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Be All That You Can Be: On Choosing a New Church

In a couple of weeks the major league baseball playoffs begin. Being a sport so intent on its own history, each playoff season awakens echoes from the past. Over 30 years ago there was a team that did an amazing thing.

In 1969 the New York Mets franchise was starting its seventh season. In the previous six they had been the laughingstock of the league, the team others longed to play in order to pad their statistics. In six years they had only escaped last place once, and then only by the margin of a single victory in a 162 game season.

When the young squad walked into Spring training that April, they knew they were expected to lose again, to be the doormat, the joke of the league.

The thing was, the members of that squad knew they were more talented than their record suggested. They believed they could win. They had a vision of a Mets team dominating if they only worked together as a team. It's a well known fact that in professional locker rooms, no amount of money or even raw talent can guarantee a championship. What's needed is a shared vision and a strong team spirit. The Mets locker room had it in 1969.

They went on to win a remarkable 100 games that season recording an astonishing 39 wins against only 9 losses in their last 48 games. In a sport where winning a little more than 1 out of 2 games is usually enough to do well, 39-9 is amazing. And so they were dubbed-the Amazing Mets.

In the National League playoffs, every commentator expected them to fall to the Atlanta Braves. Instead the Mets swept the series 3 games to none. In the World Series they were up against the powerhouse Baltimore Orioles, the American League team that had finally dethroned the mighty Yankees. The Orioles had great pitching, a very dangerous line-up of hitters and some of the best fielders in the league. The Mets had one first rate pitcher in Tom Seaver, a number of also-rans and a bunch of hitters who struck fear into the hearts of no-one.

Baltimore won the first game easily. Fans switched off their TV sets in record numbers. And then the vision asserted itself. Discounted and with nothing to lose, the Mets cobbled together a couple of wins thanks to incredible fielding plays and improbable home-runs. In the end the Amazing Mets became the Miracle Mets of 1969. They won the World Series 4-1 and took their place in Baseball's hall of legends.

Why? Simply because they had a vision that they could win if they just worked together as a team. It was a vision that sustained them during a long season of ups and downs, of little victories and major set-backs, of winning streaks and more importantly of losing streaks. They never lost sight of that vision.

Without a vision, without a belief that a vision can be achieved, and without confidence that the vision is worthwhile, no long term project can be survive the inevitable setbacks and delays.

Well, here we are. In an hour or so, members will be asked to vote on one of the most significant questions we have faced since just before the Mets had their miraculous season. Will we try to buy the Brews building for our new home?

The question sounds so simple, but we've been a long time getting to it. It's been a journey with its share of setbacks and disheartening delays.

In January, 1998, nearly five years ago, the Board voted to create a Long Range Planning Committee. There is only one elected member from that Board still serving on it today, Blaise Szekely.

Almost exactly four years ago, the Long Range Planning Committee chaired by Julius Buski and including among its members Karen Mills, Beth Jenkins, Inge Hess, Dave Kendall, Cindy Fowler and Andrea Berman delivered a fairly simple message. Their research showed that members wanted this congregation to grow because we believed we had a good message to share. But they also concluded that we couldn't achieve significant growth in this building. They wrote, "There is general support for a new building. Concern was often expressed (by members) regarding the limitations that our present building would have on growth."

They also notes that zoning regulations prevented us from expanding this building in any way. They went on to also recommend a Capital Campaign, and then suspended their work for they felt it would have no value until we decided the building question.

A few months later the Congregation voted to start work on that Capital Campaign.

Then we set a Building Research Committee to work, to look at how much space we would need. That team included Bonnie Stonehouse, Ferdinand Sobernig, Jeanne Irwin, Lyn Evans and Stella Clarke. They issued their report in April of 2000. Their core recommendation called for 50% more space than we have now. In order to carry on our present level of operations with no real growth they told us to find a building of at least 14,000 square feet. The proposed property is nearly 20,000 square feet, but many people believe that means we have room to grow, that we can be versatile in our sue of space, and be able to offer good rental space to others.

We next needed to find a potential new home on which to base the fundraising campaign. A Building Search Committee was struck, with Blaise, Bernie Keeler, Jim Campbell, Jim Appleton and various staff members. We soon came to realize that constructing a new home from scratch was well beyond our financial means with land purchase and construction costs heading well past $1.5 million.

So we began looking at existing properties. From our research we knew most of our members favored a multi-purpose kind of building and one that while esthetically pleasing, didn't look 'too churchy'. Nevertheless, we looked at churches, at schools, at commercial and office properties. A few we looked at very closely, but none panned out. Problems like building condition, accessibility, location, price, parking all knocked one or another property off the list.

Last Fall we investigated the Royal Canadian Legion building on 156th Street. It had a hefty price tag of over a million dollars, but it would require a minimal amount of renovation before becoming habitable. The Board decided to use that property as a test case, and with it we launched a Capital Campaign this Spring.

Now, as many of you know, that property earned only lukewarm support from the membership. It was seen to have several problems that some felt were insurmountable. Nevertheless, we ran the Capital Campaign and our generosity exceeded all goals. To date we have received cash and pledges totaling an amazing $670,000, and that number is still expected to grow a bit.

In June we learned of the availability of the Brews Building. A quick preview led to a visit by Board members and those interested others we were able to alert overnight. With near unanimity, that group of about 20 members and staff liked what they saw- a lot.

In June the Board asked Vice-president Blaise Szekely to work on an offer. And so here we are today. I have to give a nod here to Blaise. At the meeting you will hear about the creative and cost saving offer he devised. But what you won't know is the number of hours he spent over the summer preparing, presenting, explaining, negotiating, hand holding (and occasionally beating his head against the wall). Whatever we decide, I believe we owe Blaise a tremendous vote of thanks for the effort he has made on our behalf.

So where are we? It's almost five years later and we're still here. But we are standing at the front door of a big, empty office-warehouse complex, more than twice the size of our present home. Those of you who have seen it know it has space in amazing amounts, but it also has dark walls and ugly lighting and outdated washrooms located in the wrong places. We'll have to figure out what to do with its two truck bays and we'll have to add...well everything.

But according to what I've heard many of you say, it has something else--possibility! And that brings us back to vision.

Should we go ahead and purchase this property, we will have to be clear on why we are making the decision. If all we are doing is getting a bigger building, we're missing the whole point identified by the Long Range Planning Committee four years ago. In several focus groups held with members, two themes stood out. To quote from the Committee's letter:

1. No matter what decisions or plans are made for the future of UCE, it should always be remembered that we are a church community. A sense of spirituality and connectedness should be the foundation and guide for any endeavour undertaken.
2. Growth for the sake of growth is not desired. It must occur because we have a good message to share and want to offer the people the same opportunities we have been given.

So as we stand at the door of that big empty building, we have to ask how can we use it to further the mission of this congregation? How can we make it our home, as welcoming and comfortable as the one we have here? How can we use this property to express the principles of Unitarian Universalism not just in Sunday worship, but in everything we do? Is it possible for us to make the very building a statement of our faith?

Many have said "Yes, we can!" to me personally and have expressed ideas about creating an environmentally friendly space, about designing a building that contributes esthetically to this city, about a church building that can become a real center of activities not just for our own programs, but for the work of others who are aligned with our views.

In its nearly forty years, this building has served in its time as a haven for Alberta artists, as a gathering place for the then shunned Gay and Lesbian community, as a meeting place for unions and activists of all stripes, as a meeting place for singles, as a place where people of any faith or none could come to celebrate their weddings or bury their dead, as a place where children and adults could come to learn about many topics. All of this was in addition to our own work as a church. Can we ask that a new home do or be any less?

I think not. But it won't happen overnight. History like that can only be built day after day. Once this was an empty shell, a place with few memories or stories to tell. But our predecessors who built this house, made it a home and gave it a life. All we have to do is the same thing. If we do our best and work together to make the new church a place of beauty and spirit and justice and education, then it will be so.

But it will take time. And it will take your effort, patience, vision and teamwork. It has been a long road to get to this vote, but another long path lies ahead. Together as a community we will have to design that space so that we can bring our vision into being. The planning will take months. The renovations will likely take even longer, for contractors are hard to come by these days. We had hoped to start services there next September. If we can, it's likely we will be working amid some continuing construction and unfinished business. It will be a long road.

At the last open house, when the man with the key arrived a half hour late again one member remarked, "Well that's another thing gone wrong to write down on my list!" I replied, "I hope you have a lot of paper. We'll be adding a lot more 'things gone wrong' before we're done!" That's the reality of this kind of project.

But like those Amazing Mets of 1969, we can do it. If we keep the vision before us of a new home made beautiful by our efforts, our will and our patience; If we keep before us a new home that provides us enough space to worship, and meet and learn and eat together in comfort; If we keep before us the vision of a good library and exceptional religious education space and decent technical support and a warm and friendly series of welcoming, gathering and worship spaces, we can achieve them all. And if we keep before us the principles that bind us together in this community, then we will create a home for Unitarian Universalism in the 21st century that will make a vibrant contribution to the life of this city.

It's been five years. It will take six in all, and this last one will be a doozy, but I believe, friends. I believe in us and in our vision and in our perseverance.

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