Faith on the Avenue
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FAITH ON THE AVENUE DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd i 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:25:47:25 PPMM DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd iiii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM FAITH ON THE AVENUE Religion on a City Street Katie Day Photographs by Edd Conboy 1 DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd iiiiii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Oxford University Press 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. CIP Data is on fi le at the Library of Congress ISBN: 978–0–19–986002–9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd iivv 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM For my father, Donald C. Day, who did not get to see the completion of this project but believed in its author. DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd v 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd vvii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM CONTENTS Map of Congregations ix P r e f a c e xi 1. Mapping Faith on the Avenue 1 2. Constructing the Sacred in Space and Place 29 3. Seeking the Welfare of the City: Assessing the Impact of Urban Congregations 60 4. Pound for Pound: Th e Social Impact of Small Churches 101 5. Pentecostal Latinas: Engendering Selves in Storefront Congregations 133 6. Muslims on the Block: Navigating the Urban Ecology 159 7. Urban Flux: Mobility, Change, and Communities of Faith 187 N o t e s 221 Bibliography 231 I n d e x 237 DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd vviiii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd vviiiiii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM MAP OF CONGREGATIONS All congregations along Germantown Avenue that were surveyed for the study. Th ose featured within the book are identifi ed. DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd iixx 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:26:47:26 PPMM DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd x 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:27:47:27 PPMM PREFACE In the fall of 2004, I prepared to welcome a fresh crop of students to the Lutheran Th eological Seminary at Philadelphia. My fi eld is “Church and Society,” which is the study of social contexts through the social science methodology, as well as theological and ethical traditions, with a view toward helping emerging faith leaders to develop a public theological framework for engaging the complexities of human society. My goal that year was to intro- duce students to the context in which they would be studying to become reli- gious leaders—Germantown Avenue. Many were coming from outside the region and I wanted them to be aware that place matters . Sitting in class they might hear sirens screaming up and down the Avenue and encounter people asking for change while going to Wawa across the street for coff ee: all part of their graduate education. Th eir educational experience would be profoundly diff erent from what it would be at a seminary in Iowa, or South Carolina, or even Chicago. Place matters, and even in the graduate school bubble, the context of education is signifi cant. To help with the orientation, I assigned Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street to the incoming students. To supplement their reading of the book, which includes a rich ethnographic look at street cultures on Germantown Avenue, I developed a slide show focusing on the many communities of faith along “the Avenue.” I talked my friend Edd Conboy, a therapist as well as a gift ed photographer, into coming along and shooting some pictures. Although I had lived, worked, and conducted research on and around Germantown Avenue for 25 years, seeing the images gave me a diff erent perspective on the familiar streetscape. I noticed for the fi rst time the rich layers of history and culture in sites I had passed thousands of times. Th ere was a beauty to the diversity of people, structures, businesses, and establishments of all kinds. Th e array of religious spaces, practices, and traditions was far more interesting than I had appreciated. And it was alive—Germantown Avenue was a living, mov- ing, changing ecology. Th at complexity drew me in. For the last eight years, DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd xxii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:27:47:27 PPMM xii • Preface studying Germantown Avenue has been something between a project and an obsession. Edd is still taking pictures and the photo archive now holds thou- sands of images. Germantown Avenue has to be one of the most thoroughly documented religious ecologies on the planet. As the project developed and I became more immersed in research, a num- ber of students and research assistants went “into the fi eld” with me. With curiosity and respect they helped to conduct a survey and interviewed clergy, religious practitioners, and a variety of residents of the community. I am grate- ful for the good work of Jade King Bass, Nancy Beckwith, Joe Carlsmith, Ann Colley, Becca Ehrlich, Margaret Herz-Lane, David Hoxter, JoAnna Novak, Rozella Poston, Kate Proctor, Rabbi George Stern, Gabrielle Wanamaker, and Willie Walker. I am especially indebted to two other research assistants who were tal- ented ethnographers of four storefront churches described in these pages and who became true collaborators in fi eld research, fi nal analysis, and writ- ing. Some of their fi eld notes were worthy of publication and their insights into the dynamics of these overlooked yet complex congregations deepened the overall analysis of the Germantown Avenue faithscape. Leila Ortiz was embedded in two Latino churches which are described in Chapter 5. She drew on her experience, insights, and critical capacity to understand the nuanced experience of Pentecostal believers from Puerto Rico, who were establishing themselves in Philadelphia. Beth Stroud conducted participant observation at Father’s House of Prayer and New Bethany Holiness Church, and her work is refl ected in Chapter 4, “Pound for Pound.” Beth had always refl ected an uncommon courage as a clergywoman, prior to launching a promising aca- demic career. As this book went to press, that courage was being challenged by a serious health condition. Her contribution to this book was invaluable, and as she continues to write, future readers will be all the wiser for her insights. I am especially grateful to the quantitative geniuses who compensated for the limitations of this primarily qualitative researcher: Amy Hillier (Cartographic Modeling Lab, University of Pennsylvania), Jason Martin (Temple University), and Reverend Fred Becker (Lutheran Th eological Seminary at Philadelphia). Technological help was always available through John Kahler and Bob Hensil. Many others provided information as well as wise insights and feedback on the draft s. Th ank you so much to Dave Bartelt (Temple University, Department of Geography and Urban Studies), Bob Jaegar (Partners for Sacred Places), Susan Teegan-Case (Artwell), DDay200613OUS.indday200613OUS.indd xxiiii 110/29/20130/29/2013 99:47:27:47:27 PPMM Preface • xiii Jean Warrington and Gerry Fischer (Historic Fair Hill), Timothy Nelson (Harvard University), Elfriede Wedam (Loyola University, Chicago) and Ken Weinstein (real estate developer, restaurateur and Renaissance man who knows Germantown Avenue like the back of his hand). As I began my research, Ram Cnaan (University of Pennsylvania) was generous in providing data from his research, which was invaluable as I shaped my questions and methodology. I’m sure I sound like a fl ustered Oscar recipient, as I apologize if I have left anyone out. Any major research project needs institutional support. I am especially indebted to the Louisville Institute. Its former executive director, Jim Lewis, believed in this project early on. Not only did the Institute provide generous support, but Jim encouraged me to tell the stories of faith communities that are too oft en unknown and unappreciated. My own institution, the Lutheran Th eological Seminary at Philadelphia, has been enormously supportive in ways too numerous to detail. Th e gift of a sabbatical came at a critical time, as I was conducting research in 2009. My students and colleagues might be tired of hearing me talk about Germantown Avenue, but, to their credit, they never communicated that. Of course, a critical partner in any publication is the editor. Th eo Calderara at Oxford has been enthusiastic and curious about the project from our fi rst conversation.