~ by Cornel Rusu, director of Symposia Bookstore, an innovative leader and a community organizer from New York
Like many other churches, the small Hoboken Faith Community Fellowship had a hard time finding what to offer its local community besides preaching. A food pantry or a clothes distribution program, typical in traditional churches, seemed irrelevant in a community with households averaging $70,000 income per year and lots of single, young professionals working in New York’s financial district.
Thus the idea of a bookstore was born, a place for books on faith and spiritual journeys, a place for meetings, conversations and workshops, a place for friendship and personal growth. In 2001 the church opened a bookstore (the only one besides Barnes & Noble) and hired a community director to manage it.
Hoboken Faith Bookstore had an extremely short life. It was a big surprise to see the store die several months after it’s birth. And not because the church lost interest or ran out of money, but because people had no interest in what the church was so generously offering through its store. The Hoboken community proved to be not only young and rich, but also secular and, like many other communities, resistant to anything coming from organized religion.
However, the church did not shake the dust off its feet and move away, nor did it stand on the pavement handing our pamphlets insisting on being noticed, but engaged in a “two-way dialogue” with the local community. The church asked questions, pondered the answers and ended up resurrecting the store. It is still a bookstore, but one that is visited, loved, and supported by the local community. The church began to learn from the community.
Today the Symposia Community Bookstore is a growing community project with its own legal not-for-profit status, is fueled by the same passion for service and fully sponsored by the local community through book donations. The store is a neutral place where everybody feels at home and can enjoy the large variety of events and programs offered. It is a place for rest and action, a place to give and receive, a place where dialogue and diversity are cherished.
It is no surprise that the conversation groups are by far the most enjoyed events. People long for a safe place where they can come together to talk and to listen to their fellow humans organizing themselves to help the town. Symposia has been hosting conversation groups every week for the last five years in Hoboken and for two years in West Village Manhattan. The attendance goes from 10 to 20 people per event and events are very diverse. Attendees in the beginning of a meeting vote on the conversation topic and one person takes the role of facilitator. Hundreds of subjects have been discussed over the years, including human relationship to technology, politics, health, spirituality, religion, cooking, traveling, movies and culture.
The store is also a place for art seekers. The walls are covered with art produced by local artists and by children attending local schools. Writers, filmmakers and musicians regularly visit the store to take part in book-signing events, open mics, and independent film screenings.
Every morning the store opens for its youngest customers and entertains them with puppet shows and music filled with lessons about our relationship to each other and environment. In yet another attempt to foster awareness, communication and dialogue, the Italian language is taught in an attractive, entertaining way. Currently the store offers eight shows per week attracting around 100 to 120 toddlers and their parents or caregivers.
During weekends, the store is usually run by local not-for-profit organizations that fundraise for their programs, taking away all the money earned that day through the sale of the books. The homeless shelter, the library, the Catholic charities, groups from the Methodist church, clubs of students from the Stevens Institute of Technology and other community groups regularly take advantage of this opportunity.
The community in turn supports the store through book donations and volunteers. Thousands of volumes have passed through the store every month for the last five years and hundreds of hours of work has been donated by volunteers. This validates the ancient truth that in giving we receive. The more we give to the community, the more they respond, making this venture a force for good in the town.
There are a number of non-profit ventures in New York City that are looking for the ways to connect with each other across the boundaries of religions and ideologies. We in Symposia are looking forward to Faith House that has the same values of creating a common space where bridge building, gracious human interaction and community organizing can take place. The city and the world is better for it.
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