I just returned from a fantastic trip to St. Louis, Missouri (of all places). The last time I got a chance to really enjoy this city was during the tail-end of the COVID-19 pandemic, so a lot of experiences were closed, including the Gateway Arch. I got to explore the museum, which was free and great, honoring the arch as the gateway to the west, but also acknowledging that getting to that point included enslaving people, stealing land, and warfare. They also strongly acknowledged that while this was a productive
place for white settlers, the Native people were completely displaced and shuffled almost entirely out of the territory where they had lived for hundreds of years before. The Dred Scott decision and the lawsuit filed by suffragette Virginia Minor happened here. Lewis and Clark with their guide Sacagawea began their mapping of the west from here. It was a sober honoring of both the good and the bad.

This time, I got to ride up to the top of the arch. The Gateway Arch was designed by Eero Saarinen, who died before it could be built. Others took over and saw the project to completion. The elevator, which was a complete marvel in engineering by Dick Bowser, was a combination of an escalator, a Ferris Wheel, and an elevator, taking the best parts of all of these and making them work together. Florence Knoll’s company (Knoll, Inc.), a testament to modernism in design, was tapped for all the interiors. “It took a village…” I believe is the saying. Like the Gateway Arch, both good and bad things have happened on the land where our Fellowship meets: people have made incredible contributions, ministers came and left their marks, and we now stand on their shoulders, continuing a legacy that they have built for us. Both pluralism and innovation at their finest. The view from the top of the arch was inspiring and spectacular. What will be the metaphoric view that we leave behind?