On Sunday, September 8, 2024, a joyful worship service capped a grueling week for the people of All Souls Episcopal Church in Arlington. They had just moved into their new building, the former Arlington Museum of Art at 201 West Main Street, hauling everything two blocks down the street from their former home, Theatre Arlington.
“. . .welcome to the first day of the rest of our journey as a people of God who gather as All Souls Episcopal Church at the Wellspring on Main,” began the sermon of the Rev. Kevin Johnson, rector.
“Today is the first day of our regular worship in this new place – a vision that the Holy Spirit gave you when five years ago you courageously asked, “God, what would you have us be and do for our community? And what would that look like?” You here, gathered together in the Wellspring in praise, and song, and prayer, this is what the Spirit’s answer to you looks like. Welcome to Wellspring on Main and welcome to a new beginning.”
The opening of this exciting new chapter marks a key transition from a formative part of their parish life that began in 2008. That’s when they were cast out of their historic building by people who left The Episcopal Church. Their name at the time was St. Alban’s. They quickly forged a partnership with Theater Arlington, a live theater where they worshiped and healed and dreamed and grew. And grew.
And in the fullness of time, they asked that question: “God, what would you have us be and do for our community?
Their discernment process centered on being open to the answer(s) to that question. It wasn’t always easy. At times, it was even a bit scary. But they held firm to their process, holding on to one another and to their belief that God wouldn’t ask anything of them they were not capable of achieving. They brought in planning partners such as the Urban Land Institute, the Project for Public Spaces, the Brookings Institute’s Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking, and the City of Arlington. They consulted stakeholders in the wider community and at the University of Texas at Arlington, a tier-one university. They also were inspired by the city’s Unity Council Report in 2021. The 132-page document called for programs and services to address systemic inequities, many of which All Souls already had been incorporating into ideas emanating from their discernment process.
Names reflecting goals
All Souls established a nonprofit named the Arlington Center for Community Engagement (ACCE), doing business as Wellspring on Main. The core function of the ACCE is to build relationships which promote civility and trust that can sustain a healthy, vibrant, and equitable Arlington. The name Wellspring on Main was chosen to link this church for the 21stCentury with its past. The building is located across the street from a clock tower that recalls the city’s old mineral well, around which early Arlington grew.
In 2022 church members asked themselves “What name would be reflective of who we are as a gathered people of God?” They chose the name All Souls.
Also in 2022, along with the rest of the diocese formerly known as Fort Worth, they became part of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. They began working to familiarize EDOT leadership with their project.
And the result of all this? Wellspring on Main.
In January 2024, the Episcopal Diocese of Texas completed purchase of the Arlington Museum of Art building. The Arlington Center for Community Engagement [d.b.a.] Wellspring on Main has a long term ground lease.
Wellspring on Main’s building is what the city calls a “keystone facility.” It rounds out its area of downtown Arlington along West Main Street. The building is across from the clock tower fountain between Arlington City Council chambers and the George W. Hawkes Downtown Library. Both the clocktower and the Wellspring allude to the Old Mineral Well at the intersection of Center and Main streets. The old well tower featured ornate lion heads through which mineral water flowed, a design echoed in the new clock tower fountain.
Wells always have been natural gathering places for humans seeking company, safety, and life giving water. Wellspring on Main intends to offer all of those in the form of partnerships with other non-profits that help improve all the non-medical indicators of health. Wellspring on Main is focused on fostering physical, emotional, racial, and spiritual health in the most racially and culturally-diverse city in Texas.
Already Sisterhood for Immigrant and Refugee Empowerment (SIRE) is a Wellspring partnership. SIRE works with recent female refugees to address the mental health issues caused by isolation and societal integration. SIRE regularly gathers Afghan women at the Wellspring on Main for meetings focusing on relationship building, micro-business development, and personal empowerment. Wellspring provides no-cost office space to SIRE leadership to plan, organize, and implement these activities.
Wellspring on Main has worked with the Episcopal Health Foundation to host a screening of Traces of the Trade which included a day-long workshop on white privilege and anti-racism work. This work is continuing in other related programs. They have worked with the City of Arlington to provide a camp for young first time offenders. On September 14, their space will house vendors, a food court, and musicians for Arlington’s West Main Street Arts Festival.
On Sunday, the rector, Kevin Johnson, ended his sermon with a call to action.
“You, I, we have been entrusted with a dream of God – the Spirit’s answer to our question, “God, what would you have us be and do for our community? And what would that look like?” You, I, we have faithfully nourished and shepherded that dream. For five years we have faithfully nourished and shepherded that dream. And here we are this morning on the first day of the rest of our journey as a people of God who gather as All Souls Episcopal Church at the Wellspring on Main. Our call – God’s command – is that we are to steward this dream. It is not an option – it is a command. . .
“You will notice that half of the wall that was previously behind me is gone. We removed that wall not just because it is pleasant to have the light. We removed that wall so that we would have the constant reminder that we are constantly called to steward beyond ourselves. Those big windows are there so that we can visually, undeniably see all our siblings in God’s family for whom we are commanded to value, to preserve, to heal. The church does not exist for itself. The church exists, our church exists, for out there.
“This is God’s dream with which we have been entrusted. That is the purpose of this church, this people of God who gather here as All Souls – you, I, we. May God continue to bless us in this good purpose, and may we have the Grace, the faith, and the persistence to be the living dream of God for the world – out there. Amen.”
