Concordia Neighborhood Association | Portland, Oregon

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Special Spaces – U of O Recreation Complex

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Schools

By Leo Newman | Contributing Writer

A century of Concordia athletics continues as the University of Oregon, Portland Recreation Complex prepares to welcome Stumptown’s newest soccer club, the Portland Bangers, this summer. The current athletic complex, laid with artificial turf made from recycled Nike sneakers, was built in 2012 by the now defunct Concordia University. Before the complex was built, Concordia University’s baseball teams batted fly balls onto NE Dekum Street as far back as the 1920’s. The dynamic history of the ballfield stretches as far back as the Lutheran institution itself along with the neighborhood that bears its name.

1905-1925: Lutheran Boarding School

The Oregon-Washington district of the Lutheran Church-Missouri synod founded the Concordia College of Portland in the basement of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Albina in 1905. 24-year old F.W.J. Sylvester was called from his seminary in St. Louis to Albina to serve as the school’s president and lead professor

In 1907, the Missouri synod purchased a five acre tract on NE 28th and Riggen (now NE Holman) Streets and erected a two-story building fit for a boarding school. The main floor contained classrooms, a library, a large dining room and a few private apartments. Students boarding at the college slept and studied upstairs and used the lavatories and washroom in the basement. With Dr. Sylvester at the helm, the school offered a secular education as well as a seminary program taught in German and English.

1926-2008: College Baseball Diamond

By 1926, Concordia College had amassed a baseball team and carved a baseball diamond into the northwest corner of campus.

By 1958, the campus contained a highschool, junior college and girls’ dormitory. In 1977, the college became a university and the highschool was moved off campus to accommodate facilities for undergraduates.

All the while, Lutheran families built homes around the college, sent their children to its new high school and junior college, and formed a diverse community. In his later years, Dr. Sylvester served the college as a librarian.“To forget him is to forget Concordia,” read a tribute to the beloved patriarch after his death in 1972.

2009-2021: Athletic Complex for Baseball and Soccer

In 2009, the university began seeking permits to develop an athletic complex containing a baseball diamond and soccer field between NE 27th and NE 29th Avenues. Longtime benefactors and founders of the Concordia University Foundation, Robert and Virginia Hilken, put up $1.5 million in support of the $7.5 million project.

The complex was renamed in their honor and the grand opening of the Concordia University Hilken Community Stadium took place midday on Saturday, March 3rd, 2012. Following the afternoon’s festivities, community members enjoyed free entrance to the stadium’s inaugural game, a baseball double header between the Concordia Cavaliers and Patten University.

Concordia’s soccer teams also played at Hilken, as did various community soccer clubs, including FC Mulhouse Portland and FC PDX.

The university entered into a business partnership with HotChalk, an education technology company, at a loss of tens of millions of dollars annually. In 2015, the university was fined $1 million by the Department of Education who alleged that the college illegally outsourced some of its online programs.

In February 2020, after 115 years of operation, the university announced that it would close the following spring. The university, the third Portland-area private college to shut down since 2018, identified declining enrollment and financial deficits as the key factors in its decision to close down.

2025 and Beyond: U of O and Home of Professional Leagues

The University returned the property to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and one of its lenders, the Lutheran Church Extension, who sold it to the University of Oregon, its current owner, in 2022.

Concordia residents can look forward to attending Bangers games and Oregon Ultimate Alliance frisbee events at the U of O Portland Recreation complex this year.

Leo Newman is a paralegal and aspiring writer based in NE Portland. Trained as a historian, he enjoys exploring the history of Portland and the Pacific Northwest.

Horace Pleads No Contest to Embezzling $100K from Alberta Main Street, Ordered to Pay $50K

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Joe Raineri and Sabinna Pierre | KGW8 News

Devon Horace, the former president of the now-defunct Alberta Main Street nonprofit, has pleaded no contest to embezzling over $100,000 from the organization. The plea agreement, reached in a Multnomah County Court in February allows Horace to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. Instead, he will pay $50,000 in restitution and serve 12 months of probation.

Horace, who led Alberta Main Street from July 2021 to January 2023, was accused of misappropriating funds from the nonprofit, which was dedicated to supporting local businesses and organizing community events in Portland’s Alberta Arts District. During his time as president, Horace solicited donations in bad faith, withdrew money from the organization’s accounts without authorization and falsified financial records to conceal his actions.

According to court documents, Horace took substantial sums of money, including donations from major companies, like Nike Inc. and the Portland Trail Blazers. He withdrew funds from the organization’s account on the same day they were deposited, using the money for personal expenses. The total amount stolen was more than $100,000.

The financial mismanagement ultimately led to the collapse of Alberta Main Street, which had been a staple of the Concordia neighborhood for over a decade. The nonprofit’s mission to promote local businesses and organize beloved community events, such as the Alberta Street Fair and the Christmas tree lighting, came to an end in February 2023 due to the financial instability caused by Horace’s theft.

A statement from the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office outlined the scope of Horace’s actions. The office confirmed that Horace misappropriated restricted funds, made false statements to the nonprofit’s board, and concealed his theft by falsifying bank records. These actions, the statement said, directly contributed to the nonprofit’s closure.

“Alberta Main Street was a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to develop Alberta Street as a vibrant, sustainable commercial district,” the District Attorney’s Office said. “Horace’s actions undermined the organization’s mission and caused significant harm to the community.”

Despite the severity of the charges, Horace’s plea agreement allows him to avoid a lengthy trial and prison time. In court, Horace acknowledged his wrongdoing but did not issue a public apology to the nonprofit or its supporters. Instead, he expressed a desire to move forward with integrity.

“I’ve accepted this not as an admission of guilt but as a step to move forward,” Horace said. “I want to close this chapter of my life with integrity, and I take full accountability.”

Though he acknowledged the challenges he has faced in recent years, Horace did not focus on the harm done to the nonprofit.

“I’ve lost many professional opportunities despite these hardships,” he said, “but I try not to dwell on that and instead focus on what I can do for others.”

The financial misdeeds came to light after a forensic accounting investigation revealed discrepancies in the nonprofit’s financial records. James Armstrong, the interim president of Alberta Main Street, took on the task of reconciling the organization’s accounts after a mass exodus from the nonprofit’s board in February 2023. Armstrong, a former board member, said that the organization is cooperating with investigators and has continued to operate virtually while working to recover from the financial damage caused by Horace’s actions.

For the community, the loss of Alberta Main Street has been deeply felt. The nonprofit had supported local businesses and organized important community events for years, and its closure has left many wondering about the future of these beloved traditions.

“It would be like a ghost town,” said Allison Chown, owner of Mimosa Studios and a former board member of Alberta Main Street. “Everyone would come in here and ask what happened to Alberta Main Street.”

Chown, who was on the board from 2011 to 2016, said she was shocked by the scale of the theft. “I never saw a withdrawal as large as $64,000,” she said. “As a nonprofit, that was really surprising. Normally, withdrawals would be for regular expenses, like payroll, but never amounts like that.”

The interim board, led by Armstrong, is working hard to maintain the community’s events and rebuild the nonprofit in the future. However, without the necessary funds, this process has been challenging. Armstrong has been focused on reconciling financial records and ensuring that the community’s needs are met, even if Alberta Main Street is no longer in operation.

Horace’s legal troubles are far from over. Although the plea agreement has resolved the immediate charges, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office continues to investigate additional stolen funds, including another $50,000 that Horace is accused of taking. He is scheduled to return to court in one year to address this additional amount. The case has sparked outrage among many community members, who feel that Horace should have faced harsher consequences.

We need accountability,” said one local resident. “This isn’t just about money; it’s about the trust he broke with the community.”

The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has emphasized its commitment to prosecuting financial crimes, particularly those that exploit nonprofit organizations.

“These types of crimes have serious consequences for the victims and for the broader community,” the office said in a statement.

For now, the Alberta neighborhood continues to cope with the loss of a crucial community organization, while hoping for justice and potential restitution.

Original article: Ex-president of Portland nonprofit pleads no contest to stealing over $100K | kgw.com

U of O Update – Ballmer Institute Welcomes First Children’s Behavioral Health Cohort

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Schools

By Keith Daellenbach | Contributing Writer

The new cohort will blaze a pathway in the field of children’s behavioral health. Photo
courtesy of the Ballmer Institute.

An innovative academic program to transform children’s behavioral healthcare welcomed its first cohort of students last fall at the University of Oregon Portland campus (2800 NE Liberty St.). The program is the first ever comprehensive academic program in this discipline and it is aimed at establishing a new profession: the child behavioral health specialist. The students completed their first term in December.

“Welcoming our first cohort of trailblazing students to the Ballmer Institute marks an enormous milestone in our work to expand access to behavioral health services for Oregon youth and families”, says Kate McLaughlin, Executive Director. There is a sense of collaboration, passion, and excitement from administrators, faculty, and students and the sense that this academic start-up really will change the world.

“Kind of like how a map is complete, this program is different in that it is something of uncharted territory,” says Ari Pyle, a student originally from Seattle who, in preparation for the program, completed an Associates Degree in Science at the Richard Bland College in Virginia. As Gen Zer Pyle puts it, “We’ve all had really hard childhoods with corrosive social media that negatively affected our mental health,” and she “wants to do something about it!”.

18 other cohort students plan to do something about it, too. According to Julie Wren, Senior Director and Chief of Staff, the first cohort is intentionally small to allow a personalized learning experience and the curriculum is agile to integrate insights from students, the Community Advisory Board and the National Behavioral Health Advisory Board. Students will have access to over 20 newly developed courses focused on foundational skills in professional practice, behavioral health promotion, prevention and intervention, and cultural responsiveness and inclusion.

The first two years are focused on completing prerequisites. Some, like Pyle, completed prerequisites at a junior college, while others completed prerequisites at the U of O campus in Eugene. The final two years of the program are completed exclusively at the Ballmer Institute at the U of O Portland campus.

Ernie Leyva is one of the students who completed his prereqs at the Eugene campus. He grew up with two sisters, the younger of which sadly died from a congenital heart defect just prior to the start of fall term last September. “The whole reason I’m here is because of my little sister, she had a lot of love to give”, said Leyva. He saw the “extreme value of positive psychology” that benefited her and he wants to “work with children to help them from getting worse.”

The majority of current students receive scholarship support including some who live in on-campus housing. The institute will grow, according to Wren, and she anticipates enrolling up to 150 students per cohort. At full capacity, this will result in a total of up to 300 undergraduate students.

While special accreditation is not yet available, the program, the first of its kind in the nation, is fully approved by the U of O and Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission. According to Wren, by the time students graduate with a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in Child Behavioral Health, they will have completed over 700 hours of supervised applied practicum experience at K12 schools, health care facilities, and community organizations- locations at which they may end up someday being employed.

Upon program completion, students will be eligible to register as Qualified Mental Health Associates, a certification offered by the Mental Health & Addiction Certification Board of Oregon. They will be exceptionally well-prepared to enter the youth behavioral health workforce to change the world after graduation in Spring 2026.

Keith Daellenbach is a mechanical engineer and outdoor enthusiast who lives climbing, skiing, biking, canoeing, and beekeeping with his wife Amy and son Micah.

Historical Cowley Building Demolished

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, History

By Leo Newman | Contributing Writer

The Cowley building in the early 1900s. Photo from Alberta Community Historic Resources.

The dilapidated two-story brick building on the corner of NE 28th and NE Alberta St. met its fateful end at the hands of a wrecking crew the first week of January. The building, easily remembered by the mural of graffiti which developed over the decade it stood vacant, finally came down after a prolonged dispute between the city and its most recent proprietor, Erzsebet Eppley. Its demolition marks the end of over a century of urban development, change and decay in NE Portland.

Grocery Store and Dancehall

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Portland was experiencing major booms in industry, commerce and population. Roads and streetcar tracks cut into the hilly forests and fields of the east side as developers hopped east from the city center to develop the Alberta, Concordia and Alameda neighborhoods. In 1903, the city introduced the Alberta Streetcar line which ran from downtown, north up Union Avenue (now NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) and east down NE Alberta to NE 25th. By 1913, the streetcar ran up to NE 30th and continued to NE Ainsworth Ave.

Among the business owners and residents flocking to claim their stake along Alberta was T.H. Cowley, whose family owned multiple groceries around Portland. In March 1916, T.H. Cowley secured a permit to repair his two-story frame store on 872-874 Alberta Street between East 27th and East 28th. He contracted Philadelphia-born architect Alfred H. Faber to repair the second story over his grocery store.

Active in Portland between 1904 and 1917, Faber was an early architect to design single family homes in NE Portland. He built a reputation for his ornate, decorated single family homes in the Piedmont neighborhood, a few which still stand today.

Faber dressed the second story’s exterior in red brick with three large windows and a cresting roof on each face. Inside, he outfitted the space as a dancehall.

Starting on January 4th, 1917, Cowley ran a set of ads in the Morning Oregonian, advertising his new second story dancehall with its 45×50 new maple floor, “suitable for dancing parties and receptions, $5.00 per night; Saturdays $6.00; includes heat, light, piano.”

Between 1917 and 1922, The Cowley building appeared to host a revolving door of groceries out of its two ground floor units.

Church Meetings and Housing

Another early tenant included the Brotherhood of Divine Revelation that occupied the Cowley building as early as August 8th, 1925, when the Brotherhood took out a small advertisement in The Advocate, Portland’s second oldest Black newspaper. Squished between much larger spreads for Meyer & Frank and J.C. Penny, a later ad in The Advocate announced free admission to “A PERSONAL MESSAGE: Every Sunday 3 and 8p.m” as well as private consultations by appointment. It is unclear if the Brotherhood occupied the dancehall or the second unit on the ground floor.

By 1938, the Alberta district was home to a number of Black families, as well as a sizable number of Russian, Japanese and Chinese immigrants. Wartime industrial production brought hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from across the country to Portland and Vancouver. To accommodate an enormous demand for housing, a permit was issued in September 1943 via the emergency war code to convert the second-story dancehall into four apartments. A month later, another permit allowed the two storefronts to be converted into a single family unit.

Disrepair and Demolition

The Cowley building boarded up before its demolition last month. Photo by Leo Newman.

The Cowley building changed hands a number of times through the twentieth century. By 1992, the building (vacant on the lower level) was jointly owned by H.A. Struckman and Joseph Boczki. The latter left Hungary with his wife Elizabeth for Portland in 1970. The Boczkis developed a real estate business and lived on a large parcel of land in Pleasant Valley.

Lack of structural maintenance under the Boczkis pushed the building into disrepair. Joe and Elizabeth died in 2010 and 2012, leaving their daughter Erzsebet ‘Boz’ Eppley in charge of the building. Around the same time, the last tenant upstairs moved out. One Reddit user remembers the condition of the upstairs apartments around this time as “really cheap, but sketchy as hell, with lots of leaks and odd repairs. When they moved out the landlords decided it was unsafe.”

The Cowley building’s final tenant, Al Forno Ferruzza, a Sicilian-style pizzeria battled an intensifying black mold problem and was finally forced to close in 2014 after a pipe burst causing flooding and excessive water damage.

By June 2024, Eppley, who also owns the boarded up property behind the Cowley building, owed the city more than $53,000 in fines relating to code violations. Though she successfully evaded an attempt by former Mayor Ted Wheeler to auction the building last summer, the Cowley building met the wrecking ball in early January.

Leo Newman is a paralegal and aspiring writer based in NE Portland. Trained as a historian, he enjoys exploring the history of Portland and the Pacific Northwest.

Photographs By Long Time Portlandian and Former Bridge Tender on Display

Posted on by Posted in Arts & Culture, Concordia News

By Joshua Lickteig | Contributing Writer

Photographer Franklin Engel in his home studio. Photo by Joshua Lickteig.

A mid the black-and-white interior of Autumn Coffee (3286 NE Killingsworth Street), a gallery of photographs by Franklin Engel enamors patrons with Portland’s architecture (namely bridges), hand-painted art cars of decades yore, and urban and scenic environments of Europe. The café’s bright modern space perfectly complements the local artist’s documentary and spirited works.

Light pours in through a tall window onto Engel’s photographs, whether in colorful spans of stillness, sepia meditations or cascading greyscales of streets and landscapes. Near a long mochawalnut table, there is a panoply of early bridge photographs – Hawthorne, Steel, and Broadway (the city’s first drawbridge) to mention a few – and a selection from Engel’s Painted Cars, “counter-culture statements about [. . .] the automobile”, the artist’s statement reads.

On a Saturday afternoon, I met with him in his studio to learn more.

Engel, 79, grew up in Mt. Vernon not far from The Bronx. His father worked in Manhattan and as a child he enjoyed theater, museums, and jazz in New York. By the age of 9, he was shooting with a Kodak Brownie, a box camera with a rotary shutter. In 1963, he recalls, he and a highschool friend would take pictures at JFK airport, once suddenly riveted by Sonny and Cher waiting for their flights. He became drawn to the process of darkroom printing, and the required precision of working with negatives and chemicals; when developing and printing took “hours and chemistry, not minutes and megabytes,” he says.

Engel moved to Portland in 1969 and had his first exhibition in the city around 1972. Of the travel images on display, he says, “My first journey to Spain in 1984 was through Andalucía on my old 3-speed Raleigh English racer. I carried with me a Hasselblad with two backs, two lenses, a tripod and two 35mm cameras. Multiple visits to Portugal were spent documenting a small subculture in the village of Belmonte.”

Between 1987 and 1997, Engel worked as a bridge tender, ensuring 24-hour access to vessels traveling on the Willamette. “I spent many hours looking out the window at dynamic skies, strumming a guitar or reading… with unique views of the bridge deck, the girders, the counterweights, and the suspension cables. As I lifted the bridges, clambered along the elevated catwalks, and greased the massive gears – I grew to respect and delight in the uniqueness of each bridge. I’ve always marveled at how man can create such incredible machinery.”

As he built his portfolio and developed his craft, Engel worked as a wedding photographer and with Yuen Lui studio which had expanded from Seattle’s Chinatown.

Overall Engel’s work evokes a lyricism of ongoing transformation within the elements and passageways of life. “Photography provides a still moment of the transition of time,” he says. The show can be viewed through the end of February. Postcards and prints are for sale.

Joshua Lickteig is an artist and engineer. He was born near the other Milwaukee and has been in Portland since 2018. His latest book of poems is called Half Moon Day Sun.

Record Collector’s Hub Short Walk from Concordia Commons

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Joshua Lickteig | Contributing Writer

On a snug Sunday afternoon amidst the circular whir of an old record being spin-washed in the back office, I watch as record store Music History’s owner Geoff Zagarola welcomes a regular, a collector of rare soul and jazz. The two immediately begin catching up over concerts, upcoming DJ sets around town, and the buzz on recent shows in Pendleton, Grant’s Pass, and Beaverton. Just having returned from a trip to New York, where he once lived, Zagarola’s day has been a mix of commitments, from curating stock to arranging his five employees’ schedules and advising on special projects.

Each engagement is a cheerful one as new and familiar visitors serious about high-fidelity sound enter Music History (5400 NE 30th Ave., Suite 106) which is just south of Killingsworth Street up NE 30th Avenue in a mixed-use three-story building. The store’s suite was formerly occupied by a legal office, a used leather goods business, and a residence.

Music History sells used records, cassettes, and vintage clothing; on occasion they carry new releases from local labels like Mississippi Records. The store’s wooden multi-tier shelving, which Zagarola designed, hosts international and specialty sections: Afro-Latin, Blues, Country, Disco-Boogie, Electronic, Native American, Reggae, Rock \ Pop, Soul, and music from the Caribbean, China, Japan, India, the Middle East, and North and South Africa. This visit, I find the Gamelan orchestral LP, Dancers of Bali’, reissued in the 1960’s.

Music History has quickly drawn a following in the city amongst recordheads and vinyl lovers and in June, it celebrated its first anniversary with a barbecue outside and tunes in the amenity space. In October, André 3000 stopped by for gospel while in town for a performance at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

We discuss how the record as art and personal object tells a story over time, also, how a mere collection of things can lose its purpose. He says personally he may have about a thousand discs, then jests about a fellow enthusiast with upwards of thirty times that.

“I got into records in elementary school. My dad was kind of an audiophile,” Zagarola, who is in his early thirties, recalls. His first sale, a soughtafter original Latin pop album by singer Raphael, given to him by his mother, who is from Puerto Rico, jumpstarted several years of vending vinyl on Ebay and Discogs. In highschool, he learned the art of sampling and gained equipment knowledge through playing his friend’s turntables. He also learned to unearth gems in the 50¢ bins at Everyday Music and attended flea markets and conventions to find records. Prior to June of 2023, he ran a popular booth at Crossroads Music as Vendor “404”.

Moments later a group of young travelers from Paris stops in, then an avid collector who makes special trips from Seattle comes by. All take note of the staff picks bin in the northside window by the entrance. “We’re in a real resurgence, but it will never be what it was pre-Napster,” Zagarola says, referring to the convenience of finding music on the internet via streaming services. “I’ve built my niche to the collector.”

Whether you’re a collector, you want to learn more about music, or you want to support local businesses, drop by Portland’s newest old record store, right here in Concordia. Check them out on Wednesdays through Sundays from 1-8 pm or visit their website, music-history. org, to learn more.

Joshua Lickteig is an artist and engineer. He was born near the other Milwaukee and has been in Portland for six years. His latest book of poems is called Half Moon Day Sun.

You’re Invited to CNA’s Winter Party on January 9th

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Cathy McCarthy | CNA Social Committee Member

As we begin the holiday season, we’d like to invite our neighbors to Concordia Neighborhood Association’s Winter Celebration. Our party will be held on Thursday, January 9th, 2025 from 5:30pm – 7:30pm at the Historic Alberta House (5131 NE 23rd Ave.)

Similar to last year’s celebration, we will have a variety of musical entertainment, activities for adults and children, plus plenty of food and beverage. CNA will feature appetizers and desserts from several restaurants in our neighborhood. All food and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided for free. Beer and wine will be available for purchase from local wine bar, Bonne Chance.

This is a great way to meet members of our community and socialize with neighbors and friends. We will also provide a community board for guests to share input and ideas for future events and CNA focus in 2025. Additionally, 2025 kicks off Concordia Neighborhood Association’s 50th Anniversary, which provides more opportunity for celebration.

If you want to get involved, we have volunteer opportunities that require as little or as much time as you want to contribute. Tasks include putting up flyers, coordinating activities, setting up, cleaning up, or contributing ideas. Please contact Cathy at cmccarthy415@gmail. com if you are interested. We appreciate community input and support, and look forward to seeing you and celebrating the new year in January!

Cathy McCarthy grew up in Concordia, and after living in three different states, recently moved back to the neighborhood. She works for a marketing consulting agency and is a volunteer on the CNA social committee.

Ethiopian Church Serves Immigrant Community

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Leo Newman | Contributing Writer

As congregants f ilter into Ammanuel Ethiopian Evangelical Church (AEEC) near NE 35th and Killingsworth St. on a brisk Sunday morning, they welcome each other with excited handshakes and warm embraces. Outside, children in puffer jackets hop out at the kiss-n-ride and jump for the church door as their parents search for a place to park. Before the band has finished tuning its instruments, a celebratory air has overtaken the mid-sized church.

Deacon Meseret, a founding member of Ammanuel and one of the church’s seven deacons, welcomes her congregants at the door. The cheerful churchgoers, explains Meseret, have come from as far as Gresham, Vancouver and Salem for Sunday service. Almost all originate from various regions of Ethiopia or Eritrea, East African countries where the majority of the population identifies as Christian.

Founded in 1998, the congregation rented the Portland Metro Church at NE 6th and Alberta until 2016. The growth of their community necessitated the purchase of their current building at 3515 NE Killingsworth St., formerly Englewood Christian Church.

“Now we need a big church.” says Meseret as congregants fill the overflow seats in the annex. The two-and-a-half hour service is delivered entirely in Amharic, the official language in Ethiopia and the one most widely spoken there. The service opens with a pop-inflected Ahmaric worship song driven by a melodic guitar melody. The AEEC media team, some half dozen young volunteers in matching shirts, dance in place from the sound booth. In addition to the 200 congregants present in the building, over 580 others have tuned in to view the livestream on Youtube.

A charismatic young song leader takes to the stage and leads the congregation in a winding, synth-powered ‘Hallelujah’ that keeps the audience on their feet and their hands raised in the air. At the close of each song, enthusiastic “whoops” echo from the crowd.

A remote controlled camera glides overhead to focus on Associate Pastor Mekonnen Tesfaye, one of the church’s three pastors, taking the stage. His remarks rise from a whisper into an impassioned sermon which drives the congregation to their feet. It is clear that over the last ten years, he has built a strong rapport as his jokes and little smirks send giggles around the hall. He ushers the crowd’s attention to a ‘giving link’ on the big screen, whereby they can donate to the church and help support its outreach programs.

Ammanuel serves a growing immigrant community, a number of them Ethiopian refugees and Ammanuel’s elaborate service and social programs depend on a concerted community effort. Church members assist newcomers with transportation, finding work, and connecting with local nonprofits like the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), says Deacon Meseret. “We support the community, whether they are members of our church or not,” says Deacon Meseret.

At the end of the lively service, a guest pastor from Maryland gives a sermon delivered over gentle music. As a father in the annex jingles his keys over his young son’s eyes to keep him entertained, he closes his eyes and raises one arm in praise.

Giving Thanks to the Earth During this Holiday Season

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Esther Lerman Freeman | Contributing Writer

As we give thanks for our many blessings over this holiday season, I can think of no better way to honor those we love than being kind to the earth and all its inhabitants. Here are a few gift ideas that help keep our celebrations environmentally conscious:

White Elephant Gift Exchange

Each person is invited to bring something of theirs that they really like but no longer use or need, or are just ready to share. Sometimes it’s something quirky that they can’t wait to part with (like one year it was one of those mechanical singing fish). The gifts don’t need to be wrapped, they are on display for all to see. Everyone picks a number which determines the order in which people select gifts. When it’s your turn, you may pick a new gift or “steal” one that has already been taken. The person who you steal from then gets to pick something else from the selection. It becomes a comical competition, and everyone gets in on the fun.

White elephant gifts are my favorite zero-impact gift option. I’ve done this with friend groups and with family holiday gatherings and it’s always a blast.

Experiences

Experiences make memorable gifts, support our local businesses and decrease the need for extra packaging, transportation and shipping. If there’s such a thing as a win:win:win:win this is it. Here are some examples of great experience gifts:

  • Tickets for a play, concert or sporting event (such as NE theaters Profile Theater and Portland Playhouse or events at Alberta Rose, Alberta Abbey and Alberta Historic House)
  • An e-bike tour of Hood River through solrides.com
  • A gift card for a favorite brewery, bakery or restaurant
  • A gift certificate for a massage or facial (Check out tinymassagecart.com, sweetsaffronnaturalskincare.com)
  • A gift certificate for a class or services such as communitycyclingcenter.org or bike repair, cooking classes through viviennepdx.com or art classes through collagepdx.com
  • For loved ones far away consider gift cards they can use for special treats near them, like for a special chocolate store

Memberships

Memberships are experience gifts that keep on giving. Many local companies provide gist membership options. Here are a few ideas:

  • A pint of Salt and Straw every month
  • Two packages of coffee every other week delivered to their house by Keia and Martyn (keiaandmartynscoffee.com)
  • Membership to Dogwood wine club for monthly bottles and tasting (dogwoodpdx.com) Personal Donations Here are ways to donate your own time or money thoughtfully.
  • Donations to organizations of importance or special meaning to your loved ones in their honor
  • Gifts of service from you, like meals or a written promise of a few hours of gardening help or childcare.

Gifts for Children

Children’s gifts can get expensive. Rather than running to the store for the latest fad toy, consider gifting handmade coupons, which can be for any number of things, such as:

  • Get to stay up one hour late on chosen night
  • Pass to skip chores for a week
  • Ice cream sundae night
  • Visit to the fire station
  • Game Night of their choice
  • Making Playdoh together, building with Legos, or playing with a favorite toy
  • Extra books at bedtime

When wrapping your gifts, use reusable gift bags instead of wrapping paper and ribbons. Happy holiday season and may we all be blessed with health and peace.

Esther Lerman Freeman is a certified Master Recycler and Concordia resident.

Poetry Corner – Overflowing the Cup of Gratitude

Posted on by Posted in Concordia News

By Kunal Mehra, Contributing Writer

Tiring work hours build up, day by day, week by week,
taking my energy and making me ponder:
How long will the work be making me weary? Where is my life going?
The wetness and chilliness of a November evening add to my list of drained feelings:
‘Why does it have to rain so much? Is it a lot to ask for some sunshine? Clouds, go away; I’m tired of you.’
I sit on the couch with a warm cup of tea, looking out the picture window, at the front yard,
annoyance, exhaustion and frustration dancing in my mind,
in an opera I never wanted to see.

A few red dogwood leaves linger on in the tree in the yard,
patiently waiting to be let go.
A cold breeze blows by, taking a leaf down and bringing it back to the earth.

I stand up and walk towards the window, looking closely at the leaf.
A few quiet seconds pass by, just like the thought in my mind:
‘This leaf has been let go.’

And I know not why, but my shoulders ease down,
as I walk back to the couch and relax amidst its warm softness,
my mind fills with one feeling: Gratitude.

‘Thank you, dogwood leaf, for reminding me about a trait I ought to cultivate more:
Letting Go.
I ought to let go of thoughts that don’t serve me.
I acknowledge that in this moment, I feel tired and drained,
but I am letting go of those thoughts, knowing that I will address them when the time is right.
Thank you, again.’

Wait…what else should I say thanks to?

I take a deep breath in and close my eyes, holding the warm cup in my soft hands.

My deep breath. My soft hands. The warm tea. The ability to drink that tea.
The job that tires me that pays for the tea, for the couch,
for the warm cozy home in which I’m relaxing, for the water, for the water boiler.
My beautiful resilient body, which is allowing ‘me’ to sit easefully on the couch,
walk from the kitchen to the living room and back,
my inquisitive mind that’s open to growth…

I keep pouring items into the cup of gratitude, until it overflows,
until I’m reminded that the choice is mine:
focus mostly on what’s not working well, or, on what I’m already blessed with;
the annoyance at the cold gray weather, or,
the warm cozy home that’s keeping me safe and healthy.
Doing the latter helps me tackle the former better,
because my mind is at ease and full of the soft blossoms of gratitude,
a fullness that helps me take better, stabler and confidence-laden actions
than if I were to react from a place of
‘I dislike this’, ‘Why don’t I have that’, ‘Why is this not working correctly?’…

The less I take for granted, the more peace gets planted.
And for all these precious gratitude-laden learnings,
I have so much more gratitude in my being.