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St. Martha's is a church without a building! |
<January 31, 2012> After looking at the calendar and talking with our new landlords, they have agreed to allow us to stay in our current building until mid-May. This takes some of the urgency out of our conversations with Word of Hope Lutheran, and gets us to the other side of Holy Week, which could have been a challenge. We are still moving forward, but not at such breakneck speed. Thank you, Lenny Stoltz and Bluegrass Area Development District!
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<January 22, 2012> Last Thursday, the Diocese of Lexington closed on the sale of St. Martha's property to the Bluegrass Area Development District. This is a traditional sale, not an auction, and is a very happy development for St. Martha's as well as for the Trent Boulevard neighborhood.
Bluegrass ADD, along with a consortium of local religious and public service organizations, will be developing the Trent Boulevard property as a re-entry center for non-violent ex-offenders: a short-term structured place to live while folks are adjusting to life after incarceration. This promises to be a great blessing to the Lexington community. Work has already begun to renovate Building 6.
St. Martha's has arranged to lease back our church building for 60 days. Our last Sunday Eucharist at 1393 Trent Boulevard is planned for March 11 at 10:00 AM. That afternoon at 3:30, we are planning a celebration of the new ministry being launched on this site, as well as an inauguration of our new relationship with Word of Hope Lutheran (more details to come). Our first Sunday at Word of Hope will be March 18, time to be determined. This is about a month sooner than we had anticipated, and we will all be busy over the next six weeks.
Please join us in thanking God for this new opportunity, and for showing us a way when for so long it looked like there was no way. As always, Contact the church if you have questions.
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<December 19, 2011> St. Martha's has been at the corner of Trent Boulevard and River Park Drive since 2005, and has been praying for help with this property for almost that long.
From the beginning, our hope had been to use this campus as a center for service to the community. While the community has been served, dreams for the property have not materialized. Maintenance and utilities have swallowed up resources we would rather be using for mission and outreach. It has long been clear to the leaders of St. Martha's that the best stewardship of this site is to sell , but the real estate market has not cooperated.
Now, the Diocese of Lexington has agreed to St. Martha's request to sell the Trent Boulevard property at auction. We anticipate the auction sale to take place in the spring of 2012, and our last worship service in this building to be Easter, 2012. Mission Lexington Clinic and Family Counseling Service will likely stay here at least through the summer.
We have been offered hospitality by Word of Hope Lutheran Church at the corner of Armstrong Mill Road and Man o' War Boulevard, and we are exploring the possibility that this relationship may move beyond simply renting space to a deeper sharing of ministries. In any event we are grateful to Word of Hope, as this arrangement allows us to spend time discerning where God is calling us next, without the responsibility and expense of maintaining a property that we are not able to put to good use.
Click the links below for more detailed information about our history on this campus, and for the text of the Vestry's resolution. There will be lots of conversations and lots of decisions to be made over the coming months, but be assured that St. Martha's is moving ahead, and that our mission in the world will not be compromised. Contact the church if you have questions or concerns.
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