Mission and Neighborhood Transformation

1/27/2021

January 25, 2021 - Contemporary Issues

On January 25, Contemporary Issues will hear from the Rev. Patrice Fowler-Searcy about “Bridging the Gap – The Story of a Mainline Church, Legacy and New Residents in a City Neighborhood.” Rev. Fowler-Searcy serves as the associate pastor for mission at East Liberty Presbyterian Church and board president of East Liberty Development Inc. She will share the history of a mainline denomination church that stood in the gap for decades as an anchor for an all but forgotten Pittsburgh neighborhood. The church's pastoral leadership and members have a long history of advocating and supporting the legacy residents through urban renewal in the 60s, white flight, and suburbanization, revitalization planning in the 90s, and redevelopment in the 2000s. She will explain how the church, by standing in the gap, helped to facilitate just diversification, rather than gentrification of the community.