Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

January 23, 2013

Beans and Grapes

All Saints Episcopal Church in Pleasant Ridge, a first-rung suburb of Cincinnati, could easily have been a statistic.

With fewer than 100 people on Sunday mornings, it’s not a corporate-sized congregation that can weather significant shifts in demographics. It doesn’t have deep pockets or a sizable endowment to rely on until the young professionals and new families find their way into the red doors.

The community around the church is changing, and the congregation had a choice: Change with it or start planning the funeral.

Led by an enterprising rector, the congregation decided to be part of the transformation instead of bemoaning it.

The priest and lay leaders spent months in conversation with people in the community. What was missing? What would be beneficial to the neighborhood?

They discovered that there was no community center, no place for civic and non-profit groups to meet. There was no place to hang out, to share a cup of coffee, and mingle with your neighbors.
The church decided it could provide an answer to this problem. With funds from the diocese, the congregation, and the community, the church opened a coffee house and wine bar in late 2012.

Called Beans and Grapes, it offers a place for groups to meet, based on a sliding scale so that small interest groups like a local raw-foods club can afford to use the space just as easily as the Kiwanis or chamber. As a witness and testament to Christian stewardship, the facility focuses on green solutions, from the floor made out of reconstructed rubber tires to fair trade coffee and chocolates. Baked goods are made locally, and all of the paper products are compostable and/or recyclable.

The facility also is committed to showcasing local artists and musicians.

Future plans call for a cooking and catering school to provide training and job opportunities for people in the neighborhood. They also hope to provide an incubator kitchen for local chefs.
This hasn’t been an easy enterprise, especially for a small congregation with limited resources. But it’s an example of how we have a say in the future of our churches.

We can sit back and wallow, or we can, as this church did, decide that instead of sour grapes to offer wine. And coffee. And community.