Beloved in Christ,
 
This past weekend, I was able to participate in a walk along Aurora Avenue North in Fremont from 41st to 50th Streets, highlighting how the existing roadway design fosters a built environment prioritizing cars rather than people and perpetuating the legacy of the road, a dangerous, inaccessible, and environmentally unsustainable swath through the city of Seattle. I attended as part of the Steering Committee of the Aurora Re-imagined Coalition (ARC) which seeks to propose ways to redesign the roadway, reprioritizing people’s needs, accessibility, and climate change mitigating factors as key criteria for the future of Aurora. We were joined on the walk last weekend by Seattle’s mayor, several state Representatives and Senators, City Council members, SDOT and Metro staff, and others. I’ve shared a couple of photos from the event elsewhere in this newsletter. I highlight my involvement in these efforts here for two reasons. First, I want you to know about the work that I’m doing in our community, trying to put our values into action. Second, I think that there are some key learnings about how the design of a built environment affects the kinds of use it allows that will be useful to us at church as we re-imagine how our campus design influences the ways we use the space that has been entrusted to us. I welcome your reflections and thoughts.
 
With gratitude and grace,
Pastor Laura