In 2013, we went all-in on our efforts to build community building and instigate creative liberation, when we teamed up with an artist collective to lease the first floor of the building on the corner of Rainer and Orcas as well as the vacant lot behind it and began renovating the dilapidated building with a vision of creating a multipurpose “social change incubator,” that we would call the Hillman City Collaboratory. Partnered with an artist collective Community Arts Create, V&M is the fiscal sponsor and general underwriter, we shared the tasks of vision-setting and operations with many other groups and people not affiliated with V&M.
Hillman collaboratory how to#
We went on hikes, held outdoor movie nights, went on our first retreat, started a few more small groups, began gathering twice a month for Celebrations, started a tool/resource sharing bank, and generally tried to learn how to love and receive love freely in a community of the Spirit. In 2012, we focused our energy on deep community building. On the creative liberation front, we got involved with the local port truck drivers’ efforts to gain dignity, safe conditions, and fair pay for their work. In 2011, we began gathering for leadership/brainstorming meetings, and by Easter of 2011 had launched monthly Celebrations and moved from using the Rainier Community Center for these gatherings to the Torah Day School, an Orthodox Jewish school in Columbia City.
Hillman collaboratory series#
Out of that cookout, a small group, a theology roundtable discussion group, and a series of social justice actions started. Through this process, a handful of people began showing interest in a new spiritual community in the Rainier Valley and gathered for a cookout where people shared their dreams about what this could look like. John started calling himself the “Minister of Listening” and spent the first 6 months in deep listening, instead of doing. That summer, John and Freddie moved in and got to know the people and place.
John Helmiere to start a new church in the Rainier Valley.
In early 2010, local residents on behalf of The United Methodist Church asked Rev.
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