Taking it to the streets: An immersion experience

by Women of the ELCA

Taking it to the streets: Philadelphia immersion experience

by Inez Torres Davis

The Welcome Church in Philadelphia serves and is made up of a community of the city’s homeless and hungry.

I spent Holy Week with the Welcome congregation and came away forever enriched! And Welcome Church Pastor Violet Little and I hope you can be enriched as well. 

Pastor Violet and I talked about a plan to hold immersion experience for Women of ELCA participates in 2016 in the streets of Philadelphia. On the immersion, you would learn the story of the Welcome Church and its people. The congregation has no members because to have members would mean some people do not belong.  

You will meet the people of the Welcome congregation through their regular activities, which begin with worship on Sunday, teatime on Monday, and conclude with Bible study Tuesday.  We would look at how people in Philadelphia who are homeless live and create community.

The Rev. Violet is a WELCA anti-racism co-trainer. Your own understanding of inclusion will inform your decision to attend. The dates will be announced online and on our Facebook page this winter. 

We will look for women who really want to immerse, learn and participate in the Welcome community. It will be a rare blessing, and I hope enough of you will want to come so that we can hold this immersion experience. Let me know.

Inez Torres Davis ([email protected]) is director for justice for Women of the ELCA.