To the editor:
We appreciate the time you took to share the story of Trinity United continuing to “hold the space” at the 317 East Broadway Cafe for the neighbourhood and its community of users. We are grateful for the news getting out to the community.
May we make one correction, though. The article says that “Trinity United is assuring Rhizome’s clientele it has no intention of turning the space into a church, but the cafe will host a 30-minute evening service in its front room Tuesday through Friday.”
This caused some alarm in the cafe community, because the second part of the sentence seemed to contradict the first part.
The word “service” in that sentence makes it sound very much like the cafe will become religious in its orientation, which is really not the case.
Our intention is to offer a half-hour evening meditation session for commuters and other interested people, led by different spiritual leaders in the front room. But the fact is that the Trinity United congregation will not meet in the cafe while it is open for business.
This may seem like splitting hairs, but many in our community have been harmed and offended by religious people and religious services.
We want to assure everyone that we really are not going to Christianize or churchify the space and will never impose any spiritual expectation on anyone who comes. We will be thrilled to welcome people who are atheists, agnostics, spiritual but not religious, or from any of a variety of other faiths or spiritual expressions.
Many thanks again for your interest in what is happening at 317 East Broadway.
