Seriously. Who knew that an open hearing on a Master Development Plan could be a spiritual experience? Who knew that after over five years of hearings, meetings, reviews, redesigns, rebuttals, EIRs, hearings, meetings, reviews and RE-redesigns we would end up with a UNANIMOUS City Council supporting the All Saints vision for new facilities for mission and ministry in the Pasadena Civic Center?
Who knew that the Open Hearing ... we were Agenda Item #20 scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ... would last until 10:20 p.m. ... with council deliberations to follow. Who knew that 45 people would sign up to speak to the plan ... and 40 of them would be supportive. Not just supportive -- but eloquently enthusiastic about the vision, design and planning of world class architecture created to give contemporary articulation to traditional themes in resonance with the iconic buildings already on the All Saints campus.
And although the hearing was about approving a "master plan" -- the massing, placement and density of the proposed buildings -- it was also about the ministries those buildings will incubate. Cultivate. Facilitate. Originate.
Again and again as speaker after speaker came to the microphone, they began their two minutes before the Mayor and Council with how the work and witness of All Saints Church had touched them. Their families. Their organization. Their lives.
- All Saints incubated the AIDS Service Center which now serves the greater San Gabriel Valley ...
- All Saints is where I learned to sing in the children's choir 35 years ago and where I'm raising my daughter now ...
- When I married my husband at All Saints Church ...
- We are building a youth program for young people in this community who aren't here yet and these buildings will give us the capacity to serve them ...
- I am not a member of All Saints but I am a member of the Pasadena community that is better because of the work they do for all of us ...
It was humbling. It was inspiring. And -- at the end of the day (or night, more accurately) ... the City Council after over five years of hearings, meetings, reviews, redesigns, rebuttals and EIRs gave us their unanimous consent to move forward.
From the statement issued by the rector to the parish:
The Master Plan we submitted last night has been refined, strengthened and improved by constructive and creative feedback received from the wider Pasadena community during its long and comprehensive approval process of hearings, studies and community consultations.We've got a long ways to go before we break ground ... much less move in! ... but we are infinitely closer because of last night's vote of confidence by the City Council. And infinitely inspired by the great cloud of witnesses who spoke -- as well as those who wrote letters, sent emails, attended house meetings, and kept the faith during this long approval process.
The unanimous City Council support for our Master Plan demonstrates the power of authentic community to work to bridge differences through cooperation and compromise. We will continue to live out our longtime commitment to “Make Glad the City” as we design, build and commission these buildings for our ongoing mission of turning the human race into the human family.
We are excited to move into the design and implementation phase as the next step in realizing our long-held dream to increase All Saints’ capacity for service to Pasadena and to bring world class architecture to the Civic Center.
Who knew that an open hearing on a Master Development Plan could be a spiritual experience? If we didn't before, we do now!!
2 comments:
Mazel Tov!
WOW, Angela and I are so happy for our community! All I could do at work all day was beam from ear to ear and repeat over and over "we have a new church"......
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