An announcement & an invitation...

Broad Street Ministry is excited to announce a new collaborative at Beacon, a faith community in Kensington with a long past, exciting present, and bright future. BSM’s Facilitator of Transformative Arts, Rebecca Blake, with the help of community members and a team of pastors from the Philadelphia Presbytery, has been working for over a year to discern what new ministry might take shape in the building of Beacon Presbyterian Church, located on Cumberland Street, between Memphis and Cedar--a church founded in 1871.

With tremendous help from youth attending BSM’s Youth Initiative this summer, Rebecca has updated the space and prepared it to receive a variety of programming. As Beacon prepares to re-open its doors, the dream-team at Beacon has recently welcomed BSM Pastoral Associate Karen Rohrer into local conversations and relationships, both to aid with Rebecca's art programming and to hear the needs and dreams of the neighborhood as she helps build up the community of faith to be held in the Beacon building.

      Grounded in a model of ministry that takes seriously the needs of the neighborhood immediately surrounding the church, Beacon is living into a vision of being “a neighborhood faith community that invites people of all ages to grow together through arts, learning, and faith.” Kensington is a drastically different context than center city, and Beacon’s ministry must be aware of this fact and adept at discerning needs.  After a year of preparation, the Studio at Beacon will be realized in opening the church doors and welcoming the community into an art studio where neighbors come together to make art and discover creativity--an open art table where people of all ages and expertise experience transformation, beauty, and community growth. 

         As this project gains momentum and further relationships are built, the center of the Beacon vision, that of a worshiping community, will be actualized in mid-December.  The Parable at Beacon will be a monthly open worship experience that retells the story of resurrection in the context of the Kensington neighborhood--a service to facilitate seeing God through singing, listening, and story telling.  As neighborhood relationships deepen and the community continues to grow, learning initiatives addressing specific un-met needs are projected to lift off in Spring of 2012.

BSM is a community that has faith in the significance of discipleship and empowers young leaders to go out and do Kingdom-work in a world that desperately needs it. Beacon is an actualization of that faith and we are thrilled that new, innovative initiatives and community are growing there.

We hope you'll join us THIS Saturday, November 19th, to celebrate all the new things God is doing at Beacon as they host an open house & studio kick-off event from 1pm-4pm.

Come on out for:

• live music (featuring Greg Moore & Vinchelle Woods, who you might recognize from BSM's Motley Order Choir!)
• snacks (including bacon lollipops!) & hot cider
• a thanksgiving centerpiece art project for all ages
• connection & conversation

All activities are free & open to everyone. Come hang out on the lawn, check out the updated space, and have some fun with the whole family. Pets welcome.

2364 E. Cumberland St

For more information about Beacon:

call Rebecca at 267 702 0804 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            267 702 0804      end_of_the_skype_highlighting 

email Rebecca and Karen at thestudioatbeacon@gmail.com, 

check out www.thewordatbeacon.org

follow Beacon on Facebook or Twitter.