Posted on 02/17/2006 7:53:40 AM PST by SmithL
Even with its parapets and stained glass, the Golden Gate Lutheran Church on the corner of 19th Street and Dolores in the Mission isn't the prettiest building around. Truth be told, the red-brick edifice built in 1912 has a bit of the humble workhorse about it. Nor does it attract the most worshippers. According to Pastor Ed Miller, the congregation of active members amounts to only about 35 or 40 people.
But like so many inner-city churches, it made itself relevant -- and for some people indispensable -- by filling gaps in our yawning social safety net. Until recently, it was a bustle of activity morning, noon and night. Over two dozen 12-step programs met there weekly, some with hundreds of participants.
In the past few years, the church housed a homeless shelter and a preschool. Four afternoons a week, it sponsored a drop-in program for anyone who needed a hot meal and a place to come in off the streets.
Three other churches -- two Pentecostal churches (one gay and one straight) and a Mennonite church -- shared the sanctuary for worshipping services. In the purest sense of the word, despite the small congregation, the church had become a refuge. For those without family, it offered fellowship. For those without government assistance (or enough of it), it offered food, shelter and other basic needs.
Now the building grows ever quieter as its many groups search for other places to meet. Soon the doors will close altogether. Then the church will enter a real estate no-man's-land. Why? Because it's caught between a seismic building code and a very hard place.
Golden Gate Lutheran Church is only one of over 25 places of worship and an estimated 2,500 buildings around the city that have been affected by new seismic codes...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Big City Lutheran Church Ping
......and the fact that S.F. is a Godless hellhole with too few believers. Modernday Sodom and Gomorrah.
LOL... Only in SF...
There are several so-called Lutheran Churches in the Bay Area that feel free to make up their own rules (and Sacraments) as they go along. I'm not certain, but I think there's a congregation affiliated with PLTS in Berkeley that's in that category.
heavy sigh
Appears to be a member of the liberal ELCA.
Maybe it is a good time for the Church to be eliminating assets (not the witness, just the physical assets) from SF. At some point, divine patience runs out, and when that happens, best to be "out of there", and not have to be dragged out reluctantly like Lot and his family. Ironic that this is one of the most expensive real estate markets (per sq ft) in the country. Sell out completely (as the saints in Jerusalem did before the Romans razed it) and let the evil one's assets get flamed when the time comes.
Perhaps the moonbat crowd will even give the place a new name, "before the zot". It would be too bad to have a place named after St Francis be the site of such an example of divine wrath. Perhaps they could rename it "Mt. Sodom", or "Meccaville". Either would be a more accurate title than the current name. Rename San Jose while they are at it: Silicon Valley, a place of "dry bones" to be sure!
Anyone laying odds as to when there will be one large and near enough to put NO under water again (all it has to do is rupture the levee)?
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