March 19
http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-housing-authority-takes-over-apartments,0,532925.story
March 24
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/123788616524050.xml&coll=1
March 30
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1238404510266290.xml&coll=1
March 31
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1238490924174180.xml&coll=1
March 31
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2009/03/huntsville_housing_authority_r.html
April 9, 10
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=10160306
April 10
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2009/04/huntsville_public_housing_purc.html
April 16
http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1239873308200620.xml&coll=1
http://www.huntsvillehousing.org/
April 16
http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-public-housing-city-council-mtg,0,6665575.story
I have no desire to debate the pros and cons of this subject in this forum. I do, however, feel the need to ask several questions.
What does this mean to each of us as Christians?
What does this mean to Faith Church?
Is God positioning us for some purpose?
How are other churches responding?
Interesting questions of discernment for the near future…
Posts
3 comments:
Frank replied:
I met last week with clergy leaders from 7 S.E. Churches, the Assistant Director of Huntsville Housing Authority, and the Director of the City Office of Multicultural Affairs.Remarkable collaboration, given the complexity of the situation and difference of opinion on some of Housing Authority methods. We considered a number of stategy responses, concluding with a united aggrement on two.
First will be a series of Letters to the Editor of three clergy per letter. See first letter below.
The second will be the making of a banner of hospitality and welcome to all residents (placed on property) to visit area churches where they will be warmly welcomed. Individual congregations can then choose to have their own banner to be posted on their own property site. Two of the Chruches are starting work on banners this week.
A communication will be coming from the cooperative to Faith this week. It will be interesting to see how Faith will respond!
****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Welcome to Southeast Huntsville!
In the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we extend a warm welcome to our new neighbors who have moved from Councill Courts to Mahogany Row and Stone Manor Apartments in southeast Huntsville! We are blessed to live in this community and privileged now to share it with you as our neighbors.
Huntsville has long been distinguished as Alabama’s most progressive city—a womb for the imagination, the birthplace of ingenuity and a seedbed for innovation reaching the stars. Some of the greatest minds and most creative entrepreneurs have been drawn from all parts of the world to this city. Many of them have made their home in southeast Huntsville and helped grow and shape the neighborhoods, churches, schools and businesses that thrive here. Our desire is to share the heritage we have in southeast Huntsville with you and to receive and benefit from the life experience, hopes and dreams you bring with you. We will all be better prepared for the future when we know and learn from one another.
We represent a group of clergy serving churches of various denominations in southeast Huntsville. We are all confident that our community is a thoughtful and caring place where faith and love override fear and prejudice. We call on people of faith to join us in welcoming you into the churches, businesses, parks, schools, sidewalks and organizations of our shared community. We are glad to have you here and hope you will soon be as proud as we are to call southeast Huntsville your home and us your neighbors.
Dr. Hughey Reynolds
Latham United Methodist Church
Minister of Twikenham C of C
Dr. David Freeman
Weatherly Heights Baptist Church
These Churches are exploring letters and banners:
Hope Pres
Latham UMC
Mayfair C of C
Southwood Presbyterian
St. Stephens Epis
Good Shepherd Catholic Church
All Saints Lutheran
Good Shepherd Catholic
First Church of God
Trinity Methodist
Holy Spirit Catholic
I am a member of Hughey Reynold's church, and I wish that he would actually confer with some of his congregants before "representing" us to the city in his letter to the editor and appearance at the City Council meeting. This is an issue that I struggle with, because I know that we have to be good Christians and help others. BUT I have every right to be upset with the surreptitious, greedy way that the HHA, Michael Lundy, the City Council, Mayor Battle, former Mayor Spencer, the Huntsville elite businessmen have so poorly handled this situation. Let's get real. This isn't about HHA's desire to help others or "decentratlize" poverty. It's about the almighty buck - putting businesses, etc. in downtown Huntsville. I feel like Hughey chastised us for having concerns - we have every right to have concerns about this issue and preachers should be open to listen to our concerns. I would suggest that all of the preachers in this group take a moment to actually LISTEN to their flock re: their concerns about crime, decrease in the quality of schools, and decreased property values. These are REAL concerns - saying that we should welcome everyone without speaking our minds about our concerns or the way that this should be handled is naive and insensitive to people who are affected by this.
Anonymous,
I think you've echoed some pretty common and real concerns.
I would caution that we need to separate any anger about the "process" from the the actual folks being displaced in this move. Both groups, those being moved out and those being moved in, are being displaced from their homes and surely could use some Christian kindness.
As you can tell from the rest of my blog, our church is undergoing its own bout with conflict. I can attest that open dialog as loving Christians is necessary to work through such conflicts.
I also have to think that we all know how this situation will turn out if we follow the usual ways of the world. What is God trying to teach us about ourselves and how we represent Him and His Kingdom?
Wrestling too,
Dave
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