Good Stuf in TEC: Colorado

Takin’ it to the street: Outdoor church services minister to the homeless

With his clerical collar peeking out from under his gray sweatshirt, the Rev. Marc Genty welcomes his modest-sized congregation, thanking its members for believing in “the crazy notion of having church on the street.”

“I have seen Jesus more clearly standing here in this park than I have ever in my life,” Genty told a crowd of more than 30 gathered May 8 at downtown Longmont’s Collyer Park.

Genty, a deacon at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Fort Collins, heads the Common Cathedral, an outdoor ecumenical church for the homeless in Longmont.

Each week, a small throng convenes to worship and eat, usually sack meals provided by Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement’s Soup Angels program.

But the May 8 service included cakes and burgers to mark Common Cathedral’s one-year anniversary.

Many who attend the weekly services are homeless, are in transitional housing or recently have left the streets, Genty said. Others are curious neighbors or people seeking an ecumenical spiritual experience, he said.

“Wherever we are, we just try to be incredibly good neighbors,” he said.