Praying for Light Rail

On Tuesday, Hopkins saw yet another meeting about the Southwest Light Rail project. A city official detailed the plan, a community organizer spoke and audience members queried the presenters. Nothing all that unusual.

Yet this gathering wasn’t just another light rail meeting. It took place in and resulted from Gethsemane, St. Louis Park’s and North Minneapolis’ Redeemer Lutheran bringing their congregations together to discuss the project.

While light-rail development is typically considered the province of city planners, the churches say they can provide a forum for people to discuss issues associated with that development.

“The purpose is, for me, to have our membership look outside our walls for ways we can be good neighbors,” said Gethsemane Pastor John Nelson.

For Alice Collings, a Westwood member and Minnetonka resident, “neighbor” doesn’t just mean those who live next to her church. She said her church has talked repeatedly about how the upcoming railway can connect poor residents in North Minneapolis with jobs in the west metro.

Throughout small-group conversations during Tuesday’s meeting, she told Hopkins residents that commercial development along the line would support those jobs.

“They need jobs, and they need transportation,” she said.

Yet the church forums also serve as a venue to answer the same type of questions that dominate discussions in secular forums. Attendees asked Tara Beard, Hopkins’ community development coordinator, about route details, disruption during construction and eminent domain.

Westwood Associate Pastor Jason Van Hunnik said it’s all about helping members understand the process and helping them to be involved—as they do with local food shelves and other initiatives.

“We, as congregations, are part of these communities,” he said. “This is such a powerful thing going down the middle of our neighborhoods.”

What the churches aren’t doing is advocating for a specific position or telling their parishioners they must back certain stance, Van Hunnik said. The goal is simply for the churches to be forum that foster conversations.

Light rail also is a first step toward discussing other issues, Nelson said. In Hopkins, at least, the issue is relatively uncontroversial. Entrepreneurs and business leaders can join with those focused on social justice issues and work toward a single goal. After those bonds are forged, they’ll have an easier time tackling more-divisive subjects.

“Once you have a framework of a dialog in a relationship, you can enter into other issues,” Nelson said.

For him, fostering conversations about light rail is just one more part of the church’s mission to reach out to the community—similar to participating in community book reads or bringing in authors to speak.

“We’re always trying to make our members aware of people’s stories,” he said.

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Future Light Rail Meetings

Tuesday’s meeting in Hopkins was the first of three gatherings the churches are hosting. The faith communities will also be getting together on the following days.

• 7 p.m. Jan. 31
• 9001 Cedar Lake Road, St. Louis Park

Redeemer Lutheran

• 7 p.m. Feb. 7
• 1800 Glenwood Ave., Minneapolis