussion about LPC’s calling as a church and what our building needs are to meet this calling. We also talked about how church buildings in the 70’s were very functional and how we could improve a sense of beauty not just for Sunday services, but for the building as a whole – the idea of a dedicated chapel with maybe some stained glass came up.

With Engagement on our minds as well as our recent learning about difficulties in creating community in suburbia and new approaches to urban development, we brainstormed about how Lambrick could become more involved/connected to its neighbourhood. Here is some of that discussion:

In thinking about who lives in our neighbourhood (keeping with the definition of a neighbourhood being a 5 minute walk from edge to center), we remembered that there is a Seniors Center right across Feltham from us. There is also Lambrick Park High, the Middle School, and community sports fields very nearby. We thought about the United Church on Feltham, the Anglican Church on San Juan, the Catholic Church on Gordon Head and wondered what kind of joint activities or services we could offer to our neighbourhood.

We dreamed about buying up property around the Church for a housing project, maybe with a bent to university students – who knew about the large vacant lot on the other side of Tyndall? What about our community garden project – or is this something that works better in a high density neighbourhood? Could we host a Gordon head “market” of some kind in the LPC parking lot in summer or fall? How about jazzing up our sign out front to let more people know we are here. And if we had mixed Place and AM Service geographic-based small groups wouldn’t that facilitate carpooling as well as build local community in the Church and throughout Victoria?

What got most of us excited was the discussion about creating a permanent Community Café with internet access, that would be open to the community during the week. The café could be a gathering place in Gordon head, as well as serving:

* pre-school parents dropping kids and picking them up from Wiseways, as well as parents attending sporting events on Saturdays;
* maybe a source of lunch for high school kids as well as the seniors across the street; and
* could provide work for university students.

One of the unique features could be access to a dedicated chapel that would be open to people throughout the week for quiet prayer, reflection or meditation.

There are of course, lots of things that work against the idea, including zoning, finding an entrepreneur with the vision, changes to the building… But we think it is worth some further discussion and exploration. If you would like to join us in that, talk to Margot Spence, Heidi Fandrich, Ross Porter or Doug Makaroff, or James Kingsley and we will make sure you get the details about when we hope to meet in February.

Margot S