Rev. Trudy Robinson, lead pastor at First United Methodist Church; screen capture NBC.
When local NBC reporter Omar Fleming asked Rev. Trudy Robinson, lead pastor at First United Methodist Church, about their closing of Water’s Edge in OB, she had some very interesting things to say.
First United is the parent church to Water’s Edge and has decided to shut down the Ocean Beach sanctuary and sell off the building complex ostensibly for affordable housing. There’s also a duplex next door to Water’s Edge that will also be sold.
Fleming brought up the closure of the site, which includes the large chapel, an attached annex and a 2-story building. But Rev. Robinson downplayed the shuttering of the complex and stated:
“If we learned anything at all in the pandemic, it’s that we don’t need a building or a place to gather us anymore. We can do it in a variety of ways.”
See? Don’t worry that the church building will be gone — you don’t need a building to worship or be close to god.
That’s not very comforting to the tenants who will be evicted and the congregation that will lose their church nor to the organizations that utilize the current complex. Not to mention that Rev. Robinson will still have her large church in the valley.
And when Fleming raised the point that the final worship services for the long-time Ocean Beach church will be actually on Christmas Eve, Robinson had this amazing statement:
“It’s light in the darkness, right? To be able to celebrate that and then to be able to say, okay, there is hope, even in the darkness. That’s really what we were wanting to convey and to begin the New Year together.”
So, when Robinson shuts off the lights at Water’s Edge for the last time, leaving the congregation and tenants in the dark, ‘there is still hope even when you can’t see.’
According to our confidential source, the Mission Valley parent church is not happy that the story of their sale of Water’s Edge has gotten out. And the Methodists have still not officially contacted their tenants to notify them of the upcoming drastic changes.
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Not to mention, respectfully, Rev. Robinson, but it’s your church’s trustees and management that are creating the “darkness.”
Well now, there are a bunch of new City of San Diego tenant protection laws that went into effect not too long ago. As part of these new laws, there is a requirement that all tenants receive a hard copy of this document (link below), the Tenant Protection Guide. The deadline was last Friday. If you’re a renter and you didn’t get one of these guides handed to you by your landlord, your landlord is in violation of the law. You might want to call the San Diego City Attorney. Yes, this is for the City of San Diego only.
It would be nice if somebody could swing by the church apartments and drop off a copy. It would even be better if someone with a legal background represent these folks pro bone to make sure their rights are protected.
And BTW, I’m a small time landlord who follows the law because it’s the right thing to do.
https://www.sdhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Tenant-Protections-Guide.pdf
When I drove past the Mission Valley church site, and I was amazed at the amount of property that seems to surround it. If anyone goes out that way, take a closer look!