First United Methodist in Seattle celebrates new home

Instead of gathering at a grand old building downtown, members of First United Methodist Church began worshipping Sunday in a sleek new building where Belltown meets Lower Queen Anne.

Instead of facing empty office towers Sunday mornings, they'll be surrounded by blocks of condos, from which they hope to attract new members.

When the doors opened Sunday afternoon at the congregation's brightly lit and contemporary sanctuary at Second Avenue North and Denny Way, it represented an end to decades of wrangling over whether the terra-cotta domed sanctuary at the old place should be preserved or torn down.

Now, said congregants, they can finally look to the future.

"Now the struggle's done and we can focus on our mission," said the Rev. Sanford Brown, senior pastor, who led parishioners in their first service at the new titanium-sheathed building Sunday morning.

He loved their enthusiasm for the new space — designed by Bassetti Architects — whose bright white sanctuary reaches up 35 feet to wooden beams and rows of windows.

"Everyone's spirits are soaring, and they couldn't help laugh and applaud," Brown said.

Members of First Church started talking more than two decades ago about what to do with their old building at Fifth Avenue and Marion Street, saying their dwindling numbers could no longer support a place designed to seat roughly 1,500.

In the 1950s, that building drew some 3,500 people weekly, but in recent years the number dwindled to about 250.

A decision by the congregation that would have replaced the sanctuary with an office tower drew fire from preservationists.

And after contentious litigation and several failed plans for new development, the church announced a $32 million deal in 2007 that had developer Nitze-Stagen buying the property, preserving the sanctuary, tearing down the annex next to it to build an office tower, and building a new home for the congregation.

During the past two years, when the new church was going up and services were held temporarily at Seattle Children's Theatre, attendance dropped even more, to about 150.

People increasingly want to attend a church close to home, Brown said. And now, with 10,000 households living within three-quarters of a mile of the new church, "that's exciting. We have neighbors across the street."

Brown hopes the church's renewed focus on small groups will give people who do wander in an "immediate way to engage" with the church, and help current members deepen their faith.

First Church also plans to start an overnight shelter for men this spring in the first-floor space below its parking garage. After about a year, it hopes to set up a more permanent shelter for young adults, both male and female.

But that's put it at odds with a group that's been a tenant at its old downtown location for some 15 years: Mary's Place, a day shelter for women and children.

Mary's Place was involved in the planning for the new building and had expected to move into it. But it found itself looking for a new home after First Church decided it wanted to have a homeless shelter as part of the church's ministry.

The church "didn't want to be a landlord of human services," Brown said. "We wanted to be a provider of human services."

Mary's Place is in negotiations for a long-term home in downtown Seattle that would allow it to expand its services.

In the meantime, parishioners are just happy to finally have their own, permanent home.

Dave McNeal, a First Church member for more than 40 years, says there's a sense of scale and grandeur about the old building that's not in the smaller new sanctuary, which seats 500.

"This new church is a little more intimate," he said. "It's appropriate to where we are in this point in time and as we go forward."