By Peggy Sturdivant

I didn’t think I could ever leave my old house on NW 61st. When a friend told me she’d found the house for me and Martin, I refused to enter it for a month. I wasn’t sure I could make the change. Then I went inside and something shifted inside me.

That’s what it was like for the Amazing Grace Spiritual Center. After four years renting space on Sunday evenings from Seattle Unity off Denny, they knew they needed to take the next step and find their own space. Over and over their congregants and acquaintances asked, “Have you looked at the tricycle church in Ballard?”

Co-Ministers Eric O’del and Colette Mercier were pointedly avoiding the 1907-built Swedish Church site at the corner of NW 61st and 20th NW. “It’s for sale, not rent. We can’t afford it.”

Home to artists for the last five years the artistically arranged tricycles, near and atop the front entrance, had given the site its nickname and was a clue to the whimsy inside. Meanwhile for nearly two months the search committee looked on every nearby street in South Lake Union and then began considering vacant buildings all over the city for rental possibilities, from car dealerships to gyms.

But the question came up every meeting, “Have you looked at the tricycle church?”

Reverend Mercier decided, “Okay! We’ll do it so we stop the asking.” Then they actually entered the building along with a realtor and Board Member Rebecca Petriello. Perhaps something shifted for them as well, but they would probably describe it as their hearts opening. They had found their home and would have to find a way to make it work.

It’s not their birth story, but it’s a definitive chapter in Amazing Grace Spiritual Center’s history, in which a series of miracles occur -- creating an LLC, incredibly responsive contractors, a renovation completed within a month and their outlay almost already repaid.

Sounding my way to the buttercup-colored office of Reverend O’del, I nearly ran into an effusive man with arms already open. “I’m Eric,” he said. Reverend Colette Mercier heard my arrival from her downstairs office and came up the steep back stairs. They are Eric and Colette, oil and vinegar perfectly mixed. Eric effervescent. Colette, calm as still water.

Together they dovetailed the story of finally allowing themselves to enter the space: the series of events that led to making it a reality. At play in their ability to purchase the building was that it was about to be re-zoned as residential, which would have triggered many code changes. The final step in usage change was awaiting only a field visit. “It’s still a church,” the land use department told them. And with that the impossible became possible.

They got the keys on February 1 and the congregation rallied as though for a barn raising; every hour of every day mapped out, with folks working 14-hour shifts. The roof got fixed. Walls were shifted, smoothed, painted. Windows were replaced, save for the art glass of a crow created by the last owner. They managed a hard hat opening on March 3 and filled all 144 seats plus the extra capacity 50 for Reverend Eric O’del’s marriage to his longtime partner Ken Fremont-Smith on March 24.

“What happens is the ownership,” Colette said. “Everyone who worked on any part of the building now feels ownership in our community.” Years earlier a congregant had sewn a banner with their logo that had had to be put away every week. Upon moving they realized it was the perfect backdrop for the sanctuary. “It’s our history and future tied together,” Colette said.

Amazing Grace has already introduced themselves at SeafoodFest with their Spiritual Hero cards (featuring so far John Lennon, Bob Marley and Teresa of Avila). A potluck follows every Sunday service at 11:45 a.m. and they’re downright joyous about the use of their space for future events: Day of the Dead, Hawaiian Sunday, Mystical Christmas, movie nights, public concerts, community rentals. They offer classes, small group ministries, spiritual counseling, choir, outreach, community service and kid’s programs. They plan to participate in the Turkey Trot benefit for Ballard Food Bank, volunteer at Nyer Urness House ... they’ve plotted all the way through a labyrinth for New Year’s Day.

A friend who was clear that she is not a church-going person had nonetheless told me I needed to meet Eric and Colette. Amazing Grace’s motto is Love Life, Celebrate the Divine and Serve All Beings. They are Interfaith and open to those who have different religious traditions, or none. “Lots of mixed marriages,” O’del said.

Reverend Eric O’del usually delivers what he calls talks, rather than sermons, explaining, “We want to find ways to break down this us and them thing.” He described the Centers’ history dating back to 1927 as non-patriarchal. “This is a Christian practice,” he said, “but God is not an individual male person.”

“In our teaching we don’t tell people what to think or believe,” Colette added. “We support people in using the gift of their consciousness.” They are a spiritual center that was willing to take whatever space they could afford, which happened to be in a church building.

The original congregation on the site was founded as Swedish Church in 1893, two years after the then Ballard News started publishing. The building was built for $6,000 and dedicated on May 12, 1907, just 17 days before the city of Ballard was annexed by Seattle. Perhaps this building and the Ballard News-Tribune are on parallel tracks. With this last print edition of the stand-alone Ballard News-Tribune comes another ending, and perhaps a new beginning. Just as Amazing Grace Spiritual Center learned, “It’s still a church,” despite bundling three neighborhoods, the Westside Weekly will still be a neighborhood newspaper.

It’s five years since I crossed my new threshold and opened myself to change. I know it can be done and can create new community, more joy. So here’s to the next 122 years, for newspapers, for church buildings, Amazing Grace Spiritual Center and whatever else life may unexpectedly hold.

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