Meet E.N. West, Lead Organizer for the Faith Land Initiative at The Church Council of Greater Seattle. An innovative community organizer, E is building bridges between communities in Seattle to help use church property assets to address community opportunities. In listening to churches, E and their colleagues spotted an opportunity to support white faith communities discerning what to do with congregational land by connecting them with the plans and vision of Black faith communities and other groups wrestling with issues of displacement from their communities. As a result, religious assets are now being stewarded to address the challenge of affordable housing and advance economic and racial justice.
What faith(s), if any, do you practice? How does your tradition and/or spiritual practice inspire or influence you as an innovator?
At this stage of life, the only faith I practice is literally “faith” itself, as defined in the Biblical book of Hebrews: “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” As Samantha Master, someone who deeply influenced me in my early career once said, “Black liberation work is inherently faith-based work. We are working towards a world that we have never seen but believe can exist. If that ain’t faith, I don’t know what is.”
I’ve identified as a “churchy mystic,” in my case, someone who no longer identifies as Christian, but grew up in the Black church and has maintained a relationship with Christianity, Christian institutions, and Christian people, culturally and professionally. I’ve also resonated with different lineages of Buddhism over the years, having been introduced via the Radical Dharma community.
My traditions and ongoing relationship with them are the base of my community organizing work and inspire me every day. I grew up in The United Methodist Church, and my first taste of faith-rooted community organizing came as part of the movement to push the denomination toward full inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQ+ United Methodists. It was a United Church of Christ program that brought me to Seattle and gave me a chance to learn community organizing in a faith-rooted context. I organize with mostly Christian faith communities. Without them, there would be no Faith Land Initiative, which can certainly be viewed through the lens of innovation, but which on a personal level, I consider vocational work and an offering to a community with whom I have a relationship and responsibility. Without strong faith in the transformative ways they can steward land and co-create better futures, there’d be no guiding vision for this work. This tradition is my “who”, “what,” and “why.”
What are you currently working on?
I am a faith-rooted community organizer. My work is and has been with the Faith Land Initiative of the Church Council of Greater Seattle. The Faith Land Initiative, which launched in 2020, supports faith communities in King County, Washington, to faithfully and equitably steward land and other assets toward acts of dignity restoration and community stewardship.
This work came out of conversations my colleagues at the Church Council and I were having with predominantly and historically white faith communities, Black faith communities, and secular groups led by communities of color across the region. In our conversations with the predominantly white faith communities, we were hearing concerns around unsustainable models of church – declining membership and attendance, rising costs in building maintenance, and lack of clarity on a path forward. In our conversations with Black faith communities and secular groups led by communities of color, we were hearing clear visions and planning, emphasizing preventing further displacement of their neighbors. However, at that time, there was not the political will, monetary capital, and access to land and space, to bring these visions to life. We were hearing asks for support from both “sides” of this issue and went to the drawing board to respond, learning from other faith-rooted community organizers along the way.
The Faith Land Discernment Cohort was birthed from this process, and the work has expanded ever since. We convene faith communities across the county to participate in a learning cohort that brings together faith-rooted community organizing practice, anti-racism framework, and the mission, vision and values of the faith community to shape discernment around faith-owned land and other assets toward dignity restoration (a form of reparations) and community stewardship of land (the transformation of land from commodity to shared community resource). Through ongoing accompaniment during and after the cohort experience, we coach, resource, and train faith leaders to continue organizing within their faith communities, in their neighborhoods, and beyond.
Since our first cohort, we’ve experienced incredible wins! We’ve facilitated a transformative land transition between a historically Christian congregation and a community group led by queer and trans people of color, creating a home and community hub for Black trans women and femmes. Several of the congregations in our network are making strides toward developing affordable housing. We’ve also engaged in advocacy, following the leadership of impacted communities, which led to a city ordinance adopted in June 2021, that provided development bonuses for affordable housing on property owned by religious organizations.
What can we find you doing when you’re not working?
Boxing, running, reading social justice literature, listening to social justice and pop culture podcasts, being a “man about town” in whatever zip code I’m in, and practicing languages. I’m currently working on Spanish and American Sign Language!
What is piquing your curiosity these days?
A politicized somatics lineage called generative somatics (gs), which is about embodied leadership to align with our values and heal from the impacts of trauma and oppression. My colleague and I have been practicing gs together with the support of a coach, and I remain curious as we experiment with different ways to incorporate the practice into our Faith Land Initiative work, and in our own lives.
What is something you’d like help on?
Metabolizing movement grief. I’ve been a part of numerous social movement organizations that were my political homes over the years, and experienced and witnessed tremendous harm in several of them, which led me to exit and take time to heal. In conversations with friends around the country I know I am not the only one, but we haven’t encountered many resources to support people experiencing this type of grief and loss of community. I’ve considered pulling together a zine around this subject but haven’t made much traction. Somewhere in all that lies the ask for help!
What is something you can offer others in the innoFaith network?
I’m always happy to chat with other faith-rooted community organizers, especially in the Pacific Northwest.
More specifically, the space of land justice, church property transition, community stewardship of land, etc. is a particular intersection and a growing national movement. I’d love to meet more people working at the intersection (even if you do not consider yourself a “community organizer”) to learn about what you’re doing and potentially facilitate connection with other folks in this movement!
You can find E at The Church Council of Greater Seattle (or their Instagram page) and the Faith Land Initiative or by Email.
Meet an innoFaither is our series to introduce the inspiring optimists in the innoFaith world and what they’re working on and thinking about. We hope it helps you find and engage with each other across the network to advance faith-rooted social innovation and interfaith collaboration for social impact. Or just meet some cool people. Find the full series at www.innofaith.org/meet-an-innofaither.