Last service for Gethsemane Lutheran before big changes

For years, parishioners at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Seattle welcomed the needy with a variety of services: a shelter for homeless men, a free-meal service on Saturdays, an array of social-service help.

But the church, which owned a chunk of valuable downtown property, began to ponder about doing something much bigger.

Sunday, the church held a last service at Stewart Street and Ninth Avenue before temporarily closing its sanctuary and beginning a $20 million project to dismantle its offices and build a community-service center, shelter for homeless women and children and 50 units of low-income housing.

"It's an unheard-of situation, that a church could combine affordable housing on top of its own building," said Jean Anderson, a congregation member and vice president of Gethsemane's Church Council.

Since office towers began springing up in the Denny Triangle neighborhood where Gethsemane has been since 1901, the shrinking congregation has been debating what to do with its brick complex, which is about 50 years old. The land was becoming more valuable, the needy more numerous.

Gethsemane, which says it's the oldest Lutheran church in the city, could have sold its choice real estate and moved to the suburbs, said interim pastor Maynard Atik.

Instead, the members voted unanimously to remain across from the downtown Greyhound bus terminal and find a way to make a bigger difference to the neighborhood's transient population.

"When I heard this building was going to be taken apart for the homeless and the displaced, I thought, wow, these people walk the walk, they don't just talk the talk," said member Elizabeth René, who had been seeking a new place to worship. She started going to services at Gethsemane about a year ago.

René, who is blind, formally joined the church Sunday and was welcomed into the congregation along with her guide dog, Alvin, a yellow lab.

The brick sanctuary is being shuttered 15 months while the adjoining offices and meeting spaces are torn down and reconstructed. During the project, the sanctuary will get a small facelift, including a skylight and reconfigured pews.

When the five-story project is completed, it will include 50 low-income apartments built in partnership with Compass Housing Alliance.

Gethsemane Community Services, in the lower floors of the new building, will provide support services for low-income families.

Mary's Place will offer shelter for homeless women and children, and the church will continue its "Soup & Movies" program, which serves the homeless a warm meal while showing a movie every Saturday.

Gethsemane is funding $6 million of the renovation with proceeds from the sale of its parking lot.

The church has started a capital campaign to raise $4.5 million for construction and ongoing social services and expects the center to serve more than 15,000 people annually.

"We want to be a place where you can get help if you want to," said member Raymond Hedberg, 95, a retired Lutheran pastor from St. Paul, Minn., who has been a strong advocate of the reconstruction plans. "We hope it will be a bright light shining in this downtown place."

While the construction is going on, church members will worship across the street at a meeting space on the 11th floor of a Seattle Children's research building.

The sanctuary will be shuttered and its organ wrapped to prevent damage during construction.

Sunday, at the end of the service, music director David Barela sat down at the bench of the congregation's towering Fritts organ to play a toccata by Charles-Marie Widor one more time before the congregation is temporary displaced.

As the last notes echoed through the sanctuary, the parishioners stood and applauded enthusiastically. A few had tears in their eyes.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com