We, as people of faith, are called upon to act in accordance with our beliefs and promises.  The baptismal vows many of us have taken include, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” Scripture offers many paths to living into our vows, including the passage in which Jesus’ calling of his disciples to go out into the world, carrying nothing, and relying on the kindness and hospitality of strangers. We are called into a relationship with God embodied in the beauty of God’s creation of every human being.  Everyone is entitled to safety, individual autonomy, sleep and dignity. A systemic choice to make the already overlooked essentially invisible, lessens us and denies the love that is the core of our faith.

Cathedral of the Beloved's efforts to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being has continued to be built alongside other community organizations. Homes not Handcuffs is a working group made up of a compilation of representatives from several social justice groups including Roots and Dreams and Mustard Seeds, BIO, Wildflower, Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition, COTB and Project New Growth. Homes not Handcuffs has organized and hosted three forums to offer alternatives to the members of City Council to consider instead of criminalizing the homeless and unsheltered poor, taken the lead on organizing clean-up crews to pick up rubbish and debris from the downtown streets.  Each gathering begins with a healthy meal and a time of fellowship. In the midst of doing this, the emphasis remains on listening to what our community is saying and working toward solutions that will bring dignity and equality to those who often experience being marginalized and ignored.

While the camping ban ordinance is now in the hands of Department of Health and criminalization has been removed, we continue to work toward a world and community where the dignity of every human being is honored and respected.  We are grateful for the many community partners and friends we have to do this work alongside.  It takes all of us.  

Written by The Rev. Margot Page, Deacon

Several years ago, the Homelessness Advisory Committee of the Pittsfield City Council recommended that Pittsfield adopt a facility similar to one called “The Living Room” established by the Behavioral Health Network in Springfield. The idea is to provide the amenities, supportive environment, and safe relationships that for most of us would be expected in our living rooms and in our homes, but are not readily available to people living at risk, often on the streets. The eventual outcome of that recommendation is an innovative program being developed in Pittsfield called The First. The First will be located in the basement of Zion Lutheran Church at 74 First Street in Pittsfield. It is expected to be completed and open by late 2025 or early 2026. 

The creation and development of The First has been guided by a cross-sector operations team that includes representatives from Hearthway Incorporated, ServiceNet, Cathedral of The Beloved, Zion Lutheran Church, and the City of Pittsfield. The result is  a collaborative initiative developed by Hearthway with operational leadership provided by ServiceNet. To quote from the Hearthway website: “Hearthway, (formerly Berkshire Housing Development Corporation) is a private non profit organization that . . . has focused on  creating affordable housing, among other housing services.” ServiceNet is a non-profit human services agency that provides essential services to people with a wide range of mental health and social service needs including homelessness. Cathedral of The Beloved staff have worked with both Hearthway and ServiceNet  in the planning and development of The First over the past two years or more. Cathedral staff will continue to be involved in the ongoing programming and development of The First after it is open and operating.

Dave Reinhart, President of the Council that oversees Cathedral of The Beloved said in an email: “The First is intended to be a community center where relationships and community can be built, and to provide a space and help for people who are unhoused or at risk of being unhoused. It is also a place for people of all social and economic backgrounds to come together and build relationships. The facility is designed to meet the basic needs of our neighbors: bathrooms, showers, laundry facilities, kitchen, lockers, places to sit and relax, meeting rooms, and phone charging stations. It will be staffed by two trained people from ServiceNet, open 7 days a week during daytime hours. Community members will help define offerings.”

The gift of working with Hearthway, ServiceNet and Zion on this project has been our ability to bring the very best of what we have learned over the years, The Rev. Jenny Gregg, pastor of Cathedral of the Beloved recently reflected.  She continued,  “My hope is that The First is safe place for people to land and self-determine what they need for the day. Maybe it is a nap or a shower.  Maybe it’s a conversation with a staff member or the desire to cook with others in the kitchen. The gift of simply "being" is a gift that goes beyond words when you are just trying to survive. My hope is that anyone who comes through the doors can learn to listen first: to themselves and their bodies, to their neighbors, to something beyond themselves. Together, co-creating a space where anyone who walks through those doors knows that this is a place where they can rest and be.  From there, decide what best next steps look like. This will look different, as it does for all of us, depending on the day.”

Along with opening of The First, an additional response to Pittsfield’s housing shortage occurs as Hearthway is completing construction of the Zion Church Apartments, consisting of 9 supportive housing units on the Zion Lutheran Church property on 1st Street and 28 other units on West Housatonic Street. These are funded in part by the state executive office of Housing and Livable Communities and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Article written by:  Charles Joslyn, beloved community member

July 28, 2025
 

Dear Friends, 

​Over the last two months, we have been part of a community conversation sparked by two proposed ordinances by the Pittsfield City Council, the latest is a ban on camping. My many hours in conversation about these issues have deepened my understanding of the complexity of this issue, both with those who are experiencing homelessness and those within the business community. 

I know many people who have been camping quietly, some for more than a year, placed here by a broken system that does not have enough affordable housing.  Some struggle with addiction. Others don’t have enough to make ends meet as they wait for their name to come to the top of the five-year-long (or longer) Section 8 waiting list.  Homelessness is as complex as each individual that is forced to endure it.  It is not a one size fits all problem and there is not a one size fits all solution.  It never has been and never will be.  

In conversation with business owners, I have heard the frustration and fear expressed about solid waste and drug paraphernalia found on and around their premises. These are real and legitimate safety, hygiene, and dignity concerns. I have asked myself, "How might I respond and/or feel if this was the daily reality I was facing as a business owner?”

​There are no easy answers.   

Driving through downtown with my children, I realized my son's current song obsession, played on repeat, may offer some poignant commentary on a way through this for us as a community.  Driving down North St. past Marketplace, Barrington Stage, Witch Slapped, Wander and Dottie’s; as we have pulled into the library to return books or pulled into Berkshire Medical Center (BMC) for an appointment, this refrain from a Thomas and Friends song has continuously looped in the background, “Don’t just build it for you. Don’t just build it for me. Build it for everybody.”  

The downtown we long for is a place of dignity, for those experiencing homelessness, for business owners, for my children and yours ... built for everybody.   

These simple lyrics are a reminder amid these difficult conversations, we are not enemies, even though opinions may differ, we are being given the opportunity to build something better together. This is the vision that can weave us into a larger whole.   

Right now, in our current national context, some may label this as naïve.  Our country, our county, and currently our city deserve a better way. This is a hope we can lean into. Now, perhaps more than ever, we need each other. Things are only going to get harder.  If we remain committed to being right or winning more than finding a way that will work for all, there will always be an "us" and a "them."

Each Sunday, during the opening gathering at Cathedral, we remind each other that, “each and every one of us is made in the image and likeness of God” and that “we and our neighbors are loved even when we make mistakes.”  I remind the community that this isn’t simply a statement of faith. These words are a practice, an invitation to remember as we go about our daily work in the world. In this moment, we, the people of Pittsfield, are being challenged to discover together what it means both to create and to live in a community that recognizes God’s image in each one of us.

We, at Cathedral of the Beloved, have something incredibly important to contribute to this work. At Cathedral, our tables are not only the place where we break bread together, they are the place where we make these words real.  These tables are our bridge from isolation into community, the place where misconceptions become compassion and greater understanding. At our tables we change from “us and them” to “we.” We, at Cathedral, can teach the people of Pittsfield what it takes to go from “us and them” to “we”.   

​You, my friends -  whether you have a roof made of shingles or is the canvas of a tent; whether you are having a good week, a bad week wherever you find yourself - our job together is to create a place where we can learn from one another as we break bread. To share stories and ease the load that we all carry in the middle of life’s wilderness.  

​We hope you join us as we try to find our way through this wilderness and together co-create a downtown Pittsfield “built for everybody.”
​
​With hope,
Jenny+
​
​​The Rev. Jennifer Gregg,
Priest/Pastor

YOU ARE INVITED
WHEN: 6:30PM, JUNE 21, 2025
WHERE: Zion Lutheran Church
74 1st Street, Pittsfield, MA 
WHAT: Documentary, Dessert, & Conversation Movie Night
Come and enjoy a night together with friends as we view this powerful documentary with dessert and meaningful discussion. 
From the producers: “Our society is more divided than ever. Many have moved into tribal corners, seeing the world from an “us versus them” point of view. The teachings and writings of Bishop Michael Curry, most well-known for his passionate sermon about “The Power of Love” at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, inspired A CASE FOR LOVE. This feature-length documentary that examines the question of whether or not love, specifically—unselfish—love, is the solution to the extreme societal and political divide facing the world.”

Hosted by Cathedral of the Beloved
Donation suggested
Proceeds to benefit Cathedral of the Beloved
 

The Poor People's Campaign and Kairos Center are movement-centered organizations focusing on the intersections between religion, poverty, and civil rights. On May 30th, that focus will be on Berkshire County as Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis (Executive Director Kairos Center and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign) and Noam Sandweiss-Back (Director of Partnerships for Kairos Center) come to Berkshire County to speak, share, and organize around their new book, You Only Get What You’re Organized to Take.
 
The details for their visit are still coming together but will start with a gathering in Great Barrington in the early afternoon, followed by a gathering in Pittsfield from 4 to 6 at United Church of Christ, Pittsfield (110 South Street). The intent is for this to be a time for conversation, inspiration, and organizing.
 
This is a Kairos Center event, and the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign, in partnership with local leaders, is helping coordinate the visit to Boston and Berkshire County. If you’re interested in volunteering on the day of the event or in planning the gathering itself, reach out to Rev. Mike Denton at [email protected] .

 How do you know when you’ve been seen by someone? 
What helps you to feel seen by someone? 

These questions were the springboard for table conversations at Dottie’s during the weekly Thursday gathering. They seemed like questions that would invite folks into dialogue about the positive power of presence and visibility.  What resulted was a deep and complex duality between being seen through public actions such as engagement in social justice and at the same time preserving personal and private space.  This led to recognizing the tension between internal values which are private that became public through external demonstrations.  “Being seen” was less important to several of our community than “being safe” with too much visibility equating to the potential for unwelcome vulnerability.  There is a risk to being seen as it opens the door to re-experiencing past harms and injustices.   

Sometimes what is seen is based on normative judgements that do not distinguish external actions from internal values. “Finding space in the perceptions of being seen for who we truly are and who we are seen to be through public actions and visible choices.”  This results in perpetuating the sense of invisibility that many live with while interacting within the social norms of society.  Are we seen for what we look like, or how we act rather than for who we are?

For one of our multi-lingual friends the question “How do you know if you are seen?” led to a linguistic journey through the social norms of dating and the words we use in the context of meeting people. “Are you seeing someone?”  It is both an invitation to engage in deeper conversation and at the same time a way to provide a boundary for safety.

​“I see you” is much more than about being visible through the lens of external appearances. It is about the process of both knowing and becoming known, taking our time and building trust.

-Written by The Rev. Margot Page, Deacon

​On a chilly afternoon in March, members from Cathedral of the Beloved joined with many others on Park Square in Pittsfield to protest the mayor’s proposed Median Safety Ordinance that would push panhandlers and protesters into invisibility. The proposed Ordinance would make it a criminal offense to stand, sit, lie down, or in any other way obstruct pedestrians on Park Square or in many area median strips. As our Spring newsletter makes clear, being visible—being seen—is the beginning of our full humanity. Until we find more effective ways to address poverty, and until we find more just ways of living together as human beings, panhandling and gatherings for protest need to be visible. As our newsletter tells us: Visibility is Victory! When we begin to see panhandlers--and all those who struggle--as real human beings who come to us with gifts, and when we begin to take to heart the signs and banners of protesters calling us to a more just community and world, then we begin to make visible the vision of God’s Shalom—the peace and wholeness of God’s Beloved Community.

Every glimpse of such community is a victory in this time. Our society, for the moment, has chosen leaders who are intent on scapegoating and terrorizing the vulnerable, pushing millions of our neighbors into invisibility. We must take a stand and seek a better world. As Bishop Sims says in our newsletter, when we truly see one another we call each other into existence—with all our gifts and potential. Cathedral of the Beloved, is intent on helping us do that: to see one another so we can find those gifts and that potential as we assist one another in creating a better world for us all.
​
-Written by The Rev. Joel Huntington, member of Cathedral Council

From those we otherize and judge…
The Rev. Jennifer Gregg
 
“Come closer to me.” [1]
I am not your enemy. 
Stop otherizing me
and thinking of yourself as better or different.
This is where it begins,
where hate starts,
where friends or strangers slowly turn into enemies,
through what we “think” we know.
 
It’s not the big things. 
It’s in the little things.
Mustard seeds of misconceptions:
the judgment about my weight,
the clothes I wear,
my addiction,
how I got to this place in my life.
 
My story is complicated.
Yours is too.
I didn’t always ask for the things that shaped me. 
Your aloofness, 
the subtle things that tell me,
“We are different”
hold me at a distance and
help me build this wall around my heart.
It cements the wall around your heart too.
You don’t have to tell me how you feel. 
I can see it. 
I can feel it.
There are many parts of me that are broken.
My actions that infuriate you are a sign of healing,
 I often don’t even know I need.
What I do know is this: 
I want to be seen.
I want to be heard.
 
You know me now, don’t you? 
You know my name even when it’s said with irritation,
makes your blood boil and
gets under your skin.
So, bring me closer,
maybe not physically, 
not yet. 
We both need to feel safe.
Start with your prayers. 
Start here.
 
Prayer is like the warmth of the sun.
It begins to melt the calcified layers within.
Something within you and within me needs to be loosened, 
softened,
made more malleable.
Hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. 
So, Spirit can breathe into the spaces of anger and ill intent.
 
Begin simply by saying my name.
Even if it is done under your breath,
with pursed lips,
and a clenched jaw.
It’s a start.
 
Let your jaw loosen first. 
Your breath expand around my name.
Then, when you are ready, ask:
What do you want in your life for your family and friends?[2]
 
Might you imagine I want it too?
To know myself as beloved.
To be able to be brought to my blind spots.
To be forgiven for them.
 
May this be the place we begin,
together,
and
let God do God’s work from there.


[1] Genesis 45:3-11, 15
[2] Grateful to The Rev. Francie Hills and our conversations in the last months of her life around this question as we wrestled with how to pray for those whose decisions and ways of being in the world we do not agree with.